The paper analyzes the words used to translate the nine extraordinary gifts, or charismatic gifts of the Holy Spirit (1 Cor 12:4-10). The data were collected from various Croatian translations of the Bible from the 16th century (Dalmatin, Konzul, 1562-63) and the 17th century (Kašić, 1625-30) to translations in the 21st century, as well as from those intended for speakers of the Croatian language, even when they are interlingual. The aim is to determine the meaning of the selected lexemes and their suitability as terms, both in Bible translations and within charismatic and pentecostal circles. Older and regional words are viewed as variants of modern words if they exist, because only the semantic (un)acceptability of individual translations is checked, and not their relationship to the contemporary Croatian standard. It is shown that some translations are unsuitable as terms; that some of several equally suitable translations are nevertheless somewhat more suitable due to their meaning differences; and that almost all translations from Duda’s and Fućak’s Bible and others that have the same lexemes (especially Knežević’s New Testament and Varaždin Bible) are the most suitable as terms. On the other hand, when names of charismatic gifts are spoken, they tipically start with word dar ‘gift’. Therefore, the speakers often delete one of the lexems present in translation names, i.e. they use dar jezika ‘gift of tongues’, rather than dar različitih jezika ‘gift of various tongues’.
Zrinka Jelaska (Wed,) studied this question.