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Del estado de Galilea, del pueblo de Nazaret Jesús caminó y fue al río Jordán. Juan el Bautista estaba bautizando y vió que Jesús se acercaba y lo bautizó. Jesús miró hacia arriba, y estaba el cielo abierto y parecido a una paloma blanca vino el Espíritu Santo en su corazón.
Del cielo (sonó) el voz de Dios: Él es mi hijo amado, yo veo que está bien, estoy contento (con él).
Después Jesús sintió que el Espíritu Santo adentro de él lo animaba a ir al desierto y Jesús fue a donde había animales peligrosos.
Jesús se quedó 40 días y se acercó satanás a tentarlo, y ángeles cuidaban a Jesús.
From the state of Galilee, from the village of Nazareth, Jesus walked to the river Jordan. John the Baptist was baptizing and he looked up and saw Jesus who came up and was baptized. Jesus looked up and saw heaven open and the Holy Spirit came like a white dove and entered his heart.
From heaven (came) the voice of God: “He is my beloved son, I see it is well, I am pleased (with him).”
Afterwards Jesus felt the Holy Spirit within encourage him to go to the desert, and Jesus went where there are dangerous animals.
Jesus stayed there for 40 days and Satan came to attack/tempt him, and angels took care of Jesus.
Following are a number of back-translations of Mark 1:13:
Uma: “Forty days he was there. While he was in that field, the King of Evil-ones tempted him. Wild animals were with him, and angels took care of him.” (Source: Uma Back Translation)
Yakan: “Forty days (and nights) he was tempted there by the leader of demons. There were also forest animals there but Isa was cared for by the angels.” (Source: Yakan Back Translation)
Western Bukidnon Manobo: “Jesus stayed there for forty days, and Satan tested him to see if he might sin. And there were also there harmful beasts, but the angels of God came to Jesus and took care of him.” (Source: Western Bukidnon Manobo Back Translation)
Kankanaey: “He stayed there for forty days while-simultaneously also Satanas (Satan) tried-repeatedly to tempt him. There were also fierce animals where he was, but (reassurance particle) there were angels who were helping him.” (Source: Kankanaey Back Translation)
Tagbanwa: “Forty days was how long he was there. He was tempted/tested by Satanas as to whether he could-be-caused- by him -to-fall (into sin, fig.). There in that place there were wild animals, but Jesus was being served by angels.” (Source: Tagbanwa Back Translation)
Bariai: “He stayed in that area for a duration of forty days, and Satan was testing him. He was living with the wild animals, and anggelos came and helped him.” (Source: Bariai Back Translation)
Kupsabiny: “He stayed there for forty days without anything he was eating. Satan tempted him while he was there. When Satan had left, (the) angels of God came and helped him.” (Source: Kupsabiny Back Translation)
Mairasi: “There at-this-place where there were no other people the Headman-of-the-malevolent-spirits regularly tempted him, there were wild jungle-meat around him, and angels whom Great Above One sent regularly cared for him. He stayed there until finally two complete persons [40 = 2 people = 40 fingers & toes] days.” [For the counting system, see body part tally systems.] (Source Enggavoter 2004)
Shipibo-Conibo: “Then he was where no house is, forty days. While there, Satan wanted to make him do evil. He was also among biting things. Then the word bringers made him eat.” (Source: James Lauriault in The Bible Translator 1951, p. 32ff. )
Balinese: “Forty nights long He was in the barren field, tempted by Sang [‘Sang’ is a personal article that is often attached to the names of persons or powers that are characteristic of the normal, human, every-day world] Satan. There He was in the midst of wild beasts, served by the heavenly messengers.” (Source: J.L. Swellengrebel in The Bible Translator 1950, p. 75ff. )
English translation by Michael Pakaluk (2019): “And he was in the desert for forty days, where he was put to the test by Satan. He faced dangerous animals. And the angels ministered to him.”
The Hebrew adonai in the Old Testament typically refers to God. The shorter adon (and in two cases in the book of Daniel the Aramaic mare [מָרֵא]) is also used to refer to God but more often for concepts like “master,” “owner,” etc. In English Bible translations all of those are translated with “Lord” if they refer to God.
In English Old Testament translations, as in Old Testament translations in many other languages, the use of Lord (or an equivalent term in other languages) is not to be confused with Lord (or the equivalent term with a different typographical display for other languages). While the former translates adonai, adon and mare, the latter is a translation for the tetragrammaton (YHWH) or the Name of God. See tetragrammaton (YHWH) and the article by Andy Warren-Rothlin in Noss / Houser, p. 618ff. for more information.
In the New Testament, the Greek term kurios has at least four different kinds of use:
referring to “God,” especially in Old Testament quotations,
meaning “master” or “owner,” especially in parables, etc.,
as a form of address (see for instance John 4:11: “Sir, you have no bucket”),
or, most often, referring to Jesus
In the first and fourth case, it is also translated as “Lord” in English.
Most languages naturally don’t have one word that covers all these meanings. According to Bratcher / Nida, “the alternatives are usually (1) a term which is an honorific title of respect for a high-ranking person and (2) a word meaning ‘boss’, ‘master’, or ‘chief.’ (…) and on the whole it has generally seemed better to employ a word of the second category, in order to emphasize the immediate personal relationship, and then by context to build into the word the prestigeful character, since its very association with Jesus Christ will tend to accomplish this purpose.”
When looking at the following list of back-translations of the terms that translators in the different languages have used for both kurios and adonai to refer to God and Jesus respectively, it might be helpful for English readers to recall the etymology of the English “Lord.” While this term might have gained an exalted meaning in the understanding of many, it actually comes from hlaford or “loaf-ward,” referring to the lord of the castle who was the keeper of the bread (source: Rosin 1956, p. 121).
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Following are some of the solutions that don’t rely on a different typographical display (see above):
Iyansi: Mwol. Mwol is traditionally used for the “chief of a group of communities and villages” with legal, temporal, and spiritual authority (versus the “mfum [the term used in other Bantu languages] which is used for the chief of one community of people in one village”). Mwol is also used for twins who are “treated as special children, highly honored, and taken care of like kings and queens.” (Source: Kividi Kikama in Greed / Kruger, p. 396ff.)
Binumarien: Karaambaia: “fight-leader” (Source: Oates 1995, p. 255)
Warlpiri: Warlaljamarri (owner or possessor of something — for more information tap or click here)
We have come to rely on another term which emphasizes God’s essential nature as YHWH, namely jukurrarnu (see tetragrammaton (YHWH)). This word is built on the same root jukurr– as is jukurrpa, ‘dreaming.’ Its basic meaning is ‘timelessness’ and it is used to describe physical features of the land which are viewed as always being there. Some speakers view jukurrarnu in terms of ‘history.’ In all Genesis references to YHWH we have used Kaatu Jukurrarnu. In all Mark passages where kurios refers to God and not specifically to Christ we have also used Kaatu Jukurrarnu.
New Testament references to Christ as kurios are handled differently. At one stage we experimented with the term Watirirririrri which refers to a ceremonial boss of highest rank who has the authority to instigate ceremonies. While adequately conveying the sense of Christ’s authority, there remained potential negative connotations relating to Warlpiri ceremonial life of which we might be unaware.
Here it is that the Holy Spirit led us to make a chance discovery. Transcribing the personal testimony of the local Warlpiri pastor, I noticed that he described how ‘my Warlaljamarri called and embraced me (to the faith)’. Warlaljamarri is based on the root warlalja which means variously ‘family, possessions, belongingness’. A warlaljamarri is the ‘owner’ or ‘possessor’ of something. While previously being aware of the ‘ownership’ aspect of warlaljamarri, this was the first time I had heard it applied spontaneously and naturally in a fashion which did justice to the entire concept of ‘Lordship’. Thus references to Christ as kurios are now being handled by Warlaljamarri.” (Source: Stephen Swartz, The Bible Translator 1985, p. 415ff. )
Mairasi: Onggoao Nem (“Throated One” — “Leader,” “Elder”) or Enggavot Nan (“Above-One”) (source: Enggavoter 2004)
Obolo: Okaan̄-ene (“Owner of person(s)”) (source: Enene Enene)
Lotha Naga: Opvui (“owner of house / field / cattle”) — since both “Lord” and YHWH are translated as Opvui there is an understanding that “Opvui Jesus is the same as the Opvui of the Old Testament”
Seediq: Tholang, loan word from Min Nan Chinese (the majority language in Taiwan) thâu-lâng (頭儂): “Master” (source: Covell 1998, p. 248)
Thai: phra’ phu pen cao (พระผู้เป็นเจ้า) (divine person who is lord) or ong(kh) cao nay (องค์เจ้านาย) (<divine classifier>-lord-boss) (source: Stephen Pattemore)
Arabic often uses different terms for adonai or kurios referring to God (al-rabb الرب) and kurios referring to Jesus (al-sayyid الـسـيـد). Al-rabb is also the term traditionally used in Arabic Christian-idiom translations for YHWH, and al-sayyid is an honorary term, similar to English “lord” or “sir” (source: Andy Warren-Rothlin).
Tamil also uses different terms for adonai/kurios when referring to God and kurios when referring to Jesus. The former is Karttar கர்த்தர், a Sanskrit-derived term with the original meaning of “creator,” and the latter in Āṇṭavar ஆண்டவர், a Tamil term originally meaning “govern” or “reign” (source: Natarajan Subramani).
Burunge: Looimoo: “owner who owns everything” (in the Burunge Bible translation, this term is only used as a reference to Jesus and was originally used to refer to the traditional highest deity — source: Michael Endl in Holzhausen / Riderer 2010, p. 48)
Yagaria: Souve, originally “war lord” (source: Renck, p. 94)
Aguacateco: Ajcaw ske’j: “the one to whom we belong and who is above us” (source: Rita Peterson in Holzhausen / Riderer 2010, p. 49)
Konkomba: Tidindaan: “He who is the owner of the land and reigns over the people” (source: Lidorio 2007, p. 66)
Chichewa: AmbuyeAmbuye comes from the singular form Mbuye which is used to refer to: (1) someone who is a guardian or protector of someone or group of people — a grandparent who has founded a community or village; (2) someone who is a boss or master over a group of people or servants and has absolute control over them; (3) owner of something, be it a property, animals and people who are bound under his/her rule — for people this was mostly commonly used in the context of slaves and their owner. In short, Mbuye is someone who has some authorities over those who call him/her their “Mbuye.” Now, when the form Ambuye is used it will either be for honorific when used for singular or plural when referring to more than one person. When this term is used in reference to God, it is for respect to God as he is acknowledged as a guardian, protector, and ruler of everything. (Source: Mawu a Mulungu mu Chichewa Chalero Back Translation).
Hdi uses rveri (“lion”) as a title of respect and as such it regularly translates adon in the Old Testament. As an address, it’s most often with a possessive pronoun as in rvera ɗa (“my lion” = “my lord” or “sir”). So, for example, Genesis 15:2 (“O Lord God”) is Rvera ɗa Yawe (“My lion Yahweh”) or Ruth to Boaz in Ruth 2:13: “May I find your grace [lit. good-stomach] my lion.” This ties in nicely with the imagery of the Lord roaring like a lion (Hosea 11:10; Amos 3:8; Joel 3:16). Better still, this makes passages like Revelation 5:5 even richer when we read about rveri ma taba məndəra la Yuda, “the Lion of the tribe of Judah”. In Revelation 19:16, Jesus is rveri ta ghəŋa rveriha “the lion above lions” (“lord of lords”). (Source: Drew Maust)
Law (2013, p. 97) writes about how the Ancient GreekSeptuagint‘s translation of the Hebrew adonai was used by the New Testament writers as a bridge between the Old and New Testaments: “Another case is the use of kurios referring to Jesus. For Yahweh (in English Bibles: ‘the Lord‘), the Septuagint uses kurios. Although the term kurios usually has to do with one’s authority over others, when the New Testament authors use this word from the Septuagint to refer to Jesus, they are making an extraordinary claim: Jesus of Nazareth is to be identified with Yahweh.”
Barclay Newman, a translator on the teams for both the Good News Bible and the Contemporary English Version, translated passages of the New Testament into English and published them in 2014, “in a publication brief enough to be non-threatening, yet long enough to be taken seriously, and interesting enough to appeal to believers and un-believers alike.” The following is the translation of Mark 1:12-13:
At the impulse of God’s Spirit,
Jesus headed into the desert.
For forty days and forty nights, Satan put him to the test,
while Jesus lived among the wild animals
and was watched over by angels.
God transcends gender, but most languages are limited to grammatical gender expressed in pronouns. In the case of English, this is traditionally confined to “he” (or in the forms “his,” “him,” and “himself”), “she” (and “her,” “hers,” and “herself”), and “it” (and “its” and “itself”).
Modern Mandarin Chinese, however, offers another possibility. Here, the third-person singular pronoun is always pronounced the same (tā), but it is written differently according to its gender (他 is “he,” 她 is “she,” and 它/牠 is “it” and their respective derivative forms). In each of these characters, the first (or upper) part defines the gender (man, woman, or thing/animal), while the second element gives the clue to its pronunciation.
In 1930, after a full century with dozens of Chinese translations, Bible translator Wang Yuande (王元德) coined a new “godly” pronoun: 祂. Chinese readers immediately knew how to pronounce it: tā. But they also recognized that the first part of that character, signifying something spiritual, clarified that each person of the Trinity has no gender aside from being God.
While the most important Protestant and Catholic Chinese versions respectively have opted not to use 祂, some Bible translations do and it is widely used in hymnals and other Christian materials. Among the translations that use 祂 to refer to “God” were early versions of Lü Zhenzhong’s (呂振中) version (New Testament: 1946, complete Bible: 1970). R.P. Kramers (in The Bible Translator 1956, p. 152ff. ) explains why later versions of Lü’s translation did not continue with this practice: “This new way of writing ‘He,’ however, has created a minor problem of its own: must this polite form be used whenever Jesus is referred to? Lü follows the rule that, wherever Jesus is referred to as a human being, the normal tā (他) is written; where he is referred to as divine, especially after the ascension, the reverential tā (祂) is used.”
In that system, one kind of pronoun is used for humans (male and female alike) and others for natural elements, non-liquid masses, and some spiritual entities (one other is used for large animals and another one for miscellaneous items). While in these languages the pronoun for spiritual entities used to be employed when referring to God, this has changed into the use of the human pronoun.
Lynell Zogbo (in The Bible Translator 1989, p. 401ff. ) explains: “From informal discussions with young Christians especially, it would appear that, at least for some people, the experience and/or concepts of Christianity are affecting the choice of pronoun for God. Some people explain that God is no longer ‘far away,’ but is somehow tangible and personal. For these speakers God has shifted over into the human category.”
In Kouya, God (the Father) and Jesus are referred to with the human pronoun ɔ, whereas the Holy Spirit is referred to with a non-human pronoun. (Northern Grebo and Western Krahn make a similar distinction.)
Eddie Arthur, a former Kouya Bible translation consultant, says the following: “We tried to insist that this shouldn’t happen, but the Kouya team members were insistent that the human pronoun for the Spirit would not work.”
In Burmese, the pronoun ko taw (ကိုယ်တော်) is used either as 2nd person (you) or 3rd person (he, him, his) reference. “This term clearly has its root in the religious language in Burmese. No ordinary persons are addressed or known by this pronoun because it is reserved for Buddhist monks, famous religious teachers, and in the case of Christianity, the Trinity.” (Source: Gam Seng Shae in The Bible Translator 2002, p. 202ff. )
In Thai, the pronoun phra`ong (พระองค์) is used, a gender-neutral pronoun which must refer to a previously introduced royal or divine being. Similarly, in Northern Khmer, which is spoken in Thailand, “an honorific divine pronoun” is used for the pronoun referring to the persons of the Trinity (source: David Thomas in The Bible Translator 1993, p. 445 ). In Urak Lawoi’, another language spoken in Thailand, the translation often uses tuhat (ตูฮัด) — “God” — ”as a divine pronoun where Thai has phra’ong even though it’s actually a noun.” (Source for Thai and Urak Lawoi’: Stephen Pattemore)
The English “Contemporary Torah” addresses the question of God and gendered pronouns by mostly avoiding pronouns in the first five books of the Hebrew Bible/Old Testament (unless God is referred to as “lord,” “father,” “king,” or “warrior”). It does that by either using passive constructs (“He gave us” vs. “we were given”), by using the adjective “divine” or by using “God” rather than a pronoun.
Some Protestant and Orthodox English Bibles use a referential capitalized spelling when referring to the persons of the Trinity with “He,” “His,” “Him,” or “Himself.” This includes for instance the New American Standard Bible or The Orthodox New Testament, but most translations do not. Two other languages where this is also done (in most Bible translations) are Twents as well as Indonesian and Malay. In the latter two languages this follows the language usage according to the Qur’an, which in turn predicts that usage (see Soesilo in The Bible Translator 1991, p. 442ff. and The Bible Translator 1997, p. 433ff. ).
Like a number of other East Asian languages, Japanese uses a complex system of honorifics, i.e. a system where a number of different levels of politeness are expressed in language via words, word forms or grammatical constructs. These can range from addressing someone or referring to someone with contempt (very informal) to expressing the highest level of reference (as used in addressing or referring to God) or any number of levels in-between.
One way Japanese shows different degree of politeness is through the usage of an honorific construction where the morpheme rare (られ) is affixed on the verb as shown here in the widely-used Japanese Shinkaiyaku (新改訳) Bible of 2017. This is particularly done with verbs that have God as the agent to show a deep sense of reverence. Here, uke-rare-ru (受けられる) or “receive” and Here, tomo ni o-rare-ru (ともにおられる) or “together with” are used´.
Living Water is produced for the Bible translation movement in association with Lutheran Bible Translators. Lyrics derived from the ESV® Bible (The Holy Bible, English Standard Version®).
With the support of later mss. Textus Receptus and Kilpatrick include ekei ‘there’ after (the first) ēn ‘he was’; the majority of modern editions of the Greek text omit it.
Exegesis:
ēn … peirazomenos ‘was … tempted’: may be taken as a verbal phrase, ‘he was being tempted,’ or the particle peirazomenos ‘being tempted’ may be independent of the verb ēn ‘was,’ and modify ‘he’: in this case ēn would mean ‘he was,’ ‘he abode,’ ‘he remained.’ Although most translations favor this rendition, separating the participle from the verb ēn, Marcan usage is probably decisive in favor of the first meaning. Kilpatrick: “In Mark einai (‘to be’), usually in the imperfect, and the present participle may be presumed to form a single tense.”
peirazō (8.11; 10.2; 12.15) ‘put to the test’; peirazomai ‘be tried,’ ‘be tempted’: here with hostile intent. The action is portrayed as taking place throughout the whole period of forty days.
Satanas (3.23, 26; 4.15; 8.33) is the transliteration of the Aramaic satanaʾ (the O.T. satan is ‘accuser,’ ‘adversary’). In the N.T. the same as ho diabolos ‘the devil,’ ruler of the powers of evil, opponent of God, enemy of man.
meta tōn thēriōn ‘with the beasts’: hyenas, jackals, foxes, gazelles (cf. Swete, Lagrange). The purpose of this clause is to accentuate the wildness of the desert into which the Spirit drove Jesus, the haunt of wild animals, suitable locale for the presence of supernatural forces both good and evil (for possible theological overtones cf. Isa. 13.21; Ps. 91.11-13; Job 5.22f.).
kai hoi aggeloi diēkonoun autō ‘and the angels were serving him.’
hoi aggeloi (cf. v. 2) ‘the angels’: with the single exception of aggelos ‘messenger’ in v. 2, the word, in Mark, always refers to celestial messengers, sent by God.
diēkonoun (1.31; 10.45; 15.41) ‘they were serving’: the primary meaning is that of waiting on someone at table, from which it passes over to the general meaning of service of any kind . The reference here is to physical needs, particularly food (cf. 1.31), recalling the experience of Elijah (1 Kings 19.5-8). The imperfect tense would seem to describe a ministration which continued throughout the forty days’ stay in the wilderness.
Translation:
Tempted is a difficult term, for though it means ‘to tempt to evil’ or ‘to try’ (or ‘test’), in this context it obviously must not be rendered in such a way as to imply that Jesus succumbed to the temptation. In many instances one finds that words for temptation imply yielding, rather than resisting. They are rarely neutral in connotation. In such instances, one must attempt to indicate the attempt by Satan, but not the success, or the entire meaning of the passage will be distorted, e.g. ‘tried to make him sin’ (Maninka, Tzotzil, San Mateo del Mar Huave, Kekchi).
In general it is preferable to transliterate, rather than attempt to translate, the word Satan. However, in some languages Satan and devil are translated the same way (however, Greek diabolos ‘devil’ does not occur in Mark).
In order to combine tempted by Satan with the preceding clause it is often necessary to use a paratactic construction, sometimes with a shift in grammatical voice, e.g. ‘There in the wilderness Jesus remained forty days; Satan tried Jesus’ (Huautla Mazatec).
In saying that Jesus was ‘with the wild beasts’ one should not give the impression (1) that he ‘was sitting right there with them’ (as in one translation in the Philippines) or (2) that he was a kind of animal trainer, there in company with lions, tigers, and leopards. In Greek there is no special emphasis on ‘wild’; these were simply the animals of the wilderness (see above). One may translate, ‘he was there where the animals of the deserted places were.’
One must also make certain that it was Jesus and not Satan who was with the wild beasts, since in many popular beliefs demonic spirits are associated with wild animals. Hence, one is often justified in introducing ‘Jesus’ as the subject of this clause, ‘Jesus was with the wild beasts’ (Mitla Zapotec, and Huastec).
Finding an appropriate word for angels is not easy. In the first place, one is quite likely to run into false ideas, especially in Latin America, where in one Indian language angels had been called ‘flying saints’ and in another ‘dead babies’ (since according to popular belief children who died in infancy became angels). It is, however, difficult to employ the precise equivalent of Greek ‘messenger,’ since often this term does not bear the proper connotation. For example, in San Miguel El Grande Mixtec a messenger is literally ‘hands and feet,’ but this term must usually be modified if it is to serve in the Scriptures, e.g. ‘… heavenly,’ or ‘… of God,’ or ‘… of the Lord,’ etc. This same problem has occurred in many translations, and as a result a number of possible solutions have been found, ‘word-carriers from heaven’ (Shipibo-Conibo), ‘heavenly messengers’ (Otetela, Kpelle, Balinese), ‘spirit messengers’ (Shilluk), ‘messengers of God’ (Piro), ‘envoys, messengers’ (Batak Toba), and ‘holy servants’ (Navajo). Some of these terms developed and became somewhat current among believers prior to actual Bible translating, and in other instances the words were accepted through being used in the Scriptures.
The word ministered includes so much that it is often difficult to discover just the right equivalent, without being too specific. In some languages the closet equivalent is ‘helped him’ and in others ‘provided what he needed’ or ‘took care of him’ (Toraja-Sa’dan).
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 .
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