The Hebrew and Greek that is typically translated/transliterated in English as “unclean spirit” or “evil spirit” is translated in Paasaal it is translated as gyɩŋbɔmɔ, which is also the term used for “demon.” Wyɩŋbɔmɔ are “beings that are in the wild and can only be seen when they choose to reveal themselves to certain people. They can ‘capture’ humans and keep them in hiding while they train the person in herbalism and divination. After the training period, which can range from a week to many years, the ‘captured’ individual is released to go back into society as a healer and a diviner. The gyɩŋbɔmɔ can also be evil, striking humans with mental diseases and causing individuals to get lost in the wild. The Pasaale worldview about demons is like that of others of the language groups in the area.” (Source: Fabian N. Dapila in The Bible Translator 2024, p. 415ff.)
Note that often the words for “demon” “unclean spirit” are being used interchangeably.
The region of Galilee. Jesus came to Galilee, to the lake, with his disciples. Jesus had healed many people before, made them well, and cast out many demons from people. Word of his work spread throughout Galilee. They also knew about him in Judea, in the city of Jerusalem, in Idumea, near the Jordan River, also in the city of Tyre and Sidon — in all these places people heard about Jesus. And people were coming to Jesus from everywhere. Jesus saw that there were many people coming and going to him. So he asked his disciples for a boat so that he could get into it and sail away from the shore when the crowds became too great. Many different sick people came to him. They all hoped that they could at least touch Jesus and become well. Jesus healed and cured everyone. Even the demons from the possessed people ran away when they saw Jesus. Some demons were shouting:
— Jesus! You are the son of God!
Jesus forbade the demons:
— Be silent! Don’t you dare talk about me.
Original Russian back-translation (click or tap here):
Область Галилея. Иисус пришел в Галилею, к озеру, вместе с учениками. До этого Иисус очень многих людей исцелял, делал их здоровыми, также изгнал множество бесов из людей. По всей Галилее разнесся слух о его делах. Также знали о нем в Иудее, в городе Иерусалиме, в Идумее, возле реки Иордан, также в городе Тир и Сидон — во всех этих местах люди слышали об Иисусе. И люди отовсюду шли к Иисусу. Иисус видел, что к нему все идут и идут люди, народа очень много. Тогда он попросил у учеников лодку, чтобы сесть в нее и отплыть от берега, когда народу станет слишком много. Приходило к нему множество разных больных. Все они надеялись, что они смогут хотя бы прикоснуться к Иисусу и стать здоровыми. Иисус всех исцелял и исцелял. Даже бесы из одержимых людей убегали, завидев Иисуса. Некоторые бесы кричали:
Retrotraducciones en español (haga clic o pulse aquí)
Jesús y los discípulos fueron al lago de Galilea y una multitud de personas fue allá. Jesús los imponía las manos y los sanaba.
La gente lo contaba y se extendió (el mensahe) por diferentes estados, por Judea, Jerusalén, Idumea, el río Jordán, Tiro y Sidón, la gente dijo: “Jesús hace milagros”, y una multitud de gente iba a Galilea.
Muchas personas enfermas venían al frente a tocarle a Jesús, y Jesús dijo: “Discípulos, antes traiganme un barco para si más personas vienen y está lleno de gente, yo me puedo sentar.”
La gente continuó a tocar a Jesús y un demonio, un espíritu malo, vio a Jesús y se acercó y se arrodilló y gritó: “Tú eres el hijo de Dios.”
Jesús dijo: “Silencio, todas estas personas no lo saben”, y el demonio se calló, luego otro demonio vino y dijo lo mismo, y (Jesús le dijo) “silencio”, y otros demonios venían uno por uno.
Jesus and the disciples went to the lake of Galilee and a multitude of people went there. Jesus laid his hands on them and healed them.
The people told this and (the message) spread throughout different states: Judea, Jerusalem, Idumea, the river Jordan, Tyre and Sidon, the people said: “Jesus does miracles” and a great multitude went to Galilee.
Many ill people came forward to touch Jesus and he said: “Disciples, bring me a boat before many more people come and it gets full, so I can sit down.”
The people kept touching Jesus and a demon, a bad ghost, saw Jesus and came near and knelt down and shouted: “You are the Son of God.”
Jesus (said): “Silence, all these people do not know.” And the demon was quiet, then another demon came up and said the same thing, and (he told him to be) silent, and thus the demons came up one by one.
Following are a number of back-translations of Mark 3:12:
Uma: “But he strongly forbade them, that they not say who he was.” (Source: Uma Back Translation)
Yakan: “But Isa really instructed the demons commanding them not to tell the people who he was.” (Source: Yakan Back Translation)
Western Bukidnon Manobo: “Jesus scolded the demons and he told them that they should not let it be known that he was the Son of God.” (Source: Western Bukidnon Manobo Back Translation)
Kankanaey: “But Jesus was emphatically commanding them that they not be telling concerning him.” (Source: Kankanaey Back Translation)
Tagbanwa: “But Jesus told them to stop, telling them emphatically that they not tell who he was.” (Source: Tagbanwa Back Translation)
Click or tap here to see the rest of this insight.
Like a number of other East Asian languages, Japanese uses a complex system of honorifics, i.e. a system where a number of different levels of politeness are expressed in language via words, word forms or grammatical constructs. These can range from addressing someone or referring to someone with contempt (very informal) to expressing the highest level of reference (as used in addressing or referring to God) or any number of levels in-between.
One way Japanese shows different degree of politeness is through the usage of an honorific construction where the morpheme rare (られ) is affixed on the verb as shown here in the widely-used Japanese Shinkaiyaku (新改訳) Bible of 2017. This is particularly done with verbs that have God as the agent to show a deep sense of reverence. Here, imashime-rare-ru (戒められる) or “admonish” is used.
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 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. ).
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®).
prospiptō (5.33; 7.25) ‘fall before,’ ‘fall at the feet of.’
krazō (11 times in Mark) ‘call,’ ‘call out’: of evil spirits, ‘shriek,’ ‘scream.’
polla (cf. 1.45) used adverbially ‘strongly,’ ‘insistently’: it does not mean here ‘many times,’ ‘often’; cf. Vulgatevehementer, Lagrange enjoignant fortement, Translator’s New Testament ‘warned strongly.’
epetima (cf. 1.25) ‘he commanded,’ ‘he warned.’
hina ‘that’: as in v. 9 hina denotes here the content of the order, not purpose ‘in order that.’
phaneron poiēsōsin ‘they should make known,’ ‘they should reveal’ (cf. Mt. 12.16): the meaning is ‘reveal the identity of (someone),’ cf. 1.34.
Translation:
There is a tendency for translators to render this passage as ‘whenever people who had unclean spirits looked at Jesus, they fell…’ despite the fact that this may seem to make better sense, it is advisable not to depart from the original in this regard. Even though passages which speak of evil spirits seem to involve certain confusion between the action of the demonic spirits and the men in whom they dwelt, this very confusion is a highly significant factor (see 1.24).
For unclean spirits see 1.26, 32.
Not to make him known may be translated in some languages as ‘not to say who he was.’ If this must be adapted to the requirements of direct discourse the form would be ‘he strictly ordered them: You must not say: He is the Son of God’ (or as may be necessary in some instances ‘You are the Son of God,’ using the expression of verse 11). Such a series of included direct discourse is not uncommon.
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 .
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