Text:

With the support of later mss. Textus Receptus and Kilpatrick include ekei ‘there’ after (the first) ēn ‘he was’; the majority of modern editions of the Greek text omit it.

Exegesis:

ēn … peirazomenos ‘was … tempted’: may be taken as a verbal phrase, ‘he was being tempted,’ or the particle peirazomenos ‘being tempted’ may be independent of the verb ēn ‘was,’ and modify ‘he’: in this case ēn would mean ‘he was,’ ‘he abode,’ ‘he remained.’ Although most translations favor this rendition, separating the participle from the verb ēn, Marcan usage is probably decisive in favor of the first meaning. Kilpatrick: “In Mark einai (‘to be’), usually in the imperfect, and the present participle may be presumed to form a single tense.”

peirazō (8.11; 10.2; 12.15) ‘put to the test’; peirazomai ‘be tried,’ ‘be tempted’: here with hostile intent. The action is portrayed as taking place throughout the whole period of forty days.

Satanas (3.23, 26; 4.15; 8.33) is the transliteration of the Aramaic satanaʾ (the O.T. satan is ‘accuser,’ ‘adversary’). In the N.T. the same as ho diabolos ‘the devil,’ ruler of the powers of evil, opponent of God, enemy of man.

meta tōn thēriōn ‘with the beasts’: hyenas, jackals, foxes, gazelles (cf. Swete, Lagrange). The purpose of this clause is to accentuate the wildness of the desert into which the Spirit drove Jesus, the haunt of wild animals, suitable locale for the presence of supernatural forces both good and evil (for possible theological overtones cf. Isa. 13.21; Ps. 91.11-13; Job 5.22f.).

kai hoi aggeloi diēkonoun autō ‘and the angels were serving him.’

hoi aggeloi (cf. v. 2) ‘the angels’: with the single exception of aggelos ‘messenger’ in v. 2, the word, in Mark, always refers to celestial messengers, sent by God.

diēkonoun (1.31; 10.45; 15.41) ‘they were serving’: the primary meaning is that of waiting on someone at table, from which it passes over to the general meaning of service of any kind . The reference here is to physical needs, particularly food (cf. 1.31), recalling the experience of Elijah (1 Kings 19.5-8). The imperfect tense would seem to describe a ministration which continued throughout the forty days’ stay in the wilderness.

Translation:

Tempted is a difficult term, for though it means ‘to tempt to evil’ or ‘to try’ (or ‘test’), in this context it obviously must not be rendered in such a way as to imply that Jesus succumbed to the temptation. In many instances one finds that words for temptation imply yielding, rather than resisting. They are rarely neutral in connotation. In such instances, one must attempt to indicate the attempt by Satan, but not the success, or the entire meaning of the passage will be distorted, e.g. ‘tried to make him sin’ (Maninka, Tzotzil, San Mateo del Mar Huave, Kekchi).

In general it is preferable to transliterate, rather than attempt to translate, the word Satan. However, in some languages Satan and devil are translated the same way (however, Greek diabolos ‘devil’ does not occur in Mark).

In order to combine tempted by Satan with the preceding clause it is often necessary to use a paratactic construction, sometimes with a shift in grammatical voice, e.g. ‘There in the wilderness Jesus remained forty days; Satan tried Jesus’ (Huautla Mazatec).

In saying that Jesus was ‘with the wild beasts’ one should not give the impression (1) that he ‘was sitting right there with them’ (as in one translation in the Philippines) or (2) that he was a kind of animal trainer, there in company with lions, tigers, and leopards. In Greek there is no special emphasis on ‘wild’; these were simply the animals of the wilderness (see above). One may translate, ‘he was there where the animals of the deserted places were.’

One must also make certain that it was Jesus and not Satan who was with the wild beasts, since in many popular beliefs demonic spirits are associated with wild animals. Hence, one is often justified in introducing ‘Jesus’ as the subject of this clause, ‘Jesus was with the wild beasts’ (Mitla Zapotec, and Huastec).

Finding an appropriate word for angels is not easy. In the first place, one is quite likely to run into false ideas, especially in Latin America, where in one Indian language angels had been called ‘flying saints’ and in another ‘dead babies’ (since according to popular belief children who died in infancy became angels). It is, however, difficult to employ the precise equivalent of Greek ‘messenger,’ since often this term does not bear the proper connotation. For example, in San Miguel El Grande Mixtec a messenger is literally ‘hands and feet,’ but this term must usually be modified if it is to serve in the Scriptures, e.g. ‘… heavenly,’ or ‘… of God,’ or ‘… of the Lord,’ etc. This same problem has occurred in many translations, and as a result a number of possible solutions have been found, ‘word-carriers from heaven’ (Shipibo-Conibo), ‘heavenly messengers’ (Otetela, Kpelle, Balinese), ‘spirit messengers’ (Shilluk), ‘messengers of God’ (Piro), ‘envoys, messengers’ (Batak Toba), and ‘holy servants’ (Navajo). Some of these terms developed and became somewhat current among believers prior to actual Bible translating, and in other instances the words were accepted through being used in the Scriptures.

The word ministered includes so much that it is often difficult to discover just the right equivalent, without being too specific. In some languages the closet equivalent is ‘helped him’ and in others ‘provided what he needed’ or ‘took care of him’ (Toraja-Sa’dan).

Quoted with permission from Bratcher, Robert G. and Nida, Eugene A. A Handbook on the Gospel of Mark. (UBS Handbook Series). New York: UBS, 1961. For this and other handbooks for translators see here .