Text:

Instead of en ‘in’ of all modern editions of the Greek text Textus Receptus has epi ‘upon.’

Exegesis:

kai autos ēn … katheudōn ‘and he was … sleeping’: a verbal phrase, in accordance with Marcan usage (cf. 1.6 ēn esthōn ‘he was eating’).

prumnē (only here in Mark) ‘stern.’

proskephalaion (only here in Mark) ‘pillow,’ ‘cushion’: probably the sailor’s cushion used in rowing. The phrase ‘on the cushion’ means, of course, that Jesus was sleeping with his head on the cushion.

egeirousin auton (cf. v. 27) ‘they rouse him (from sleep)’ (cf. 1.31).

didaskale (5.35; 9.17, 38; 10.17, 20, 35; 12.14, 19, 32; 13.1; 14.14) ‘Teacher,’ ‘Master’ – the equivalent to the Aramaic ‘Rabbi’ (which Mark uses only 4 times – see 9.5).

ou melei soi ‘is it no concern to you?,’ ‘do you not care?’: the implied rebuke is unmistakable.

melei (12.14) ‘it is a care,’ ‘it is a concern’: an impersonal verb.

apollumetha (cf. 1.24) ‘we are perishing,’ ‘we are dying’ (the middle voice of apollumi ‘kill,’ ‘destroy’). As the context makes clear, ‘do you not care that we are perishing?,’ the ‘we’ refers to the disciples. The present tense ‘we are perishing’ here means, probably, ‘we are about to perish.’

Translation:

He may be rendered as ‘Jesus’ if the pronominal reference is not clear.

In a number of rough-draft translations people have discovered that Jesus was described as being asleep in the water, out behind the boat. The trouble is that we too often describe boats in terms of our own ideas, e.g. the front, the back, etc. In Shilluk, for example, boats may be described as having ‘a throat’ (the prow), ‘a foot’ (the stern), and ‘a back’ (the bottom). Words for position within a boat must be carefully chosen, e.g. ‘he was sleeping in the boat’s tail’ (Copainalá Zoque).

On a cushion does not mean that he was curled up on a pillow (in the position of a dog – as discovered in one translation), but asleep in the stern of the boat, with his head on a pillow, literally, ‘rest for the head’ in Kekchi.

For teacher see 2.13.

Because of the specialized nature of this context do you not care may be rendered in a number of ways, e.g. ‘don’t you have a heart’ (Tzeltal), ‘aren’t you going to do anything’ (Piro), ‘we are drowning: do you think: What is that to me?’ (Navajo), ‘does it not burden you, that we are perishing?’ (Pamona).

For languages in which there is a contrast between inclusive and exclusive first person plural, i.e. between forms which include those spoken to and those which exclude them, this verse presents somewhat of a problem. Should one translate “we” by an exclusive form, implying that the disciples thought that they would drown, but that Jesus would not, or are they to be understood as using an inclusive form, with the implication that all would perish together? Of course, there is no hint in the Greek grammatical forms as to which rendering to employ, for Greek does not make such a distinction. On the other hand, in a language with such an inclusive-exclusive contrast (and this includes hundreds of languages throughout the world) there is no way to avoid a decision. One can decide such a problem, however, only on the basis of the context. Are the disciples so concerned about their own safety that they would use an exclusive form, quite without regard to a concern for Jesus’ own welfare, or are they more likely to think of Jesus as so preoccupied with his spiritual ministry as to be utterly unaware of material dangers to himself as well as to the disciples? If one chooses the exclusive form, it is possible to interpret this passage as meaning that the disciples thought that Jesus would in some way make a miraculous escape, leaving them to their doom, while if the inclusive form is employed, there is some lessening of the intense concern of the disciples for their own welfare. In general, translators have seemed to prefer the inclusive form, but many are equally sure that the exclusive is better. This is an instance in which the more precise limitations of meaning imposed by more subtle categories do not materially improve understanding or appreciation of a passage.

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 .