Mark 13:20 – Page 2

Japanese benefactives (sukunakushite)

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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 choice of a benefactive construction as shown here in the widely-used Japanese Shinkaiyaku (新改訳) Bible of 2017.

Here, sukunakushite (少なくして) or “lessen” is used in combination with kudasaru (くださる), a respectful form of the benefactive kureru (くれる). A benefactive reflects the good will of the giver or the gratitude of a recipient of the favor. To convey this connotation, English translation needs to employ a phrase such as “for me (my sake)” or “for you (your sake).” (Source: S. E. Doi, see also S. E. Doi in Journal of Translation, 18/2022, p. 37ff. )

Sung version of Mark 13

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®).

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Sung version of Mark 14 >>

Translation commentary on Mark 13:20

Exegesis:

ei mē ekolobōsen kurios tas hēmeras ‘if the Lord had not shortened the days,’ ‘unless the Lord had cut short those days.’

koloboō (only here in Mark) ‘amputate,’ ‘curtail,’ ‘shorten’: the phrase ‘shorten the days,’ means, of course, to reduce the number of days (of the ‘tribulation’ referred to in the previous verse). It is to be noticed that the whole verse speaks of the matter as though it were past, in conformance with Hebrew prophetic style.

kurios (cf. 1.3) ‘the Lord’: here, of course, God.

tas hēmeras ‘those days’ better fits the context than ‘the days.’

ouk an esōthē pasa sarx literally ‘all flesh would not have been saved’: the Hebrew idiom loʾ … kol (Greek ouk … pas) ‘not all’ means ‘none,’ ‘not one,’ so that the clause means, ‘no flesh would have been saved.’

sōzō (cf. 3.4) ‘save’: here with the meaning ‘escape,’ ‘survive,’ ‘live (through it)’ (of the translations, The Modern Speech New Testament, Goodspeed, and Montgomery have ‘escape’; Moffatt ‘be saved alive’; Berkeley ‘survive’). Lagrange and Taylor, however, understand the word in its eschatological sense, ‘to be saved,’ as in v. 13. This depends, of course, upon the interpretation given the events described in the context. Other considerations aside, the plain meaning of the events in vv. 14-23 connected with the ‘tribulation’ (thlipsis, v. 19) is that they are of a temporal and temporary nature which none would survive unless the Lord had ‘shortened the days’: it seems difficult, therefore, to understand the verb sōzō in the theological sense of “salvation unto eternal life.”

pasa sarx ‘all flesh’: here with the meaning ‘every human being,’ ‘every man’ (for this meaning of the Hebrew basar ‘flesh’).

tous eklektous hous exelexato ‘the chosen ones whom he chose,’ ‘the elect whom he elected.’

eklektos (13.22, 27) ‘chosen one,’ ‘elected one’: in the context the word refers to the Christians, the followers of Jesus.

eklegomai (only here in Mark) ‘choose,’ ‘select,’ ‘prefer’: the verb, in accordance with Jewish theology, indicates the predestinating activity of God.

Translation:

Shortened the days, if translated literally, may imply quite a wrong meaning, namely, reduce the length of each day. One may therefore have to speak of ‘reducing the time’ or ‘cutting off the days’ (Tzeltal) or ‘cutting the time’ (Cashibo-Cacataibo).

In some languages the problem of tense in this verse is extremely difficult, to the point of making the passage meaningless. For example, the reduction of time is spoken of as past, while the salvation is obviously future. This problem may be resolved in some instances by translating ‘if the Lord had not decided to cut off the days.’ That is to say, the decision is past (as determined in the counsel of God), but the actual event is still future.

No human being (‘no one,’ or ‘no person’) is a necessary translation of the Greek phrase which means literally ‘no flesh.’ Translated word-for-word in some languages, this phrase has meant nothing more than ‘no meat.’ On the basis of such a translation as ‘no flesh,’ the people in question concluded that this was in some way related to the tendency for carcasses to spoil after a period of time, and that for this reason the time was reduced.

Be saved is generally interpreted on the basis of (1) continued existence or life, e.g. ‘remain living’ (Tabasco Chontal), or (2) escape from destruction, e.g. ‘nobody would escape’ (Tzotzil).

The elect, whom he chose is a redundant expression which is frequently translated with only a single reference to the process of choosing, e.g. ‘those whom he chose’ or ‘the people whom he chose.’ The obvious reason for this is the fact that elect is translatable in many languages only as ‘those whom he chose,’ and to repeat ‘those whom he chose’ would be completely tautological.

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 13:20

13:20a–b

If the Lord had not cut short those days, nobody would be saved: In 13:20a–b, Jesus spoke as though the Lord had already cut short the days. It was common in Old Testament prophecy to refer to future events as if they had already happened. That implied that the events were sure to happen, because God had already decided that they would happen. See the New Century Version example below.

In the Greek text the sentence begins with the word If and the expression is negative: had not cut short. Many English versions translate it with a negative expression. It is also possible to express this sentence in a positive way, as in the New Century Version:

God has decided to make that terrible time short. Otherwise, no one would go on living.

The New Century Version has supplied the verb “has decided,” which is implied in the Greek statement.

13:20a

If the Lord: The expression the Lord refers here to “God,” as in the New Century Version. See the two terms you used to translate “the Lord” in 12:36b. One term referred to Jesus and the other term referred to God. Use the same term for the Lord (God) here in 13:20a that you used in 12:36b. See Lord, Context 2, in the Glossary.

had not cut short those days: The expression cut short those days is an idiom. It refers to reducing the time of suffering. Jesus was not talking about shortening the length of each day.