Text:

After elalei ‘he said’ Textus Receptus and Kilpatrick add mallon ‘the more,’ which is omitted by all other modern editions of the Greek text.

Exegesis:

ekperissōs (only here in the N.T.; cf. perissōs 10.26, huperperissōs 7.37) ‘exceedingly,’ ‘vehemently,’ ‘emphatically.’

ean deē ‘even if it be necessary,’ ‘even if it must be’: for dei ‘it is necessary’ cf. 8.31.

sunapothanein (only here in Mark; cf. apothnēskō 5.35) ‘to die with,’ ‘to die together with.’

hōsautōs (cf. 12.21) ‘in the same way,’ ‘in like manner.’

Translation:

Said may need to be translated by some term which implies a response to a previous statement, e.g. ‘replied,’ or ‘said in return,’ or ‘spoke back.’

Vehemently is as strong a statement of assertion as can be used, e.g. ‘said very hard’ (Copainalá Zoque). In combination with the verb one may render this expression as ‘insisted strongly,’ ‘declared with strength,’ or ‘said very strong words.’

Die with you may imply in some languages only natural death. Accordingly, as in Kekchi, one must render the passage as ‘be killed with you,’ implying violent death.

If deny is translated as ‘say that one does not know,’ it may be impossible to use a double negative, e.g. ‘not say … not know.’ In this case the double negative not deny must be rendered as ‘I will always say that I know’ (Copainalá Zoque).

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:

diarēxas tous chitōnas autou ‘tearing his (own) garments.’

diarēssō (only here in Mark) ‘rend,’ ‘burst,’ ‘tear.’

hoi chitōnes (cf. 6.9) ‘the tunics’: as Arndt & Gingrich remark the word is here probably used in a general way for ‘clothes,’ ‘garments,’ rather than strictly with reference to the under-garments (the parallel Mt. 26.65 has ta himatia ‘the garments’). Revised Standard Version ‘mantle’ is inaccurate: cf. ‘clothes’ (Moffatt, Williams, Translator’s New Testament, American Standard Version), ‘vestments’ (Montgomery), ‘garments’ (The Modern Speech New Testament, Manson), ‘clothing’ (Goodspeed). The gesture of tearing one’s garments was indicative of sorrow or horror and in the case of judicial proceedings, such as this one, in tearing his garments the high priest indulged in a formal ceremonial act, minutely prescribed by tradition.

chreian echomen (cf. 2.17) ‘we have need of.’

marturōn (only here in Mark) ‘witnesses.’

Translation:

For high priest see 14.47.

Tore must not imply some accidental tearing, but a deliberate, planned tearing as a gesture of consummate indignation. Such an action may not be readily understandable to people in other cultures but the context is such as to prevent any very wrong interpretation of the action.

Mantle should be translated by the most generic term for ‘clothes.’

Still need witnesses is equivalent in some languages to ‘need more people to speak against him’ or ‘require more men to say what they know about him.’

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:

diamerizontai ta himatia autou ‘they divided his garments among themselves,’ ‘they distribute his garments among themselves’: only here in the N.T. is diamerizō used.

ballontes klēron ep’ auta ‘casting lots over them’: the participle clause is of manner, indicating the way in which they divided the clothes among themselves. This was accomplished by means of pebbles or a small stick .

klēros (only here in Mark) ‘lot.’

tis ti arē ‘who should take what,’ i.e. what each one should get.

The language of this verse is patterned after Ps. 22.19.

Translation:

For crucified see verse 13.

Since in some languages the temporal sequence must be followed in a series of events such as are described in divided … casting … decide, a recasting of the order is required, e.g. ‘they cast lots in order to decide who should get which piece of Jesus’ clothing and in this way they divided his garments.’ If this order is not followed, people may interpret the action as first dividing the garments equally and then gambling in order to see which soldier would end up with most garments.

Casting lots is a quite common practice in many parts of the world, but it is not universally known. Accordingly, in some areas one may need to employ some sort of descriptive equivalent, e.g. ‘tossed little marked pebbles in order to know’ or ‘decided by playing with little stones.’ In Shipibo-Conibo the passage is rendered as ‘they shook little things to get his clothes, in order to know who would get what.’ And in Tzeltal the usage is ‘made play to see who would get what clothes.’

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:

Amēn ‘Amen’ is included by Textus Receptus, Souter (and Revised Standard Version), but omitted by the great majority of modern editions of the Greek text.

Exegesis:

ekeinoi (cf. v. 11) ‘they,’ i.e. the disciples.

exelthontes ‘going out,’ ‘leaving’: presumably, from Jerusalem.

pantachou (cf. Mk. 1.28) ‘everywhere.’

tou kuriou sunergountos kai … bebaiountos ‘as the Lord worked with (them) and confirmed’: ‘the Lord’ here refers to the ascended and reigning Lord Jesus.

sunergeō (not in Mark) ‘work with,’ ‘cooperate.’

bebaioō (not in Mark) ‘make firm,’ ‘establish,’ ‘confirm.’

ton logon (cf. Mk. 2.2) ‘the (Christian) message,’ ‘the Word.’

dia tōn epakolouthountōn sēmeiōn ‘by means of the accompanying signs’: for sēmeia ‘signs’ cf. v. 17. It is to be presumed that the signs referred to here are those described in vv. 17-18.

epakoloutheō (not in Mark) ‘follow after’: it is probable that the force of the verb here is ‘authenticate,’ a meaning which has been found in the papyri. The signs not only accompanied the preaching of the message, but authenticated it. Cf. Moffatt, ‘by the miracles that endorsed it.’

Translation:

They can usually be translated by a pronoun if in the preceding verse the noun ‘disciples’ has been employed.

For preached see 1.4 and for signs see 8.11.

While is used in a somewhat unusual manner in this verse, for the meaning is not that they preached merely while the Lord was working. Rather, while implies ‘and at the same time,’ a rendering which must be employed in a number of languages.

Worked with them is in some languages equivalent to ‘helped them.’

Confirmed the message may be ‘made the message strong,’ or, as is more often the case, ‘showed that what they said was true.’ In Tzeltal this expression is idiomatically rendered as ‘the signs done by them became a mate for the words.’

There are difficulties in a literal translation of attended, for often people cannot speak of ‘signs attending’ anything. On the other hand, one may be able to say ‘by means of the signs which were shown at that time’ or ‘by the signs which God caused to be done then.’

Amen may be either transliterated (a very common practice) or translated into a form of expression which is closely parallel and customarily used in such contexts, e.g. ‘that is just the way it is’ (Huichol), ‘that’s it’ (Shilluk), ‘may it be thus’ (Tzeltal), or ‘and so it was.’

Another Old Ending: The shorter ending

The passage that follows is found after Mark 16.8 (and before the Longer Ending, except in the Old Latin manuscript k) in the following manuscripts: the Greek Uncial manuscripts (8th century), Ψ (8th or 9th century), 099 (7th century) and 0112 (7th century); the Greek Minuscule manuscripts 274 (marginal reading; 10th century) and 579 (13th century); the Old Latin manuscript k (4th or 5th century); in the margin of the Harclean Syriac version (7th century); and in several codices of the Sahidic, Bohairic and Ethiopic versions.

Unlike the Longer Ending, this one was written expressly to provide a suitable ending to the Gospel. It is dated in the 2nd century.

But they reported briefly to Peter and those with him all that they had been told.

Exegesis:

panta de ta parēggelmena ‘and all (things) that they had been ordered.’

paraggellō (cf. Mk. 6.8) ‘command,’ ‘order.’

tois peri ton Petron ‘to Peter and his companions’: for similar phrases cf. Mk. 4.10, Acts 13.13.

suntomōs (not in Mark) ‘briefly,’ ‘concisely’; Arndt & Gingrich prefer here the meaning ‘promptly,’ ‘readily.’

exēggeilan (not in Mark) ‘they reported,’ ‘they proclaimed.’

Translation:

They must refer to the women of 16.1, referred to by pronouns in verse 8.

Briefly may be translated as ‘with few words,’ but the likely meaning of ‘promptly’ would suggest a better rendering such as ‘right away,’ ‘soon,’ or ‘immediately.’

Had been told may be changed to an active form, e.g. ‘the young man had told them.’

And after this, Jesus himself sent out by means of them, from east to west, the sacred and imperishable proclamation of eternal salvation.

Exegesis:

meta de tauta (not in Mark; cf. Longer Ending v. 12) ‘and after this.’

apo anatolēs kai achri duseōs ‘from the East as far as the West,’ i.e. ‘throughout the whole world’ (cf. the similar ‘the four winds’ in Mk. 13.27). See ‘from the east and west’ in Mt. 8.11//Lk. 13.29.

anatolē (not in Mark; cf. anatellō Mk. 4.6) ‘the rising (of the sun),’ ‘the East.’

achri (not in Mark) ‘as far as.’

dusmē (not in Mark) ‘the going down (of the sun),’ ‘the West.’

exapesteilen (not in Mark) ‘he sent out,’ ‘he sent forth.’

to hieron kai aphtharton kērugma ‘the sacred and incorruptible message.’

hieros (not in Mark; for the substantive to hieron ‘the Temple,’ cf. Mk. 11.11) ‘sacred,’ ‘holy.’

aphthartos (not in Mark) ‘incorruptible,’ i.e. ‘imperishable,’ ‘immortal.’

kērugma (not in Mark; cf. kērussō Mk. 1.4) ‘message,’ ‘proclamation.’

tēs aiōniou sōtērias ‘of the eternal salvation.’

aiōnios (cf. Mk. 3.29) ‘eternal.’

sōtēria (not in Mark) ‘salvation,’ ‘redemption.’

Translation:

By means of them must refer to the disciples, not to the women who are the subject of the preceding verse, and might be assumed to be the persons referred to here.

From east to west cannot be translated literally in most languages, for it would mean ‘starting from the east and going to the west.’ A more accurate rendering in most languages is ‘everywhere (or ‘all places’) both east and west.’

Sent out … the … proclamation is impossible in some languages, since only persons may be sent out ‘to proclaim words.’ An added problem occurs in this verse, namely, in the adjectives sacred and imperishable which are attributive to proclamation. The only manner in which this may be translated in some languages is ‘utter words which are holy and which never will fail.’

Of eternal salvation must be in an objective relationship to ‘proclamation’ or ‘word,’ e.g. ‘word about being saved.’ Salvation (see 10.26 for save) must quite often be rendered as a verb, e.g. ‘be saved,’ ‘be rescued,’ or ‘be restored to health,’ but the addition of the adjective eternal tends to create certain problems, since the meaning of eternal must be expressed by some adverbial expression, often a phrase, e.g. ‘being saved for ever’ or ‘being saved for time that will not end.’

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:

hoti ‘that’ is recitative, introducing direct speech (cf. 1.37, 40; 2.12, etc.). Turner catalogues some 45 instances of this use of hoti ‘that’ in Mark.

peplērōtai (14.49) ‘is fulfilled.’ The verb plēroō ‘fill up,’ ‘complete’ when used of time indicates that a period of time has reached its end (cf. Gen. 29.21). Moulton & Milligan show that this use of the word is not peculiar to Scriptures, quoting a papyrus: “the period of the lease has expired.” The verb is used only in the passive in the N.T. and early Christian literature. “The time has run its course and reached its end: the appointed hour has arrived.” The implied subject of plēroō is God: Jeremias has abundantly shown that the passive in the N.T. is often a “circumlocution … to indicate the divine activity.”

ho kairos (10.30; 11.13; 12.2; 13.33) ‘the time’: not simply chronological time, but opportune time, appointed time, “season.” Cf. ‘appointed time’ Eze. 7.12, Dan. 12.4, 9 (cf. Eph. 1.10). The word is one of the chief eschatological terms in the Bible: kairos is supremely God’s time.

kai ēggiken hē basileia tou theou: ‘and the kingdom of God has drawn near’ (or, ‘has arrived’).

eggizō (11.1; 14.42) ‘approach,’ ‘draw near.’ The force of the perfect has been the object of much debate. Dodd, Lagrange, Black argue that the meaning is ‘has come’ or ‘has arrived’ (Manson). Kilpatrick rightly observes that one’s conclusion “must be determined in part by other considerations” than purely grammatical ones. Black’s argument that the words ho kairos peplērōtai ‘the time is fulfilled’ are decisive for the meaning ‘has come’ is not lightly to be denied.

hē basileia tou theou ‘the kingdom of God.’ Dalman has conclusively demonstrated that the meaning of basileia is that of exercise of royal power. Arndt & Gingrich: “kingship, royal power, royal rule, especially the royal reign of God.”

metanoeite (6.12) ‘repent (you, pl.)’ (cf. v. 4).

pisteuete en tō euaggeliō ‘believe (you, pl.) in the gospel.’

pisteuō (5.36; 9.23, 24, 42; 11.23, 24, 31; 13.21; 15.32; 16.13, 14, 16, 17) ‘believe.’ Here only in the N.T. is the construction pisteuō en ‘believe in’ to be found (John 3.15 and Eph. 1.13 are not true parallels). Moulton at one time agreed with Deissmann that pisteuō is here used in an absolute sense, being correctly translated “believe in (the sphere of) the Gospel.” Later, however (cf. Howard II, 464), Moulton changed his mind and accepted the construction as translation Greek, meaning simply, “believe the Gospel.” Gould comments: “The rendering ‘believe in the Gospel’ is a too literal translation of a Marcan Semitism.” Manson translates: “Believe the Good News.”

euaggelion (cf. v. 1) ‘gospel’: some (Taylor, Gould, Lagrange) hold that the meaning here is literally ‘the good news’ (cf. The Modern Speech New Testament: “this Good News”), while others maintain it has the technical Christian sense of “the Christian message.” In the light of v. 1 the latter is to be preferred.

Translation:

In rendering and saying one must often separate it from the preceding verse and make it an independent verb expression ‘he said,’ with whatever appropriate connective (if any) may be employed.

Since time in this instance is a point of time (an opportunity or occasion), its equivalent in many languages is ‘day.’ One must avoid using a word which implies extent of time (which is an entirely different Greek term, see above).

Is fulfilled is admittedly a difficult expression, unless one translates the idea, rather than the word – this, of course, is fundamentally what one must always do. One can either say ‘the day has come’ or as in some languages ‘this is the day.’ In Shipibo-Conibo there is an interesting idiom ‘the when-it-is (referring to any occasion) is already coming-up’ – very appropriate equivalent of the Greek. In some languages, however, one cannot speak of ‘days coming’ but only of ‘people coming to the day,’ which is equally acceptable, if this is the normal way in which people describe the fulfillment of time.

If in verse 1.14 the Textus Receptus is adopted, it is possible to speak of the kingdom of God as ‘where God rules’; in this verse, however, we must speak of the kingdom of God in terms of time. Accordingly, in Huastec, even though in 1.14 kingdom is translated as ‘where God rules’ (the more usual form of the expression), in 1.15 it must be rendered as ‘now is when God is going to reign.’ The idea of immediate future implied in the expression is at hand is rendered in Copainalá Zoque as ‘God is soon going to rule.’ In Central Pame the translation is ‘God is soon going to make himself the ruler.’ Another possibility is ‘God the ruler is here.’

For repent see 1.4.

A key word in any Scripture translation is believe. However, finding suitable equivalents (several are usually necessary depending upon the context) is admittedly very complex, for such expressions as “believe a report”, “believe a person” and “believe in a person” are frequently treated in other languages as quite different types of expressions.

Since belief or faith is so essentially an intimate psychological experience, it is not strange that so many terms denoting faith should be highly figurative and represent an almost unlimited range of emotional ‘centers’ and descriptions of relationships, e.g. ‘steadfast his heart’ (Chol), ‘to arrive on the inside’ (Chicahuaxtla Triqui), ‘to conform with the heart’ (Uab Meto), ‘to join the word to the body’ (Uduk), ‘to hear in the insides’ (Laka), ‘to make the mind big for something’ (Sapo), ‘to make the heart straight about’ (Mitla Zapotec), ‘to cause a word to enter the insides’ (Lacandon), ‘to leave one’s heart with’ (Baniwa), ‘to catch in the mind’ (Ngäbere), ‘that which one leans on’ (Vai), ‘to be strong on’ (Shipibo-Conibo), ‘to have no doubts’ (San Blas Kuna), ‘to hear and take into the insides’ (Kare), ‘to accept’ (Pamona).

Though these are the expressions used in a variety of languages to express faith, one must not conclude that they can be used automatically in all types of contexts. For example, though in Uduk to believe in God is generally translated as ‘to join God’s word to the body,’ in this context one must speak of ‘joining the joyful word to the body’ (‘joyful word’ is the gospel). In Ngäbere, however, it is possible to speak of ‘catching the word in the mind’ (if one is talking about believing a statement), but ‘catching God in the mind’ (if one is speaking of faith in God). In some instances one must use a kind of paratactic construction to indicate faith in a statement, e.g. ‘to declare, It is true.’ This type of inserted direct discourse may be rather awkward, but it is an effective equivalent in some languages.

One special problem should be noted, namely, the tendency for some languages to make no distinction between words for ‘believe’ and ‘obey.’ At first this may seem to be a clear case of deficiency in the language, but it can be a distinct gain in the task of evangelism, for it prevents people from saying that they believe the gospel when they have no intentions of obeying its implications.

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:

erchontai ‘they come’ is another example of the impersonal plural. Luke (5.18) has it ‘and behold men were bringing.’ Who ‘they’ are is a matter of conjecture: Lagrange thinks they were the parents of the paralytic, as distinct from the bearers. Translator’s New Testament “men came,” Revised Standard Version “and they came” is likely to be misleading in light of the immediately preceding “them” of the previous verse.

pherontes ‘bringing’: here is proof that the verb does not always mean ‘carry,’ since airomenon ‘being carried’ is added to make clear the manner in which the paralytic was brought to Jesus (cf. 1.32).

paralutikon (2.4, 5, 9, 10) ‘paralyzed man,’ ‘paralytic,’ ‘lame.’

airomenon (some 20 times in Mark) ‘(who was) being carried.’

Translation:

They came, because of its indefinite antecedent, must in many languages be rendered as ‘some people came.’ If this is not done the impression may be given that the crowd which was gathered together (the last third person plural referent) brought the man.

Because of the two verbs bringing and carried, it may be that the total number of persons coming with the paralytic were more than four. However, in some languages it is difficult to distinguish between ‘bringing’ and ‘carrying,’ in view of the fact that the only way to bring this man was to carry him. Many languages distinguish between the processes of (1) leading, (2) accompanying, and (3) carrying, but a verb of such indefinite reference as ‘bringing’ is often lacking. However, in order to render the two verbs in the passage one may translate ‘they had with them a paralytic; four men were carrying him.’

Paralysis is spoken of in a number of different ways in various languages, as one or another feature of the disease is selected as a descriptive base, e.g. ‘a sickness which causes one not to be able to move’ (Central Mazahua), ‘all dried up’ (San Blas Kuna), ‘one half his body is dead’ (Southern Subanen), and ‘he could not move’ (Highland Puebla Nahuatl). Since there are paralytics in all societies, there is no difficulty in finding an appropriate term to describe this man’s condition.

One problem, however, is posed by the fact that in some languages one must specifically distinguish between maladies which are congenital (occurring at birth) and those which have occurred later in life. In the Scriptures, unless there is a specific statement as to the fact that a person has been suffering from birth, it is to be understood that the disease was not congenital. On the other hand, in languages which distinguish between chronic and acute illnesses, one should probably in this case assume that the paralysis was of some duration.

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 en … en … en ‘in … in … in’ read by Tischendorf, Nestle, Westcott and Hort, Soden, Vogels, Merk, and Souter, hen … hen … hen ‘one … one … one’ is read by Textus Receptus, Lagrange, Kilpatrick, and Taylor (cf. v. 8).

Exegesis:

ekeinoi … hoi … sparentes ‘those … who … (were) sown’: probably some distinction should be made between ekeinoi ‘those’ and houtoi ‘these’ of vv. 15, 16 (alloi ‘others’ v. 18); some difference, likewise, is probably intended by the use of the aorist participle sparentes ‘sown’ in the present verse, instead of the present participle speiromenoi ‘sown’ of vv. 16, 18.

hoitines (9.1; 12.18; 15.7) ‘those who,’ i.e. ‘the very ones who’ (referred to in the previous clause).

paradechontai (only here in Mark) ‘they receive,’ ‘they accept’: here used as a synonym for lambanousin ‘they receive’ of v. 16.

karpophorousin (4.28) ‘they bear fruit,’ ‘they produce a crop.’

Translation:

Accept it must mean more than simply ‘receive it’ or ‘hear it.’ The implication here is that people believe the word, e.g. ‘put it in their hearts’ (Tzeltal), ‘take the word with truth’ (Loma (Liberia)), or ‘to hear and understand’ (Tumbuka).

Bear fruit is all right when speaking of plants, but the figure may not be acceptable when speaking of persons. Hence, one must often substitute a phrase meaning ‘to produce results’ or ‘to cause blessing.’

For an analysis of thirtyfold, and sixtyfold and a hundredfold see 4.8.

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 .