Mark 4:35-41 in Russian Sign Language

Following is the translation of Mark 4:35-41 into Russian Sign Language with a back-translation underneath:


Source: Russian Bible Society / Российское Библейское Общество

It was evening. Jesus got into a boat and called the disciples with him. The disciples got into the boat and they rowed off. The disciples rowed. Jesus took a mat and put it under his head and fell asleep. The disciples continued rowing. Suddenly a strong wind arose and the water began to boil. The wind grew stronger and stronger, and a storm began. Water began to get into the boat. The disciples tried to scoop out the water, but it still fell into the boat. The disciples began to call out to Jesus:

— What should we do? The water is pouring into the boat, we are going to drown, we are going to die!

Jesus woke up and saw that the wind was blowing and the storm was raging. He got up and said:

— Wind, be still! Waves, be silent!

The wind immediately ceased and the storm subsided. The boat sailed on calmly.

Jesus looked at the disciples and said:

— Why are you afraid? Have you no faith?

The disciples were very much afraid, seeing all this, and began to say to one another:

— Who is he that the wind obeys him?!

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

Наступил вечер. Иисус сел в лодку и позвал с собой учеников. Ученики тоже сели в лодку, и они поплыли. Ученики гребли. Иисус взял подстилку, положил себе под голову и уснул. Ученики продолжали грести. И вдруг поднялся сильный ветер, вода стала бурлить. Ветер все усиливался, началась буря. Вода стала попадать в лодку. Ученики пытались воду вычерпать, но вода все равно попадала в лодку. Ученики стали звать Иисуса:

— Что нам делать? Вода заливает лодку, мы утонем, мы погибнем!

Иисус проснулся, увидел, что ветер дует и буря бушует. Он встал и сказал:

— Ветер, усмирись! Волны, умолкните!

Ветер тут же исчез, буря улеглась. Лодка спокойно поплыла дальше.

Иисус посмотрел на учеников и сказал:

— Чего же вы боитесь? Разве у вас нет веры?

Ученики очень сильно испугались, видя все это, и стали говорить друг другу:

— Кто же он такой, что ветер подчиняется ему?!

Back-translation by Luka Manevich

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Mark 5:1-20 in Russian Sign Language >>

Mark 4:35-41 in Mexican Sign Language

Following is the translation of Mark 4:35-41 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 estaba sentado en el barco y seguía a contar historias a todas las personas, después al anochecer ya acabó y les saludó, y dijo a los discípulos: “vamonos, acompañenme a otro lugar allá.”

Los discípulos subieron en el barco y el barco iba, y otras personas copiaron la idea y también subieron en sus barcos e iban, y otras personas también copiaron la idea y subieron en el barco e iban.

El barco iba y los discípulos estaban sentados, y Jesús estaba acostado en una almohada, profundamente dormido. El barco iba y después venía un viento fuerte y las olas crecían y el barco se movía violentamente en las olas y el agua entraba el barco.

Los discípulos estaban espantados y tenían miedo y dijeron: “Maestro nosotros vamos a hundir, a morir, ¿no te importa?”

Jesús se paró (y dijo): “Calmate, silencio” y el viento desvaneció y las olas grandes se calmaron y el barco movía suavemente.

Jesús preguntó: “¿Porqué tenían miedo, no tienen fe? Los discípulos lo miraban espantados y se veían uno al otro y dijeron: “¿Él, Jesús, qué clase de persona es? Él puede mandar que el viento obedezca y desvanece, y las olas se calman.” Todos lo miraban y estaban espantados y con miedo.


Jesus was sitting in the boat and continued to tell stories to all the people, and when the night came he finished and said goodbye to them and said to his disciples: “Let’s go, accompany me to another place, over there.”

The disciples got in the boat and the boat took off, other people copied the idea and also got in their boats and took off, and other people took the idea and also got in their boats and took off.

The boat sailed and the disciples were sitting and Jesus was lying down on a pillow, fast asleep. The boat sailed and afterwards a strong wind came and the waves got bigger and the boat was thrown about wildly on the waves and water entered the boat.

The disciples were scared and afraid and said: “Teachers, we are going down, we will die, don’t you care?”

Jesus got up (and said): “Calm down, be still” and the wind disappeared and the big waves calmed down and the boat moved gently on the waves.

Jesus asked: “Why were you afraid, don’t you have any faith? The disciples watched him with fright and they looked at each other and said: “This Jesus, what sort of person is he? He can order the wind to obey and it disappears, and the waves calm down.” They all looked at him with fear and terror.

Source: La Biblia en LSM / La Palabra de Dios

<< Mark 4:21-25 in Mexican Sign Language
Mark 5:1b-5 in Mexican Sign Language >>

inclusive vs. exclusive pronoun (Mark 4:35 / Luke 8:22)

Many languages distinguish between inclusive and exclusive first-person plural pronouns (“we”). (Click or tap here to see more details)

The inclusive “we” specifically includes the addressee (“you and I and possibly others”), while the exclusive “we” specifically excludes the addressee (“he/she/they and I, but not you”). This grammatical distinction is called “clusivity.” While Semitic languages such as Hebrew or most Indo-European languages such as Greek or English do not make that distinction, translators of languages with that distinction have to make a choice every time they encounter “we” or a form thereof (in English: “we,” “our,” or “us”).

For this verse, translators typically select the inclusive form (including the disciples).

Source: Velma Pickett and Florence Cowan in Notes on Translation January 1962, p. 1ff.

complete verse (Mark 4:35)

Following are a number of back-translations of Mark 4:35:

  • Uma: “That evening also, Yesus said to his disciples: ‘Let’s go to the other side of the lake.'” (Source: Uma Back Translation)
  • Yakan: “So-then that day when it was evening (magalib) already, Isa said to his disciples, ‘Let us (incl.) go (and) cross-over to the other side of the lake.'” (Source: Yakan Back Translation)
  • Western Bukidnon Manobo: “And when the sun went down then, Jesus said to his disciples, ‘Let’s go to the other side.'” (Source: Western Bukidnon Manobo Back Translation)
  • Kankanaey: “When the sun was going down, Jesus said to his disciples, ‘Let’s cross-over (body of water).'” (Source: Kankanaey Back Translation)
  • Tagbanwa: “When night was beginning on that same day, Jesus said to his disciples, ‘Let’s go to the other side of this lake.'” (Source: Tagbanwa Back Translation)

start of sections in Mark with the Greek καὶ

One of the distinctions of the gospel of Mark is a breathlessness of telling the story of Jesus. One way that is achieved is by using the Greek kai, normally “and” in English, at the beginning of sections. Different versions and languages have found their own ways of translating it, but the German translation by Walter Jens (publ. 1990, 1998) is unique by consistently using Und ich erzähle or “And I’m telling (you)” for every such occurrence of kai.

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 4:35 – 4:36

Exegesis:

opsias genomenēs (1.32; 6.47; 14.17; 15.42) ‘when evening had come’: presumably at, or after sunset.

dielthōmen eis to peran ‘let us go to the other side.’

dierchomai (10.25) ‘go through’ literally; here ‘go,’ ‘go across.’

eis to peran ‘to the other side’: normally, as here, meaning Perea, the country east of the Lake of Galilee (cf. 5.1), or of the Jordan river (cf. 3.8; 10.1). In the literal sense ‘to the other side’ it is used in 5.21; 6.45; 8.13.

kai aphentes … paralambanousin ‘and leaving … they take’: the subject is ‘the disciples.’

aphiēmi (cf. 1.18; 2.5) ‘leave,’ ‘abandon’; some translate “dismiss”, which is not supported by Marcan usage (apoluō is ‘dismiss,’ ‘send away’: cf. 6.36, 45; 8.3, 9).

paralambanō (5.40; 7.4; 9.2; 10.32; 14.33) ‘take,’ ‘take with’ (or ‘along’): there is no idea of force implied (cf. Lagrange).

hōs ēn en tō ploiō ‘as he was in the boat’: hōs ‘as,’ denoting comparison, means that Jesus still was in the boat in which he had pushed off from shore to teach the crowd (4.1), without having gone ashore. Translator’s New Testament takes hōs as temporal ‘while’: the great majority of translations, however, assume the meaning ‘as.’

alla ploia ēn met’ autou ‘other boats were with him’: so the great majority of translations; Translator’s New Testament, however, has “it” (the boat).

Translation:

Because of possible confusion in rendering them, in view of the fact that for the most part the crowd has been referred to by such a third person plural pronoun, it may be advisable to translate ‘said to the disciples.’

Go across must be made quite specific in some languages. For example, in Aymara, a language spoken by about one million Indians around Lake Titicaca in the Andes between Bolivia and Peru, one must specify whether ‘going across’ denotes from one side of the lake to another or from one projection of land (into the lake) to another such projection. In this context, one would seem to be dealing with a passage across the main body of the lake to Perea.

To the other side must often be elaborated to mean ‘to the land on the other side of the lake’ (Kekchi).

One must be quite careful in translating took him, for in some languages the connotation is one of ‘forcible arrest’ or ‘manhandling.’ One may, however, say ‘go with him’ or ‘have him go with them.’

Just as he was does not refer to Jesus’ appearance, but his place, already in the boat. This meaning may be indicated by some paratactic constructions, e.g. ‘the disciples had him go with them in the boat; he was already there in the boat.’

For problems involving the size of the boat, see 1.19.

Were with him is equivalent in some languages to ‘went along at the same time.’ Note, however, that verbs used in speaking of boats ‘going’ may be entirely different from those used of motion by birds, animals, or persons.

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 .