Mark 15:16-32 in Russian Sign Language

Following is the translation of Mark 15:16-32 into Russian Sign Language with a back-translation underneath:


Source: Russian Bible Society / Российское Библейское Общество

The Roman soldiers seized Jesus and took him to the soldiers’ quarters. They also called other soldiers; they came and gathered around Jesus. They took a red cloak and put it on him. They took thorny branches and made a crown out of them. They put this crown on Jesus’ head. The crown had thorns, they cut his head, and blood flowed. And the soldiers mocked Jesus, mocked him and shouted:

— We greet you, King of the Jews!

For fun, they knelt before him and bowed low to the ground. Then they took a stick and began to hit him on the head. They spat and mocked him in every way. Then they took the red cloak back from him and put his own clothes on him. Then they led him to the place of crucifixion. They ordered Jesus to carry the cross.

On the way, they met a man named Simon. He was from the city of Cyrene. He had two sons: one named Alexander, the other Rufus. This man named Simon was walking after working in the fields. Some soldiers were passing by. They grabbed Simon and forced him to carry the cross. Simon took the cross of Jesus and carried it. The soldiers took Jesus to a mountain called Golgotha. It means “skull”. Because it looks like a skull. When they got there, the soldiers took bitter wine, poured it into a cup, and offered Jesus to drink. Jesus refused. The soldiers divided his clothes among themselves and nailed Jesus to the cross. They nailed his hands and feet. They took a board, wrote on it “King of the Jews” and nailed this board to the cross, above his head. So they crucified Jesus on the cross. This was at nine o’clock in the morning. That same day, two more people were crucified. They were hung on crosses, one on the right of Jesus, the other on the left. Different people walked past, scolded him, and shouted:

— Hey! You said that in three days you would destroy the temple and then build it again! Save yourself! Come down from the cross, and we will see.

And the chief priests and scribes also mocked him and said to each other:

— He saved other people, but he cannot save himself! He said that he was Christ, the king of Israel. Well, try, come down from the cross, we’ll see how you come down from the cross, then we’ll believe.

Also, the criminals who were crucified on the right and left also scolded Jesus.

Original Russian back-translation (click or tap here):

Римские воины схватили Иисуса, повели в помещение для солдат. Также они позвали других воинов; те пришли, собрались вокруг Иисуса. Они взяли красный плащ и надели на него. Взяли колючие ветки и сделали из них венок. Они надели этот венок на голову Иисуса. У венка были колючие шипы, они ранили голову, шла кровь. А солдаты издевались над Иисусом, глумились и кричали:

— Приветствуем тебя царь иудейский!

Они для потехи вставали перед ним на колени и низко кланялись до самой земли. Потом они взяли палку и начали бить его по голове. Плевались и всячески издевались. Потом сняли с него обратно этот красный плащ и надели на него его собственную одежду. Потом повели его к месту распятия. Они приказали Иисусу нести крест.

По дороге им встретился один человек, которого звали Симон. Он был из города Кирена. У него были два сына: одного звали Александр, другого — Руф. Вот этот человек по имени Симон, шел после полевых работ. Мимо проходили воины. Они схватили Симона и заставили его нести крест. Симон взял крест Иисуса и понес его. Воины привели Иисуса к горе, которая называется Голгофа. Это означает «череп». Потому что она похожа на череп. Когда они пришли к тому месту, воины взяли горькое вино, налили в чашу, и предложили Иисус выпить. Иисус отказался. Воины поделили между собой его одежду и прибили Иисуса ко кресту. Прибили гвоздями руки и ноги. Они взяли дощечку, написали на ней «Царь иудейский» и прибили эту дощечку ко кресту, над его головой. Так они распяли Иисуса на кресте. Это было в девять часов утра. В тот же день, распяли еще двоих человек. Их повесили на крестах, одного справа от Иисуса, другого слева.

Разные люди ходили мимо, ругали его, и кричали:

— Эй! Ты говорил, что за три дня разрушишь храм и потом построишь заново! Спаси себя самого! Сойди с креста, а мы посмотрим.

А первосвященники и книжники тоже издевались над ним и говорили друг другу:

— Других людей спасал, а себя спасти не может! Он говорил, что он Христос, царь Израиля. Ну, попробуй, сойди с креста, мы посмотрим, как ты сойдёшь креста, тогда мы поверим.

Также преступники, которые были распяты справа и слева, тоже ругали Иисуса.

Back-translation by Luka Manevich

<< Mark 15:1-15 in Russian Sign Language
Mark 15:33-47 in Russian Sign Language >>

save

Click here to view graphically

The Greek, Hebrew, Aramaic, and Latin that is translated as a form of “save” in English is translated in Shipibo-Conibo with a phrase that means literally “make to live,” which combines the meaning of “to rescue” and “to deliver from danger,” but also the concept of “to heal” or “restore to health.”

Other translations include:

  • San Blas Kuna: “help the heart”
  • Laka: “take by the hand” in the meaning of “rescue” or “deliver”
  • Huautla Mazatec: “lift out on behalf of”
  • Anuak: “have life because of”
  • Central Mazahua: “be healed in the heart”
  • Baoulé: “save one’s head”
  • Guerrero Amuzgo: “come out well”
  • Northwestern Dinka: “be helped as to his breath” (or “life”) (source for all above: Bratcher / Nida),
  • Matumbi: “rescue (from danger)” (source: Pioneer Bible Translators, project-specific notes in Paratext)
  • Noongar: barrang-ngandabat or “hold life” (source: Warda-Kwabba Luke-Ang)
  • South Bolivian Quechua: “make to escape”
  • Highland Puebla Nahuatl: “cause people to come out with the aid of the hand” (source for this and one above: Nida 1947, p. 222)
  • Bariai: “retrieve one back” (source: Bariai Back Translation)

See also salvation and save (Japanese honorifics).

scribe

Click here to view graphically

The Greek that is usually translated as “scribe” in English “were more than mere writers of the law. They were the trained interpreters of the law and expounders of tradition.”

Here are a number of its (back-) translations:

  • Yaka: “clerk in God’s house”
  • Amganad Ifugao: “man who wrote and taught in the synagogue”
  • Navajo (Dinė): “teaching-writer” (“an attempt to emphasize their dual function”)
  • Shipibo-Conibo: “book-wise person”
  • San Blas Kuna: “one who knew the Jews’ ways”
  • Loma: “educated one”
  • San Mateo del Mar Huave: “one knowing holy paper”
  • Central Mazahua: “writer of holy words”
  • Indonesian: “expert in the Torah”
  • Pamona: “man skilled in the ordinances” (source for this and all above: Bratcher / Nida)
  • Sinhala: “bearer-of-the-law”
  • Marathi: “one-learned-in-the-Scriptures”
  • Shona (1966): “expert of the law”
  • Balinese: “expert of the books of Torah”
  • Ekari: “one knowing paper/book”
  • Tboli: “one who taught the law God before caused Moses to write” (or “one who taught the law of Moses”) (source for this and 5 above: Reiling / Swellengrebel)
  • Noongar: Mammarapa-Warrinyang or “law man” (source: Warda-Kwabba Luke-Ang)
  • Mairasi: “one who writes and explains Great Above One’s (=God’s) prohibitions” (source: Enggavoter 2004)
  • Chichewa: “teacher of Laws” (source: Ernst Wendland)
  • North Alaskan Inupiatun: “teachers of law”
  • Huehuetla Tepehua: “writer”
  • Yatzachi Zapotec: “person who teaches the law which Moses wrote”
  • Alekano: “man who knows wisdom” (source for this and four above: M. Larson / B. Moore in Notes on Translation February 1970, p. 1-125.)
  • Saint Lucian Creole French: titcha lwa sé Jwif-la (“teacher of the law of the Jews”) (source: David Frank in Lexical Challenges in the St. Lucian Creole Bible Translation Project, 1998)
  • Chichimeca-Jonaz: “one who teaches the holy writings”
  • Atatláhuca Mixtec: “teacher of the words of the law”
  • Coatlán Mixe: “teacher of the religious law”
  • Lalana Chinantec: “one who is a teacher of the law which God gave to Moses back then”
  • Tepeuxila Cuicatec: “one who know well the law” (Source for this and four above: Viola Waterhouse in Notes on Translation August 1966, p. 86ff.)
  • Huixtán Tzotzil: “one who mistakenly thought he was teaching God’s commandments”(Huixtán Tzotzil frequently uses the verb -cuy to express “to mistakenly think something” from the point of view of the speaker; source: Marion M. Cowan in Notes on Translation 20/1966, pp. 6ff.)
  • Sumau: “law-knowing men” (source: this blog post by Todd Owen)
  • German das Buch translation by Roland Werner (publ. 2009-2022): “theologian” and in the 1964 translation by Helmut Riethmüller: “theologian of scriptures” (Schrifttheologe)
  • English translation by Scot McKnight (in The Second Testament, publ. 2023): Covenant Code scholar

In British Sign Language it is translated with a sign that combines the signs for “expert” and “law.” (Source: Anna Smith)


“Scribe” in British Sign Language (source: Christian BSL , used with permission)

Mark 15:28 - 32 in Mexican Sign Language

Following is the translation of Mark 15:28-32 into Mexican Sign Language with back-translations into Spanish and English underneath:


© La Biblia en LSM / La Palabra de Dios

Retrotraducciones en español (haga clic o pulse aquí)

Mientras Jesús estaba colgado en la cruz las personas se mezclaron y lo vieron: “Chafa, tu dijiste que ibas a destruir el templo y otra vez edificar un nuevo templo en tres dias, ¡qué chiste!”

Continuaban en contra de él: “¿Puedes salvar a ti mismo? A ver si te veremos bajar de la cruz, ¡ven!” Y se reyeron y burlaron.

En la misma manera los líderes de los sacerdotes y los maestros de la ley vinieron y dijeron: “Él, Jesús, antes podía salvar a otras personas, pero ahora no puede salvar a si mismo.” Se burlaron de él.

Dijeron: “Él es el Cristo, el rey de todo el país de Israel, dejanos ver si baja de la cruz, si lo vemos con nuestros propios ojos lo creeremos.” Lo insultaron.

Jesús, colgado en la cruz, también fue insultado en la misma manera por los dos rateros, los ladrones, en las cruces a la izquierda y derecha.


As Jesus was hanging on the cross, the people mingled about and looked at him: “Loser, you said you would destroy the temple and build another new temple in three days, what a joke.”

The went on against him: “Can you save yourself? Let’s try and see you come down from the cross, come on!” And they laughed and mocked.

In the same way the leaders of the priests and the teachers of the law came up and said: “He, Jesus, was able to save other people before, but now he cannot save himself.” They mocked him.

They said: “He is the Christ, the king of the whole country of Israel, let’s see if he comes down from the cross, if we see it with our own eyes we will believe him.” Thus they insulted him.

Jesus, hanging on the cross, was also insulted in the same way by the two villains, the thieves, one the crosses to the right and left.

Source: La Biblia en LSM / La Palabra de Dios

<< Mark 15:21-27 in Mexican Sign Language
Mark 15:33-41 in Mexican Sign Language >>

complete verse (Mark 15:31)

Following are a number of back-translations of Mark 15:31:

  • Uma: “So also the leading priests with the religion teachers continually mocked him. They spoke among themselves, they said: ‘Other people he helped. But himself, he is no longer able to help!” (Source: Uma Back Translation)
  • Yakan: “Likewise also the leaders of the priests and the teachers of the religious law, they mocked him, they said, ‘He could help other people but himself he cannot help.” (Source: Yakan Back Translation)
  • Western Bukidnon Manobo: “The chief priests and the teachers of the law, that’s what they did also, for they laughed at him. They said, ‘It serves him right! He freed other people but he cannot free himself.” (Source: Western Bukidnon Manobo Back Translation)
  • Kankanaey: “Likewise also the leaders of the priests and the teachers of the law, they mocked him saying, ‘He emphatically saved other people, but he isn’t able-to-save himself.” (Source: Kankanaey Back Translation)
  • Tagbanwa: “As for the chiefs of the priests and the explainers of law, they were dying of laughter(fig.). They were saying, ‘He can save others, but he can’t save his own body.” (Source: Tagbanwa Back Translation)

pronoun for "God"

God transcends gender, but most languages are limited to grammatical gender expressed in pronouns. In the case of English, this is traditionally confined to “he” (or in the forms “his,” “him,” and “himself”), “she” (and “her,” “hers,” and “herself”), and “it” (and “its” and “itself”).

Modern Mandarin Chinese, however, offers another possibility. Here, the third-person singular pronoun is always pronounced the same (tā), but it is written differently according to its gender (他 is “he,” 她 is “she,” and 它/牠 is “it” and their respective derivative forms). In each of these characters, the first (or upper) part defines the gender (man, woman, or thing/animal), while the second element gives the clue to its pronunciation.

In 1930, after a full century with dozens of Chinese translations, Bible translator Wang Yuande (王元德) coined a new “godly” pronoun: 祂. Chinese readers immediately knew how to pronounce it: tā. But they also recognized that the first part of that character, signifying something spiritual, clarified that each person of the Trinity has no gender aside from being God.

While the most important Protestant and Catholic Chinese versions respectively have opted not to use 祂, some Bible translations do and it is widely used in hymnals and other Christian materials. Among the translations that use 祂 to refer to “God” were early versions of Lü Zhenzhong’s (呂振中) version (New Testament: 1946, complete Bible: 1970). R.P. Kramers (in The Bible Translator 1956, p. 152ff. ) explains why later versions of Lü’s translation did not continue with this practice: “This new way of writing ‘He,’ however, has created a minor problem of its own: must this polite form be used whenever Jesus is referred to? Lü follows the rule that, wherever Jesus is referred to as a human being, the normal tā (他) is written; where he is referred to as divine, especially after the ascension, the reverential tā (祂) is used.”

In Kouya, Godié, Northern Grebo, Eastern Krahn, Western Krahn, and Guiberoua Béte, all languages of the Kru family in Western Africa, a different kind of systems of pronouns is used (click or tap here to read more):

In that system one kind of pronoun is used for humans (male and female alike) and one for natural elements, non-liquid masses, and some spiritual entities (one other is used for large animals and another one for miscellaneous items). While in these languages the pronoun for spiritual entities used to be employed when referring to God, this has changed into the use of the human pronoun.

Lynell Zogbo (in The Bible Translator 1989, p. 401ff. ) explains in the following way: “From informal discussions with young Christians especially, it would appear that, at least for some people, the experience and/or concepts of Christianity are affecting the choice of pronoun for God. Some people explain that God is no longer ‘far away,’ but is somehow tangible and personal. For these speakers God has shifted over into the human category.”

In Kouya, God (the Father) and Jesus are referred to with the human pronoun ɔ, whereas the Holy Spirit is referred to with a non-human pronoun. (Northern Grebo and Western Krahn make a similar distinction.)

Eddie Arthur, a former Kouya Bible translation consultant, says the following: “We tried to insist that this shouldn’t happen, but the Kouya team members were insistent that the human pronoun for the Spirit would not work.”

In Burmese, the pronoun ko taw (ကိုယ်တော်) is used either as 2nd person (you) or 3rd person (he, him, his) reference. “This term clearly has its root in the religious language in Burmese. No ordinary persons are addressed or known by this pronoun because it is reserved for Buddhist monks, famous religious teachers, and in the case of Christianity, the Trinity.” (Source: Gam Seng Shae in The Bible Translator 2002, p. 202ff. )

In Thai, the pronoun phra`ong (พระองค์) is used, a gender-neutral pronoun which must refer to a previously introduced royal or divine being. Similarly, in Northern Khmer, which is spoken in Thailand, “an honorific divine pronoun” is used for the pronoun referring to the persons of the Trinity (source: David Thomas in The Bible Translator 1993, p. 445 ). In Urak Lawoi’, another language spoken in Thailand, the translation often uses tuhat (ตูฮัด) — “God” — ”as a divine pronoun where Thai has phra’ong even though it’s actually a noun.” (Source for Thai and Urak Lawoi’: Stephen Pattemore)

The English “Contemporary Torah” addresses the question of God and gendered pronouns by mostly avoiding pronouns in the first five books of the Hebrew Bible/Old Testament (unless God is referred to as “lord,” “father,” “king,” or “warrior”). It does that by either using passive constructs (“He gave us” vs. “we were given”), by using the adjective “divine” or by using “God” rather than a pronoun.

Some Protestant and Orthodox English Bibles use a referential capitalized spelling when referring to the persons of the Trinity with “He,” “His,” “Him,” or “Himself.” This includes for instance the New American Standard Bible or The Orthodox New Testament, but most translations do not. Two other languages where this is also done (in most Bible translations) are Twents as well as the closely related Indonesian and Malay. In both languages this follows the language usage according to the Qur’an, which in turn predicts that usage (see Soesilo in The Bible Translator 1991, p. 442ff. and The Bible Translator 1997, p. 433ff. ).

See also first person pronoun referring to God.

Learn more on Bible Odyssey: Gender of God .

Translation: Chinese

在现代汉语中，第三人称单数代词的读音都是一样的（tā），但是写法并不一样，取决于性别以及是否有生命，即男性为“他”，女性为“她”，动物、植物和无生命事物为“它”（在香港和台湾的汉语使用，动物则为“牠”）。这些字的部首偏旁表明了性别（男人、女人、动物、无生命事物），而另一偏旁通常旁提示发音。

到1930年为止，基督教新教《圣经》经过整整一百年的翻译已经拥有了十几个译本，当时的一位圣经翻译者王元德新造了一个“神圣的”代词“祂”，偏旁“礻”表示神明。一般汉语读者会立即知道这字的发音是tā，而这个偏旁表示属灵的事物，因此他们明白这个字指出，三位一体的所有位格都没有性别之分，而单单是上帝。

然而，最重要的新教圣经译本（1919年的《和合本》）和天主教圣经译本（1968年的《思高圣经》）都没有采用“祂”；虽然如此，许多其他的圣经译本采用了这个字，另外还广泛出现在赞美诗和其他基督信仰的书刊中。（资料来源：Zetzsche）

《吕振中译本》的几个早期版本也使用“祂”来指称“上帝”；这个译本的《新约》于1946年译成，整部《圣经》于1970年完成。克拉默斯（Kramers）指出：“‘他’的这种新写法（即‘祂’）产生了一个小问题，就是在指称耶稣的时候，是否一律使用这个敬语代词？《吕振中译本》遵循的原则是，在称呼耶稣这个人的时候，用一般的‘他’，而在称呼耶稣神性的时候，特别是升天之后的耶稣，则用尊称‘祂’。”

Translator: Simon Wong