Translation commentary on Mark 14:54

Exegesis:

heōs esō eis tēn aulēn literally ‘until within into the courtyard.’

aulē (14.66; 15.14) ‘inner court,’ ‘courtyard’: the enclosed area, open to the sky, and surrounded on the sides by buildings or porches. King James Version ‘palace’ is misleading (cf. Gould).

ēn sugkathēmenos (only here in Mark; cf. kathēmai 2.6) ‘he was sitting with.’

tōn hupēretōn (14.65) ‘the servants,’ ‘the helpers’: in all probability these were members of the Temple guard; therefore, as Revised Standard Version has it, ‘the guards.’

thermainomenos (14.67) ‘warming himself’: the auxiliary ēn ‘he was’ goes with this participle as well as with the previous one, ‘he was sitting … and warming himself.’

pros to phōs literally ‘at the light’: here, however, the phrase means ‘at the (light of the) fire’ (cf. Moulton & Milligan for this use of phōs ‘light’). It has been suggested that ‘light’ is here a mistranslation of the unpointed Hebrew word ʾwr which could be pointed ʾor ‘light’ or ʾur ‘fire.’

For apo makrothen ‘from afar’ cf. 5.6; akoloutheō ‘follow’ cf. 1.18.

Translation:

Followed him must not be rendered so as to indicate Peter’s favorable intent, but his evident distance from Jesus. In general one cannot use the same verb as may be employed, for example, in the words of Jesus follow me (1.17). At this point Peter was following along after the crowd, not in accompaniment with Jesus.

Right into … may be rendered as ‘he went right on into,’ for ‘at a distance’ and ‘right into’ may be difficult to combine in a single clause in a receptor language.

In some languages one cannot speak of ‘courtyard of the high priest,’ but only of ‘courtyard of the buildings of the high priest,’ since the area surrounded by buildings is essentially relatable only to the buildings and they, in turn, to the high priest.

In most languages there is no problem involved in the description of Peter’s being with the guards and warming himself, for it is implied that the guards were also warming themselves. In some languages, however, the contrast of pronominal construction is so great that Peter’s action would be interpreted as being in contrast with the others. Hence, in Isthmus Zapotec one must say ‘he with them was warming’ thus including Peter.

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 14:54

14:54a

Peter followed Him at a distance: The clause Peter followed Him at a distance tells what Peter had done while the crowd was leading Jesus to the high priest. This action happened at the same time as all of the Jewish leaders came together in 14:53.

Here are some other ways to translate this:

Meanwhile, Peter followed him at a distance (New Living Translation)
-or-
And Peter had followed him from a distance (NET Bible)

Express the sequence of events in a natural way in your language.

followed Him at a distance: The words at a distance indicate that Peter was walking behind the crowd of people who were taking Jesus away. He did not get close to them. He did not want them to see him. In some languages the phrase followed…at a distance may need to be expressed in other ways. For example:

followed but not very close
-or-
followed from slightly far away

See if the way you translated this same Greek phrase in 5:6 and 11:13 can be used here also.

Him: The pronoun Him refers to Jesus.

14:54b

right into: The words right into indicate that Peter entered the courtyard area. He was in the courtyard outside while Jesus was inside the house.

the courtyard of the high priest: A courtyard is an open area that is surrounded by buildings or high walls on one family’s land. In that setting, the courtyard of the high priest was the yard that was inside the area that belonged to the high priest’s house. In some languages it may be necessary to make this explicit. For example, the New Century Version says:

courtyard of the high priest’s house (New Century Version)

If you already mentioned the high priest’s house in 14:53, you may be able to make some of the information implicit here. For example:

courtyard of that house

14:54c–d

And he sat with the officers and warmed himself by the fire: Jesus was arrested in April when the nights were cold. Someone had lit a fire in the high priest’s courtyard so that people could warm themselves. After Peter entered the courtyard, he stopped and sat down with the guards, who were sitting near the fire to get warm.

Here are some other ways to translate this:

He joined the guards who were sitting there around a fire to keep warm.
-or-
There in the courtyard the temple guards were sitting at a fire. Peter sat down with them and warmed himself.

officers: The Greek word that the Berean Standard Bible translates as officers is a general word that means “servants” or “attendants.” Many Bible scholars believe that these men were Jewish temple guards who obeyed the orders of the high priest. They were not Roman soldiers.

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