spit and touched

The Greek that is translated as “(then he) spit and touched” is translated in Quetzaltepec Mixe in (linguistically required) greater detail as “Jesus spit on his own fingers and then put his fingers on the eyes of the blind man (or: the tongue of the mute man).”

touch

The Greek that is translated as “touch” in English is translated in the German translation by Fridolin Stier (1989) as “(touch and) hold on to” (festhalten).

Mark 7:32 - 37 in Mexican Sign Language

Following is the translation of Mark 7:32-37 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)

Un hombre sordo que no hablaba bien, las personas lo ayudaron (y lo dijeron que) vieniera con ellos. Fueron y dijeron a Jesús: “Él es sordo, por favor, ponle la mano y sanalo.”

Jesús (le hizo señal a que) vieniera, y fueron los dos a donde no había gente. Jesús puso los dedos en los oídos del hombre, escupió en sus dedos, metió los dedos y tocó la lengua del hombre. Entonces Jesús miró al cielo, suspiró y dijo: “Efata”, que significa ‘abre’ y al instante los oídos del hombre se abrieron y podía oír y hablar bien.

Los dos regresaron y Jesús dijo a las personas: “No digan nada, silencio, es un secreto.”

Las personas hablaban y lo decían a muchos, y Jesús les dijo que fueran silenciosos. Pero seguían diciendo y contandolo y se difundía: Jesús puede hacer todo bien, igual otra persona sorda que no puede hablar, Jesús puede mandarlo y el oído se abre, y puede hablar bien ¡huy, es increíble!”


A deaf man who didn’t speak well was helped by people who told him to come with them. They went and said to Jesus: “He is deaf, please put your hand on him and heal him.”

Jesus (gestured to him ) to come, and the two of them went to where there were no people. Jesus put his fingers in the man’s ears, spit on his fingers, stretched them out and touched the tongue of the man. Then Jesus looked up heaved a great sigh and said: “Ephphatha”, which means ‘open’ and at once the ears of the man were opened and he could hear and speak well.

The two of them came back and Jesus said to the people: “Don’t say anything, be quite, it’s a secret.”

The people talked and told many, but Jesus told them to be quiet. They continued telling people and it spread widely: Jesus can do everything well, in the same way another deaf person that cannot not talk, Jesus can order him and his ears open and he can speak well, wow it’s incredible!”

Source: La Biblia en LSM / La Palabra de Dios

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Mark 7:31-37 in Russian Sign Language

Following is the translation of Mark 7:31-37 into Russian Sign Language with a back-translation underneath:


Source: Russian Bible Society / Российское Библейское Общество

From the neighborhood of Tyre Jesus went to Sidon. There was a lake in Galilee and 10 towns near it. Jesus went out to the lake in the area where the towns were. As Jesus was walking, crowds of people gathered. There was one man there who was deaf. Jesus was told:

— This man here is deaf, he cannot speak. Lay your hands on him, maybe then he will begin to hear and begin to talk.

Jesus took the deaf man to a secluded place where there were no witnesses. There they were left alone. Jesus laid his hands on the deaf man’s ears, then spat on his fingers and touched his mouth, then prayed and said in a loud voice: “Ephphatha!” That means, “Open up.”

And the deaf man began to hear! He heard everything perfectly. He had not been able to speak before, but now he spoke with a clear voice.

Jesus and the man who used to be deaf went out to the people. Those were amazed and said to each other:

— He can speak! He hears perfectly and can speak!

Jesus turned to the people:

— Don’t tell anyone about this miracle — that he used to be deaf and then he began to hear, you’d better keep quiet.

The people agreed, but it was useless. The more Jesus forbade, the more people talked about him. When all the crowd dispersed, people began to spread the news about Jesus, how he was able to heal the deaf man, who began to hear everything and speak clearly.

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

Из окрестностей Тира Иисус пошел в Сидон. В Галилее было озеро, а рядом с ним 10 городов. Иисус вышел к озеру в той области, где были эти города. Пока Иисус шел, собирались толпы народа. Там был один человек, который был глухим. Иисусу сказали:

— Вот этот человек — глухой, он не может говорить. Возложи на него руки, может быть, тогда он начнет слышать и начнет разговаривать.

Иисус повел глухого в уединенное место, где не было свидетелей. Там они остались наедине. Иисус возложил руки на уши глухого, затем плюнул себе на пальцы и прикоснулся к его рту, потом начал молиться и громко сказал: Еффафа! Это означает «Откройся».

И глухой начал слышать! Он все отлично слышал. Раньше он не мог разговаривать, а теперь он говорил чистым голосом.

Иисус и человек, который раньше был глухим вышли к людям. Те были поражены и говорили друг другу:

— Он может говорить! Он слышит прекрасно и может говорить!

Иисус обратился к народу:

— Не рассказывайте никому об этом чуде — что раньше он был глухой, а потом начал слышать, лучше молчите.

Люди согласились, но все было бесполезно. Чем больше Иисус запрещал, тем больше люди говорили о Нем. Когда все толпа разошлась, люди стали распространять весть об Иисусе, как он смог исцелить глухого, тот начал все слышать и чисто говорить.

Back-translation by Luka Manevich

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Mark 8:1-10 in Russian Sign Language >>

complete verse (Mark 7:33)

Following are a number of back-translations of Mark 7:33:

  • Uma: “Yesus took the person from the midst of the crowd. After he had taken him off by himself, he stuck his fingers in both his ears, he spit and he touched the person’s tongue.” (Source: Uma Back Translation)
  • Yakan: “So-then Isa took the man away (lit. leaving) from the crowd. Then he placed his forefingers into the ears of the man. He also spit and then touched the man’s tongue.” (Source: Yakan Back Translation)
  • Western Bukidnon Manobo: “Jesus led that man because he would take him apart from the people, and he stuck his finger here in the ear of the deaf person, and he wet his finger with his saliva and rubbed it on the tongue of the person.” (Source: Western Bukidnon Manobo Back Translation)
  • Kankanaey: “When that was so, Jesus separated the deaf-one from the many-people and they were alone (lit. they were two). After-that he inserted his finger in the man’s ear, then he spit-on his finger and placed-it (same root as lay-hands-on) on the man’s tongue.” (Source: Kankanaey Back Translation)
  • Tagbanwa: “What Jesus did was he led him a short distance away from everybody and then poked his finger into the ear of that person. And then he spat and applied-some to his tongue.” (Source: Tagbanwa Back Translation)

Honorary "rare" construct denoting God ("touch")

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 rare (られ) 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, sarawa-rare-ru (さわられる) or “touch” is used.

(Source: S. E. Doi, see also S. E. Doi in Journal of Translation, 18/2022, p. 37ff. )

Translation commentary on Mark 7:33

Exegesis:

apolabomenos auton apo tou ochlou kat’ idian ‘taking him aside away from the crowd by himself.’

apolambanō (only here in Mark) ‘take aside,’ ‘take away.’

kat’ idian (cf. 4.34) ‘privately,’ ‘alone,’ ‘by himself.’

ebalen tous daktulous autou ‘he put his fingers.’

ballō here means ‘put,’ ‘place.’

daktulon (only here in Mark) ‘finger.’

eis ta ōta autou ‘into his ears’; i.e. Jesus placed his fingers in the ears of the deaf man.

ous (cf. 4.9) ‘ear.’

ptusas hēpsato tēs glōssēs autou ‘spitting he touched his tongue’: i.e. Jesus spat and touched the tongue of the deaf man.

ptuō (8.23) ‘spit’: the text does not say precisely what was the purpose of the action. From the parallel incident narrated in 8.23 it may be deduced that Jesus touched the tongue of the deaf man with the saliva (cf. Moffatt, Goodspeed; cf. Lagrange).

haptomai (cf. 1.41) ‘touch.’

glōssē (7.35; 16.17) ‘tongue.’

Translation:

There are a number of possibilities of misunderstanding in this verse resulting from (1) indefinite pronominal reference in some languages and (2) the relationship of the spitting to the touching of the tongue. In the first place one must make certain that Jesus put his own fingers into the man’s ears (this is obscure and misleading in some translations). In the second place, we do not know where Jesus spat. If the interpretation is that Jesus only spat on the ground to indicate the fact that the demon had gone out, that is often one type of expression but if Jesus spat directly onto the man’s tongue (implying some therapeutic value in the spittle), that would often be quite a different way of speaking. There is, of course, still another possibility, namely, that Jesus would spit on his own finger and then touch the man’s tongue with his saliva-moistened finger. Translators often feel a certain reluctance in the idea of Jesus either spitting on the man’s tongue or touching the tongue with saliva (a feeling of repugnance growing out of quite contemporary concepts of hygiene), but in many parts of the world saliva is still regarded as a means of blessing (Shilluk) or therapy (Yaka). There is essentially nothing strange nor unbecoming in this type of healing procedure.

There are several minor problems involved in this verse. For example one must often specify which finger goes into the ear of the man, since the use of the plural here ‘fingers’ would in some instances mean a group of fingers in each ear. If, moreover, one means to interpret this verse as ‘spitting on the ground and then touching the tongue with a finger,’ this must imply either that one finger is taken out of the ear, or that another was used (some translations have Jesus’ index finger in two places at the same time).

It is impossible to say precisely how one must translate this passage, for there are obvious alternative renderings. The important thing is that the rendering make sense, in keeping with at least one standard interpretation.

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 .