The Greek in Mark 9:35 that is translated as “whoever wants to be first must be last of all and servant of all” or similar in English is translated in Tzotzil as “If anyone wants to be thought of as the most important, let him humble himself, let him help all people,” in Chuj as “If there is one man wants to lift up himself among you, he must make himself lowly before you. He must enter as the servant of you all, he said,” and in Choapan Zapotec as “If a person wants to command his fellow-men, he must consider himself to be as a person who has no authority, let him work without pay for anyone.” (Source: B. Moore / G. Turner in Notes on Translation 1967, p. 1ff.)
Retrotraducciones en español (haga clic o pulse aquí)
Jesus (dijo): “Vamonos” y caminaba en frente. Los discípulos que iban atrás estaban diciendo: “Yo so el primero, el líder.” “Tú no, yo soy el primero, el líder.”
Los discípulos estaban discutiendo así y llegaron al pueblo de Capernaúm y fueron a casa. Jesús les dijo: “Ahorita estaban discutiendo, ¿qué era?”
Los discípulos lo miraban: Caray, y estaban callados. Jesús les miró y se sentó y llamó a los doce discípulos que vinieran alrededor. (Dijo): “¿Uds quieren ser el primero, el líder? Deben ser entonces el último, humilde, necesitan servir a todas las personas.”
“Yo les cuento un ejemplo”, y llamó un niño y lo tomó en su regazo. “Yo les mando a que pongan atención a los niños. Eso es lo mismo como si ponen atención a mi, yo el mismo que Dios mandó que viniera, y si uds ponen atención a mi eso es lo mismo como si ponen atención a Dios.”
Jesus (said): “Let’s go” and he walked ahead of them, behind him the disciples came and they were saying: “I am the first, the leader.” “No, not you, I am the first, the leader.”
The disciples were arguing thus and they arrived at the village of Capernaum and went home. Jesus said to them: “Just now you were arguing. What was it about?”
The disciples looked at him: Oh no, and they kept quiet. Jesus looked at them and sit down and called the disciples around him. (He said): “You want to be the first, the leader? Then you must be the last, humble, you need to serve all the people.”
“I will tell you an example”, and he called a child and took it on his lap. “I tell you that you need to pay attention to the children. That is the same as paying attention to me, I who was sent by God to come, and if you pay attention to me it’s the same as paying attention to God.”
The disciples and Jesus were walking along the road. Jesus went first, followed by the disciples. The disciples began to argue with each other about who was the most important. Finally they all came to a house in the town of Capernaum. In the house Jesus asked the disciples:
— As we were walking, what did you argue with each other about on the way?
The disciples were silent. Jesus sat down, called the disciples to him, and said to them:
— Those of you who want to be first must be last of all and must serve all.
Jesus took a child and placed it in the center. He embraced the child and said. If you love me, you must also be willing to love and care for this child. And the one who loves me deeply also loves my father who sent me.
Original Russian back-translation (click or tap here):
Ученики и Иисус шли по дороге. Иисус шел первый, ученики за ним. Ученики стали спорить друг с другом, кто из них самый главный. Наконец, все они пришли в дом в городе Капернаум. В доме Иисус спросил учеников:
— Когда мы шли, о чем вы спорили друг с другом в пути?
Ученики молчали. Иисус сел, подозвал к себе учеников и сказал им:
— Тот из вас, кто хочет быть первым, должен быть последним из всех и должен служить всем.
Иисус взял ребенка и поставил его в центре. Он обнял ребенка и сказал. Если вы любите мне, то вы должны быть готовы также полюбить и этого ребенка и заботиться о нем. А тот, кто глубоко любит меня, тот любит и моего отца, который послал меня.
Following are a number of back-translations of Mark 9:35:
Uma: “So, Yesus sat and he called his twelve disciples, he said: ‘Who[ever] wants to have the bigger life, he must live making-himself-low [i.e., humbly], lower than all his companions, and he must be a servant to all his companions.'” (Source: Uma Back Translation)
Yakan: “So-then Isa sat down and he called his twelve disciples to his side. He said to them, ‘Whoever wants to be made very great/honored much, he should cause himself to be low/humble himself so that he is the lowest of all, and he should be the servant of all people.'” (Source: Yakan Back Translation)
Western Bukidnon Manobo: “Then Jesus sat down, and he called tp him his twelve disciples, and he said to them, ‘Any one of you who wants to be greatest, this is what he must do. He must consider that his status is very low, and he must let all of his companions order him around.'” (Source: Western Bukidnon Manobo Back Translation)
Kankanaey: “Then Jesus sat-down. He called his twelve disciples and said, ‘The one who wants to become the greatest, he must make himself the lowest and serve all his companions.'” (Source: Kankanaey Back Translation)
Tagbanwa: “Jesus got settled sitting down and caused those twelve disciples of his to come close. He said, ‘The one who wants to be first in praiseworthiness/glory, he must make himself lower than all and become servant of all people.'” (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.
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.
Barclay Newman, a translator on the teams for both the Good News Bible and the Contemporary English Version, translated passages of the New Testament into English and published them in 2014, “in a publication brief enough to be non-threatening, yet long enough to be taken seriously, and interesting enough to appeal to believers and un-believers alike.” The following is the translation of Mark 9:33-37:
While at home in Capernaum, Jesus asked his followers,
“What were you arguing about on our way here?”
They were too embarrassed to reply —
they had been arguing about greatness,
about which of them was the greatest.
Jesus sat down and told them to gather around.
Then he spoke, “The highest place of honor
belongs to the lowest slave!”
Then Jesus called a child from the crowd,
placed his arm around the child, and said,
“When you welcome even a child because of me,
you welcome both me and the God who sent me.”
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®).
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