Translation commentary on Mark 6:37 – 6:38

Exegesis:

apokritheis eipen (cf. 3.33 for this construction) ‘he answered.’

dote … humeis ‘you … give’: the personal pronoun here is emphatic – ‘you yourselves give (them something to eat)’ (cf. The Modern Speech New Testament, Moffatt, Goodspeed, Translator’s New Testament).

dēnariōn diakosiōn artous ‘loaves of two hundred denarii’: the genitive expresses the price, ‘two hundred denarii worth of loaves.’

dēnarion (12.15; 14.5) ‘denarius’: at the time of Jesus the coin is generally supposed to have been the equivalent of a rural worker’s daily wage, as in Mt. 20.2.

artos ‘bread,’ ‘loaf’: in this incident probably barley loaves are indicated (cf. Jn. 6.9).

posous echete artous; ‘how many loaves have you?’

posos (8.5, 19, 20; 9.21; 15.4) ‘how much,’ ‘how many.’

ichthuas (6.41, 43) ‘fish’: here, of course, not fresh fish but prepared fish, either cooked or pickled (cf. Jn. 6.9).

Translation:

Answered is not used in the sense of ‘answer a question,’ but ‘reply to their statement’ or ‘speak in return.’

The question of the disciples is probably best interpreted as a rhetorical question, not a request for permission or authorization to go and buy; a kind of exclamatory question, implying the utter foolishness of such an idea (compare the parallel passages: Mt. 14.13-21, Luke 9.11-17, and John 6.5-13).

Denarii poses a problem in translation, for though it was a coin for which the silver content would be equivalent to about 20 cents in American money, its buying power was much greater, as a result of the relatively low standard of living prevailing in Palestine in those days among the lower classes. It would not be reasonable to translate it by some equivalent coin equal to 20 cents U.S. Moreover, if one chooses any local currency the translation may be badly out of line within a short time, due to extreme inflation, as has occurred in so many parts of the world. (Some countries have seen inflationary pressures within the last two or three years change currency rates from as much as 100 to 1 – in terms of the dollar – to as much as 10,000 to 1.) In areas where there is a relatively stable currency and there is a unit of currency roughly equivalent to a day’s wage of a common laborer, such a coin may be used. In most instances, however, it has seemed best to borrow the Greek word denarius, and speak of ‘bread worth 200 denarius coins’ (or ‘pieces of money’). One can then use a footnote and explain that a denarius (or whatever the appropriate transliterated form might be) was equivalent to a day’s wage. It is recommended that one employ a short table of Weights and Measures (see appendix) in publications of New Testaments or Bibles, and that in such a table the various units of currency be related to the basic unit of the denarius.

Five, and two fish must be reproduced in full grammatical form in some languages, ‘we have five loaves and two fish.’

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 6:38

6:38a

Go and see how many loaves you have: The Greek phrase that the Berean Standard Bible translates as Go and see how many loaves you have is more literally “How many loaves do you have? Go. see.” It is a question and two commands. The question is a real question, not a rhetorical question. Jesus wanted his disciples to find out how much bread they already had.

You may need to introduce this as a separate speech from the question that Jesus asked in 6:37a. For example:

Then Jesus told them, “Go see.”

Go and see: The Greek phrase that the Berean Standard Bible translates as Go and see is literally “Go see.” Jesus wanted the disciples to go and find out how much bread they had.

see: In this context, the disciples were to see how much bread they had. To make this clear, you may need to translate with a verb such as “look,” “find out,” or “count.”

loaves: This is the same Greek word that the Berean Standard Bible translates as “bread” in 6:37d. You can probably translate it the same way here. It refers to pieces or units of bread, probably cooked in a round shape like buns or rolls.

In Greek, the word is plural both here and in 6:37d. In English, there is not a plural form of “bread” that can be counted, so the Berean Standard Bible uses the word loaves here. If it is natural to say “breads” in your language, you can do that here. Otherwise, you may need to say something like:

units of bread
-or-
loaves of bread

He told them: The Berean Standard Bible puts the words He told them after what Jesus said. In Greek, this comes first in 6:38a. Put the verb of speech where it is natural in your language.

6:38c

Five: The Berean Standard Bible literally translates the one Greek word Five here. In some languages, it will be more natural to say “five loaves of bread.” For example, the God’s Word says:

Five loaves of bread

and two fish: Jesus had not asked them to look for other kinds of food. But when they went to see how many loaves of bread there were, they also found two fish. Since this is new information, you may need to introduce it in a particular way in your language. For example:

We also found two fish.

fish: This was probably a small kind of fresh-water fish from the nearby lake, the Lake of Galilee. If your language has a specific word for fish that is already cooked or dried or salted so that it is ready to eat, you should use it here. Otherwise, you should use a general term for fish.

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