Mark 7:24-30 in Russian Sign Language

Following is the translation of Mark 7:24-30 into Russian Sign Language with a back-translation underneath:


Source: Russian Bible Society / Российское Библейское Общество

Jesus went to the city of Tyre. There he went into a house. He wanted to do it secretly so that people would not know. But the rumor about him spread quickly, and everyone soon knew that Jesus was there. There was a woman there. She was a non-Jewish woman. She came to Jesus, fell on her knees before Him and begged Him:

— “Help! A demon has possessed my daughter. She is tormented. Please come and heal her, cast out the demon.

Jesus said to her:

— I have come for the sake of the Jews, because they are God’s children, and first of all I must feed them with bread. I cannot take the bread away from the children and give it to the dogs.

The woman said:

— Yes, that is true! But when the children eat bread at the table, crumbs fall on the floor and something goes to the dogs. The dog can take those crumbs and eat them. So can I…

Jesus said to her:

— Are you ready to be satisfied with crumbs? You can go home, the demon has already come out of your daughter.

The woman hurried home, entered the house, opened the door, and saw her daughter lying quietly on the bed, smiling, with no demon in her, and she was healthy.

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

Иисус пошел в город Тир. Там он зашел в один дом. Он хотел сделать это тайно, чтобы люди не знали. Но слух о Нем быстро распространялся, и все вскоре узнали, что Иисус находится там. Там была одна женщина. Она была не-еврейка. Они пришла к Иисусу, упала перед ним на колени и стала умолять Его:

— Помоги! В мою дочь вселился бес. Она мучается. Пожалуйста, приди, исцели ее, изгони беса.

Иисус сказал ей:

— Я пришел ради евреев, потому что они дети Божьи, и в первую очередь я должен накормить их хлебом. Я не могу забрать хлеб у детей и отдать его собакам.

Женщина сказала:

— Да, это так! Но когда за столом дети едят хлеб, крошки падают на полу и что-то перепадает собакам. Собака может брать эти крошки и есть. Так же и я…

Иисус сказал ей:

— Ты готова довольствоваться крошками? Ты можешь возвращаться домой, бес уже вышел из твоей дочери.

Женщина поспешила домой, вошла в дом, раскрыла дверь и видит: ее дочь спокойно лежит на кровати, улыбается, и никакого бес в ней больше нет и она здорова.

Back-translation by Luka Manevich

<< Mark 7:1-23 in Russian Sign Language
Mark 7:31-37 in Russian Sign Language >>

Mark 7:24b - 30 in Mexican Sign Language

Following is the translation of Mark 7:24b-30 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)

De repente una mujer lo descubrió y se acercó a él, se arrodilló y dijo: “Mi hija, una niña, tiene un demonio adentro, por favor expulsa el demonio.”

Jesús le dijo: “Yo ayudo primero a todas las personas judías. Por ejemplo, si los niños están alrededor de la mesa comiendo pan y el padre viene, les quita el pan y lo da al perro, y el perro lo come, ¿piensas que está bien? No.”

La mujer (dijo): “Sí, tienes razón, ¿pero si por ejemplo los niños están alrededor de la mesa comiendo pan y de repente por error algo cae y el perro lo come…?”

Jesús la miró (y dijo): “Bien, el demonio ya ha salido de tu hija. Puedes irte.”

La mujer se paró y se fue, y después fue a la casa y vio que su hija estaba acostada en la cama y que el demonio ya se había ido.

La mujer que se arrodilló y lo contó (a Jesús), esta mujer no era judía, había nacido en el lugar Sirofenicia.


Suddenly a woman discovered him, went up to him, knelt down and said: “My small daughter has a demon inside, please throw the demon out.”

Jesus said to her: “I first help all the Jewish people. For example, if the children are around the table eating bread and the father comes, takes away the bread and gives it to the dog, and the dog eats it, would you think that is good? No.”

The woman (said): “Yes, you’re right, but what if for example the children are eating around the table and suddenly by accident something falls on the floor and the dog eats it…?”

Jesus looked at her (and said): “Good, the demon has already left your daughter. You can go.”

The woman got up and left, and then she went home and saw that her daughter was lying in bed and that the demon had already left her.

The woman who just knelt and told (Jesus), this woman was not Jewish, she was born in the place Syrophoenicia.

Source: La Biblia en LSM / La Palabra de Dios

<< Mark 7:17b-24a in Mexican Sign Language
Mark 7:31 in Mexican Sign Language >>

See also Matthew 15:21-28 in Mexican Sign Language.

complete verse (Mark 7:26)

Following are a number of back-translations of Mark 7:26:

  • Uma: “In that village, there also was a woman, her daughter was possessed. When the woman heard that Yesus had arrived in the village, she came kneeling in front of him requesting-help, she said: ‘Expel for me the demon that has possessed my child!’ Yet that woman, she was not a Yahudi person, she was a Fenisia person from the land of Siria.” (Source: Uma Back Translation)
  • Yakan: “That woman was not a Yahudi but of the tribe Penisiya, from the country Siriya. Na, so-then she begged Isa asking him to cause the demon to come out of her daughter.” (Source: Yakan Back Translation)
  • Western Bukidnon Manobo: “She begged Jesus to cure her child who was afflicted with a demon. Now that woman was not a Jew; she was a Phoenician from the province of Syria. She spoke Greek.” (Source: Western Bukidnon Manobo Back Translation)
  • Kankanaey: “and entreated that he cause-to-leave the evil-spirit that had possessed her child. This woman was born in Fenisia a region of Syria and Greek was her language.” (Source: Kankanaey Back Translation)
  • Tagbanwa: “As for that woman, she was not a Judio. Where she had been born was there in Sirofenicia. She was asking help from Jesus that the evil spirit would be driven out which was possessing that child of hers.” (Source: Tagbanwa Back Translation)

demon

The Greek, Hebrew and Ge’ez that is typically translated/transliterated in English as “demon” is translated by other languages in the following ways:

  • Central Mazahua: “the evil spirit(s) of the devil” (source: Ellis Deibler in Notes on Translation July, 1967, p. 5ff.)
  • Kupsabiny: “bad spirit(s)” (source: Kupsabiny Back Translation)
  • Bariai: “bad bush-spirit(s)” (source: Bariai Back Translation)
  • Hausa: “unclean spirit” (see note below) (source: Hausa Common Language Back Translation)
  • Mandarin Chinese: “dirty spirit” (污灵 / wūlíng) (Protestant); “evil spirit/demon” （邪鬼 / xiéguǐ) (Catholic) (source: Zetzsche)
  • German translation by Fridolin Stier (1989): “false (or: perverted) spirit) (Abergeist).
  • Sissala: kaŋtɔŋ, which traditionally referred to “either a spirit of natural phenomena such as trees, rivers, stones, etc., or the spirit of a deceased person that has not been taken into the realm of the dead. Kaŋtɔŋ can be good or evil. Evil kaŋtɔŋ can bring much harm to people and are feared accordingly. A kaŋtɔŋ can also dwell in a person living on this earth. A person possessed by kaŋtɔŋ does not behave normally.” (Source: Regina Blass in Holzhausen 1991, p. 48f.)
  • Umiray Dumaget Agta: hayup or “creature, animal, general term for any non-human creature, whether natural or supernatural.” Thomas Headland (in: Notes on Translation, September 1971, p. 17ff.) explains some more: “There are several types of supernatural creatures, or spirit beings which are designated by the generic term hayup. Just as we have several terms in English for various spirit beings (elves, fairies, goblins, demons, imps, pixies) so have the Dumagats. And just as you will find vast disagreement and vagueness among English informants as to the differences between pixies and imps, etc., so you will find that no two Dumagats will agree as to the form and function of their different spirit beings.” This term can also be used in a verb form: hayupen: “creatured” or “to be killed, made sick, or crazy by a spirit.”
  • Yala: yapri̍ija ɔdwɔ̄bi̍ or “bad Yaprija.” Yaprijas are traditional spirits that have a range presumed activities including giving or withholding gifts, giving and protecting children, causing death and disease and rewarding good behavior. (Source: Eugene Bunkowske in Notes on Translation 78/1980, p. 36ff.)
  • Lamnso’: aànyùyi jívirì: “lesser gods who disturb, bother, pester, or confuse a person.” (Source: Fanwong 2013, p. 93)
  • Paasaal: gyɩŋbɔmɔ, “beings that are in the wild and can only be seen when they choose to reveal themselves to certain people. They can ‘capture’ humans and keep them in hiding while they train the person in herbalism and divination. After the training period, which can range from a week to many years, the ‘captured’ individual is released to go back into society as a healer and a diviner. The gyɩŋbɔmɔ can also be evil, striking humans with mental diseases and causing individuals to get lost in the wild. The Pasaale worldview about demons is like that of others of the language groups in the area, including the Northern Dagara [who use kɔ̃tɔmɛ with a similar meaning].” (Source: Fabian N. Dapila in The Bible Translator 2024, p. 415ff.)

In the still widely-used 1908 Tswana (also: Setswana) translation (by Robert Moffat, revised by Alfred Wookey), the term badino or “ancestor spirit” is used for “demon,” even though in the traditional understanding there is nothing inherently negative associated with that term. Musa Dube (in: Journal of Society of New Testament 73, 1999, p. 33ff. ) describes this as an example of “engaging in the colonization of the minds of natives and for advancing European imperial spaces. The death and burial of Setswana culture here was primarily championed through the colonization of their language such that it no longer served the interests of the original speakers. Instead the written form of language had equated their cultural beliefs with evil spirits, demons and wizardry. This colonization of Setswana was in itself the planting of a colonial cultural bomb, meant to clear the ground for the implantation of a worldwide Christian commonwealth and European consciousness. It was a minefield that marked Setswana cultural spaces as dangerous death zones, to be avoided by every intelligent Motswana reader or hearer of the translated text.”

In Kachin, the term Nat (or nat) us used for “demon” (as well as “devil” and “unclean/evil spirit“). Like in Tswana, the meaning of Nat is not inherently negative but can be positive in the traditional Nat worship as well. Naw Din Dumdaw (in The Bible Translator 2024, p. 94ff.) argues that “the demonization of Nat created a social conflict between Kachin Christians and Kachin non-Christians. Kachin converts began to perceive their fellow Kachins who were still worshipping Nats as demonic and they wanted to distance themselves from them. Likewise, the Nat-worshiping Kachin community perceived the Kachin converts as betrayers and enemies of their own cultural heritage. (…) The demonization of the word Nat was not only the demonization of the pre-Christian religion but also the demonization of the cultural heritage of the Kachin people. When the word Nat is perceived as demonic, it creates an existential dilemma for Kachin Christians. It distances them from their cultural traditions.”

Note that often the words for “demon” and “unclean spirit / evil spirit” are being used interchangeably.

See also devil and formal pronoun: demons or Satan addressing Jesus.

Japanese benefactives (oidashite)

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 benefactive construction as shown here in the widely-used Japanese Shinkaiyaku (新改訳) Bible of 2017.

Here, oidashite (追い出して) or “chase out” is used in combination with kudasaru (くださる), a respectful form of the benefactive kureru (くれる). A benefactive reflects the good will of the giver or the gratitude of a recipient of the favor. To convey this connotation, English translation needs to employ a phrase such as “for me (my sake)” or “for you (your sake).” (Source: S. E. Doi, see also S. E. Doi in Journal of Translation, 18/2022, p. 37ff. )

Translation commentary on Mark 7:26

Exegesis:

Hellēnis Surophoinikissa tō genei ‘Greek, Syrophoenician by race’: thus the evangelist defines her culture and religion (Greek, not Jew: perhaps the equivalent of Gentile, ‘pagan’ – cf. Lagrange païenne) and her nationality (Syrophoenician, as distinguished from the Libyophoenicians in North Africa).

genos (9.26) ‘nation,’ ‘people,’ ‘race’: the use of the word in this passage refers to her national (or racial) origin.

ērōta auton hina to daimonion ekbalē ‘she asked him to cast out the demon’: all of these words have already been dealt with: erōtaō (cf. 4.1) ‘make a request,’ ‘ask for (something)’; hina (cf. 5.10, 18) ‘that’ – indicating content, not purpose; to daimonion (cf. 1.34) ‘the demon’ – in this passage, as in the previous one, it is one and the same with ‘the unclean spirit’; ekballō (cf. 1.12) ‘cast out,’ ‘drive out.’

Translation:

A Greek, Syrophoenician by birth is not an easy expression to translate, without at least a little contextual setting, since in many translations the transliterated words Greek and Syrophoenician will mean absolutely nothing. Since the first of these denoted culture and the latter ethnic origin, one can say ‘Greek was her language and Syrophoenicia her tribe’ (Tzeltal, Southern Subanen). Syrophoenician may also be translated as ‘a native of that region,’ since Tyre and Sidon have already been mentioned in verse 24. The fact that person of a particular tribal background speaks the language of another group is a very common phenomenon in many parts of the world. Moreover, since language is the most universally recognized symbol of cultural relationship (that is, participation within a cultural group), this usage will properly reflect the meaning of the Greek text. Otherwise, there is an unresolved conflict involving two ethnic groups, and the meaning is often left quite obscure, not to say, entirely misleading. For example, in one language the literal translation really meant that she was born in the city of Syrophoenicia, a place in Greece, and in another rendering she was presumably from a Greek tribe called Syrophoenicia.

For cast the demon out see 1.26, 32, 34.

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 .