Mark 5:1-20 in Russian Sign Language

Following is the translation of Mark 5:1-20 into Russian Sign Language with a back-translation underneath:


Source: Russian Bible Society / Российское Библейское Общество

Jesus and His disciples were traveling in a boat. They came to the other side of the lake. There was a place called Gerasa. There was a place where there were many caves. People who had died were buried there. There was a man there. He was possessed by a demon. The man lived in these caves.

People tried to grab him and tie him up, but he tore all the ropes. They even tried to tie him up with chains. Many times they caught him, tied him up, but still he tore the chains, broke free and ran away. Day and night he walked there among the graves, climbed up the mountain and shouted loudly, and beat himself with stones, he was all scarred.

When Jesus arrived at the shore in a boat, the demon-possessed man saw Jesus, ran up to him, and knelt down before him.

Jesus looked at him and commanded, Demon, get out of this man!

The demon inside the man began to shout angrily, You, Jesus, are the Son of God! What do you want? I beg you before God — don’t torture me!

Jesus said: What is your name?

The demon answered: My name is Legion! It means a great multitude of warriors.

The demon continued: I beg you, if you drive us out of this area, where will we go?

Not far away, on a mountain, a large herd of pigs was grazing.

The demons began to ask Jesus: Permit us to go out and take possession of the pigs!

Jesus allowed it. The demons began to come out of this man and took possession of the pigs. And there were about two thousand pigs. The pigs began to be demonized. And there was a mountain, and all the pigs began to fall off the mountain into the sea and they all sank. The shepherds who were herding the pigs, when they saw that the pigs were drowned, were very frightened. They ran to the city of Gerasa and also to its surrounding villages, they said to the people, Look, look what has happened!

A large crowd gathered, the people went to that place. They saw Jesus and the man who was demon-possessed. He was healed, he became normal, he was sitting quietly, with his clothes on.

The people were frightened and began to ask: Is this the man who was demon-possessed?

Others began to say: Yes, it was him, he was healed. The demons came out of him and entered the pigs, and the pigs fell from the mountain into the sea.

That’s what the witnesses said. The people were frightened and began to ask: Who did it? Jesus?

And they said to Jesus, Don’t come to our land, go away from here!

Jesus turned around and got into the boat to sail on. The man who used to be demon-possessed came to Jesus and begged Him: Take me with you! May I come with you?

Jesus commanded: No! Go home to your family. God has healed you. Go tell all the people what God has done to you, that he has had mercy on you.

The man went around the ten cities, telling what Jesus had done for him, and all the people marveled.

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

Иисус с учениками плыли в лодке. Они пристали к другому берегу. Там был город Гераса. Там было место, где было много пещер. Там хоронили умерших людей. Там был один человек. В него вселился бес. Человек жил с этих пещерах.

Люди пытались его схватить и связать, но он рвал все веревки. Даже цепями его пытались связать. Много раз его ловили, вязали, но все равно он рвал эти цепи, вырывался и убегал. Днем и ночью он ходил там среди могил, забирался на гору и громко кричал, и сам себя бил камнями, был весь израненный.

Вот Иисус причалил на лодке к берегу, сошел на землю, и тут бесноватый увидел Иисуса, подбежал к нему и бросился перед ним на колени.

Иисус посмотрел на него и приказал: Бес, выйдете вон из этого человека!

Бес внутри этого человека стал злобно кричать: Ты, Иисус, Сын Божий! Чего тебе надо? Умоляю тебя перед Богом — не мучь меня!

Иисус сказал: Как твое имя?

Бес ответил: Мое имя — Легион! Оно означает «великое множество воинов».

Бес продолжал: Умоляю тебя, если ты выгонишь нас из этой местности, куда нам деваться?

А недалеко оттуда, на горе, паслось большое стадо свиней.

Бесы стали просить Иисуса: Разреши нам выйти и вселиться в свиней!

Иисус позволил. Бесы начали выходить из этого человека и вселялись в свиней. А свиней было около двух тысяч. Свиньи начали бесноваться. А там была гора, и все свиньи начали срываться с горы в море и все потонули. Пастухи, которые пасли свиней, когда увидели, что свиньи утонули, очень испугались. Они побежали в город Герас, а также в его окрестные деревни, они сказали людям: Посмотрите, посмотрите, что случилось!

Собралась большая толпа, народ пошел к тому месту. Они увидели Иисуса и того человека, который был бесноватым. Он исцелился, стал нормальным, он спокойно сидел, в одежде.

Люди испугались, стали спрашивать: Точно ли это тот человек, который был бесноватым?

Другие стали говорить: Да, это он, он исцелился. Бесы из него вышли и вселились в свиней, и свиньи попадали с горы в море.

Так говорили свидетели. Народ испугался, стали спрашивать: Кто это сделал? Иисус?

И они обратились к Иисусу: Не ходи в наши края, уходи отсюда!

Иисус развернулся и сел в лодку, чтобы плыть дальше. Человек, который раньше был бесноватый, подошел к Иисусу и стал умолять Его:

Возьмите меня с собой! Можно, я пойду с вами?!

Иисус приказал: Нет! Иди домой к своим родным. Бог излечил тебя. Иди, расскажи всем людям, что Бог сделал с тобой, что он помиловал тебя. Этот человек ходил по десяти городам, что совершил Иисус для него, и все люди удивлялись.

Back-translation by Luka Manevich

<< Mark 4:35-41 in Russian Sign Language
Mark 5:21-43 in Russian Sign Language >>

Mark 5:1b-5 in Mexican Sign Language

Following is the translation of Mark 5:1b-5 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)

Allá en un lugar llamado Gadara había un hombre que tenía un demonio adentro de él. Caminaba de un lado al otro gritando y lastimandose con piedras todos los días de la mañana hasta la noche.

Antea la gente se había acercado a él muchas veces para agarrarlo y amarrarlo con cadenasde hierro, pero el hombre se había liberado de las cadenas y caminaba de un lado al otro, se acercaban a él muchas veces pero no podían (detenerlo) y lo dejaban y se fueron.

El hombre seguía caminando y gritando, y subía la montaña hacia una roca donde había sepulcros.


Over there in a place called Gadara there was a man who had a demon inside him, and who walked up and down screaming and hurt himself with stones every day, the whole day.

Before people had approached him again and again to take hold of him and tie him up with iron chains, but the man would free himself of the chains and walk up and down, the people had approached him again and again but could not (overpower him) and so they left him and went away.

The man continued to walk back and forth screaming and he would go up the mountain to a rock where there were graves.

Source: La Biblia en LSM / La Palabra de Dios

<< Mark 4:35-41 in Mexican Sign Language
Mark 5:6-20 in Mexican Sign Language >>

He gave freedom to those in bondage of evil (image)

“In Thai society, those who are possessed by evil spirits are usually the weak or mentally unstable. This man is shown as freed from his spiritual and physical chains. Even though he is naked Jesus is not ashamed to be close to him.”

Drawing by Sawai Chinnawong who employs northern and central Thailand’s popular distinctive artistic style originally used to depict Buddhist moral principles and other religious themes; explanation by Paul DeNeui. From That Man Who Came to Save Us by Sawai Chinnawong and Paul H. DeNeui, William Carey Library, 2010.

For more images by Sawai Chinnawong in TIPs see here.

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.

complete verse (Mark 5:1)

Following are a number of back-translations of Mark 5:1:

  • Uma: “From there, they arrived at the other side of the lake, in the land of Gerasa.” (Source: Uma Back Translation)
  • Yakan: “So-then Isa and his disciples arrived on the other side of the lake Jalil, there in the place of the people of Gerasa.” (Source: Yakan Back Translation)
  • Western Bukidnon Manobo: “Jesus and company came ashore on the other side of the lake, and that was the land of the Gerasene people.” (Source: Western Bukidnon Manobo Back Translation)
  • Kankanaey: “Plural Jesus continued crossing the lake until they landed in the region of Gerasa.” (Source: Kankanaey Back Translation)
  • Tagbanwa: “Jesus and company came to shore on the other side of the Lake of Galilea. The Geraseno were the people who lived there.” (Source: Tagbanwa Back Translation)

sea / lake

The various Greek, Aramaic, Ge’ez, and Latin and Hebrew terms that are translated as “sea,” “ocean,” or “lake” in English are all translated in Chichewa with one term: nyanja. Malawi, where Chichewa is spoken, has a lot of lakes but does not share a border with the ocean. (Source: Mawu a Mulungu mu Chichewa Chalero Back Translation)

In Malagasy culture, the sea is perceived as sacred because it was a path taken by the ancestors. That is why the Malagasy word for the “sea” is ranomasina, which literally means “the sacred water.” The word masina actually has two different meanings: “salted” and “sacred/holy.” Salt is used for the conservation of some foods, such as meat or fish, that are to be set aside for later use. In this sense, the Malagasy phrase for “Holy Spirit” has the literal meaning of “Salted Spirit.” (Source: Brigitte Rabarijaona in The Bible Translator 2022, p. 103ff.)

Translation commentary on Mark 5:1 – 5:2

Text:

Instead of Gerasēnōn ‘Gerasenes’ of the great majority of modern editions of the Greek text, Textus Receptus and Vogels have Gadarenōn ‘Gaderenes’ (the correct reading in Mt. 8.28).

Exegesis:

tēn chōran tōn Gerasēnōn ‘the region of the Gerasenes’ (cf. 1.5 for chōra ‘region’): for the exact identification of this region, which is disputed.

hupēntēsen (only here in Mark) ‘he met,’ ‘he encountered’; sometimes in a hostile sense (cf. Lk. 14.31).

ek tōn mnēmeiōn ‘out of the tombs,’ i.e. ‘coming out of the tombs’ (cf. Goodspeed, Manson, The Modern Speech New Testament).

mnēmeion (6.29; 15.46; 16.3, 5, 8) ‘grave,’ ‘tomb’ (synonym of mnēma ‘tomb’ vv. 3, 5).

Translation:

For difficulties involved in expressions of ‘going to the other side,’ see 4.35.

The country of the Gerasenes may be variously translated, depending upon the usage of the receptor language in question, e.g. ‘land where the Gerasenes lived,’ ‘land which belonged to the Gerasene people,’ ‘region inhabited by the Gerasene tribe.’

The apposition involved in the expressions to the other side … to the country … may be treated in some instances as two paratactically combined clauses: ‘they went to the other side of the lake; this was the land of the Gerasene people.’

For problems involved in verbs for ‘coming’ and ‘going’ see 1.14. In many languages one must translate came to the other side as ‘arrived at the other side’ and come out of the boat as ‘went out of…’ or ‘climbed out of….’

The word tombs refers either to cave-like rooms cut into the rock or small mausoleum-like structures, which might provide some shelter for the demoniac. If people have a custom of burying the dead in such places, there is generally no problem, except where, as in one language, the informants insisted that the demoniac could not come out of more than one tomb at a time, hence, ‘met him, coming out of the tomb’ or ‘met him, coming from where the tombs were.’ On the other hand, if people bury only in holes in the ground, it would be quite misleading to imply that the demoniac came out of the graves in the ground. In such instances, the closest equivalent is usually ‘came from where the dead were buried,’ i.e. from the cemetery.

For unclean spirit see 1.26.

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 .