Exegesis:

hopou ean (cf. 6.10; 9.18; 14.14; cf. hopou an 6.56) ‘wherever,’ ‘wheresoever.’

kēruchthē (cf. 1.4) ‘be preached,’ ‘be proclaimed.’

to euaggelion (cf. 1.1) ‘the Gospel.’

holon ton kosmon (cf. 8.36) ‘the whole world,’ ‘all the world.’

kai ho epoiēsen hautē ‘what she did will also (be told)’: kai ‘and’ here means ‘also’ and should be included in translation.

mnēmosunon (only here in Mark) ‘memory,’ ‘memorial.’

Translation:

For truly as employed in this verse see 8.12.

Wherever may be translated in some instances as ‘in all the places that.’

The gospel is preached can be recast in the active form as ‘wherever they will preach the good news’ (Ekari).

Is preached, though present in form, must usually be translated by some form which can refer to the future.

Wherever and in the whole world may need to be more closely combined in some languages, e.g. ‘wherever in the whole world the good news is preached’ or ‘in all the places in the whole world in which the good news will be announced.’

Will be told can be rendered in an active form ‘people will tell.’

In memory of her may be recast as a verb phrase, e.g. ‘tell so that people will remember her’ or ‘tell so that her name shall be remembered’ (Tzeltal), in which ‘name’ can be employed as a kind of substitute for ‘reputation.’

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 .

Exegesis:

to triton ‘the third time’: an adverbial phrase modifying the verb erchetai ‘he comes.’

katheudete to loipon kai anapauesthe – How this sentence is to be taken is subject to wide differences of opinion. Most Greek texts punctuate it as a statement, either as a command (‘you are to sleep … and rest’) or as a simple statement (‘you are sleeping … and resting’); Kilpatrick, however, punctuates it as a question. Though the verb forms may be read as imperative or indicative, with a semi-colon following, and in the context, the Greek would normally be read as an imperative – and presumably that is what the majority of editors of the Greek text assume it to be. The words have been translated in three ways: (1) as a statement, indicating surprise, ‘You are still sleeping and resting!’ (Le Nouveau Testament. Version Synodale); (2) as a command, intended either seriously or ironically, ‘Sleep on now and rest’ (Vulgate; King James Version, American Standard Version, The Modern Speech New Testament; Zürcher Bibel, O Novo Testamento de Nosso Senhor Jesus Cristo. Revisdo Autorizada; Gould, Swete, Lagrange); (3) as a question, ‘Are you still sleeping and resting?’ (Revised Standard Version, Moffatt, Goodspeed, Berkeley, Manson, Translator’s New Testament, Williams; Rawlinson, Taylor). The context would seem to favor the third alternative. However, if we interpret this as a question, it must be admitted that to loipon, in this case, assumes a meaning it does not ordinarily have, since, as an adverbial phrase indicating time, it means ‘henceforth,’ ‘from now on,’ ‘for the future.’ Arndt & Gingrich suggest various interpretations, including the interrogative sense, which they state thus, ‘Do you intend to sleep on and on?’ or, possibly, ‘You are sleeping in the meantime?’ On the whole it would seem that the words should be taken as a question.

anapauō (cf. 6.31) ‘to rest.’

apechei. On this single word, used nowhere else in the New Testament in an absolute sense, as here, Vincent says, with some justification: “Expositors are utterly at sea as to its meaning.” The meaning ‘it is enough,’ favored by most translations and commentators, goes as far back as the Vulgate, which has sufficit. By most this is taken to refer to the sleeping and resting of the disciples: ‘enough of that!’ ‘no more of that!’ Lagrange, however, translates C’en est fait with reference to Jesus himself and his thrice-repeated prayer concerning his approaching Passion: ‘sleep, I am now ready.’ Montgomery seems to assume some such meaning by translating, ‘it is over.’

The form apechei is normally used of receipting bills, with the meaning ‘paid in full’ (cf. Moulton & Milligan). Following this meaning, J. de Zwaan (quoted by Rawlinson) suggested that the verb here has a personal sense and is to be referred to Judas, as the subject: ‘He did receive (the promised money).’ Thus Manson translates ‘the money has been paid!’ and E. K. Simpson paraphrases, ‘It is settled! The deed of infamy is done! He pockets his reward.’

Another translation has been suggested by G. H. Boobyer. He proposes the meaning ‘take possession of,’ and refers the verb to Judas, as the subject: ‘He is taking possession of (me)!’ Translator’s New Testament translates ‘Is he far away?’

Emendation, the last resource of the translator, has also been proposed. Black, following the variant reading (found in the sixth century uncial manuscript D) apechei to telos kai hē hōra, suggests that there was a mistranslation of the underlying Aramaic which meant, ‘The end and the hour are pressing.’ It should be noted that the Peshitto version of the Syriac has ‘the end has come’ (reading to telos as the subject of the verb and apparently translating the Greek ēggiken ‘has come’ rather than apechei). Otherwise it has been proposed that the original Marcan phrase was to telos apechei meaning, ‘the end is holding off,’ to be taken as a question: ‘The end is far away?’ (cf. Taylor).

Although these proposed variant readings and their emendations offer a reasonable explanation of what is otherwise quite an obscure saying (cf. Taylor, who inclines to accept either one of the proposed emendations), so long as the accepted text can be made to bear some intelligible meaning it should be followed and translated. In the present case it would seem best to go along with the majority.

ēlthen hē hōra (cf. v. 35) ‘the hour has come,’ ‘the hour is here.’

idou (cf. 1.2) ‘see’: should not be omitted (as in Revised Standard Version) here, even though repeated in the next verse.

paradidotai (cf. 1.14; cf. 9.31) ‘is delivered’: the ordinary meaning of the verb should be observed here, as in the identical phrase in 9.31. It is to be doubted that ‘deliver’ is to be understood in 9.31 and ‘betray’ here (as done by Revised Standard Version).

ho huios tou anthrōpou (cf. 2.10) ‘the Son of man.’

eis tas cheiras tōn hamartōlōn ‘into the hands of sinful men,’ ‘into the power of sinners’: hoi hamartōloi here presumably has the moral and theological connotation of ‘sinners’ who transgress God’s will, rather than the specialized sense in which it is used in 2.15f.

For similar statements concerning the Son of man cf. 9.31; 10.33.

Translation:

For the translation of came as ‘went back’ see verse 37.

Said may be in some languages better rendered as ‘asked,’ because of the following question.

The form of the question ‘Are you still sleeping and resting?’ should not imply that Jesus was actually asking for information. This is a rhetorical question implying a certain amount of surprise and irony. Hence, if in the receptor language special forms of questions are used for this type of expression, one should make certain that the appropriate equivalent is employed.

The problems involved in the translating of it is enough depend largely upon the exegesis. However, even then one will find that the closest equivalent is likely to be relatively idiomatic, e.g. ‘it is over,’ ‘it has happened,’ and ‘that is all.’

The hour has come is translatable as ‘the time has come’ or ‘now is the time.’

For the use of the Son of man as a third person reference in a first person relationship, see 2.10.

In many languages is betrayed must be translated as an immediate future, rather than present, e.g. ‘is going to be betrayed’ or ‘is about to be betrayed.’

The hands of sinners cannot be translated literally in many languages, since ‘hands’ do not always stand for ‘power’ or ‘control.’ The closest equivalent in some instances is ‘into the power of evil men’ or ‘under the authority of sinful men.’

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 .

Text:

Instead of sumboulion hetoimasantes ‘reaching a decision’ of Tischendorf, Nestle, Soden, Kilpatrick, and Merk, the majority of editions of the Greek text have sumboulion poiēsantes ‘holding a counsel,’ which is the text of Revised Standard Version. The external evidence does not seem decisive either way (some mss. and versions have epoiēsan); internal evidence would prefer poiēsantes as the “harder” reading, more likely, therefore, to be original.

Exegesis:

prōi (cf. 1.35) ‘early,’ ‘in the morning’: apparently it is meant to indicate here the sunrise.

sumboulion poiēsantes ‘holding a counsel,’ ‘holding a consultation’: so the majority of the Greek texts (see Text, above). The Nestle reading sumboulion hetoimasantes means ‘reaching a decision,’ ‘formulating a plan.’

sumboulion (cf. 3.6) ‘counsel,’ ‘consultation.’

hoi archiereis meta tōn presbuterōn kai grammateōn (cf. 8.31) ‘the chief priests with the elders and scribes.’

holon ton sunedrion (cf. 14.55) ‘the whole Council,’ ‘the entire Sanhedrin.’

dēsantes … apēnegkan ‘binding … they took away,’ ‘they bound … and took away.’

deō (cf. 3.27) ‘bind,’ ‘tie,’ ‘fasten.’

apopherō (only here in Mark; cf. pherō 1.31) ‘lead away,’ ‘take away’: Moulton & Milligan cite the use of the verb in the papyri of forcible removal.

paredōkan Pilatō ‘they delivered (him) to Pilate’: for paradidōmi ‘hand over,’ ‘deliver’ cf. 1.14. Pontius Pilate was the Roman procurator of Judea. A.D. 25/6–36, governing under the legatus of Syria. His official residence was in Caesarea, on the sea coast.

Translation:

Translation notes are to be found on several of the key words: chief priests (2.26; 8.31, and 14.47), elders (8.31), and scribes (1.22).

And the whole council may constitute a problem in some languages since the use of and in the meaning of ‘with’ or ‘in company with’ may imply that the chief priest, elders, and scribes were not themselves members of the council. To correct this meaning of the conjunction, one may translate as ‘and all the rest of the members of the council.’

Council is not usually difficult to translate since such institutions exist in almost all societies. Some typical renderings are ‘officials who gather together’ (Tzeltal), ‘those who think together’ (Copainalá Zoque), and ‘those who take charge of the affairs’ (Amganad Ifugao).

Held a consultation may be either ‘thought about the matter together’ or ‘talked about the matter.’

Delivered him may be equivalent to ‘turned him over to’ or ‘put him in the custody of.’

Led him away must be translated in such a manner as to be applicable to prisoners, and not as in some translations connoting the leading of children.

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 .

Exegesis:

tē enatē hōra (cf. te prōtē hēmera 14.12) ‘at the ninth hour,’ ‘at three o’clock.’

eboēsen (cf. 1.3) ‘he cried out,’ ‘he shouted.’

phōnē megalē (cf. 1.26; 5.7) ‘with a loud voice,’ ‘with a great cry.’

elōi elōi lama sabachthani ‘My God, my God, why hast thou forsaken me?’ It is debated whether the cry was uttered in Hebrew or Aramaic. The Hebrew of Ps. 22.2 reads, transliterated, ʾeli ʾeli lamah ʿazavtani. The reaction of the bystanders – ‘He calls for Elijah!’ – is more intelligible if the cry was uttered in Hebrew (cf. Lagrange, Taylor).

ho estin methermēneuomenon (cf. v. 22) ‘which, translated, is.’

ho theos mou ‘my God’: this is to understood as a vocative, the case of address.

eis ti ‘why?.’

egkatelipes (only here in Mark; cf. kataleipō 10.7) ‘you forsook,’ ‘you abandoned,’ ‘you left.’

Translation:

Cried is to be understood in the sense of ‘shouted,’ not ‘cried,’ as in tears or weeping.

In translations into so-called primitive languages one must transliterate Eloi, Eloi, lama sabachthani, using as a basis for the pronunciation the form in which this expression is uttered in the dominant language of the area, e.g. French, Spanish, Portuguese, Thai, Indonesian, etc. It is not recommended in these cases that one go to the Greek, Hebrew, or Aramaic form as a basis for the transliteration since any further acquaintance which people will have with such an expression will be in the form which it has already been given in Bibles published in languages of greater prestige.

Forsaken is to be understood in the sense of ‘left,’ ‘deserted,’ or ‘gone away from me’ (Navajo).

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 .

Text:

Iēsous ‘Jesus’ is omitted by Textus Receptus, Tischendorf, and Kilpatrick, but included by the great majority of modern editions of the Greek text.

Exegesis:

ho … kurios Iēsous ‘the Lord Jesus’: this phrase is not found in the Gospels (except, perhaps, in Lk. 24.3), and ho kurios ‘the Lord’ is not used of Jesus in the Marca historical narrative (unless it be at 11.3, which see; cf. 1.3).

meta to lalēsai autois ‘after speaking to them’: for the use of meta with the infinitive cf. Mk. 1.14.

anelēmphthē (not in Mark) ‘he was taken up.’

ekathisen ek dexiōn tou theou ‘he sat at the right hand of God’: the language is from Ps. 110.1, which is quoted in Mk. 12.36.

Translation:

In some languages the construction the Lord Jesus, after he had spoken to them is not possible. One must incorporate the subject ‘the Lord Jesus’ within the dependent clause, ‘after the Lord Jesus had spoken to them, he was taken….’

Was taken up must be changed into an active construction in some languages, in which case ‘God’ may be used as a subject. However, ‘taken up’ should not be translated in such a way as to imply ‘yanked up’ or ‘hauled up,’ as in some translations. ‘Caused to go up’ or ‘caused to go up and received’ may be employed in some instances.

The right hand may be ‘the right side,’ or as in some languages ‘the side of power’ or ‘the side of strength.’

For Lord see 1.3.

In order that them may not be understood as ‘the sick’ of the preceding verse, it may be necessary to substitute ‘disciples.’

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 .

Exegesis:

epetimesēn (3.12; 4.39; 8.30, 32, 33; 9.25; 10.13, 48) ‘he rebuked.’ The verb literally means ‘to lay a timē [price, value] upon’ and originally it had a favorable meaning (cf. Abbott-Smith); in the N.T. however, it has the unfavorable meaning of ‘censure,’ ‘rebuke’ and even ‘punish.’ Moulton & Milligan: ‘censure,’ ‘lay under a penalty.’ This idea of censure, however, disappears in many instances; Arndt & Gingrich remark: “speak seriously, warn in order to prevent an action or bring one to an end,” and Kilpatrick finds this meaning uniformly in Mark; it is a command, rather than a reproof, and is specifically a prohibition, “desist from an action being performed” (cf. Lagrange: “issue a formal command”). In this verse, therefore, ‘prohibit,’ ‘stop,’ ‘command’ is to be preferred to ‘rebuke.’

autō ‘him’ or ‘it’: although, as we saw above, the subject of the verb ‘cried out’ is the man, not the spirit, the pronoun autō in this verse refers to the unclean spirit, as the content of the order which follows shows. A translation should make this clear: “him” (King James Version, American Standard Version, Revised Standard Version, Translator’s New Testament, Manson, Knox) is ambiguous and possibly misleading; ‘it’ (Moffatt) is clear (cf. The Modern Speech New Testament, “the spirit”).

phimōthēti (4.39) ‘be silent!’: the literal meaning of the verb phimoō ‘bridle,’ ‘muzzle’ does not survive in Mark; Moulton & Milligan quote Rohde on the use of this word with the sense of binding a person by means of a spell so as to make him powerless to harm, and give examples from the papyri. Notice that the only other place it is used in Mark (4.39), it is addressed to the storm.

Translation:

The introductory verb in this verse may be translated as ‘rebuke’ (in the sense of ‘scold’ or ‘censure’), but it is probably more accurately rendered as ‘to command sternly.’

The second verb of direct discourse, namely, saying is probably better omitted in most languages.

If the language in question distinguishes in pronominal reference between a demon and a man, one should make certain that the object of the command is the demon. In some instances it may even be wise to introduce the noun object, e.g. ‘sternly commanded the unclean spirit.’

Be silent is in Greek a firm, but not undignified way of demanding silence, equivalent more to English keep quiet than to shut up.

Whether one can translate literally ‘come out’ depends largely upon the manner in which people speak of demon possession. For example, in Yaka demons do not get into people, but are spoken of as ‘grabbing people,’ hence the appropriate term in this case would be ‘let go.’ In Amganad Ifugao the normal way of speaking would be ‘get out,’ not ‘come out.’ The appropriate term in any language will, as in all such types of problems, depend upon the traditional perspective reflected in normal usage.

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 .

Exegesis:

exēlthen ‘he went out,’ i.e. of the house and town (cf. Swete).

palin ‘again’: probably refers back to 1.16, although Lagrange thinks the reference is to 1.45.

thalassa ‘sea’ is the Lake of Galilee (cf. 1.16).

pas ho ochlos ‘all the crowd’: not the same ‘crowd,’ of course, referred to in 2.4 (for the same expression pas ho ochlos ‘the whole crowd,’ ‘all the people’ cf. 4.1b, 9.15).

ērcheto … kai edidasken ‘came … and he taught’: the imperfect tense of the verbs portrays repeated acts of coming, on the part of groups of people, and of teaching, on the part of Jesus.

ērcheto pros auton ‘was coming to him’: Revised Standard Version “gathered about him” is not quite consistent with the translation of the phrase elsewhere (cf. 1.45 “came to him” and 2.3 “came, bringing to him”), but is not out of keeping in this context.

autous ‘them’: that is, the people who composed ho ochlos ‘the crowd.’

Translation:

It may be necessary to introduce ‘Jesus’ as the subject of this verse, since the immediately preceding third person singular reference is the paralytic who was healed.

One must be consistent in the translating of sea which in most instances will be the equivalent of ‘lake’ (see 1.16).

One must make certain that the translation of all the crowd does not refer to the crowd of 2.4, for although undoubtedly some of the same people were in attendance on the two occasions, this is not the same group of people. It is better to translate ‘all the people.’

It is most important that a word for teach is not such as to imply merely class-room instruction, something which not infrequently happens in translations, since translation helpers assume that the educational processes introduced in mission schools are the only legitimate form of teaching. (We ourselves are often deceived in somewhat the same way, not realizing that the classroom technique, though useful for mass production methods is highly inefficient in essential communication.) One should employ either a descriptive term of common usage, e.g. ‘to give to be learned’ (Tzeltal), or some well-known figurative phrase which will be fully meaningful, e.g. ‘to engrave the mind’ (Ngäbere) and ‘to cause others to imitate’ (Huichol).

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 .