Retrotraducciones en español (haga clic o pulse aquí)
Jesús y los discípulos se fueron a Galilea. Jesús no quería que la gente lo viera, se ocultó de ellos en silencio.
Mientras los discípulos iban Jesús los enseño: “Mira, les explico que en el futuro la gente traicionará y matará al Hijo del Hombre, morirá pero después de tres días resucitará y vivirá otra vez.”
Los discípulos lo vieron y pensaron: No lo entendemos, pero no preguntaron nada porque tenían miedo.
Jesus and the disciples went off to Galilee. Jesus did not want the people to see him, he hid himself from them quietly.
While the disciples were going Jesus taught them: “Look, I tell you, in the future people will betray the Son of Man and kill him and he will die but after three days he will rise and be alive again.”
The disciples watched him and thought: We don’t understand, but they did not ask anything because they were afraid.
Following are a number of back-translations of Mark 9:30:
Uma: “After that Yesus and his disciples left there [and] continue their journey through the land of Galilea. Yesus’ purpose was so that the crowds wouldn’t know where he was,” (Source: Uma Back Translation)
Yakan: “So-then Isa proceeded with his disciples. They went through the land Jalil. Isa did not want that anyone would come to know where he was going,” (Source: Yakan Back Translation)
Western Bukidnon Manobo: “Then they left there and went on, and they passed through the province of Galilee. Jesus did not want the people to know where he was” (Source: Western Bukidnon Manobo Back Translation)
Kankanaey: “Then plural Jesus left that town and they walked through the province Galilea. Jesus didn’t want their whereabouts to become-known,” (Source: Kankanaey Back Translation)
Tagbanwa: “Jesus and company again left there and set out again. They passed through Galilea. Jesus didn’t want the people to know where he was,” (Source: Tagbanwa Back Translation)
God transcends gender, but most languages are limited to grammatical gender expressed in pronouns. In the case of English, this is traditionally confined to “he” (or in the forms “his,” “him,” and “himself”), “she” (and “her,” “hers,” and “herself”), and “it” (and “its” and “itself”).
Modern Mandarin Chinese, however, offers another possibility. Here, the third-person singular pronoun is always pronounced the same (tā), but it is written differently according to its gender (他 is “he,” 她 is “she,” and 它/牠 is “it” and their respective derivative forms). In each of these characters, the first (or upper) part defines the gender (man, woman, or thing/animal), while the second element gives the clue to its pronunciation.
In 1930, after a full century with dozens of Chinese translations, Bible translator Wang Yuande (王元德) coined a new “godly” pronoun: 祂. Chinese readers immediately knew how to pronounce it: tā. But they also recognized that the first part of that character, signifying something spiritual, clarified that each person of the Trinity has no gender aside from being God.
While the most important Protestant and Catholic Chinese versions respectively have opted not to use 祂, some Bible translations do and it is widely used in hymnals and other Christian materials. Among the translations that use 祂 to refer to “God” were early versions of Lü Zhenzhong’s (呂振中) version (New Testament: 1946, complete Bible: 1970). R.P. Kramers (in The Bible Translator 1956, p. 152ff. ) explains why later versions of Lü’s translation did not continue with this practice: “This new way of writing ‘He,’ however, has created a minor problem of its own: must this polite form be used whenever Jesus is referred to? Lü follows the rule that, wherever Jesus is referred to as a human being, the normal tā (他) is written; where he is referred to as divine, especially after the ascension, the reverential tā (祂) is used.”
In that system one kind of pronoun is used for humans (male and female alike) and one for natural elements, non-liquid masses, and some spiritual entities (one other is used for large animals and another one for miscellaneous items). While in these languages the pronoun for spiritual entities used to be employed when referring to God, this has changed into the use of the human pronoun.
Lynell Zogbo (in The Bible Translator 1989, p. 401ff. ) explains in the following way: “From informal discussions with young Christians especially, it would appear that, at least for some people, the experience and/or concepts of Christianity are affecting the choice of pronoun for God. Some people explain that God is no longer ‘far away,’ but is somehow tangible and personal. For these speakers God has shifted over into the human category.”
In Kouya, God (the Father) and Jesus are referred to with the human pronoun ɔ, whereas the Holy Spirit is referred to with a non-human pronoun. (Northern Grebo and Western Krahn make a similar distinction.)
Eddie Arthur, a former Kouya Bible translation consultant, says the following: “We tried to insist that this shouldn’t happen, but the Kouya team members were insistent that the human pronoun for the Spirit would not work.”
In Burmese, the pronoun ko taw (ကိုယ်တော်) is used either as 2nd person (you) or 3rd person (he, him, his) reference. “This term clearly has its root in the religious language in Burmese. No ordinary persons are addressed or known by this pronoun because it is reserved for Buddhist monks, famous religious teachers, and in the case of Christianity, the Trinity.” (Source: Gam Seng Shae in The Bible Translator 2002, p. 202ff. )
In Thai, the pronoun phra`ong (พระองค์) is used, a gender-neutral pronoun which must refer to a previously introduced royal or divine being. Similarly, in Northern Khmer, which is spoken in Thailand, “an honorific divine pronoun” is used for the pronoun referring to the persons of the Trinity (source: David Thomas in The Bible Translator 1993, p. 445 ). In Urak Lawoi’, another language spoken in Thailand, the translation often uses tuhat (ตูฮัด) — “God” — ”as a divine pronoun where Thai has phra’ong even though it’s actually a noun.” (Source for Thai and Urak Lawoi’: Stephen Pattemore)
The English “Contemporary Torah” addresses the question of God and gendered pronouns by mostly avoiding pronouns in the first five books of the Hebrew Bible/Old Testament (unless God is referred to as “lord,” “father,” “king,” or “warrior”). It does that by either using passive constructs (“He gave us” vs. “we were given”), by using the adjective “divine” or by using “God” rather than a pronoun.
Some Protestant and Orthodox English Bibles use a referential capitalized spelling when referring to the persons of the Trinity with “He,” “His,” “Him,” or “Himself.” This includes for instance the New American Standard Bible or The Orthodox New Testament, but most translations do not. Two other languages where this is also done (in most Bible translations) are the closely related Indonesian and Malay. In both languages this follows the language usage according to the Qur’an, which in turn predicts that usage (see Soesilo in The Bible Translator 1991, p. 442ff. and The Bible Translator 1997, p. 433ff. ).
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®).
pareporeuonto (cf. 2.23) ‘they went along,’ ‘they went by’: with dia ‘through’ the verb means ‘go through,’ ‘pass through.’
ouk ēthelen hina (cf. 6.25; 10.35) ‘he did not want that’: the clause that follows, ‘any one should know it,’ defines the content of what Jesus did not want.
Translation:
Went on from there, as an indicator of the point of departure, is equivalent in some languages to ‘left that place.’ Passed through would imply ‘went right on through the region of Galilee,’ implying that Jesus did not stop along the way to preach or minister to the people in the various cities and towns.
Not in the English sentence he would not have any one know it is a negative of the first verb, expressing the intention of Jesus. However, the logical structure is different from the grammatical pattern, for the negation actually applies to the fact that the people should not know about Jesus’ presence. Many languages, therefore, require a shift in the place of the negative, e.g. ‘Jesus wanted that people would not know it.’ This tendency in English (and Greek) to shift the negative from the secondary or subordinate expression (where it may logically belong) to the primary or principal constituent (where it is grammatically “attracted”) must be carefully noted and the proper adjustments made. Otherwise the resulting renderings may be entirely misleading to speakers of the receptor languages.
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 .
In 8:31 Jesus told his disciples that his enemies would kill him and that God would cause him to live again. Here in 9:30–32, Jesus told his disciples the same thing again. But they still did not understand what he was talking about.
It is good to translate this section before you decide on a heading for it.
Here are some other possible headings for this section:
Jesus again predicted that he would die and come back to life -or-
Death and resurrection foretold a second time -or-
Jesus again tells his disciples that he will be killed but then God will raise him from the dead
There are parallel passages for this section in Matthew 17:22–23 and Luke 9:43–45.
Paragraph 9:30–32
9:30a
The story in 9:30–32 began sometime after the story in 9:14–29 ended. The Greek text does not indicate how much time passed between these two stories. In some languages, it is natural to begin a story with a time word or phrase. If your language is like that, use an expression here that is not too specific. For example:
Then (New Century Version) -or-
After that
In other languages, a time word or phrase is not necessary. Introduce this story in a natural way in your language.
Going on from there: The phrase Going on from there refers to Jesus and his discplines traveling away from the place where they were in the preceding story. This could be specifically the house where Jesus was (9:28) or the general area at the base of the mountain (9:9, 14). You should translate the words there in a way that refers generally to the preceding story. For example:
where they were -or-
that region (New Living Translation)
9:30b
they passed through Galilee: The words they passed through Galilee give the setting for the events in 9:30–32. The Greek tense indicates that the events in 9:30–32 happened while they were passing through Galilee, not after they passed through. You should make this clear in your translation. For example:
and began to go through Galilee (New American Standard Bible) -or-
and were traveling through Galilee
they: The word they refers to Jesus and his disciples. If you started a new section here, you may want to make “Jesus and his disciples” explicit instead of using the pronoun They.
Galilee:Galilee was a region, district, or province in the northern part of the country of Israel. If you need to make clear the kind of place Galilee was, see how you translated the word Galilee in 1:9a.
The word Galilee also occurs in 1:14b, 1:16a, 1:28, 1:39a, 3:7b, 6:21b, and 7:31b. Consider if it is necessary to continue to say explicitly that Galilee was a region or district.
9:30c
But Jesus did not want anyone to know: It might be more natural in your language to have the negative in the know clause instead of in the want clause. For example:
Jesus wanted no one to know where they were.
anyone: The word anyone refers to people other than the disciples. It may be natural to translate this as:
anyone else
to know: The Greek phrase that the Berean Standard Bible literally translates as to know means that Jesus wanted no one to know his exact location.
Here are some other ways to translate this:
to know it (New Revised Standard Version) -or-
to know where they were going
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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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