SIL Translator's Notes on Mark 4:5

4:5a

Some: The Greek word that the Berean Standard Bible translates as Some is literally “Others.” It refers to another group of seeds.

Here are some other ways to translate this word:

Other seed (New Living Translation)
-or-
Some of the seeds

fell: The verb fell is the same verb as in 4:4b. You can translate the verb here in the same way as you did there. In some languages, it may be good style to use words with similar meanings rather than to use exactly the same word for “fell” each time it appears. Do what is natural in your language.

rocky ground, where it did not have much soil: The Greek word that the Berean Standard Bible translates as rocky ground refers to a place on the ground that has solid rock underneath it. This kind of ground did not have much soil over the solid rock.

Here are some other ways to translate this:

shallow soil with underlying rock (New Living Translation)
-or-
solid rock with a thin layer of soil

it did not have much soil: The Greek phrase that the Berean Standard Bible translates as it did not have much soil means “there was not much soil in which the seed/seeds could grow.” In some languages it may not be necessary to mention the seeds explicitly. For example the New Century Version says:

where there wasn’t much dirt

4:5b

It sprang up quickly because the soil was shallow: In some languages it may be natural to reverse the order of the phrases in this verse part. For example:

The soil was shallow and so it sprang up quickly.
-or-
Since the soil was shallow, it sprang up quickly.
-or-
The soil was shallow and that is why the seed sprang up quickly.

It sprang up quickly: The phrase It sprang up quickly refers to the seeds quickly sprouting and becoming seedling plants.

Here are some other ways to translate this:

The seeds soon sprouted (Good News Bible)
-or-
The plants came up quickly

because: The conjunction because introduces the reason why the seeds sprang up quickly. The seeds sprang up quickly because the soil was shallow.

the soil was shallow: The clause the soil was shallow has almost the same meaning as “it did not have much soil” in 4:5a.

Here is another way to translate this:

the soil was not deep

© 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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