Paragraph 8:54–56

8:54

There is implied information here. After Jesus spoke to the people in 8:53, he went to the place where the girl’s body was lying. See Mark 5:40. In some languages it may be necessary to make this explicit. For example:

⌊Jesus went to the place where the girl was lying⌋ and took her

But Jesus:
In the Greek text, the pronoun “he,” which the Berean Standard Bible translates as Jesus, is emphatic. Along with the conjunction that the Berean Standard Bible translates as But, it indicates a contrast. The focus shifts from the people who were mocking Jesus to what Jesus did next. He went to the girl and raised her from the dead, as he had come with Jairus to do. Connect these verses in a way that is natural in your language. Another way to translate this is:

As for Jesus, he ⌊went and⌋ took

Jesus took her by the hand: The Greek expression that the Berean Standard Bible translates as Jesus took her by the hand means that Jesus held the hand of the girl in his own hand. Some languages may express this idea in different ways. For example:

he grasped the girl’s hand
-or-
he took her hand

Jesus was gentle as he picked up her hand and held it. Your translation should not imply that it was a forceful action. For example:

Jesus gently took her by the hand (NET Bible)

Express this action in a natural way in your language.

and called out: The Greek verb phrase that the Berean Standard Bible translates as called out is literally “called saying.” The word “called” indicates that Jesus spoke in a loud voice, and the word “saying” introduces what he said. Some other ways to translate this are:

He…spoke forcefully (New American Standard Bible)
-or-
Jesus…said in a loud voice (New Living Translation (2004))
-or-
Jesus…called to her (New Century Version)

Child: In the parallel passage in Mark 5:41 Jesus’ word (in another language) is translated into Greek with the meaning “little girl/lady.” Use a term of address that would be appropriate in your culture for a man kindly to address a young girl who is twelve years old.

get up: The Greek word that the Berean Standard Bible translates as get up can mean:

(a) stand up from a lying or sitting position;

(b) wake up from sleep;

(c) live again after being dead.

Option (c) is the clearest in this context. It emphasizes that Jesus was telling a dead person to live again. This is important in cultures where the other options might imply that the girl was not really dead, but asleep (8:52). However, option (a) is appropriate when it implies that the girl had been dead, as well as lying down. Some languages may have a word like the English word “rise” that can be used for all three meanings. If that is true in your language, it may be a good choice here.

© 2009, 2010, 2013 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.