Translation commentary on Mark 15:41

Exegesis:

ēkolouthoun autō kai diēkonoun autō ‘they followed him and ministered to him,’ ‘they used to follow him and minister to him.’

akoloutheō (cf. 1.18) ‘follow’: here, as disciples.

diakoneō (cf. 1.13; 1.31) ‘serve,’ ‘wait on,’ ‘minister to.’

kai allai pollai ‘and many other (women) also.’

hai sunanabasai (only here in Mark; cf. anabainō in 10.32, 33) ‘who came up with,’ ‘who accompanied (him) on the way up.’

Translation:

This sentence, which began with verse 40, is so complex that in many instances one must start another sentence with the beginning of verse 41, e.g. ‘these women followed….’

When he was in Galilee may be preposed or postposed to the verb expressions with which it is associated, e.g. ‘when Jesus was in Galilee, these women followed him and ministered to him’ or ‘these women followed Jesus and ministered to him when he was in Galilee.’

Since Jesus has not been specifically identified in the context since verse 37, the introduction of ‘Jesus’ in this verse may be required so as to avoid grammatical confusion with references to the centurion.

Followed is to be understood in the sense of ‘accompany’ (see 1.17).

Ministered to him must be translated with care so as to indicate clearly the degree to which they provided for Jesus’ needs, since in some languages expressions have been used which would imply illicit relationships. To avoid such a difficulty, some translations have used rather explicit statements, e.g. ‘prepared food for him’ (Tzeltal).

The final clause and also many other women … to Jerusalem is also part of the logical subject of verse 40. As the clause now stands there is no verb, and the grammatical relationship may be quite obscure when translated into other languages. Therefore, one may need to introduce a verb, e.g. ‘and also many other women … were there.’

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 15:41

15:41a

These women: The phrase These women refers to the three women who were named in 15:40b–d. This phrase does not refer to the whole group of women who were there.

had followed Jesus: The Greek verb that the Berean Standard Bible translates as had followed is the verb commonly used to mean “follow as a disciple.” That is, these women went where Jesus went and learned from his teaching.

ministered to Him: Luke 8:3 says that women helped support the group financially. They may also have cooked for the group and taken care of their clothing. If possible, translate this in a way that indicates that these women generally served Jesus. Be careful that the way you translate this does not imply that these women served Jesus as wives or concubines.

The New Century Version has another way to translate this:

helped him

while He was in Galilee: The phrase while He was in Galilee refers to the time when Jesus was living and traveling in the province of Galilee.

15:41b

and there were many other women: The phrasethere were many other women refers to other women besides Salome and the two women named Mary. They came up with Jesus to Jerusalem.

who had come up to Jerusalem with Him: Jerusalem was built on a hill, and it was the most important city in Israel. So the Jews described coming to Jerusalem as coming up to Jerusalem.

In some languages, it is important to indicate whether a person goes up or down when he travels. In other languages, this may be confusing or not understood. If it is not natural to say this in your language, you can say:

had come with Jesus to Jerusalem (Contemporary English Version)

General Comment on 15:40–41

In some languages, it may be more natural to change the order of parts of 15:40–41. For example:

41aThere were women who followed Jesus when he traveled around in Galilee. Some of them had cared for his needs 40bsuch as Mary from Magdala, 40cMary the mother of James the Younger and of Joses, and Salome. 41bThese three and many of the others came up with him to Jerusalem. 40aThey were there now watching these events from a distance.
-or-
40aMany women were watching from a distance. 41bThey had come up with Jesus to Jerusalem. 40bAmong them were Mary Magdalene, 40cMary the mother of James the younger and of Joses, and Salome. 41aThese three women had followed him in Galilee and cared for his needs.

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