Translation commentary on Mark 15:23

Text:

After autō ‘to him’ Textus Receptus adds piein ‘to drink,’ which is omitted by modern editions of the Greek text.

Instead of the masculine hos ‘he’ of the majority of modern editions of the Greek text, Textus Receptus, Soden, Vogels, & Souter have the neuter ho ‘it.’

Exegesis:

edidoun ‘they were giving’: the imperfect indicates an unsuccessful attempt, correctly translated by Revised Standard Version ‘they offered.’ The plural is probably impersonal, meaning ‘he was given,’ ‘he was offered.’ Who ‘they’ were is a matter of conjecture: certainly not the soldiers, so perhaps one of the women.

esmurnismenon oinon ‘wine flavored with myrrh’: it is ordinarily assumed that the mixture would act as a narcotic, but there is no clear proof of this.

smurnizō (only here in the N.T.) ‘be like myrrh,’ ‘mingle with myrrh.’

oinos (cf. 2.22) ‘wine.’

Translation:

Offered is sometimes translatable as ‘tried to give’ or ‘held out for him to take.’

Wine mingled with myrrh may be ‘wine in which myrrh had been mixed.’ Myrrh is, of course, unknown in most parts of the world, thus necessitating a borrowed word, which may be identified satisfactorily in several ways, e.g. ‘something is called myrrh’ (Barrow Eskimo), ‘a mirra herb,’ in which mirra is borrowed from the Spanish (Tzeltal), and ‘mir resin,’ in which myrrh in a borrowed form is classified as a kind of resin and thus presumed to have certain medicinal or helpful qualities.

Take it may also be translated as ‘drink it.’

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 15:23

15:23a

they offered Him wine: The Greek phrase that the Berean Standard Bible translates as they offered Him wine means that some people attempted to give Jesus wine to drink. He did not actually drink it. The Good News Bible translates this as:

they tried to give him wine

they: It is not clear whether they refers here to the soldiers or to someone else such as Jewish women. It is recommended that you leave this general if possible.

Here is another way to translate this:

there were those/people who…

If you must specify who they refers to, it is recommended that you say “the soldiers.” (Scholars are divided in their opinion about this. Our translation advice follows the majority of English versions since “they” in English must refer to “the soldiers” in this context.)

wine: The beverage called wine is an alcoholic drink. It is made from the juice of a fruit called grapes. When grape juice ferments, it becomes wine.

In some areas, people may not be familiar with grapes or with wine. If that is true in your area, some other ways to translate wine are:

• Use a general term for an alcoholic drink.

• Use a specific term that can also be used to refer to alcoholic drinks in general. For example:

millet beer
-or-
palm wine
-or-
something like palm wine

• Use a descriptive phrase. For example:

fruit juice/water
-or-
grape juice
-or-
fermented grape juice

See how you translated wine in 2:22a.

mixed with myrrh: The word myrrh refers to the sap of a kind of tree. It had many uses and was very valuable. When myrrh was mixed with wine, it probably acted like a medicine to reduce pain. Some ways to translate myrrh are:

• Transliterate the word according to the sounds of your language. For example:

mur
-or-
muri

• Transliterate the word and add a descriptive phrase. For example:

a medicine/drug called mur

• Use only a descriptive phrase. For example:

a medicine
-or-
a drug (Contemporary English Version)

Most people will not understand the purpose of myrrh. Here are some other ways to explain the purpose in your translation:

• Make the purpose explicit in the text. For example:

wine mixed with myrrh so he would not feel so much pain
-or-
wine that had been mixed with a medicine that reduces/stops the pain called myrrh

• Explain the purpose in a footnote. The footnote could say:

The myrrh and wine together acted as a medicine to reduce the pain of the person who was crucified.

15:23b

He did not take it: The phrase He did not take it indicates that Jesus refused to drink the wine mixed with myrrh. According to Matthew 27:34, he took a taste of the wine and then refused to drink it. If possible, translate the phrase here in a way that allows for the fact that Jesus tasted the wine but did not drink it.

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