Ephphatha

The Greek and Aramaic in Mark 7:34 that is translated as “‘Ephphatha’, that is, “Be opened.'” in English is translated in Balangingi as “in his own language ‘Ephphata.’ Its meaning in Balangingi is ‘would that your ears might hear.'” (Source: B. Moore / G. Turner in Notes on Translation 1967, p. 1ff.)

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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complete verse (Mark 7:34)

Following are a number of back-translations of Mark 7:34:

  • Uma: “After that, he look-up to the sky, sighed [lit., pulled his breath], and said: ‘Open!’ (In the Yahudi language, it sounds like this: ‘Efata!’)” (Source: Uma Back Translation)
  • Yakan: “So-then Isa looked up to the sky and took a deep breath and he said to the man, ‘Eppata.’ That means, ‘Open (pl.)'” (Source: Yakan Back Translation)
  • Western Bukidnon Manobo: “And Jesus looked up to the sky and breathed deeply, and he said, ‘Ipata,’ which is to say, ‘Be opened!'” (Source: Western Bukidnon Manobo Back Translation)
  • Kankanaey: “Then he looked-up to heaven sighing and he said in their language, ‘Eppata,’ its meaning being: ‘(You (sing.)) be opened.'” (Source: Kankanaey Back Translation)
  • Tagbanwa: “Jesus looked up to heaven/sky and sighed (lit. took a deep breath) through the big-size of his pity. And then he said to that person, ‘Effrata!’ which means, ‘Be-opened!'” (Source: Tagbanwa Back Translation)

heaven

Greek, Hebrew, Latin, Ge’ez, and Aramaic all have one term only that refers to what can be expressed in English as “sky” or “heaven(s)” (as a physical and spiritual entity). While there is a slight overlap between the meaning of the two English terms, “sky” (from Old Norse sky meaning “cloud”) typically refers to the physical entity, and “heaven” (from Old English heofon meaning “home of God”) typically refers to the spiritual entity. While this enriches the English lexicon, it also forces English Bible translators to make decisions that can be found only in the context in the Greek, Hebrew, and Aramaic texts. Most versions tend to use “heaven(s)” even if the meaning is likely “sky,” but the Contemporary English Version (NT: 1991, OT: 1995, DC: 1999) is an English translation that attempted to be more specific in the separation of the two meanings and was used as the basis for the links to verses used for this and this record (“sky”).

Norm Mundhenk (in The Bible Translator 2006, p. 92ff. ) describes the difficulty that English translations face (click or tap here to see more):

“A number of years ago an old lady asked me a question. What did Jesus mean when he said, ‘Heaven and earth will pass away, but my words will never pass away’? I do not remember what answer I gave, but I was surprised at how concerned she seemed to be about the verse. It was only later, after I had left her, that I suddenly realized what it was that she was so concerned about. She knew that death could not be far away, and all her life she had looked forward to being with God in heaven. But this verse said that ‘heaven will pass away’! What did that mean for her hopes? In fact, of course, in this verse Jesus was talking about the skies or the heavens, not about Heaven as the place of God’s presence. If I had realized the problem in time, I could easily have set the lady’s mind at rest on this question that was troubling her so much. However, I suspect that she is not the only person to be misled by the wording of this verse. Therefore, it is very surprising to find that even today many English versions (including the New International Version, New Revised Standard Version, Revised English Bible, Good News Translation) still say ‘heaven and earth’ in verses like Matt 24:35 and its parallels (Mark 13:31 and Luke 21:33). The Contemporary English Version (CEV) and Phillips’ translation seem to be aware of the problem, and in Mark 13:31 both of these have ‘earth and sky’ instead of ‘heaven and earth.’ But in some other passages (such as Matt 5:18) the traditional wording is still found in both of those translations. The New Century Version (NCV) does have ‘earth and sky’ more consistently, and the New Jerusalem Bible (NJB) has ‘sky and earth’ in these passages. (Although ‘sky and earth’ is closer to the Greek, it seems more natural in English to say ‘earth and sky’; but either way, at least the meaning is correct.)

“Louw and Nida’s Lexical Semantics of the Greek New Testament (publ. 1992) suggests that the Greek expression being translated here, ho ouranos kai he ge is ‘a more or less fixed phrase equivalent to a single lexical unit’ and that it means everything that God created, that is, the universe. They then quote Mark 13:31 as an example, using ‘heaven and earth’ in their translation of it. However, they go on to say that there ‘may be certain complications involved in rendering ho ouranos kai he ge as ‘heaven and earth,’ since ‘heaven’ might be interpreted in some languages as referring only to the dwelling place of God himself. The referents in this passage are ‘the sky and the earth,’ in other words, all of physical existence, but not the dwelling place of God, for the latter would not be included in what is destined to pass away.’ In my opinion, English itself is one of the languages where the word ‘heaven’ will be interpreted as referring only to the dwelling place of God himself, and translations into English should not use ‘heaven’ in these passages. It is probably because these passages are so very familiar that translators do not realize the meaning they are giving their readers when they use the expression ‘heaven and earth’ here. In modern English we might talk about a rocket ‘soaring into the heavens,’ but we would certainly not describe it as ‘soaring into heaven,’ because ‘heaven’ is not another way of referring to the sky or to outer space.

“In fact, it is surely important in all languages to have some way of distinguishing the concept of ‘sky’ from the concept of ‘dwelling place of God.’ In these passages translators should never use a term meaning ‘the dwelling place of God.’ It may not be necessary to use a term meaning ‘sky’ either, if there is some other expression in the language which gives the correct meaning of ‘everything that has been created’ or ‘the universe.’ There are of course places in the New Testament where Heaven, as the place where God lives, is contrasted with the earth. In these passages, translators should be careful to give the correct meaning. A good example of this is in the Lord’s Prayer, in Matt 6:10: ‘Your will be done, on earth as it is in heaven.’ Similarly, 1 Cor 15:47 says that ‘the first man [a reference to Adam] was from the earth, a man of dust; the second man is from heaven.’ Passages like these are referring to Heaven, not to the sky. Other NT passages where heaven refers to God’s dwelling place, in contrast with earth, are Matt 5:34-35, 16:19, 18:18, Acts 7:49, James 5:12, and Rev 5:3.

“Sometimes in the New Testament, the word ‘heaven’ is used because of the Jewish reluctance to use the name of God. ‘Heaven’ in these cases is used in place of ‘God’ and refers to God himself. This is the case in the many references in Matthew to ‘the kingdom of heaven’ where other gospels have ‘the kingdom of God’ (e.g., compare Matt 4:17 with its parallels in Mark 1:15 and Luke 10:9). It is also most likely the case in references like Matt 16:1, Luke 20:4, 5, John 3:27, and even perhaps Col 1:5.

“There are some places, such as Matt 11:25, where God is called ‘Lord of heaven and earth.’ Since God is of course the Lord of Heaven as well as of the universe, it may not matter so much which interpretation is given in these passages (others are Luke 10:21 and Acts 17:24). Nevertheless, the intended meaning here is likely to be ‘the universe.’ This is because this expression in Greek, as Louw and Nida say, is a set expression referring to everything that has been created. Acts 17:24 in fact combines the idea of the creation of the universe with the idea of God as Master or Lord of the universe. (…)

“Old Testament background The use of ‘heaven and earth’ in the New Testament is very similar to what we find in the Old Testament, because it is largely based on the Old Testament.

“The Old Testament begins with the story of creation, which is presented as the creation of the heavens and the earth, with lights to shine in the heavens and give light to the earth. Birds are created to live in the heavens, animals to live on earth, and fish to live in the sea (Gen 1:1-2:4).

“As we can see from the way the creation story is told, it is meant to be understood as the creation of the universe. Although in English the regions above the earth have traditionally been called ‘the heavens’ in the story of creation, they cannot be called ‘Heaven,’ in the sense of the place where God dwells. In terms of modern English, it would probably be better to say ‘the sky and the earth’ or ‘the earth and the sky.’ The story of creation then becomes an important theme throughout the Old Testament. (…)

“In most passages, whether in the Old Testament or the New Testament, when ‘heaven and earth’ or ‘the heavens and the earth’ are mentioned, the meaning is the created universe. It is not a reference to Heaven, as the dwelling place of God. In English, translators have not been careful to keep this distinction clear, and this is probably true in many other languages as well. However, as we have seen, this can lead to real confusion for ordinary Bible readers. It is better if translators find ways to make the meaning clear in these passages. ‘Heaven’ should be mentioned only in passages which clearly mean the dwelling place of God. In other passages, an expression should be used which means only ‘sky.’ Or else, the whole expression ‘heaven and earth’ can be translated in a way to show that the whole universe is meant.”

Other languages that have a semantic distinction similar to English include (click or tap here to see more):

  • Hungarian: ég — “sky”; menny — “heaven”
  • Tagalog: kalawakan — “sky”; langit/kalangitan — “heaven”
  • Swedish: sky — “sky”; Himmel — “heaven”
  • Loma: “up” — “sky”; “God’s place” — heaven”
  • Mossi: saase — “sky”; nyingeri — “the up above”(source for Loma and Mossi: Bratcher/Nida)
  • Roviana: mamaṉa — “sly”; maṉauru — “heaven” (an old word, meaning “empty, open space of the sky”) (source: Carl Gross)
  • Kayaw: mô̄la or “canopy-under”/mô̄khû̄la or “canopy-above-under” — “sky” (atmosphere where there is just air); mô̄khû̄ or “canopy-on/above” — “heaven” (invisible abode of God and angels)
  • Burmese: မိုး ကောင်း ကင်/moe kaungg kain — “sky”; ကောင်း ကင်/kaungg kain — “sky” or “heaven”; ကောင်း ကင်ဗုံ/kaungg kain bone — “heaven”
  • Mairasi: Sinyavi — an indigenous term that is used for both “sky” and heaven”; Surga — loanword from Sanskrit via Indonesian referring to “heaven” (source: Enggavoter 2004)
  • Noongar: worl — “sky”; Boolanga-Yirakang Boodjer — “Country of God” (source: Warda-Kwabba Luke-Ang)
  • Kupsabiny: “up” for “sky” vs. “God’s Homestead” for “heaven” (source: Kupsabiny Back Translation)

In some languages, such as Yagaria, a term that was originally used as “sky” (gokudana) was adopted by the Christian community as “heaven.” This resulted in a language shift so that now all communities uses “empty space / air” (galogina or hakalogina) as “sky” and gokudana is exclusively used for the Christian concept of heaven. (Source: Renck 1990, p. 133)

Many languages follow the original biblical languages in not making that distinction, such as (click or tap here to see more):

  • Latin: caelum
  • Portuguese: céu
  • French: ciel
  • Italian: cielo
  • Catalan: cel
  • Russian and Ukrainian: небо/‘nebo
  • Finnish: taivas
  • Estonian: taevas
  • Dutch: hemel
  • Czech: nebe
  • Slovak: nebo
  • Danish: himmel
  • German: Himmel (see also heavens)
  • Mandarin Chinese: 天/tiān
  • Matumbi: kunani (lit. “up”) (source: Pioneer Bible Translators, project-specific notes in Paratext)
  • Cherokee: galaladi (ᎦᎸᎳᏗ) or “up” — Bender / Belt (2025, p. 23) note that there is a related term — galvlohi (ᎦᎸᎶᎯ) — that is used “for the upperworld of Cherokee cosmology, [but] was not used, possibly to communicate a sharp distinction.
  • Korean: 하늘/haneul
  • Amele: sao (source: John Roberts)
  • Kamo: yamba, which, when capitalized (Yamba), means “God” (source: David Frank)
  • Manchu: ᠠᠪᡴᠠ/abka

In some languages, such as Wandala, the vocabulary for terms for either “heaven” or “sky” is much richer than just to include those two distinction. While zhegela, the term that is specifically used for the physical sky was only used in early translations of the New Testament for “sky,” other terms such as samaya (used for both “sky” and “heaven”), zlanna (specifically used for the perfect abode of God and the goal of the faithful, as in Matthew 8:11), kwárá (a locational term used to speak of a chief’s rule [lit., “voice”] such as Matthew 3:2), or sleksire (“chieftaincy,” “kingship,” or “royalty” [originally from slekse “chief”] and used where there are no locational overtones, such as in Matthew 16:28) are used. (Source: Mona Perrin in Notes on Translation 1/1999, p. 51ff.)

Under the auspices of the Dhama Mate Swe Association , a new Burmese translation of the New Testament was published in 2024 which uses terminology that attempts to overcome “insurmountable barriers to the Buddhist world.” One term that this version uses is ရွှေမြို့တော် (shway myahoettaw) or “Golden City” for “heaven,” referring it to the golden city described in Revelation 21 but at the same time using a Buddhist term for a desired destination that does not have the Buddhist connotation of ကောင်း ကင် (kaungg kain) as being the Trāyastriṃśa (တာဝတိံသာ) heaven, home of Śakra/Indra. This Burmese translation formed the basis of translations of parts of the New Testament into other languages spoken in Burma, including Sumtu Chin, Ekai Chin, Songlai Chin, Danau, Kadu, Kanan, Khün, Lahta Karen, Rakhine, Marma (Northern Rakhine), Riang Lai, Samtao, Shwe Palaung, Tai Laing, Taungyo, Intha, Danu, Tavoyan (Dawei), and Chak (Thet). (Source: Jay Pratt)

The English translation by Sarah Ruden (2021) uses “sky” throughout. Ruden explains (p. li): “The Greek word ouranos refers evenhandedly to the physical sky and the place—often pictured as a royal court — where supreme divinity resides. ‘Sky’ seems generally better, first of all in avoiding the wackier modern imagery that comes with the English ‘heaven.’ And even when a supernatural realm is meant, ‘sky’ will often do, because the divine realm was thought to be located there, in addition to the weather and the heavenly bodies, whereas ‘heaven’ to us is fundamentally a religious term, and the ancients did not tend to separate linguistic domains in this way. I have retained the plural ‘skies’ where I see it in the Greek, because it is a Hebraism familiar in English translations of scripture and (I hope) not too archaic or jarring.”

Honorary "are" construct denoting God ("say")

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 are (され) 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, iw-are-ru (言われる) or “say” is used.

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

Translation commentary on Mark 7:34

Exegesis:

anablepsas eis ton ouranon (cf. 6.41) ‘looking up to heaven’: in an attitude of prayer.

estenaxen (only here in Mark) ‘he sighed,’ ‘he groaned’: an expression of deep emotion. Lagrange takes it to be a prayer quickly uttered.

ephphatha (only here in the N.T.) is the Greek transliteration of the Aramaic ’ethpatah the causative of phathah ‘open,’ Preserving the Aramaic word, the evangelist gives its Greek equivalent for the benefit of his readers.

dianoigō (only here in Mark; cf. anoigō next verse) ‘open,’ ‘open thoroughly.’

Translation:

Looking up to heaven may need to be rendered as ‘looking up toward heaven,’ ‘to’ would imply ‘into’ or ‘seeing heaven itself.’

Ephphatha must be transliterated, but all such resulting forms must be carefully checked to see to it that they do not have meaning in the indigenous language. For example, in Tzeltal the closest equivalent transliteration (based on Spanish, as the national language of the area) would be epata, meaning ‘you have found a great deal,’ a meaning which obviously could not be adjusted to the following explanation. Accordingly, the transliteration was changed slightly to epjata (in which the j represents a degree of aspiration), which has no meaning. As a basic principle, therefore, we can say that transliterations should reflect the closest possible correspondence with the source language, except where the resultant forms in the receptor language have meanings of their own.

Be opened is a kind of passive command, a form which is not found in some languages. Moreover, it is presumably relatable to the ears, but is addressed to the man. The closest equivalent in some languages is ‘your ears will be open’ or ‘open up, ears.’

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 .