Translation commentary on Mark 11:22

Exegesis:

echete is the imperative (not the indicative) ‘you must have.’

pistin theou ‘faith in God’ in which the genitive theou ‘of God’ indicates the object of faith, not its subject.

Translation:

For faith see 1.15.

The imperative form of Jesus’ statement does provide certain difficulties for the translator, especially in languages in which there are no corresponding forms of this verb. In such instances one may render the passage as ‘you should believe in God,’ ‘you must trust in God,’ or ‘it is necessary that you have confidence in God.’

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 .

SIL Translator's Notes on Mark 11:22

Paragraph 11:22–26

In 11:22–26, Jesus taught his disciples about trusting in God and praying. It may not be clear why he started doing this after Peter’s remark about the fig tree. You should make it clear in your translation that what Jesus said in the following paragraph was a response to Peter’s remark. Jesus used what happened to the fig tree as an example of the great things that can happen when people trust God.

11:22

Have faith in God: The expression Have faith in God here is a command. It means that the people should believe that God can and will do whatever they ask him for in prayer.

Here are some other ways to translate this expression:

Have confidence in God
-or-
Trust God
-or-
Believe that God will do what you ask

See believe, Meaning 3, in the Glossary.

Jesus said to them: The Greek phrase that the Berean Standard Bible translates as Jesus said to them is literally “Jesus answering said to them.” You may need to make it clear that Jesus was speaking to all the disciples, not just to Peter.

The Berean Standard Bible places the words Jesus said to them in the middle of what Jesus said. In Greek, these words occur at the beginning of 11:22. Place the words Jesus said to them where it is natural in your language.

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