Wait, you want us to do what?

You often cannot translate the Bible word-for-word.

Phil Henderson ran into that as he translated Matthew 4:18-19 for the Mwinika people of Mozambique. In English the verse reads:

And Jesus, walking by the Sea of Galilee, saw two brothers, Simon called Peter, and Andrew his brother, casting a net into the sea; for they were fishermen. Then He said to them, “Follow me, and I will make you fishers of men.”

The problem became clear at the end of verse 18, when Phil put in the phrase the Mwinika people use for fishermen: namaiipha ihopa. That literally translates as “killers of fish.”

Hmmm. That could be a problem. Jesus’ words in verse 19 cannot be accurately translated as “Follow me and I will make you killers of men.”

What Jesus was communicating was, essentially, “whatever you did with the fish, now you will do with people.” But even that would not get the idea across to the Mwinikas, since what they do with fish, in their eyes, is kill them.

So what aspect of fishing was Jesus talking about? Most likely, the seeking and finding of fish. So for the draft translation of the verse, Phil settled on Mwinika words that would translate back to English as, “As you previously searched and tried to find fish so now you will search and try to find men.”

Maybe that’s not perfect. It still needs to be checked by experienced Bible translators. But it’s a great example of the complexities involved in translating God’s Word so that it can be clearly understood.