Text:

Instead of hen tōn toioutōn paidiōn ‘one of such children’ of most modern editions of the Greek text, Tischendorf and Soden have hen tōn paidiōn toutōn ‘one of these children.’

Exegesis:

dexētai (cf. 6.11) ‘he should receive,’ ‘welcome,’ ‘accept.’

epi tō onomati mou (cf. v. 39; 13.6; cf. en onomati 11.9; en tō onomati v. 38; 16.17) ‘on my name,’ ‘on account of my name.’ Vincent (on Mt. 18.5) ‘on the ground of,’ ‘on account of,’ ‘for the sake of.’ Lagrange translates ‘because of my name’; Arndt & Gingrich explain, ‘when someone’s name is mentioned or called upon,’ ‘receive (a child) when my name is confessed, when I am called upon.’ Most English translations have simply ‘in my name’; Goodspeed has ‘on my account’ and The Modern Speech New Testament ‘for my sake.’

ton aposteilanta me ‘him who sent me,’ i.e. God. This saying reflects the familiar Jewish idea that a man’s messenger is the same as the man himself, in that particular charge or mission.

Translation:

Receives involves a problem of translation in many languages because of the variety of terms used, depending upon the type of object which is received. In the case of a ‘child,’ as the object of ‘receiving,’ the problem is made even more difficult, and in some languages requires special usage, e.g. ‘to take under one’s care’ (Tzeltal), ‘to say, Come into my house’ (Cashibo-Cacataibo), ‘to say Welcome to’ (Navajo), ‘to help’ (Yaka), and ‘to treat well’ (Dan). However, if the idiom is too highly specialized, there are of course problems in adjusting the form of the second clause (in which case some of the force of the expression may be lost). However, one can say, for example, ‘whoever helps a child like this helps me,’ ‘whoever says welcome to a child says welcome to me,’ or ‘whoever asks this child into his home, asks me into his home.’ When, however, one must use an idiom such as ‘to take under one’s care,’ then obviously some adjustment in form must be made.

In my name involves a very complex problem (see Bible Translating 178-79), since in so many languages ‘name’ cannot be used as a substitute for the person. In such instances one must use a direct reference to the person, rather than employing the indirect reference of ‘name,’ e.g. ‘for my sake,’ ‘because of me’ (Central Tarahumara), or ‘out of regard for me.’ But note that this usage of in my name is somewhat different in many translations from what it is in the next verse.

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 .