Exegesis:

edoxan (10.42) ‘they thought,’ ‘they supposed.’

phantasma (only here in Mark) ‘apparition,’ ‘ghost.’

anekraxan (cf. 1.23) ‘they cried out,’ ‘they screamed’ in terror.

Translation:

Ghost is usually quite easily translated, for most peoples claim to have seen apparitions of dead people moving in shadowy forms, and for such spectres they usually have a name. In fact, in some languages there are several different names, depending upon the size and definiteness of form of the object in question.

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 mēde eis tēn kōmēn eiselthēs ‘do not even enter the village’ of the great majority of modern editions of the Greek text, Taylor and Kilpatrick have mēdeni eipēs eis tēn kōmēn ‘do not tell anyone in the village.’

At the end of the verse Textus Receptus adds mēde eipēs tini en tē kōmē ‘nor tell (it) to anyone in the village,’ which is omitted by all modern editions of the Greek text; cf. Taylor and Kilpatrick, however, above.

Exegesis:

The words in this verse have already been dealt with: apostellō (1.2) ‘send,’ ‘send away’; eis oikon autou (8.3) ‘to his home,’ ‘home’; kōmē (6.6) ‘village.’

The ‘village’ is Bethsaida (v. 23): the man did not live in the village, however (v. 22).

Translation:

He sent him away must be rendered in some instances as ‘Jesus sent the man away,’ since there is again a shift of subjects from the preceding clause.

Sent him away must not contain the connotation of rejection. An equivalent may be ‘told him, Go to your home and do not go right back into the village.’

Do not even enter the village must not be translated by a verb form which would imply a permanent prohibition of such an action. What Jesus evidently wished to avoid was the man’s immediate return to the waiting crowd.

Negative commands, such as contained in the expression occurring in the Textus Receptus and the Kilpatrick text, may contain several negatives, depending of course upon the grammatical constructions of the receptor language in question. The following rendering in Copainalá Zoque is not unusual, ‘nor do not say nothing to nobody,’ in which the negatives reinforce, rather than cancel out, each other.

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:

kai ēnegkan auton pros auton ‘and they brought him (the boy) to him (Jesus).’

kai idōn auton ‘and when he saw him’: this phrase can be understood in three ways: (1) ‘when Jesus saw the boy’: although grammatically possible, this is improbable; (2) ‘when the boy saw Jesus’: among others, this is the interpretation of Bengel, Lagrange, Montgomery, Le Nouveau Testament. Version Synodale, and O Novo Testamento de Nosso Senhor Jesus Cristo. Revisdo Autorizada; in its favor should be noticed that idōn ‘seeing’ is masculine, agreeing in gender with auton ‘him’ of the previous verse (which goes back to ton huion mou ‘my son’ of v. 17); (3) ‘when the spirit saw Jesus’: although idōn ‘seeing’ is masculine and does not agree in gender with to pneuma ‘the spirit,’ neuter, in light of the masculine participles kraxas ‘shrieking’ and sparaxas ‘convulsing’ in v. 26 which are masculine and refer to the unclean spirit, it is probable that the subject of idōn ‘seeing’ is ‘the spirit’ (cf. also in 5.7-9, 11-12, the case of the Gerasene demoniac); this is the interpretation given by most commentators and translators, and probably should be preferred.

sunesparaxen (only here in Mark; cf. sparassō 1.26) ‘he pulled about,’ ‘he tore,’ ‘he convulsed.’

kai pesōn epi tēs gēs ekulieto aphrizōn ‘and he fell to the ground and rolled about, foaming (at the mouth).’

piptō (cf. 4.4) ‘fall,’ ‘fall down.’

epi tēs gēs (cf. 9.3) ‘on the ground.’

kuliomai (only here in the N. T.; cf. kulismos 2 Pet. 2.22) ‘to roll oneself,’ ‘twist about,’ ‘wallow.’

aphrizō (cf. 9.18) ‘foam at the mouth.’

Translation:

For spirit see 1.26, 32.

Note that it is the spirit which is said to see Jesus.

For convulsed see 1.26.

Fell … rolled … foaming may be treated as three coordinate verb expressions if the receptor language construction so requires, e.g. ‘he fell on the ground, he rolled about; he foamed at the mouth.’ For rolled Toraja-Sa’dan has a vivid expression referring to the wobbling to and fro of a sun hat that has been put down in a sloping position, hence ‘turning and tossing restlessly.’

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:

The words proselthontes Pharisaioi ‘Pharisees coming’ are omitted by Taylor and Kilpatrick, but retained by all other editions of the Greek text.

Exegesis:

Most of the words in this verse have already been dealt with: for proserchomai ‘approach,’ ‘come to’ cf. 1.31; Pharisaioi ‘Pharisees’ cf. 2.16; exestin ‘it is lawful,’ ‘it is permitted’ cf. 2.24; apoluō ‘send away,’ ‘dismiss,’ ‘divorce’ cf. 6.36; peirazō ‘test,’ ‘tempt’ cf. 1.13.

Pharisaioi ‘Pharisees’: here, without the article, the meaning is ‘some Pharisees’ (cf. Moffatt, Goodspeed).

ei exestin ‘if it is lawful’: may be understood either as a direct question, as does Revised Standard Version (also American Standard Version, The Modern Speech New Testament; cf. 8.23) – ‘Is it lawful…?’; or it may be taken as an indirect question (Moffatt, Lagrange, Goodspeed, Translator’s New Testament, Manson; cf. 3.2) – ‘… if it is lawful….’ The meaning is not vitally affected by this matter.

peirazontes auton ‘testing him,’ ‘tempting him’: the majority of translations (cf. American Standard Version, Goodspeed, Montgomery, Manson, Lagrange, Le Nouveau Testament. Version Synodale, O Novo Testamento de Nosso Senhor Jesus Cristo. Revisdo Autorizada) translate ‘test,’ ‘try’ (cf. Gould); Moffatt, however, has ‘tempt’ and The Modern Speech New Testament ‘entrap.’ The force of the participle is taken by the majority to express purpose, ‘in order to test him’; The Modern Speech New Testament, however, understands it as indicating attempt, ‘seeking to entrap him.’ The identical phrase is found, in connection with the Pharisees, in 8.11, and the meaning is probably the same in both passages.

Translation:

Came up should not be translated literally as ‘ascending.’ The meaning is ‘approached’ or ‘came to where he was.’

Test may require in some languages a very specific limitation in order to make it applicable to this context, since in a receptor language ‘testing’ must be distinguished on the basis of proving one’s physical prowess, resisting temptation, or trying one’s intelligence or knowledge. In Inupiaqit was necessary to translate ‘trying to make him say the wrong words.’ In Tzotzil the equivalent expression is ‘to hear his intelligence,’ in the sense of trying to discover a fault in what he would say.

Lawful often provides trouble for the translator, since in so many societies there is no body of codified law – only well recognized customs. Moreover, the customs are so taken for granted that they are scarcely recognized as “rules” – only as implicitly accepted norms of behavior. For example, in Copainalá Zoque, one must translate ‘it is permitted to…,’ a generalized phrase representing the broadest possible relationship to norms of customary behavior. In other areas particular reference may be made to ‘the law,’ e.g. ‘does the law say that a man can.’

Divorce may be translated, either by some formal legal term, where such may exist, or by some descriptive expression, normally used for more or less permanent separation or abandonment, e.g. ‘to leave his wife’ (Cashibo-Cacataibo) or ‘to send his wife back’ (Tzeltal).

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:

Before huioi ‘sons’ Nestle, Westcott and Hort, Kilpatrick, and Taylor include duo ‘two,’ which is omitted by the majority of editions of the Greek text.

After aitēsōmen ‘we ask (of)’ Textus Receptus omits se ‘you’ which is retained by all modern editions of the Greek text.

Exegesis:

prosporeuontai (only here in the N.T.) ‘they come near,’ ‘they approach.’

thelomen hina (cf. 6.25; 9.30) ‘we want that’ with the request following: ‘you should do for us whatever we ask of you.’

aitēsōmen (cf. 6.22) ‘we should ask for,’ ‘we should request.’

Translation:

The appositional expression the sons of Zebedee may be treated in some languages as a kind of relative modifier, e.g. ‘who were the sons of Zebedee’ or as a paratactically combined sentence ‘these were Zebedee’s sons.’

To him may require in some languages the use of the noun, e.g. ‘to Jesus.’

For teacher see 2.13.

Whatever we ask of you may be adapted to a conditional clause in some languages, e.g. ‘if we ask something of you, we want you to do it for us.’

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:

ēphien (cf. 2.5) ‘allowed,’ ‘permitted.’

hina ‘that’: as so often in Mark hina plus the subjunctive of the verb is equivalent to the complementary infinitive, indicating the content rather than the purpose of the action contained in the verb.

tis dienegkē skeuos dia tou hierou ‘any one should carry a vessel through the temple’: many would walk through the Court of the Gentiles using it as a short cut between the city and the Mount of Olives (cf. Swete).

diapherō (only here in Mark) ‘carry through,’ ‘take through.’

skeuos (cf. 3.27) ‘a vessel’: here, as Arndt & Gingrich observe, any sort of object used for any purpose.

Translation:

Would not allow anyone to … may be changed in some languages to a form of direct discourse, ‘he said, You cannot…’ and in others to a paratactic form, ‘he stopped people; they could not carry….’ Where the negative not allow does not exist, it is sometimes possible to translate as ‘he prohibited them from….’

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:

eikōn (only here in Mark) ‘image,’ ‘likeness.’

epigraphē (15.26) ‘inscription,’ ‘legend (on a coin).’

The silver denarius bore, on the obverse, the likeness of the emperor’s head, in high relief, with the following inscription surrounding: TI CAESAR DIVI AVG F AVGVSTVS (‘Tiberius Caesar Augustus, son of the divine Augustus’).

Translation:

Likeness is translated as ‘picture’ (Southern Subanen, Amganad Ifugao), or ‘written mark’ (Tzeltal). In some languages engraving is referred to as ‘cutting.’ Caesar’s may require expansion to ‘these belong to Caesar.’

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 .