Following is a Ukrainian Orthodox icon of the Transfiguration by Ivan Rutkovych (c. 1650 – c. 1708) (for the Church of Christ’s Nativity in Zhovkva, Ukraine, today in the Lviv National Museum).
Orthodox Icons are not drawings or creations of imagination. They are in fact writings of things not of this world. Icons can represent our Lord Jesus Christ, the Virgin Mary, and the Saints. They can also represent the Holy Trinity, Angels, the Heavenly hosts, and even events. Orthodox icons, unlike Western pictures, change the perspective and form of the image so that it is not naturalistic. This is done so that we can look beyond appearances of the world, and instead look to the spiritual truth of the holy person or event. (Source )
Retrotraducciones en español (haga clic o pulse aquí)
Seis días después Jesús llamó a que vinieran Pedro, Jacobo y Juan. Jesús subió y los tres discípulos fueron con él a un lugar en las montañas donde no había gente.
Los discípulos vieron con sus propios ojos que la cara y la ropa de Jesús se cambiaron a un blanco brilloso, no blanco como ropa lavada, sino diferente, un blanco muy brilloso que brillaba sobre ellos.
Vieron Elías y Moisés hablando con Jesús. Los tres discípulos se asustaron y se volvieron miedosos.
Pedro quería decir algo pero no sabía cómo. Dijo: “Maestro, está bien, suficiente, nosotros tres tiremos ramas de los árboles y hagamos tres tiendas para uds, ¿qué te parece?”
Vieron una nube bajando y la voz de Dios (dijo): “Este es mi hijo amado, pongan atención a él, Jesús.” Y la nube desapareció.
Los discípulos vieron sólo a Jesús parado. Después Jesús bajó caminando y los tres discípulos bajaron también.
Jesús les advirtió: “Lo que vieron ahorita no lo cuenten a otras personas, guarden silencio, es un secreto.
Cuando vean al Hijo de Hombre resucitado del muerto, pueden contarlo, ahorita todavía no lo cuenten.”
Six days later Jesus called Peter, James and John to come and he walked up and the three disciples went with him to a place in the mountains where there were no people.
The disciples saw with their own eyes that the face and the clothes of Jesus changed to a shining white, not white like clothes that have been washed, but different, a very shining white that shone on them.
They saw Elijah and Moses talking with Jesus. The three disciples were shocked and became afraid.
Peter wanted to say something but did not know how. He said: “Teacher, it is well, sufficient, let us three break branches from the trees and make three tents for you, what do you think?”
They saw a cloud coming down and the voice of God (said): “This is my beloved son, pay attention to him, Jesus.” And the cloud disappeared.
The disciples saw only Jesus standing there. Then Jesus walked down and the three disciples went down as well.
Jesus warned them: “That which you just saw, don’t tell it to other people, keep silent, it is a secret.
“When you see the Son of Man risen from the dead you can tell, but right now don’t tell it yet.”
The three disciples agreed to keep it secret and Jesus walked on down, and the disciples also went down. They said to each other: “What would resurrection mean?” “I don’t understand.” “Me neither.”
As they were walking they thought of something and said: “Jesus, we ask you, why do the teachers of the Law tell us that Elijah will come first and then the Christ?”
Jesus (answered): “This is true, first comes Elijah to prepare things and make them ready for Christ to come.”
“But Elijah has already come and the people were against him and Elijah suffered exactly as is written in the scroll.
“In the same way the Son of Man will suffer and be rejected by the people.”
Six days had passed. Jesus took three disciples with Him – Peter, James, John — and they went up a high mountain. There on the mountain, no one was there, just the four of them. And then Jesus’ appearance began to change. His clothes became shiny. His clothes became white as snow. There is no such white color on earth. And no one can wash clothes like that. Then Moses and Elijah appeared. Both of them talked with Jesus.
The disciples were amazed. Peter turned to Jesus:
— Teacher! It is so good here! Let’s make three tents: one for you, Jesus, one for Moses and one for Elijah.
Suddenly a cloud came down from the sky. It covered them. God’s voice came out of the cloud, “Jesus is my beloved son! Listen to him!”
The disciples were amazed. They began to look and suddenly saw Jesus standing alone. Moses and Elijah had disappeared.
Original Russian back-translation (click or tap here):
Прошли шесть дней. Иисус взял с собой троих учеников — Петра, Иаков, Иоанна — и они взошли на высокую гору. Там на горе, никого не было, только они вчетвером. И тут облик Иисуса начал изменяться. Его одежды заблестели. Его одежда стала белой как снег. На земле такого белого цвета нет. И никто не может так выстирать одежды. После этого явился Моисей и Илия. Оба они беседовали с Иисусом.
Ученики были поражены. Петр обратился к Иисусу:
— Учитель! Здесь так хорошо! Давай сделаем три шалаша: один — для тебя, Иисус, один — для Моисея и один — для Илии.
Вдруг с неба спустилось облако. Оно покрыло их. Из облака раздался голос Бога: «Иисус — он мой любимый сын! Слушайте его!»
Ученики были поражены. Они стали смотреть и вдруг увидели, что Иисус стоит один. Моисей и Илия исчезли.
Following are a number of back-translations of Mark 9:6:
Uma: “Actually, Petrus didn’t know what he was saying then, for at that time they were so very afraid.” (Source: Uma Back Translation)
Yakan: “The reason that Petros said that was, because he was at a loss/didn’t know as to what he was saying because they were very afraid.” (Source: Yakan Back Translation)
Western Bukidnon Manobo: “They were very much afraid, therefore Peter could not remember what he was saying.” (Source: Western Bukidnon Manobo Back Translation)
Kankanaey: “But that’s what he said, because he didn’t (sympathy particle) know what he was saying, because their fear was extreme.” (Source: Kankanaey Back Translation)
Tagbanwa: “Pedro hadn’t thought about what he said because he was extremely afraid, as were those companions of his.” (Source: Tagbanwa Back Translation)
Palantla Chinantec: “The disciples were afraid, and Peter it was as though he lost his thoughts, and that’s why he said like that.” (Source: B. Moore / G. Turner in Notes on Translation 1967, p. 1ff.)
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®).
ou gar ēdei ti apokrithē ‘for he did not know what he should answer’ (or ‘say’) (for this grammatical construction cf. ti phagōsin ‘what they should eat’ 6.36; ti aiteisthe ‘what you are asking for’ 10.38; ouk ēdeisan ti apokrithōsin autō ‘they did not know what they should answer him’ 14.40).
ekphoboi gar egenonto ‘for they became terrified,’ or ‘for they had become terrified’ (rather than ‘were’).
ekphobos (only here in Mark) ‘terrified,’ ‘very afraid.’
Translation:
The syntactic problems of this verse are complex because of the two uses of for. The first introduces the reason for the preceding action, namely, Peter’s remark, and the second indicates why Peter did not know what to say. In some languages this distinction may be indicated only by expanding the first causal conjunction, e.g. ‘the reason he said this was that he really didn’t know what to say, for they….’ In Navajo the sequence of clauses is shifted ‘since they were exceedingly afraid, he did not know what to say.’
They must be translated in such a way as to refer to the disciples, not to the entire group nor to the immediately preceding third person plural pronoun, they in verse 4, which refers to Elijah and Moses.
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 .
For an example of how to reorder this verse, see the General Comment on 9:5a–6b at the end of 9:6b.
9:6a–b
For: The Greek conjunction that the Berean Standard Bible translates as For introduces the reason for Peter’s statement in 9:5. Peter said these things because he did not really know what to say. Indicate this reason in a natural way in your language.
In some languages, it may be natural to begin this verse with a clause that refers to the spoken words of 9:5. For example:
He said this because he didn’t really know what else to say. (New Living Translation) -or-
He said those words for he did not know what else to say.
they were all so terrified: The Greek phrase that the Berean Standard Bible translates as they were all so terrified is literally “for they were very afraid.”
This phrase gives the reason for 9:6a. Peter did not know what to say (9:6a) because he and the others were very frightened (9:6b). The New Century Version says:
because he and the others were so frightened
Since 9:6a and 9:6b both express a reason, you may need to use a different way to indicate the reason here. See the General Comment below for translation examples.
they: The pronoun they refers to Peter, James, and John.
so terrified: The Greek verb that the Berean Standard Bible translates as so terrified refers to strong fear.
Here are some other ways to translate this word:
so frightened (New International Version) -or-
terribly afraid (New Living Translation, 1996 edition)
did not know what else to say: The Greek verb that the Berean Standard Bible translates as say is literally “respond.” When Peter saw Jesus transfigured and talking to Elijah and Moses, he did not know what to do or say.
Here are some other ways to translate this:
didn’t know how to respond (God’s Word) -or-
did not know what to say about what he had seen
General Comment on 9:5a–6b
In Greek, 9:5 is the result of 9:6a (the reason), and 9:6a is the result of 9:6b (the reason). Both 9:6a and 9:6b begin with the same Greek conjunction that introduces a reason. For example, the Revised Standard Version says:
And Peter said to Jesus, “Master…” 6aFor he did not know what to say, 6bfor they were exceedingly afraid.
In some languages, it may be natural to leave one or both of these conjunctions implicit. For example:
Peter said to Jesus, “Teacher…” 6aPeter did not know what to say, 6bbecause he and the others were so frightened. (New Century Version) -or-
Peter said to Jesus, “Rabbi…” 6a(Peter didn’t know how to respond. 6bHe and the others were terrified.) (God’s Word)
In some languages it may be more natural to change the order of the clauses so that the events are talked about in the order in which they occurred. For example:
6bThey were very frightened, 6aso Peter did not know how to respond, so he said to Jesus, “Rabbi…” -or- 6bThey were very frightened, 6aand Peter did not know how to respond, so he said to Jesus, “Rabbi…”
In other languages it may be natural to change the order of 9:6a and 9:6b and make both the reason for 9:5. For example, the Contemporary English Version says:
Peter said to Jesus, “Teacher…” 6bFor they were afraid, 6aand he did not know what to say.
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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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