SIL Translator's Notes on Mark 1:33

1:33

the whole town: The phrase the whole town is a figure of speech that represents the people who lived in the town. It is also a hyperbole. It refers here to many or most people in the town. It does not literally mean “every person.”

The previous verse already said that all the sick and demon-possessed people were brought to Jesus. So the phrase the whole town refers to an even larger group of people that includes those who were not sick or bringing the sick. The meaning may be translated in various ways. For example:

In fact, the whole town (Contemporary English Version)
-or-
a huge crowd of people from all over Capernaum (New Living Translation, 1996 edition)

gathered at the door: The phrase gathered at the door refers to the area outside the house in front of the door.

Here are some other ways to translate this phrase:

gathered in front of the house (Good News Bible)
-or-
gathered in the yard of the house

Use a natural way in your language to refer to a large number of people who come and gather outside a house.

© 2008 by SIL International®

Made available under the terms of a Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 License (CC BY-SA) creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0

All Scripture quotations in this publication, unless otherwise indicated, are from The Holy Bible, Berean Standard Bible.
BSB is produced in cooperation with Bible Hub, Discovery Bible, OpenBible.com, and the Berean Bible Translation Committee.

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