Western Bukidnon Manobo: “high sacrificer” (source: Western Bukidnon Manobo Back Translation)
Tagbanwa as “Most-important Priest of God” (source: Tagbanwa Back Translation)
Bariai: “Big leader of offerings” (source: Bariai Back Translation)
In Khoekhoe the translation for “high priest” is only capitalized when it refers to Jesus (as is Hebrews 2:17 et al.). (Source: project-specific notes in Paratext)
Retrotraducciones en español (haga clic o pulse aquí)
Los líderes de los sacerdotes, los maestros de la ley y los ancianos mandaron a los soldados a que fueran en grupo llevando espadas y bastones, y todos fueron.
Un discípulo, Judas, les había advertido antes: “Al que yo me acerco y beso, este es Jesús, uds arrestenlo y llevenlo, y vigilenlo.
Allá Jesús estaba hablando y platicando y se volvió a ver a Judas que vino y se acercó diciendo “Maestro” y lo besó.
Las personas arrestaron a Jesús.
El siervo del sumo sacerdote, una persona sacó su espasa y lo agredió y quitó la oreja del siervo. Después Jesús dijo: “Yo diario iba al templo de Jerusalén y estaba enseñando en la plaza afuera, uds me veían pero jamás me han arrestado, ¿porqué ahora me arrestan?
Hace mucho un profeta lo ha escrito en el rollo, y lo que dijo (se ha cumplido) exactamente. ¿Porqué traen espadas y bastones de madera? ¿Parezco igual que un ratero, un ladrón?”
Los soldados lo arrestaron y se fueron llevandolo y todos los discípulos lo dejaron y se piraron y esparcieron.
Un hombre jóven que estaba envuelto en una sábana siguió al grupo, y los soldados lo vieron y lo arrestaron, pero el hombre dejó la sábana con ellos y se piró corriendo completamente desnudo.
The leaders of the priests, the teachers of the law and the elders sent soldiers out and they went as a group carrying swords and wooden rods.
One disciple, Judas, had warned them before: “The one that I approach and kiss, that is Jesus, you arrest him and take him away, and keep watch.”
Over there Jesus was talking and he turned around to see Judas coming, he approached him and said: “Teacher” and kissed him.
The people arrested Jesus.
The servant of the high priest, a person drew his sword and attacked him and cut off the ear of the servant. Then Jesus said: “Daily I went to the temple in Jerusalem and was preaching in the square outside, you saw me but you have never arrested me. Why are you arresting me now?
Long ago a prophet has written it in the scroll and what he said (has come to pass) exactly. Why do you bring swords and wooden rods? Do I appear to be a pickpocket, a thief?”
The soldiers arrested him and took him away and all the disciples left him and they went away and scattered.
A young man who was wrapped in a sheet followed the group, and the soldiers saw him and arrested him, but the man left the sheet in their hands and ran off completely naked.
It was a man named Judas. He was one of the 12 disciples. He was approaching. And with him was a large crowd of people with swords, spears, and wooden clubs. Why were they walking with Judas? The leaders, the high priests, and the teachers of the law had assigned these people to follow Judas, the real traitor. He had agreed with them that whoever he kissed should be seized and tied up. That was his agreement with them. Judas approached Jesus, greeted him as “teacher,” and kissed him on the cheek. And immediately the people around Judas attacked Jesus. One of the disciples, who was standing next to Jesus, cut off the ear of the high priest’s servant.
Jesus said to the crowd:
— Why did you attack me? Am I a robber? Why do you need swords, wooden stakes? If you decided to seize me, when I taught openly in the temple before, why didn’t you seize me then? What is happening now was definitely written in the Scriptures in ancient times.
The disciples, seeing all this, ran away in fear. Jesus was left alone. The crowd seized him. There was a young man there. He had only a cloak on his naked body. He was watching Jesus. They seized the young man, but he wriggled away, threw off his cloak, and ran away naked. And the crowd led Jesus away.
Original Russian back-translation (click or tap here):
Иисус сказал ученикам:
— Вон приближается человек.
Это был человек по имени Иуда. Он был один из 12 учеников. Он приближался. А вместе с ним шла большая толпа народу с мечами, копьями, а также деревянными дубинами. Почему они шли вместе с Иудой? Начальники, первосвященники и учителя закона поручили этим людям следовать за Иудой, настоящим предателем. Он договорился с ними, что тот человек, которого он поцелует, его нужно схватить и связать. Так он с ними условился. Иуда подошел к Иисусу, поприветствовал «учитель» и поцеловал в щеку. И тут же люди вокруг Иуды напали на Иисуса. Один ученик, который стоял рядом с Иисусом, отсек слуге первосвященника ухо.
Иисус сказал толпе:
— Почему вы напали на меня? Разве я разбойник? Зачем вам мечи, деревянные колья? Если вы решили схватить меня, то ведь и раньше в храме я открыто учил, почему же вы меня не хватали? То, что происходит сейчас, точно было написано в Писании еще в древности.
Ученики, видя все это, в страхе разбежались. Иисус остался один. Толпа схватила его. Там был один юноша. Из всей одежды у него был только плащ, надетый на голое тело. Он наблюдал за Иисусом. Юношу схватили, но он вывернулся, сбросив плащ, и убежал голый. А толпа повела Иисуса.
Following are a number of back-translations of Mark 14:47:
Uma: “From there, one of the people standing near Yesus drew his sword, he hit a slave of the Big Priest with his, managing to slice off his ear.” (Source: Uma Back Translation)
Yakan: “But there was one of those standing close by, he drew his sword and slashed a servant of the leading priest, and severed his ear.” (Source: Yakan Back Translation)
Western Bukidnon Manobo: “But one of the persons there before drew out his sword and slashed at the servant of the high priest and it landed on his ear and cut it off.” (Source: Western Bukidnon Manobo Back Translation)
Kankanaey: “Simultaneously one who was standing there drew his sword. He suddenly-sliced-at the slave of the highest priest and his ear was sliced-off.” (Source: Kankanaey Back Translation)
Tagbanwa: “When one of the disciples saw, he drew his bolo and slashed. The one he slashed was a slave of the Most-important Priest. The ear which got hit was cut off.” (Source: Tagbanwa Back Translation)
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®).
heis … tis (cf. 5.22) ‘a certain one’: Lagrange thinks this indicates that this person was known to the author.
tōn parestēkoton (4.29) ‘of those standing by,’ ‘of those present’ (for this use of the perfect participle hoi parestēkotes ‘bystanders,’ cf. 14.69, 70; 15.35). The vague language does not identify the man as a disciple, and seems to exclude, perhaps purposely, such identification.
spasamenos (only here in Mark) ‘drawing (his sword)’: this does not necessarily mean, strictly, ‘drawing out of a scabbard.’ It may mean generally ‘pulling’ or ‘brandishing.’
epaisen (only here in Mark) ‘he struck,’ ‘he hit’: here with the resultant meaning ‘he wounded.’
ton doulon (cf. 10.44) ‘the slave.’
tou archiereōs (cf. 2.17) ‘of the high priest’: here, of course the high priest of the time (identified in the other Gospels as Caiaphas).
apheilen (only here in Mark) ‘he took away,’ ‘he cut off.’
ōtarion (only here in Mark; the diminutive of ous 4.9) ‘ear’: though the diminutive of ous, it is equal in meaning to it. Taylor suggests that the lobe of the ear may be intended by the word here.
Translation:
Drew his sword may be rendered as ‘pulled out his sword’ or ‘showed his sword.’ In some languages, of course, sword is merely ‘a huge knife’ or machete.
It is not necessary to make a distinction between the attributives employed in ‘chief priests’ and ‘high priest.’ (In Greek the terms are the same; the only difference is the plural and singular contrast.) In many languages therefore chief priests are merely ‘the big priests’ and high priest is ‘the big priest.’ In some instances, one may say ‘the biggest priest’ for ‘the high priest,’ since there was technically only one high priest at a time. Of course, instead of ‘big’ one may use an equivalent of ‘great,’ ‘important,’ ‘head,’ or ‘high.’
Many societies distinguish carefully between servants and slaves, but where this is not done, one may often employ certain descriptive terms, e.g. ‘one compelled to work without wages’ or ‘man who was owned by.’ In some languages the term used for the lowest grade of servants seems to be a fitting equivalent of slave.
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 .
And: The Greek conjunction that the Berean Standard Bible translates as And introduces what happened after the crowd arrested Jesus. What happened next was that someone opposed the men who were arresting Jesus. Introduce this next event in a natural way in your language.
one of the bystanders: The phrase one of the bystanders refers to someone who was standing near Jesus when the crowd arrested him. John 18:10 mentions that this was Peter. You may wish to mention this in a footnote.
bystanders: In some languages, it may be not be natural to refer to this person in a way that refers to standing. If this is true for your language, you could say:
Then one of those who was there near Jesus
drew his sword: In this context the Greek word that the Berean Standard Bible translates as drew means “to pull.” The person pulled his sword out of the place where he normally kept it covered. This place was probably a sheath. If your language has a word for removing a knife or sword from its covering, you should use it here.
sword: The Greek word that the Berean Standard Bible translates as sword here was also used in 14:43c. You can translate it in the same way here.
14:47b
struck the servant of the high priest: The Greek word that the Berean Standard Bible translates as struck is literally “hit” or “strike.” In this context it implies that the person used his sword to hit the servant and cut him.
Here are some other ways to translate this:
used his sword to strike/attack/hit the high priest’s servant -or-
struck the servant of the high priest with his sword
the servant of the high priest: The phrase the servant of the high priest probably implies that this was the high priest’s only servant who was in the crowd that night. It does not mean that this was the high priest’s only servant.
Here is another way to translate this:
the servant who belonged to the high priest
servant: The Greek word that the Berean Standard Bible translates as servant literally means “slave.” This Greek word refers to someone who was owned by another person. He worked for his owner/master without receiving pay. He had no rights of his own (or very few rights).
In some cultures, slaves may not be known. In other cultures, the word for “slave” may not be appropriate in this context.
If that is true in your language, here are some other ways to translate this:
a person who belongs to someone else -or-
a person whom someone else owns -or-
a person who serves someone -or-
a lowly worker
The Berean Standard Bible translates this same word as “slave” in 10:44.
high priest: The high priest was the leader of all the Jewish priests. All Jewish priests offered sacrifices on behalf of the people. The high priest offered certain special sacrifices that no other priest could offer. In a special way, he represented the Jewish people to God.
Here are some other ways to translate high priest:
the chief/leader of all the priests -or-
the main/principal Priest -or-
the highest/leading priest
See how you translated this term in 2:26a.
14:47c
cutting off his ear: The phrase cutting off his ear indicates the result of what happened in 14:47b. When the man hit the servant with his sword, it cut off his ear. Express that in a natural way in your language. For example:
and cut/sliced/slashed off his ear.
his ear: In some languages it may be necessary to specify “right” ear or “left” ear. If this is true in your language, then you may indicate that it was the right ear. (We know this from what Luke and John wrote about this event in Luke 22:50 and John 18:10.)
General Comment on 14:47a–c
In some languages it may be necessary to reorder the phrases in 14:47a–c to make it sound natural. The New Living Translation, 1996 edition has one way to do this:
47aBut someone pulled out a sword 47band slashed 47c off an ear 47bof the high priest’s servant.
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All Scripture quotations in this publication, unless otherwise indicated, are from The Holy Bible, Berean Standard Bible.
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