He gave sight to the physically and spiritually blind (image)

“In the religious cultures of Asia, it is often believed that people are blind because of their past karma. The blind often resort to begging in order to survive. Here the blind man stretches out his arms in a polite way to receive a donation but instead he connects with a healing touch. The onlookers are shocked to see Jesus making physical connection with a lowly beggar with bad karma.”

Drawing by Sawai Chinnawong who employs northern and central Thailand’s popular distinctive artistic style originally used to depict Buddhist moral principles and other religious themes; explanation by Paul DeNeui. From That Man Who Came to Save Us by Sawai Chinnawong and Paul H. DeNeui, William Carey Library, 2010.

For more images by Sawai Chinnawong in TIPs see here.

Learn more on Bible Odyssey: Divine Power in Mark 8 .

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).”

village

The Hebrew and Greek that is translated as “village” or “town” in English is translated in Noongar as karlamaya or “fire (used for “home“) + houses” (source: Warda-Kwabba Luke-Ang).

In Elhomwe it is typically translated as “place.” “Here in Malawi, villages very small, so changed to ‘places,’ since not sure whether biblical reference just to small villages or also to bigger towns. (Source: project-specific translation notes in Paratext)

Mark 8:22 - 26 in Mexican Sign Language

Following is the translation of Mark 8:22-26 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)

Jesús y los discípulos en el barco llegaron al pueblo Betsaida. Allá había un hombre ciego y la gente lo ayudaron guiandolo hacía Jesús. Dijeron: “Jesús, por favor, pon tus manos sobre él y sanalo.”

Jesús cabeceó y guió el hombre y fueron los dos aparte. Estaban parados frente a la otra y Jesús escupió en los ojos del hombre y puso las manos en sus ojos. Jesús dijo: “¿Puedes ver?”

El hombre miró pero no vio bien, era borroso, las personas caminando parecían árboles moviendo. Jesús otra vez puso las manos en los ojos del hombre y el hombre miró, no vio bien, se esforzó pero era borroso, abrió los ojos y vio bien.

Jesús dijo: “Ahorita no vayas al pueblo, mejor vayas a casa.”


Jesus and the disciples in the boat arrived at the village of Betsaida. There was a blind man there and the people helped him by guiding him towards Jesus. They said: “Jesus, please, lay your hands on him and heal him.”

Jesus nodded and took the man and the two of them went away from the rest. They stood opposite each other and Jesus spit on the man’s eyes and laid his hands on his eyes. Jesus said: “Can you see?”

The man looked but he did not see well, it was blurry, the people walking looked like trees moving. Again Jesus put his hands on his eyes and the man looked, did not see well, he tried hard but it was blurry, opened his eyes wide and saw well.

Jesus said: “Don’t go into the village right now, you had better go home.”

Source: La Biblia en LSM / La Palabra de Dios

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Mark 8:27-30 in Mexican Sign Language >>

Mark 8:22-26 in Russian Sign Language

Following is the translation of Mark 8:22-26 into Russian Sign Language with a back-translation underneath:


Source: Russian Bible Society / Российское Библейское Общество

Jesus and his disciples came by boat to the village of Bethsaida. The people recognized that he was there, so they brought a blind man to him and asked him:

— Touch him!

Jesus took the blind man aside, moistened the blind man’s eyes with saliva and put his hands to his eyes and asked him:

— Do you see anything?

The blind man opened his eyes and saw everything around him as if in a fog. He said:

— I see as if trees were here. Or maybe it’s people walking around . . ..

Jesus put His hands on the blind man’s eyes once more, and the blind man finally received his sight and began to see everything with clear eyes. He rejoiced greatly.

Jesus said to the man:

— Go home and do not return to the village.

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

Иисус с учениками на лодке прибыли в селение Вифсаида. Люди узнали, что он здесь, и привели к нему слепого и попросили:

— Коснись его!

Иисус отвел слепого в сторону, смочил глаза слепого слюной и приложил к его глазам свои руки и спросил у него:

— Видишь ли ты что-нибудь?

Слепой открыл глаза и видел все вокруг, как будто в тумане. Он сказал:

— Я вижу, как будто деревья здесь. А может, это и люди ходят…

Иисус еще раз приложил свои руки к глазам слепого, и тот прозрел окончательно и стал все видеть ясными глазами. Он очень обрадовался.

Иисус сказал этому человеку:

— Иди домой, а в деревню не возвращайся.

Back-translation by Luka Manevich

<< Mark 8:14-21 in Russian Sign Language
Mark 8:27-30 in Russian Sign Language >>

complete verse (Mark 8:23)

Following are a number of back-translations of Mark 8:23:

  • Uma: “Yesus held his hand and lead him outside the village. He spit on his eyes and touched them. After that, he asked him: ‘Do you see anything?'” (Source: Uma Back Translation)
  • Yakan: “So-then Isa took the hand of the blind person and he led him (by the hand) taking him outside of that group-of-houses. When they were there, Isa spit on the eyes of the person and placed his hands on the eyes of the person. And then he asked the person, ‘Do you see anything?'” (Source: Yakan Back Translation)
  • Western Bukidnon Manobo: “And Jesus led that blind person outside the village, and then Jesus spit on the eyes of the blind man and placed his hands on him, and he asked him if he could see anything.” (Source: Western Bukidnon Manobo Back Translation)
  • Kankanaey: “When that was so, Jesus took-the blind-one’s -hand and led-him to the edge of the town. He spit on his eyes, then he laid-his-hands-on-(them) and said, ‘Do you (sing.) see anything?'” (Source: Kankanaey Back Translation)
  • Tagbanwa: “Jesus led-by-hand that blind person, taking him outside the town. Jesus applied his saliva to the eyes and then touched/put-his-hand-on them. ‘Well,’ he said, ‘can you see anything?'” (Source: Tagbanwa Back Translation)

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

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, ik-are-ru (行かれる) or “go” is used.

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