Who are my mother and brothers?

The Greek that is translated as “Who are my mother and brothers?” or similar in English is translated in Chichicapan Zapotec as “Who are my mother and brothers before God?” and in Jalapa De Díaz Mazatec as “It is true, you know who is my mother and who are my brothers. But there are other people whom I love like my mother and my brothers.” (Source: B. Moore / G. Turner in Notes on Translation 1967, p. 1ff.)

Mark 3:31-35 in Russian Sign Language

Following is the translation of Mark 3:31-35 into Russian Sign Language with a back-translation underneath:


Source: Russian Bible Society / Российское Библейское Общество

Jesus was teaching the people. The people sat and listened to him. Jesus’ mother, brothers and sisters came there. There were a lot of people. The mother, brothers and sisters could not come near. Then they asked the people to tell Jesus:

— We have come. Come to us!

The people told Jesus:

— Your mother, brothers and sister have come. Come to them.

Jesus replied:

— Who is my mother? Who are my brothers?

Then Jesus pointed to the people who were listening to him and said:

— Here is my mother! Here are my brothers! Whoever listens to God and does his will is my mother, brother and sister!

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

Иисус учил народ. Люди сидели и слушали его. Туда пришли мать, братья и сестры Иисуса. Было много народа. Мать, братья и сестры не могли подойти. Тогда они попросили людей передать Иисусу:

— Мы пришли. Подойди к нам!

Люди передали Иисусу:

— Твоя мать, братья и сестра пришли. Подойди к ним.

Иисус ответил:

— А кто моя мать? Кто мои братья?

Потом Иисус показал на людей, которые его слушали, и сказал:

— Вот моя мать! Вот мои братья! Кто слушает Бога и исполняет Его волю, тот мне мать, брат и сестра!

Back-translation by Luka Manevich

<< Mark 3:20-30 in Russian Sign Language
Mark 4:1-9 in Russian Sign Language >>

Mark 3:20-35 in Mexican Sign Language

Following is the translation of Mark 3:20-35 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)

Jesús y los discípulos fueron juntos a una casa, y una multitud personas también fue a la casa y la entró y la casa estaba llena de personas y Jesús y sus discípulos no comían nada.

Personas chismearon y contaron la familia de Jesús: “Las multitudes van a él y Jesús no come nada.”

La familia (dijo): “Ay Jesús está loco, ahorita lo traigamos, vamonos”. Y fueron (por él).

En la misma casa había algunos maestros de la ley de Jerusalén que lo vieron y dijeron: “Jesús tiene adentro de él el rey de los demonios, que se llama Beelzebú. Jesús y él tienen una conspiración y el demonio ayuda a Jesús, así que puede expulsar demonios.”

Jesús dijo: “¿El demonio me ayuda? Es absurdo. Les doy un ejemplo: Si yo soy un demonio y quiero expulsar a un demonio, ¿lo puedo? No puedo, es imposible, yo también soy demonio.

Por ejemplo, primero: Si diferentes gobiernos se pelean ellos fracasarán.

Segundo: Si en una familia ellos se pelean, se separarán.

Tercero: Si dos demonios se pelean no ganan nada, los dos se eliminarán.

Otro ejemplo: Una persona entra en una casa y toma cosas, y un hombre fuerte y poderoso lo ve. Le tiene miedo (al hombre fuerte) porque lo vio.

Primero debe agarrarlo (al hombre fuerte) y atarlo hasta que esté impotente en el piso y esto hecho puede libremente recoger las cosas.

Este ejemplo del (hombre) fuerte y poderoso es como el rey de los demonios, ¿entienden?

Les advierto y digo la verdad; si una persona hace pecados diferentes y es irrespetuoso contra Dios y después pide perdón, Dios lo perdonará y borrará sus pecados.

Pero hay una excepción: Si uds insultan contra el espíritu santo y lo apodan demonio, huy, no serán perdonados jamás, habrá un castigo fuerte para siempre.”

Allá vino la familia de Jesús y tocaban alguién: “Por favor, que Jesús venga” y el hombre dijo a Jesús: “Tu mamá y tus hermanos te llaman, por allá.”

Jesús miró a sus familiares y a la multitud, a todas las personas que estaban sentadas alrededor, y Jesús dijo: “Les pregunto: ¿Quiénes son mi mamá y mis hermanos?

Uds mismos son mi familia, porque uds obedecen sólo a Dios, por eso uds son mi mamá y mis hermanos.”


Jesus and the disciples went together to a house and a multitude of people also went to the house and entered it and the house was full of people, and Jesus and his disciples did not eat anything.

Some people gossiped and told Jesus’ family: “The multitudes go to him and Jesus does not eat anything.”

The family (said): “Ah, Jesus has gone mad, we will bring him back now, let’s go.” And they went (for him).

In the same house there were some teachers of the law from Jerusalem, and they watched him and said: “Jesus has inside him the king of demons, which is called Beelzebub. Jesus and he are conspiring together and the demon is helping Jesus so that he can throw out demons.”

Jesus said: “So the demon is helping me? That’s absurd. Let me give you an example: If I am a demon and I want to throw out a demon, can I? No I cannot, it’s impossible, I am a demon myself.

“For example, firstly: If different governments fight with each other they will all go down.

“Secondly: If the people in a family fight together they will be separated.

“Thirdly: If two demons fight together, they do not gain anything, both will be eliminated.

“Another example: A person enters a house and takes things away and a strong, powerful man sees him, he gets frightened because he’s been seen.

“First he has to take hold (of the strong man) tie him up so that he lies wriggling on the floor and when that is done he can freely collect the things.

“This example of the strong and powerful (man) is like the king of demons, do you understand?

“I warn you, and I say the truth; if a person does different sins and is disrespectful towards God and afterwards asks forgiveness, God will forgive him and delete his sins.

“But there is one exception: If you insult the Holy Spirit and nickname him a demon, wow, you will never be forgiven, there will be a strong punishment forever.”

Over there the family of Jesus came and they touched someone: “Please, let Jesus come” and the man went and told Jesus: “Your mother and brothers call you, over there.”

Jesus looked at his family and at the multitude, at all the people seated around him, and Jesus said: “I ask you, who are my mother and my brothers?

“You yourselves are my family, because you obey only God, that’s why you are my mother and my brothers.”

Source: La Biblia en LSM / La Palabra de Dios

<< Mark 3:13-19 in Mexican Sign Language
Mark 4:1-9 in Mexican Sign Language >>

complete verse (Mark 3:33)

Following are a number of back-translations of Mark 3:33:

  • Uma: “Yesus gazed at the people who were around him and he said: ‘As for my mother and relatives, it is these people here.” (Source: Uma Back Translation)
  • Yakan: “Isa answered, he said, ‘Who is my mother and who are my brothers?'” (Source: Yakan Back Translation)
  • Western Bukidnon Manobo: “And Jesus answered them, ‘But there are those yet that I will show you who are my mother and my siblings.'” (Source: Western Bukidnon Manobo Back Translation)
  • Kankanaey: “Jesus said, ‘Yes granted of-course, but there are also others that I count as my mother and my brothers.'” (Source: Kankanaey Back Translation)
  • Tagbanwa: “When Jesus heard, he said, ‘Yes, in a while.’ And then he spoke saying, ‘Try-to-understand this, who is my mother and who are my siblings?'” (Source: Tagbanwa Back Translation)

1st person pronoun referring to God (Japanese)

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 choice of a first person singular and plural pronoun (“I” and “we” and its various forms) as shown here in the widely-used Japanese Shinkaiyaku (新改訳) Bible of 2017. The most commonly used watashi/watakushi (私) is typically used when the speaker is humble and asking for help. In these verses, where God / Jesus is referring to himself, watashi is also used but instead of the kanji writing system (私) the syllabary hiragana (わたし) is used to distinguish God from others.

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

See also pronoun for “God”.

Honorary "are" construct denoting God ("say")

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 are (され) 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, iw-are-ru (言われる) or “say” is used.

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

Translation commentary on Mark 3:33 – 3:35

Text:

In v. 33 instead of kai ‘and’ of all other modern editions of the Greek text, Textus Receptus and Soden have ē ‘or.’

In v. 34 the order of words in Textus Receptus is changed so as to make kuklō ‘in a circle’ modify periblepsamenos ‘looking,’ i.e. ‘looking around’; all modern editions of the Greek text follow the same word order as Nestle’s whereby kuklō modifies tous kathēmenous, i.e. ‘those seated in a circle.’

Exegesis:

apokritheis … legei ‘answering … he says’: there are some 15 instances of this construction throughout the gospel of Mark. A translation in English need only give the sense ‘he answered’ without reproducing both verbs in a literal form (cf. 1.7 and 1.24 for similar constructions).

periblepsamenos (cf. 3.5) ‘looking around (him).’

tous peri auton kuklō kathēmenous ‘those seated in a circle about him.’

kuklō (6.6, 36) is adverbial ‘round about,’ ‘around.’

ide (cf. 1.2) ‘see!’ ‘here.’

hos an poiēsē ‘he who does’: the subjunctive mode of the verb is required by the construction of the sentence; there is no idea, however, of doubt or futurity. The meaning is ‘whoever does,’ ‘he who does.’

thelēma (only here in Mark) ‘will.’

Translation:

The form of the question Who are my mother … is ambiguous from the standpoint of some languages which must distinguish between identificational questions and qualificational ones, i.e. ‘who are these…’ and ‘what sort of person are….’ Note, however, in languages which must translate this sentence as qualificational, one does not question the characteristics of Jesus’ mother and brothers, but asks what sort of characteristics of people make it possible for them to be recognized as ‘mother and brothers.’ The equivalent would be ‘Who are the sort of people who are my mother and my brothers?.’

The adverb here may be translated by a gesture-like word or phrase ‘these here’ or ‘right here.’

Does the will of God is often translated as ‘does what God wants him to do.’ In Huichol this is ‘follow Gods’ heart.’

In a number of languages brothers and sisters of the same mother are grouped under a single term, meaning siblings of the same maternal line. In such languages, e.g. Highland Totonac, Barrow Eskimo, Navajo, and Highland Puebla Nahuatl , it would be quite wrong to try to use two words just because Greek has two words, when a single word is the more accurate and satisfactory term. This same word can be employed for ‘brothers’ throughout this passage, beginning with verse 31.

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 .