3Is not this the carpenter, the son of Mary and brother of James and Joses and Judas and Simon, and are not his sisters here with us?” And they took offense at him.
Following are a number of back-translations of Mark 6:3:
Uma: “He is just a house builder, Maria’s child. His relatives are Yakobus, Yoses, Yudas and Simon. His female relatives, they are here with us too.’ That’s why they refused to believe in Yesus.” (Source: Uma Back Translation)
Yakan: “We (incl.) recognize hep this man. He is the carpenter, the child of Mariyam. His brothers hep are Yakub and Joses and Judas and Simon. And his sisters are hep here in this our place.’ And they were angry at Isa. (lit. their liver hurt)” (Source: Yakan Back Translation)
Western Bukidnon Manobo: “They said, ‘He’s that carpenter. His mother is Mary, and his brothers are James, Joseph, Judas, and Simon. His sisters are here also in our village. Why is he so wise? Where perhaps did he get his wisdom? Why can he do miracles?’ And so they did not accept what Jesus was teaching.” (Source: Western Bukidnon Manobo Back Translation)
Kankanaey: “Isn’t this-one don’t-you-suppose the carpenter Maria’s child? Aren’t Santiago, Jose, Judas and Simon his siblings/cousins? His female siblings/cousins moreover, they also live here.’ Therefore they were offended with him and they didn’t believe.” (Source: Kankanaey Back Translation)
Tagbanwa: “Isn’t it so that he is the carpenter who is the son of Maria and older-sibling of Santiago, Jose, Judas and Simon? Isn’t it so that living here indeed are his younger-sisters?’ They really didn’t acknowledge him.” (Source: Tagbanwa Back Translation)
The name that is transliterated as “Mary” in English is translated in Spanish Sign Language with arms folded over chest which is the typical pose of Mary in statues and artwork. (Source: John Elwode in The Bible Translator 2008, p. 78ff. )
In American Sign Language it is translated with a sign for the letter M and the sign for “virgin,” which could also be interpreted as “head covering,” referring to the way that Mary is usually portrayed in art works. (Source: Ruth Anna Spooner, Ron Lawer)
“Mary” in American Sign Language, source: Deaf Harbor
In some Semitic languages, the transliteration for “Mary” is identical to the one for the prophetess “Miriam,” testifying to the fact that these names are identical (Arabic and the many translations that are reliant on Arabic: مَرْيَم, Hebrew: מִרְיָם, Ge’ez / Amharic and related languages: ማርያም).
The Greek that is translated as “brother” in English in the referenced verses is translated in Lama as raal or “older brother.” (Source: Neal Brinneman)
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 people talking among themselves).
Source: Velma Pickett and Florence Cowan in Notes on Translation January 1962, p. 1ff.
The name that is transliterated as “Simon” in English is translated in Libras (Brazilian Sign Language) with a sign that combines “he who hears” (the meaning of the name) and Jesus (his brother). (Source: Missão Kophós )
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 others 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: “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 the latter two 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®).
ho tektōn (only here in Mark) ‘the carpenter’: cf. Mt. 13.55 ‘the son of the carpenter.’
ho huios tēs Marias ‘the son of Mary’: very probably stated as an insult.
kai eskandalizonto en autō (cf. 4.17) ‘and they took offense at him’ (Revised Standard Version, Translator’s New Testament, Goodspeed, The Modern Speech New Testament).
en ‘in’: denotes that towards which the feeling is directed.
Translation:
Carpenter is best rendered as ‘house-builder’ or ‘builder,’ for the Greek term may refer to one who uses either wood or stone.
Brother must be in many languages ‘older brother.’
Sisters would be ‘younger sisters’ in languages which make a distinction as to relative age.
In some languages there are precise distinctions made between full brothers and half-brothers. Some translators have felt that because Jesus was conceived by the Holy Spirit, they should use a term for half-brother, but generally this is not a wise procedure, for it introduces all sorts of other problems, implying as it does that Mary had two husbands.
Offense in this verse cannot usually be translated in the same way as the corresponding word (in the Greek text) of 4.17. There the reference is more to loss of faith, but in this verse the reaction is one of jealousy and personal animosity: ‘they were jealous and angry against him’ (Sierra Popoloca), ‘they had no more respect for’ (Highland Puebla Nahuatl ), ‘they were distrustful’ (Indonesian), ‘they felt offended because of His dignity’ (Javanese), ‘they despised’ (San Blas Kuna), ‘a grudge arose in their hearts’ (Tzeltal), ‘they were angry to see him’ (San Mateo del Mar Huave), and ‘they hated him’ (Copainalá Zoque).
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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