43If your hand causes you to sin, cut it off; it is better for you to enter life maimed than to have two hands and to go to hell, to the unquenchable fire.
“The word ‘offend’ as a translation of the Greek skandalizó seems to cause all sorts of trouble for translators. The difficulty is that the meaning of this word covers such a wide area. The basic meaning of the Greek is ‘to cause to stumble by putting some impediment in the way.’ The present central meaning of English ‘offend’ is often quite different. In some languages there is no metaphorical value in a translation ‘to cause someone to stumble.’ If the language permits no such metaphor, the translator should not attempt to force it. In Highland Totonac, the metaphor ‘to show the wrong road to’ is used in a manner almost exactly parallel to the Greek idiom.” (Source: Nida 1947)
The Greek that is translated in English versions as “hell” (or “Gehenna”) is translated (1) by borrowing a term from a trade or national language (this is done in a number of Indian languages in Latin America, which have borrowed Spanish “infierno” — from Latin “infernus”: “of the lower regions”), (2) by using an expression denoting judgment or punishment, e.g. “place of punishment” (Loma), “place of suffering” (Highland Totonac, San Blas Kuna) and (3) by describing a significant characteristic: (a) the presence of fire or burning, e.g. “place of fire” (Kipsigis, Mossi), “the large bonfire” (Shipibo-Conibo), or (b) the traditionally presumed location, e.g. “the lowest place” (a well-known term in Ngäbere), “the place inside” long used to designate hell, as a place inside the earth (Aymara). (Source for this and above: Bratcher / Nida)
In Noongar it is translated as Djinbaminyap or “Punishing place” (source: Warda-Kwabba Luke-Ang) and in Tagbanwa as “the fire which had no dying down” (source: Tagbanwa Back Translation).
The Mandarin Chinesedìyù (地獄 / 地狱), literally “(under) earth prison,” is a term that was adopted from Buddhist sources into early Catholic writings and later also by Protestant translators. (Source: Zetzsche 1996, p. 32)
Retrotraducciones en español (haga clic o pulse aquí)
Juan dijo: “Maestro, nosotros, los doce discípulos vimos a otras personas que tenían adentro demonios y un hombre extraño habló en el nombre de Jesús y expulsó los demonios.
Nosotros, los discípulos, fuimos y dijimos: “Tú no estás junto con nosotros en el grupo, no puedes hablar en el nombre de Jesús, paralo.”
Jesús dijo: “No lo prohiban, dejanlo, las personas que hablan en mi nombre, en el nombre de Jesús, y hacen milagros ¿pueden después estar en contra de mi? No pueden, es imposible.
Si las personas no hablan en contra de mi es lo mismo como si fueran junto con nosotros.”
Jesús les advirtió: “Si uds, las personas que creen en Cristo, dan un vaso de agua a otra persona, les digo la verdad, seguramente Dios les dará un premio.”
Jesús les advirtió y les explicó otra cosa: “Los niños pequeños que crecen creyendo en mi, si otra persona insiste en tentarlos y los niños desvisan y pecan , huy, Dios lo castigará fuertemente.
Mejor que un piedra grande sea atado alrededor de su cuello y empujado en el mar y él se caiga en el agua, sería menos castigo.”
“Otro ejemplo: si las manos son una tentación a pecar, agarrando cosas, sería mejor cortar la mano y tener una mano tullida e ir al cielo.
Si rechazas que la mano sea cortado, porque la quieres conservar, es peor que vayas al fuego que no se puede apagar.
Otro ejemplo: si los pies son una tentación a pecar sería mejor cortar el pie y ser cojo e ir al cielo.
Si rechazas que tu pie sea cortado porque lo quieres conservar, es peor ser echado en el fuego que dura.
Otro ejemplo: si el ojo es una tentación a pecar, viendo cosas, sería mejor quitar el ojo y tirarlo y ser tuerto e ir al reino de Dios.
Si rechazas que el ojo sea tirado porque lo quieres conservar, es pero ser echado en el fuego con gusanos comiendo tu cuerpo, el fuego que dura y no se apaga jamás.
Mira, cuando el sacerdote mata un animal lo pone en el altar, agrega sal, y lo sacrifica para Dios, y Dios lo ve bien. En la misma manera las personas sufrirán para quitar el pecado y volver limpios.
Por ejemplo: sal que sabe rico, está bien, pero si otro sal es dejado por mucho tiempo y ya no sabe nada rico, no sabe de nada, ¿se puede otra vez hacer que el sal sepa rico? No, no sirve, ¿entienden?
Este sal es parecido a uds, a personas. Uds necesitan tener paz juntos.
John said: “Teacher, we, the twelve disciples, saw other people who had demons inside and a strange man talked in the name of Jesus and threw out the demons.
“We, the disciples, went up to him and said: ‘You are not in the group with us, you cannot talk in the name of Jesus, stop it.'”
Jesus said: “Don’t forbid it, leave him, the people who speak in my name, in the name of Jesus, and do miracles, can they later be against me? No they cannot, it’s impossible.
“If people don’t talk against me at all it’s the same as if they were with us.”
Jesus warned them: “If you, the people who believe in Christ, give a glass of water to another person, I tell you the truth, God will reward you.”
Jesus warned them and told them something else: “The little children who grow up believing in me, if another person insists on tempting them and they deviate and sin, wow, God will punish him severely.
“It would be better that a big stone were tied around his neck and pushed into the sea, and he would fall into the sea, it would be a lesser punishment.
˜Another example: if your hands are a temptation to sin, taking things, it would be better to cut off your hand and have an amputated hand and go to heaven.
“If you reject that your hand is cut off because you want to preserve it, it is worse if you are sent to the fire that cannot be extinguished.
“Another example: if your feet are a temptation to sin, it would be better to cut off your foot and be lame and go to heaven.
“If you reject the cutting off of your foot because you want to preserve it, it is worse being thrown into the lasting fire.
“Another example: if your eye is a temptation to sin, because of the things it sees, it would be better to take out your eye and be blind in one eye and go to the kingdom of God.
“If you reject your eye being thrown out because you want to preserve it, it is worse being thrown into the fire where worms eat your body, the fire that lasts and is never extinguished.
“Look, when the priest kills an animal and puts it on the altar, he adds salt and sacrifices it to God, and God sees that it is good. In the same way the people will suffer to take away the sin and become clean.
“For example, salt tastes good, it is good, but if there is other salt that has been left for a long time and does not taste good anymore, it does not taste of anything, can you then make the salt taste good again? No, it is of no use. Do you understand?
“This salt is like you, people. You need to have peace together.”
— There are simple people who believe in me. And if anyone leads such people astray, saying to them, “Sin!”, there will be a very severe punishment for that person!
There is such a punishment: a big stone is tied to the neck and a person is thrown into the water, and there he drowns. For that person, the punishment will be even worse!
If your hand likes sin and is drawn to sin, it is better to cut off your hand! Then you can go to eternal life in heaven. But if you pity the hand that leads you to sin, then you will go to hell, to the lake of fire, where fire burns all the time.
If your foot likes sin and goes to sin, it is better to cut off that foot. It is better with one foot to go to eternal life in heaven. But if you pity the foot that leads you to sin, you will fall into the lake of fire, where fire burns all the time.
If your eye likes to look at sin, you had better pluck it out. With one eye you will go to eternal life. But if you pity the eye that tempts you, you will go into the lake of fire, where the fire never goes out. There worms never disappear and torment.
The meat of animals is sacrificed to God. This meat must be sprinkled with salt. For what purpose? For purification. In the same way, suffering and trials are like fire. Man must go through it. Why? To purify man.
Salt is a very important thing for God. If salt has lost its taste, how can you give it back its taste? So keep salt inside you, and live in peace with each other.
Original Russian back-translation (click or tap here):
Иисус сказал ученикам:
— Есть люди простые, которые верят в меня. И если кто-нибудь будет соблазнять таких людей, говорить им: «Греши!», то для такого человека будет наказание очень сильное!
Есть такая кара: большой камень привязывают к шее и бросают человека в воду, и там он тонет. Так вот, для того человека, кара будет еще страшнее!
Если вашей руке нравится грех, и она тянется ко греху, то лучше отрубить руку! Тогда ты сможешь попасть в жизнь вечную на небесах. Если же вы пожалеете руку, которая ведет вас ко греху, тогда вы попадете в ад, в огненное озеро, где все время горит огонь.
Если вашей ноге нравится грех и она идет ко греху, лучше отрубить эту ногу. Лучше с одной ногой попасть в жизнь вечную на небесах. Если же вы будете жалеть ногу, которая ведет вас ко греху, то вы попадете в огненное озеро, где все время горит огонь. Если вашему глазу нравится смотреть на грех, лучше вам вырвать его. С одним глазом вы попадете в жизнь вечную. Если же вы пожалеете глаз, который соблазняет вас, вы попадете в озеро огненное, где огонь никогда не гаснет. Там черви никогда не исчезают и терзают.
Мясо животных приносят в жертву Богу. Это мясо нужно посыпать солью. Для чего? Для очищения. Так же и страдания и испытания — они, как огонь. Человек должен пройти через него. Зачем? Чтобы человек очистился.
Соль для Бога очень важная вещь. Если соль лишилась вкуса, разве можно вернуть ей вкус обратно? Поэтому сохраняйте соль внутри себя, и живите друг с другом в мире.
Following are a number of back-translations of Mark 9:43:
Uma: “‘If for instance one of our hands makes [lit., carries] us sin, just cut it off. It’s better we have just one hand, as long as we get good life with God. That would be far better than for us to have two hands yet in the end we enter hell in the fire that blazes continually.” (Source: Uma Back Translation)
Yakan: “If your hand carries/influences you to sin, leave your sin. It’s parable is, as if you cut off your hand. It is better for you to enter heaven even if you are maimed (putuk), than that you have two hands but go to hell, into the fire that cannot be put out.” (Source: Yakan Back Translation)
Western Bukidnon Manobo: “If your hand is the means by which you are successfully tempted, cut it off and throw it away because it is better if you are maimed and given eternal life rather than having two hands you are thrown into hell where the fire is never put out.” (Source: Western Bukidnon Manobo Back Translation)
Kankanaey: “Therefore if your (sing.) hand/arm is what-makes-you-(sing.)-sin, cut-it-off. Because it would be better if you (sing.) go to share the life in heaven with one hand/arm cut-off than your (sing.) having two hands/arms and you (sing.) are thrown into the place of fire that never goes-out.” (Source: Kankanaey Back Translation)
Tagbanwa: “For supposing your (sing.) hand is where the sin you do originates, just cut it off. For it doesn’t matter even if one hand is cut off, as long as life which is without ending will be yours. Rather than having both hands which will be thrown there in the fire which never dies down.” (Source: Tagbanwa Back Translation)
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®).
kullon (only here in Mark) ‘maimed,’ ‘crippled,’ ‘deformed.’
eiselthein eis tēn zōēn (9.45) ‘to enter into life’: i.e. future life, eternal life, the blessed life with God (cf. zōē aiōnios ‘eternal life’ 10.17, 30).
apelthein eis tēn geennan ‘go away to Gehenna,’ ‘go off into hell’ (for aperchomai eis ‘go away to’ cf. 6.32, 36, 46; 7.24, 30; 8.13).
apelthein ‘to go off’: in the light of the use of exelthein ‘to go out’ in 7.29 with the meaning ‘to be cast out,’ and of the passive verb blēthēnai ‘to be thrown’ in the parallel passages in vv. 45, 47, it is probable that apelthein here means simply ‘to be cast,’ ‘to be thrown,’ as synonym of blēthēnai ‘to be thrown’ in vv. 45, 47.
geenna (9.45|, 47prj:GRK.Mark 9.45) in the New Testament is ‘hell,’ the eschatological place of final punishment.
asbeston (only here in Mark) ‘unquenchable,’ ‘inextinguishable,’ ‘which cannot be put out.’
Translation:
As suggested in the previous verses ‘cause to stumble’ (which is the literal meaning of the Greek text) must be modified in various translations. In this particular verse a literal rendering might be entirely misleading, i.e. ‘to stumble over one’s hands’ or ‘to be tripped up because of one’s hands.’ Accordingly, one must use some other equivalent expression, e.g. ‘if your heart is spoiled because of your hand’ (Kekchi). In Copainalá Zoque the appropriate expression for this passage is ‘if your hand causes you to be lost.’
In languages in which comparative expressions cannot be formed by the ready use of certain special forms or idioms (there are a number of languages which have no such morphological or syntactic devices), a number of adjustments may be required. For example, in Tzeltal one may say ‘it is good if you enter … with just one hand, but if you have two hands and go to hell…, poor you!’ The comparative is only implied, not specifically stated. However, the ultimate effect of the communication is just as positive as it is in English, Greek, or any other languages which have specific comparative constructions such as better … than.
Enter life cannot be said in many languages, for the concept of ‘life’ may be translatable only as a verb. In Kekchi, for example, one must translate ‘enter into heaven and live.’ It is quite true that in the Greek text ‘enter life’ is not restricted specifically to going to heaven, but in contrast with going to Gehenna the parallelism does support such an addition.
Hell (reflecting the use of Greek Gehenna) is rendered in three principal ways: (1) by borrowing a term from a trade or national language (this is done in a number of Indian languages in Latin America, which have borrowed Spanish infierno), (2) by using an expression denoting judgment or punishment, e.g. ‘place of punishment’ (Loma (Liberia)), ‘place of suffering’ (Highland Totonac, San Blas Kuna), or ‘place of destruction,’ and (3) by describing a significant characteristic: (a) the presence of fire or burning, e.g. ‘place of fire’ (Kipsigis, More), ‘the large bonfire’ (Shipibo-Conibo), or (b) the traditionally presumed location, e.g. ‘the lowest place’ (a well-known term in Ngäbere), ‘the place inside’ long used to designate hell, as a place inside the earth (Aymara).
In choosing a word for hell it is equally important to study possibilities for translating hades (see Bible Translating, 231-32). This latter term is transliterated (not too common a practice) or described as ‘the place of the dead’ (though distinguished clearly from ‘cemetery’).
If hell is translated as ‘the place of fire,’ then the added expression to the unquenchable fire may be combined as ‘to the place of fire which cannot be put out.’
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 these verses Jesus spoke about people in general. He used singular forms of pronouns like “you” and “your.” In some languages it may be more natural to use plural forms or other forms. For example:
If your(plur) hand causes you(plur) to sin, cut(plur) it off. -or-
If our hand causes us to sin, we should cut it off.
In 7:20–23 Jesus had already taught his disciples that all sin originates in a person’s heart/mind. Here in 9:43–48 he focused on particular parts of the body that people use when they sin. He used the hand, foot and eye as figures of speech. These parts of the body stand for what people do, where people go and what people look at. When he said that a person should cut off/out parts of his body, he meant that a person should do everything possible to keep himself from sinning. This might even require extreme self-sacrifice.
9:43a
If your hand causes you to sin, cut it off: In this context, the hand is a figure of speech. The hand represents sins that a person commits with his hand.
Here is another way to express this figure of speech:
If you are tempted to use your hand to sin, cut it off.
If people in your area will think that this verse only refers to literally cutting off a hand, you may want to:
• Indicate that this is figurative language. For example:
If as a figurative example your hand causes you to sin, cut it off.
• Include the non-figurative meaning and use a simile. For example:
Remove and throw away any cause of sin!Reject it as completely as if you were cutting off a hand that causes you to sin.
• Include a footnote to explain. For example:
In this verse and the next two verses Jesus talked about parts of the body that we use when we sin. He used the hand, foot and eye as symbols that stand for what we do, where we go and what we look at. When he said that we should remove our hand, foot or eye, he meant that we should do everything possible to keep ourselves from sinning
9:43b–c
It is better for you to enter life crippled than to have two hands and go into hell: This is a comparison.
Here are some ways that languages may show this comparison:
• One situation is better than the other (as in the Berean Standard Bible).
• One situation is worse than the other. For example:
Having two hands and going to hell is worse than having one hand and going to heaven. -or-
It may seem hard to enter heaven with one hand missing, but it is far worse to keep both hands and enter hell.
• One situation is good. The other situation is bad. For example:
If you go to heaven, even if you have only one hand, that is good. But if you keep two hands and go to hell, that is bad.
9:43b
enter life: In this context the word life refers to eternal life in heaven with God. If people in your area will think that the word life refers only to life on earth, you may want to include some implied information. For example:
enter heaven (New Living Translation, 1996 edition) -or-
go to live forever where God dwells
crippled: The Greek word that the Berean Standard Bible translates as crippled describes a person who has a hand or foot that is deformed or abnormal. In this context it refers to someone who has had a hand cut off.
Here are some other ways to translate this word:
disabled (God’s Word) -or-
without a hand (Good News Bible) -or-
with only one hand
9:43c
two hands: In the parable, having two hands indicates that the person has not removed the cause of sin in his life. Therefore, he has not truly repented before God.
If people in your area will not understand the meaning of the figurative expression two hands, you may want to:
• Include some implied information in the text. For example:
two hands because you did not repent
• Include a footnote. For example:
In this parable, having two hands or two feet indicates that the person has not removed the cause of sin in his life.
hell: The word hell refers to the place of eternal punishment where unbelievers will go after the final judgment. The devil and his angels will also go there.
Here are some other ways to translate this:
place of eternal punishment -or-
place of unending fire
9:43d
the unquenchable fire: The Greek phrase that the Berean Standard Bible literally translates as the unquenchable fire describes hell (9:43b). The word unquenchable refers to a fire that will never end. No one will ever put it out or extinguish it.
Here are some other ways to translate this phrase:
into the fire that can never be put out (New Jerusalem Bible) -or-
where the fire never goes out (New International Version, 2011 edition)
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All Scripture quotations in this publication, unless otherwise indicated, are from The Holy Bible, Berean Standard Bible.
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