The Greek text of this verse is as follows:
καὶ οἱ γραμματεῖς τῶν Φαρισαίων ἰδόντες ὅτι ἐσθίει μετὰ
And the scribes of the Pharisees seeing that he eats with
τῶν ἁμαρτωλῶν καὶ τελωνῶν ἔλεγον τοῖς μαθηταῖς
the sinners and tax collectors were saying to the disciples
αὐτοῦ, Ὅτι μετὰ τῶν τελωνῶν καὶ ἁμαρτωλῶν ἐσθίει;
of him “ -
We’re really just looking at two words in this verse: scribes and Pharisees, and we can start with the Pharisees, because that was easy. As in most languages, English and Spanish just transcribe (copy) the Greek word for this religious group, and the meaning of the word is given in a footnote at the bottom of the page, or maybe in a glossary at the back of the Bible, as well as through Christian teaching. In Toba, we just did the same, using the Spanish word fariseos.
But what about the scribes? Traditional versions of the Bible tended to use a word that roughly describes the meaning of the Greek word, which could be understood as the “writers”. But modern translations use a phrase which describes more precisely their function: “teachers of the Law”.
In Toba we wanted to follow the modern translations, but it’s not so easy to get an exact translation. We could say “teachers of laws”, but the question would then be “whose laws?”. So we have to make explicit that they’re God’s laws. And we have to avoid making a phrase that would be too long to use every time the Bible says “scribes”. So in the end we opted for “ones who teach God’s laws”, and this is what Osvaldo’s translation of Mark 2:16 says:
Ca'li yauata da'me dojo' jogaa'me jo'ne paĝaguenataĝanaĝayaqa daa'me Dios lamaĝajoĝonaĝaco, jo'ne fariseopi, queda'me Jesus neuanaĝa'u jogaa'me, qama'le yena't jogaa'me Jesus lapaĝaguenataqa:
—¿Jach'e ga'me eeta da'me dojo'? ¿Toqoch'e neuanaĝa'u jogaa'me loeco lo'ol, choqogaa'me lo'ol da'me nejetenaguec ga'me Roma, jenjo' adejaliaĝanequi?
Which means: When those who are teachers of God’s laws, who are Pharisees, see that they are eating companions of Jesus, then they ask Jesus’ disciples: “What does this mean? Why are his eating companions sinners and ones in charge of payments to Rome, this one who’s your lord?”