complete verse (Mark 3:17)

Following are a number of back-translations of Mark 3:17:

  • Uma: “These are the names of those twelve: Simon (Yesus named him Petrus); Yakobus child of Zebedeus; and Yohanes the relative of Yakobus (Yesus named them Boanerges–its meaning: people who are like thunder); after that, Andreas; Filipus; Bartolomeus; Matius; Tomas; Yakobus child of Alfeus; Tadeus; Simon the Zelot-person; and Yudas Iskariot (he’s the one who will sell Yesus to hisenemies.)” (Source: Uma Back Translation)
  • Yakan: “Yakub and Yahiya, the sons of Sebede, he also called them Boanerges. That means, people like rolling-thunder.” (Source: Yakan Back Translation)
  • Western Bukidnon Manobo: “These are the names of the twelve people whom Jesus chose: Simon whom he titled Peter, and James the son of Zebedee, and John the younger brother of James. These two he entitled Boanerges, which is to say, impulsive people. He also chose Andrew, Philip, Bartholomew, Matthew, Thomas, James the son of Alphaeus, and Thaddeaus. And he also chose Simon, one member of the former organization called Canaanista. Jesus also chose Judas Iscariot, the one who betrayed him. After Jesus had chosen them he went home.” (Source: Western Bukidnon Manobo Back Translation)
  • Kankanaey: “the two children of Zebedeo who were Santiago and Juan (whom Jesus nicknamed Boanerges, meaning to say, like thunder),” (Source: Kankanaey Back Translation)
  • Tagbanwa: “Santiago and Juan who were the sons of Zebedeo, whom he called Boanerges, which means fierce/wild like thunder.” (Source: Tagbanwa Back Translation)

younger brother (Lama)

The Greek that is translated as “brother” in English in the referenced verses is translated in Lama as rɨtafal or “younger brother.” (Source: Neal Brinneman)

Honorary "rare" construct denoting God ("place/name")

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, tsuke-rare-ru (つけられる) or “place/name” is used.

(Source: S. E. Doi, see also S. E. Doi in Journal of Translation, 18/2022, p. 37ff. )

Translation commentary on Mark 3:17

Text:

Instead of onoma ‘name,’ Textus Receptus, Tischendorf, Soden, Souter, Vogels, Lagrange, and Merk have onomata ‘names’; the singular is preferred by Nestle, Westcott and Hort, Taylor and Kilpatrick.

Exegesis:

Iakōbon ton tou Zebedaiou ‘James the son of Zebedee’ (cf. the same construction in 2.14).

Boanērges ‘Boanerges’: cf. Dalman for problems connected with the correct understanding of this proper name, and possible solutions.

huioi brontēs ‘sons of thunder’: the Semitic idiom means that the men thus named are characterized by a wrathful disposition, and so are like thunder (cf. same idiom 2.19 huioi numphōnos ‘sons of the bridegroom’s chamber’).

Translation:

For a discussion of the order of names and attributive expressions in James the son … of James, see 1.19. In this passage a frequently acceptable equivalent is ‘James and his younger brother John, both sons of Zebedee.’

Whom he surnamed Boanerges may be translated as ‘he also called them a second name Boanerges.’ This last term should be transliterated, following the principles of sound equivalence established for the handling of such infrequent proper names.

That is (reflecting Greek ho estin) is a kind of formula for ‘which means.’ The interpretation of such strange names in a language may need to be introduced as ‘which means in our language’ or ‘which tries to say.’

Sons of thunder, translated literally, has been misunderstood in a number of translations in which readers have assumed that Jesus was actually describing these men as the supernatural offspring of the local deity “Thunder” (the fact that the men had a stated human father seemed either noncontradictory, or as in one instance, Zebedee was taken to be the name of Thunder). In order that the reader may understand precisely what is the meaning of this Semitic idiom, many translations have used certain equivalent phrases, e.g. ‘men like thunder’ (San Mateo del Mar Huave, Navajo, Central Pame), ‘sons like thunder’ (Amganad Ifugao), and ‘men who are strong like thunder’ (Highland Puebla Nahuatl , Highland Oaxaca Chontal). In some languages one may find that the phrase ‘sons of thunder’ is already in use in a very specialized meaning. For example, in Chicahuaxtla Triqui the expression is the name of a small toad, so named after an ancient pagan rain god. However, by changing the phrase somewhat by the introduction of ‘noise,’ the proper referent was understood, e.g. ‘sons of the noise of thunder.’

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 3:17

3:17a

James son of Zebedee and his brother John: James is mentioned first, so he was probably the older of the two brothers. James, John, and Zebedee were previously mentioned in 1:19–20.

son of Zebedee: Zebedee was the name of the father of both James and John.

In languages where there is no single word for son, many translators have used a more general expression, such as “child.”

3:17b

whom He named Boanerges: The Greek clause that the Berean Standard Bible translates as whom He named refers to Jesus’ description of the character of James and John. The Greek is almost identical to the clause “to whom he gave the name” in 3:16b. Unlike the name “Peter,” which is used throughout the New Testament, the term Boanerges is not referred to anywhere else in the New Testament.

The Contemporary English Version has another way to translate this:

Jesus called them Boanerges (Contemporary English Version)

Boanerges: Boanerges was a word in the language that Jesus and his disciples spoke. You should write this word according to the sounds of your language. (The first part of the name Boanerges is clearly Aramaic and means “sons of,” but the last part could refer to the Aramaic word for “crowd/commotion” or “anger.” Another possibility is that the last part refers to a similar word in Arabic which means “Thunder”. Regardless of the origin, Mark obviously understood this to mean “Sons of Thunder.”)

meaning “Sons of Thunder”: The idiom Sons of refers to one of the characteristics of James and John. Jesus was saying that they were “Thunder-like.” Scholars are not certain in what way James and John were like thunder.

Here are some other ways to translate this:

this means “Sons of Thunder”
-or-
which means “Men of Thunder” (Good News Bible)
-or-
this means that they were like thunder

© 2008 by SIL International®

Made available under the terms of a Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 License (CC BY-SA) creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0

All Scripture quotations in this publication, unless otherwise indicated, are from The Holy Bible, Berean Standard Bible.
BSB is produced in cooperation with Bible Hub, Discovery Bible, OpenBible.com, and the Berean Bible Translation Committee.