Exegesis:

idōn auton hoti ‘seeing him that’: by a construction fairly common in Greek, the subject of the clause which begins with hoti (in this case autos ‘he’) is drawn into the main clause as its object. Therefore, idōn auton hoti ‘seeing him that’ is the equivalent to idōn hoti autos ‘seeing that he.’ As Black points out, this lends emphasis to the displaced word.

nounechōs (only here in the N.T.) ‘wisely,’ ‘thoughtfully,’ ‘discreetly.’

ou makran ei apo tēs basileias tou theou ‘you are not far from the Kingdom of God’: here the Kingdom of God is thought of as a condition, or relationship, into which one enters here and now. Lagrange: “he almost has the necessary disposition to receive the Gospel.” Cf. Arndt & Gingrich: “you are almost ready to enter it.”

makran (only here in Mark) is an adverb ‘far (away).’

oudeis ouketi ‘no one any longer,’ ‘no one any more’ (for similar phrases cf. 5.3; 9.8).

etolma (15.43) ‘dared,’ ‘had the boldness,’ ‘ventured.’

Translation:

Saw is a normal type of verb from the standpoint of Greek and English, but in other languages one may be required to translate ‘realized’ or ‘recognized,’ to imply a mental reaction, not just a visual perception.

The rendering of he must refer to the scribe mentioned in verse 32. In some instances a noun will need to be substituted for this pronoun.

Wisely is translatable in some languages only by relating ‘wise’ to the person, e.g. ‘he was wise when he answered’ or to the words, e.g. ‘he answered with wise words.’

For kingdom of God see 1.15, 4.11, and 10.15.

No one dared to ask is equivalent in some languages to saying ‘everyone was afraid to ask’ (Tzeltal, South Bolivian Quechua).

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 sēmeia ‘signs’ Tischendorf, Nestle, and Kilpatrick have poiēsousin ‘they will perform’; all other editions of the Greek text, however, have dōsousin ‘they will give’ (presumably Revised Standard Version ‘show’ translates dōsousin).

Exegesis:

egerthēsontai (cf. 1.31) ‘they will arise,’ i.e. ‘will appear,’ ‘will arrive on the scene.’

pseudochristoi (only here in Mark) ‘false Christs,’ ‘pseudo Messiahs.’

pseudoprophētai (only here in Mark) ‘false prophets’: the saying about false prophets and their signs and wonders recalls the language of Deut. 13.2.

dōsousin sēmeia kai terata ‘they will give signs and wonders,’ in the sense of ‘causing (signs and wonders) to appear.’

sēmeion (cf. 8.11) ‘sign.’

terata (only here in Mark) ‘wonders,’ ‘portents,’ ‘prodigies’: in the N.T. used only in the plural and always with sēmeia ‘signs.’

pros to apoplanan ‘for the purpose of deceiving,’ ‘with a view to leading astray.’

pros here means ‘with the purpose of,’ ‘in order to.’

apoplanaō (only here in Mark; cf. planaō 13.5) ‘deceive,’ ‘lead astray.’

ei dunaton (14.35) ‘if possible’: for dunatos ‘possible’ cf. 9.23.

Translation:

False is often translatable only by some verb phrase which describes the activity of the person in question, e.g. ‘those who pretend to be Christ’ (Amganad Ifugao, Copainalá Zoque), ‘deceiving christs’ (Tzeltal), ‘christs who really are not’ (Highland Puebla Nahuatl), ‘men who say they are Christ’ (San Mateo del Mar Huave), and ‘people will come, one will say, I am Christ; another will say, I am a prophet’ (Yaka). In Mitla Zapotec false prophet has to be completely recast because of the phrasal form of the expression for prophet e.g. ‘speak lies as if speaking for God.’ In all these expressions the concept of falseness, pretence, and deceit are clearly indicated, despite the rather radical syntactic and lexical divergencies from the Greek expression. Such adaptations are quite common in languages in which activities or behavior implied by Greek (and English) adjectives plus nouns are describable only by verbs, which require a full complement of subject and object components.

Will arise may be ‘will stand,’ ‘will come into existence,’ ‘will appear,’ or ‘will become.’ It is only rarely that arise can be translated literally.

For signs see 8.11.

Wonders are different from miracles in that they usually involve some unusual phenomena in nature which are a portent of dire woe or extraordinary blessing. In Huichol these are ‘awe-inspiring things.’ In Yucateco they are ‘things which show what is coming,’ but in Eastern Highland Otomi the expression must be cast into the form of a verb phrase ‘they will amaze the people.’

Lead astray is sometimes translated in such a way as to reflect this same English metaphor, but usually one must employ some other more generic term as ‘deceive’ or ‘cause to believe a lie.’

If possible may require some expansion because of the essentially elliptical form, e.g. ‘if they can do so’ or ‘if they are able.’

The elect are ‘the chosen ones’ or where an agent is required, ‘the ones God has chosen’ (see 13.20).

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:

opsias genomenēs (cf. 4.35) ‘when it was evening,’ i.e. after sunset on Thursday, and by now (according to Jewish reckoning) the 15th Nisan.

meta tōn dōdeka (cf. 3.16) ‘with the Twelve’: a title, not a number.

Translation:

Because of the distance of he from the closest specific noun antecedent, it may be necessary to translate ‘Jesus came with the twelve 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:

kath’ hēmeran ‘daily,’ ‘every day’: the preposition kata has here the distributive force. It has been suggested, however, that the phrase here means ‘by day,’ ‘in the day-time,’ as opposed to the night-time hour of the arrest.

pros humas ‘with you,’ ‘in your company’: the preposition pros here indicates position, rather than motion.

all’ hina plērōthōsin hai graphai ‘but (this has happened) in order that the Scriptures be fulfilled’: by all translations this saying is punctuated as having been spoken by Jesus. Instead of taking hina here to indicate purpose, some commentators and translations (like Revised Standard Version) take it to be imperatival: ‘The Scriptures must be fulfilled!.’

plēroō (cf. 1.15) ‘fulfill.’

hai graphai (cf. 12.10; for the plural cf. 12.24) ‘the Scriptures.’

Translation:

Day after day is probably best taken as a distributive, translatable as ‘many days’ or ‘on successive days,’ literally ‘days, days’ in some languages.

For temple see 11.11, and for scriptures see 12.10.

Let … be fulfilled should not be translated as a request for permission. The meaning is either ‘the holy writings must be fulfilled’ or ‘this has happened so that the holy writings may be fulfilled.’

Fulfilled is an extremely difficult concept to translate in some languages. Actually, ‘fulfilling writing’ is quite impossible in certain instances, and one is obliged to render this passage as ‘so that what was spoken of in the holy writings may happen’ (or ‘may occur’).

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:

phthonon (only here in Mark) ‘envy,’ ‘jealousy.’

paradedōkeisan ‘they had handed over,’ ‘they had delivered’: another pluperfect (cf. v. 7), of an action completed in the past.

hoi archiereis (cf. 8.31) ‘the chief priests.’

Translation:

The pronominal referents in this verse may be somewhat obscure, thus requiring the substitution of ‘Pilate’ for he and possibly ‘Jesus’ for him.

There is a tendency to mistranslate envy as ‘jealousy,’ which may be applicable only to jealousy over women. Hence, in some languages the closest equivalent is ‘because they were angry with him’ (Copainalá Zoque). In some instances, however, in order to avoid misinterpretation, the particular nature of this envy must be described, e.g. ‘they hated Jesus because everybody like him’ (Tabasco Chontal).

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:

ēdē opsias genomenēs ‘evening having already arrived,’ ‘when evening had now come’: ordinarily the phrase opsias genomenēs in Mark (cf. the references in 4.35) would indicate sunset or after, especially with the addition of ēdē (cf. 6.35; 11.11) ‘already,’ ‘by now.’ Here, however, it seems that all that Joseph of Arimathea did took place between the ninth hour (3:00 P.M.), when Jesus died, and sunset, which would mark the beginning of the sabbath (cf. Lagrange). Jeremias points out that Mark has a habit of using a second time reference precisely to define the first one, and refers to 1.32; 1.35; 4.35; 13.24; 14.12; 14.30; 16.2: here, therefore, evening is approaching, but it is still the day of Preparation, before sabbath begins at 6:00 P.M.

epei (only here in Mark) ‘since,’ ‘because.’

paraskeuē (only here in Mark; cf. Mt. 27.62, Lk. 23.54, Jn. 19.14) ‘day of preparation’ (from paraskeuazō ‘prepare’), i.e. Friday, the day the Jews made preparation for the sabbath. Josephus indicates that the preparation for the sabbath usually began after the ninth hour (3:00 P.M.) on Friday afternoon.

prosabbaton (only here in the N.T.) ‘before the sabbath.’

Translation:

Evening had come is probably best translated as ‘late in the afternoon’ or ‘becoming dusk.’

Day of preparation may be ‘day of preparing,’ but if the verb ‘preparing’ is only transitive, one may need to add ‘the feast,’ i.e. ‘day for preparing the feast.’

For sabbath see 1.21.

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:

huios theou ‘the Son of God’ is missing in some important mss. and some of the early Fathers, and so is omitted by Tischendorf, Nestle, Westcott and Hort, Kilpatrick: its presence is attested by most of the external evidence, however, and the phrase is included by Textus Receptus et al.

Punctuation:

The verse is not a complete sentence, and its relation to the verses which follow has been proposed in three ways: (1) the verse is taken to be a title, with a full stop placed at the end: so Nestle, Westcott and Hort, Vogel, Merk, Soden, Tischendorf, King James Version, American Standard Version, Revised Standard Version, other translations and commentators (Gould, Taylor, Grant); (2) verses 2-3 are treated parenthetically, and v. 1 is connected to v. 4: “The beginning … was John…” so Rawlinson, Branscomb, Turner; (3) the verse is connected directly to v. 2: “The beginning … (was) as it stands written in Isaiah”: so Translator’s New Testament. The overwhelming majority of translations and commentarators favor the first solution.

Exegesis:

archē (10.6; 13.8, 19) ‘beginning’ has several possible meanings, but its sense here is simply temporal, ‘the starting-point,’ ‘the beginning.’ The absence of the article does not necessarily make the word indefinite, and it has been suggested that such absence favors understanding the verse as a title. Modern languages, as required, may or may not use the definite article: cf. Zürich (Zürcher Bibel) Anfang, Le Nouveau Testament. Version Synodale Commencement, O Novo Testamento de Nosso Senhor Jesus Cristo. Revisdo Autorizada Princípio.

euaggeliou (1.14, 15; 8.35; 10.29; 13.10; 14.9; 16.15) ‘of the gospel.’ From the earlier meaning of ‘reward for good news’ and ‘good news’ the word developed into a technical Christian term, i.e. the content of the Christian faith, the good tidings of God’s redemptive act in Jesus Christ. Lagrange: “It is the proclamation of salvation in Jesus … the announcement of the salvation contained in the words and acts of Jesus.” Only after N.T. times did the word take on the further specialized meaning of ‘a book relating the words and deeds of Jesus.’

Iēsou Christou (only here in Mark) ‘of Jesus Christ.’ The genitive may mean: (1) the gospel about Jesus Christ, or (2) the gospel that comes from Jesus Christ. Almost without exception the translations and commentators prefer the first interpretation.

Christos is no longer a title ‘The Anointed One’: it is a proper name, just as Jesus is a proper name. As a title, ‘Messiah’ (or ‘The Anointed’) has its origins in the O.T. concept of God anointing the individual or people of his choice with his Spirit and power. In the case of Jesus, however, the title becomes a proper name.

huiou (tou) theou (3.11; 5.7; 15.39; cf. 14.61; cf. 1.11; 9.7) ‘(the) Son of God.’ Though there is no article with huiou ‘son’ it is nevertheless definite, ‘the Son of God’ or (what amounts to the same thing) ‘Son of God.’

huios ‘son’: wherever the word refers to Jesus, in Mark, it is always followed by a qualifying genitive, with the single exception of 13.32 where ho huios ‘the Son’ is used absolutely.

Translation:

The translator is faced with two principal types of problems in this verse: (1) lexical, involving the words for gospel and God; and (2) syntactic: (a) how to relate the four principal lexical units: beginning, gospel, Jesus Christ, and Son of God, and (b) how to relate this verse to the following verses.

In choosing a word for gospel there are two principal alternatives: (1) borrowing a term from a more dominant language, e.g. the use of Spanish evangelio in some Indian language translations in Latin America, or (2) constructing a phrase meaning ‘good news,’ ‘joyful report’ or ‘happiness-bringing words.’ The latter method is almost always preferable. In some instances such a phrase may be slightly expanded in order to convey the proper meaning, e.g. ‘new good word’ (Tzotzil), or it may involve some special local usage, e.g. ‘good message’ (Huautla Mazatec) or ‘good story’ (Navajo, Amganad Ifugao), or ‘joyful telling’ (Joloano); ‘joyful message’ (Toraja-Sa’dan).

An adequate term for God is one of the major problems for any translator and its full exposition is beyond the limits of this volume.

Wherever, of course there is a generic term used to designate ‘a god’ or ‘gods’ this should be used, and the context must be counted on to make the reference definite and unique, while at the same time permitting the radical contrast of the Bible between “the God of the believer” and “the gods of the heathen.” One must not, however, imagine that a “high-god concept” (which is relatively widespread throughout the world) is the same as biblical monotheism, for the high god may have few if any of the moral qualifications of the God of the Scriptures. Moreover, his name may not permit generic extension or pluralization. In such instances one may be forced to use a more generic term for ‘spirit’ and add a qualifier, e.g. ‘the Great Spirit’ (Central Mazahua) and ‘the Eternal Spirit’ (Navajo, which, however, also employs the English borrowing God). In other instances one may take an indigenous phrase and “Christianize” its meaning by context, e.g. ‘the Great Father’ (San Blas Kuna) or Nhialich ‘one in the above’ (Northwestern Dinka), or camaq ‘he who is sufficient’ (Chanca Quechua), or Jehoba (which accidentally resembles Jehovah) ‘the great ruler,’ a kind of generic descriptive term used among the Kipsigis.

In trying to discover an adequate word for God one must recognize that there is little or no likelihood that one will encounter a fully adequate term within the indigenous language, for the very significance of the revelation of God in Jesus Christ is that He is radically different from what men have devised. This means that an indigenous term will be considerably less than perfect, even at best. But this should not, however, lead one to resort automatically to a borrowed term, with its essentially zero meaning. Such a word is likely to imply only ‘the white man’s God’ or be equated, as a proper name, with an already known high god. Accordingly, whenever at all possible one should employ some indigenous equivalent, even though it is a descriptive title. However, the particular form which this expression must take within any given situation must be determined by a very careful, exhaustive study of all the religious beliefs and practices of the people; otherwise there is entirely too much chance of having the message distorted by an unfortunately chosen key term.

If we assume that this first verse is in the nature of a title (which is by far the most widely accepted interpretation – see above), the principal syntactic problems involve the internal arrangements of the principal constituent parts. The first of these is the relationship between ‘beginning’ and ‘good news.’ What makes this combination somewhat of a problem, however, is the fact that in most languages ‘beginning’ (which is essentially a process and not an object) is a verb-like word, not a noun. That is to say, in most languages one may say ‘something begins’ but one cannot talk about ‘the beginning of something.’ This means that the expression must often be recast so as to read, ‘the good news about … began this way,’ or ‘… begins thus’ (Kaqchikel, South Bolivian Quechua). In Eastern Maninkakanone may translate ‘here begins the good news….’

In relating the constituents ‘good news’ and ‘Jesus Christ’ one should be sure that this is the ‘good news about Jesus Christ,’ not the ‘good news that Jesus Christ announced.’ This of course, does not deny the fact that Jesus announced good news, but the viewpoint of the Gospel writers was that Jesus Christ was in himself the good news, hence this must be a so-called objective, rather than subjective construction.

The expression the Son of God is in apposition with Jesus Christ. In some languages, however, one cannot express such identity merely by juxtaposing expressions. One must use more specific relators, e.g. ‘Jesus Christ, He is the Son of God’ or ‘Jesus Christ, who is the Son of God.’

If verse 1 is to be interpreted as a title and if in the language in question the title needs to be a complete sentence, as is often the case, one can render this verse as ‘the good news about Jesus Christ, God’s Son, began thus’ (or ‘… in this way,’ or ‘… here’). If, on the other hand, one relates the first verse to what follows (alternatives 2 and 3 under “Punctuation”, above), one may translate either: ‘… began as it is written in…’ (alternative 3) or ‘… began (As it is written in …) when John the baptizer…’ (alternative 2).

Compare the following renderings, retranslated more or less literally from the languages in question: ‘Here begins the good word, the good word regarding God’s child Jesus Christ’ (Shipibo-Conibo, in which ‘good word’ must be repeated because of syntactic requirements and ‘child’ is the appropriate generic term for such a context). ‘This is the beginning of the good news about the Lord Jesus Christ, the Son of God’ (Balinese, in which an obligatory honorific pattern requires the addition of ‘Lord’) and ‘The good news’ beginning is this, about Jesus Christ God’s Son’ (Kpelle).

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 .