Translation commentary on Mark 13:19

Exegesis:

esontai gar hai hēmerai ekeinai thlipsis literally ‘for those days shall be affliction.’

thlipsis (cf. 4.17) ‘affliction,’ ‘tribulation,’ ‘distress.’

hoia … toiautē ‘of such a kind … as,’ ‘the like of which’ (The Modern Speech New Testament, Moffatt): the order of the two qualitative pronouns in Greek is unusual, the normal order being toiautē … hoia; the meaning, however, is clear. Only here, in Mark, are the two used together.

hoios (cf. 9.3) ‘of what sort.’

toioutos (cf. 4.33) ‘such as.’

ap’ archēs ktiseōs (cf. 10.6) ‘from the start of creation,’ ‘from the beginning of the world.’ The description in this verse of the ‘tribulation’ recalls the language of Dan. 12.1 (cf. also Joel 2.2).

hēn ektisen ho theos ‘which God created’: the relative hen ‘which’ refers to the immediately preceding ktiseōs ‘creation.’

ktizō (only here in Mark) ‘create.’

heōs tou nun ‘until the present time’: nun ‘now’ is an adverb, used here with the definite article as a noun meaning ‘the present.’

kai ou mē genētai ‘and will never happen’: at no time in the past, present, or future, has there been, or will there be, such a ‘tribulation’ as that one described here.

Translation:

Tribulation, as a noun describing a process, must be translated often as a verb, e.g. ‘people will suffer.’

From the beginning of creation which God created is a highly complex literal rendering of the Greek text. The equivalent in some languages is simply ‘from the time that God first made the world.’ Beginning in this context does not mean to specify the start of the creation in contrast with later processes in creation. It is only a somewhat redundant way of speaking about the beginning of the world.

This entire verse may be rendered as ‘in those days people will suffer (or ‘be afflicted’) as they never have since first God created the world; and they never will again suffer so much.’ The phrase until now is adequately rendered in some languages by the form ‘as they never have since.’ However, one can incorporate ‘until now’ either into the clause itself, or emphasize the meaning by setting up a paratactic expression, e.g. ‘they have not suffered that way until now.’

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 13:19

13:19a

For:

It may be more natural to say:

I say that because…

In some languages, it will be more natural to put the basis for praying before the command to pray in 13:18. See the General Comment below for an example.

those will be days of tribulation: The phrase those will be days of tribulation refers to days of much trouble or a time of severe distress or suffering.

Here are some other ways to translate this clause:

because those will be days of distress (New International Version)
-or-
because in those days people will suffer severely
-or-
because at that time there will be very much/many troubles

General Comment on 13:18–19a

In some languages it may be more natural to place the command “Pray…” (13:18) after the basis given in 13:19a. For example:

19aIn those days people will suffer very severely. 18So pray(plur) that this painful time will not happen in winter.
-or-
19aThere will be many troubles at that time. 18That is the reason why you(plur) should pray that this painful time will not happen in winter.

13:19b

unmatched: The word unmatched means “unlike” or “not the same as.” In this context it implies that the sufferings to which Jesus referred would be worse than any previous sufferings that people had ever experienced. For example, the Good News Bible says:

The trouble of those days will be far worse.

from the beginning of God’s creation: The phrase the beginning refers to the time when God created the world. Refer to your translation of Genesis 1:1.

until now: The word now refers to the time at which Jesus was speaking.

13:19c

and never to be seen again: This clause began in 13:19a, so in its complete form it would be “and those days of distress will never be seen again.” Some English versions begin a new sentence here.

never…again: The expression never…again refers to the future time after the time of suffering that Jesus was talking about.

Here is another way to translate this:

and people will never again suffer in the same degree/measure

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