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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 to do this is through the usage (or a lack) of an honorific prefix as shown here in the widely-used Japanese Shinkaiyaku (新改訳) Bible of 2017.
The Hebrew and Greek that is translated as “ask” in English is translated in the Shinkaiyaku Bible as o-tazune (お尋ね), combining “inquire” (tazune) with the respectful prefix o-. (Source: S. E. Doi, see also S. E. Doi in Journal of Translation, 18/2022, p. 37ff. )
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 vio a todas las personas y dijo a los discípulos: “Todas las personas ya han estado junto con nosotros por tres días, ellos no tienen comida, se ha acabado.
Sus casas, donde viven, están lejos, y si nos despedimos de ellos, se irán caminando y se caerán por ser mareados de hambre, siento dolor por los pobrecitos.”
Los discípulos dijeron: “Aqui es desierto, no hay comida, ¿Cómo y dónde vamos a encontrar pan para repartir?”
Jesús dijo: “¿Cuánto pan hay?” Los discípulos: “Hay siete panes.”
Jesús dijo a las personas: “Por favor, sientense.” Jesús tomó pan, dio gracias a Dios, rompió el pan y lo puso en una canasta, rompía y lo ponía hasta que se llenó la canasta, y la dio a los discípulos. Ellos la tomaron y lo repartían.
Había unos peces pequeños, muy poquito, y Jesús los bendijo y había un montón. Les dio la canasta (a los discípulos): “Uds repartanlos.” Los discípulos tomaron la canasta y los repartían.
Todas las personas, eran más o menos 4000, estaban comiendo hasta que se llenaron y los discípulos pusieron los peces y el pan que sobró en canastas. Cuando se llenó una canasta la pusieron aparte, tomaron otra canasta y la llenaron y fueron siete canastas de sobras.
Jesús se despidió de ellos y Jesús y los discípulos fueron y entraron un barco y el barco fue navigando.
Jesus looked around at all the people and said to the disciples: “All these people have been with us for three days and they have no food, it’s all gone.
“The houses in which they live are far away and if we say goodbye to them they will go walking and they will fall over being dizzy from hunger, I feel sorry for these poor people.”
The disciples said: “It’s desert here, there is no food. How and where are we going to find bread to hand out?”
Jesus said: “How much bread is there?” The disciples: “There are seven loaves.”
Jesus said to the people: “Please, sit down.” Jesus took bread and gave thanks to God, then he broke the bread and put it in a basket, he kept breaking and putting it there until it was full, then he gave the basket to the disciples and they took it and handed it out.
There were some small fishes, a few, and Jesus blessed them and there was a heap. He gave the basket (to the disciples): “You hand them out.” The disciples took the basket and handed them out.
All the people, there were more or less 4000, ate until they were full and the disciples put the fishes and the bread that were left over in baskets. When a basket was full, they would put it aside and take another one and fill it, and there were seven baskets of leftovers.
Jesus said goodbye and Jesus and the disciples went and got into a boat and the boat left.
Many people had gathered to listen to Jesus. Jesus was teaching the people. But the people did not have any food with them. Jesus said to his disciples:
— I feel sorry for these people! They have been here with me for three days, but they have no food. If I let the people go hungry, some will become weak on the long journey.
The disciples began to say:
— It’s a desert here! Where are we going to get so much bread to feed such a crowd? We won’t be able to.
Jesus said:
— Maybe some of you have some bread. Look and see if you can find some. The disciples looked and found seven loaves.
Jesus asked all the people to sit down on the ground. He took the bread in his hands and began to pray to God by saying, “Thank you, God!” Then he broke the loaves and gave them to the disciples to distribute to the people. And the disciples went to distribute the bread to the people. There were also a few fish.
Jesus took the fish, looked up to heaven, said the prayer, “Thank you, God” and gave the disciples to distribute the fish to all the people.
There were about four thousand people in all who ate and had enough to eat.
Jesus said to the disciples:
— Gather the leftover pieces of food into baskets.
The disciples went to gather the leftovers, and there were seven baskets full of leftovers. When the people had eaten, Jesus let the people go, and he and his disciples got on a boat and sailed to the region of Dalmanutha.
Original Russian back-translation (click or tap here):
Собралось множество людей, чтобы послушать Иисуса. Иисус учил народ. Но у людей не было с собой еды. Иисус сказал своим ученикам:
— Мне жаль этих людей! Они уже со мной тут три дня, но у них нет еды. Если я отпущу народ голодным, кто-то ослабеет в дальней дороге.
Ученики стали говорить:
— Тут пустыня! Где мы возьмем столько хлеба, чтобы накормить такую толпу? Мы не сможем.
Иисус сказал:
— Может быть, у кого-то из вас есть хлеб. Посмотрите, поищите. Ученики поискали и нашли семь хлебов.
Иисус попросил весь народ сесть на землю. Он взял хлеб в руки и стал молиться Богу со словами «Благодарю тебя, Боже!» Затем он разломил хлеба и дал ученикам, чтобы они раздали народу. И ученики пошли раздавать народу хлеб. Также было еще несколько рыб.
Иисус взял рыбу, посмотрел на небо, произнес молитву «Благодарю тебя, Боже…» и дал ученикам, чтобы те раздали рыбу все людям.
Всего людей, которые ели и наелись досыта, было около четырех тысяч.
Иисус сказал ученикам:
— Соберите оставшиеся куски еды в корзины.
Ученики пошли собирать остатки еды, и остатков набралось полных семь корзин. Когда народ наелся, Иисус отпустил людей, а сам с учениками сел на лодку и поплыл область Далманута.
Following are a number of back-translations of Mark 8:5:
Uma: “He asked them: ‘How much bread to you have?’ They said to him: ‘Seven.'” (Source: Uma Back Translation)
Yakan: “So-then Isa asked them, ‘How many loaves/pieces of bread have you there?’ They said, ‘Seven.'” (Source: Yakan Back Translation)
Western Bukidnon Manobo: “And Jesus said, ‘How much bread do you have?’ And they said, ‘Seven pieces.'” (Source: Western Bukidnon Manobo Back Translation)
Kankanaey: “‘How many breads do you have?’ inquired Jesus. ‘Seven,’ they said.” (Source: Kankanaey Back Translation)
Tagbanwa: “‘Well how many units of bread do you have there?’ said Jesus to them. ‘Lord,’ they said, ‘only seven units is all there is.'” (Source: Tagbanwa Back Translation)
Like many languages (but unlike Greek or Hebrew or English), Tuvan uses a formal vs. informal 2nd person pronoun (a familiar vs. a respectful “you”). Unlike other languages that have this feature, however, the translators of the Tuvan Bible have attempted to be very consistent in using the different forms of address in every case a 2nd person pronoun has to be used in the translation of the biblical text.
As Voinov shows in Pronominal Theology in Translating the Gospels (in: The Bible Translator2002, p. 210ff. ), the choice to use either of the pronouns many times involved theological judgment. While the formal pronoun can signal personal distance or a social/power distance between the speaker and addressee, the informal pronoun can indicate familiarity or social/power equality between speaker and addressee.
Here, Jesus is addressing his disciples, individuals and/or crowds with the formal pronoun, showing respect.
In most Dutch translations, Jesus addresses his disciples and common people with the informal pronoun, whereas they address him with the formal form.
Living Water is produced for the Bible translation movement in association with Lutheran Bible Translators. Lyrics derived from the ESV® Bible (The Holy Bible, English Standard Version®).
Loaves may require expansion to ‘loaves of bread.’
They said may be translated as ‘they replied.’
The elliptical elements implied in the reply ‘seven’ may need some expansion in certain languages, e.g. ‘we have seven loaves of bread,’ ‘we have seven loaves’ or simply ‘seven loaves,’ for in a number of languages numerals must always be used with the nouns they modify or with some classifier of the noun class to which such objects belong.
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 .
Jesus did not answer the disciples’ objection. Instead, he asked them a specific question about how much food they had. In some languages it may be helpful to include a connector here to indicate that Jesus did not answer as the disciples expected him to. For example:
But Jesus asked them
See the note on “Jesus asked” at the end of the notes for this verse.
How many loaves do you have?: This is a real question, not a rhetorical question. Jesus wanted his disciples to find out how much bread they already had.
loaves: The word loaves is the same word in Greek as the word that the Berean Standard Bible translates as “bread” in 8:4b. 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 8:4b. 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:
How many loaves of bread do you have? (New Living Translation, 1996 edition) -or-
How much bread do you have? (Good News Bible)
See how you translated “bread” and loaves in 6:37c and 6:38a.
Jesus asked: In the Greek text, Jesus asked comes before the question. The Berean Standard Bible places it after the quotation. Place it where it is natural in your language. See the General Comment on 8:5a–b for a suggestion about indirect speech.
8:5b
Seven: The Berean Standard Bible literally translates the one Greek word “seven” here. In some languages, it will be more natural to say “seven loaves of bread.” For example, the Good News Bible says:
Seven loaves.
If you translated “loaves” in 8:5a with a general word for food, you will then need to use a specific word for bread here. Use a term that can be counted and divided. For example, the Contemporary English Version says:
Seven small loaves of bread.
In some languages it may be more natural to express their answer as a complete sentence. For example:
We have seven loaves of bread.
they replied: The Berean Standard Bible places the words they replied after the disciples’ reply. In Greek these words come before the reply. Place them where it is natural in your language.
General Comment on 8:5a–b
It may be more natural in some languages to express Jesus’ question in indirect speech. For example, the Contemporary English Version says:
Jesus asked them how much food they had.
In some languages it may also be more natural to express the disciples’ response in indirect speech. For example:
They told him that they had seven loaves of bread.
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All Scripture quotations in this publication, unless otherwise indicated, are from The Holy Bible, Berean Standard Bible.
BSB is produced in cooperation with Bible Hub, Discovery Bible, OpenBible.com, and the Berean Bible Translation Committee.
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