They left their nets (image)

Hand colored stencil print on momigami by Sadao Watanabe (1970).

Image taken with permission from the SadaoHanga Catalogue where you can find many more images and information about Sadao Watanabe.

For other images of Sadao Watanabe art works in TIPs, see here.

 

Those he called to follow him were neither religious nor the most qualified (image)

“Fisherman spent their time finding fish to feed their family and sold what was left. It is not common for fishermen to be interested in or qualified for a study of the dharma but Jesus called them anyway.”

Drawing by Sawai Chinnawong who employs northern and central Thailand’s popular distinctive artistic style originally used to depict Buddhist moral principles and other religious themes; explanation by Paul DeNeui. From That Man Who Came to Save Us by Sawai Chinnawong and Paul H. DeNeui, William Carey Library, 2010.

For more images by Sawai Chinnatong in TIPs see here.

net

The Greek terms that are used for what is translated as “net” in English are translated in languages like Navajo where fishing with nets is not known as “instruments to catch (or: bring out) the fish.” (Source: Reiling / Swellengrebel)

In Rundi the term urusenga is used. Rosemary Guillebaud (in The Bible Translator 1950, p. 15ff. ) tells this story:

“[People living close to lakes] produced further problems for us over fishing terms when we reached the revision of the Gospels. Fishing is practically unknown in the mountain streams and rivers, so there is hardly any vocabulary for it up-country. In Mat. 4:18 we read that Jesus saw two brethren “casting a net into the sea.” The word we used for net (urusenga) is used all over Rundi for a fishing net, whatever it is like, but when I read this to some people who live by the lake they said it was the wrong word, as from the context this happened during the daytime, and urusenga-fishing is only done at night. It appears that the urusenga is something like a shrimping net, and is used on moonless nights, when the fishermen hold flares over the side of the boat and attract a certain variety of very small fish which swim about in shoals. The net they use for day-time fishing is something like a drag-net and is called urukwabu. On enquiry inland, I never discovered a single person who knew this word. It was obviously the right one, technically speaking, but we felt that the few thousand lake-dwellers could not be weighed against almost the entire population of the country, so we had to employ the up-country word, putting an explanatory note in the margin that by the lake this net is called urukwabu.”

Click or tap here to see a short video clip showing net-fishing in biblical times (source: Bible Lands 2012)

complete verse (Mark 1:18)

Following are a number of back-translations of Mark 1:18:

  • Uma: “They left-behind their nets, and beginning that day they followed Yesus.” (Source: Uma Back Translation)
  • Yakan: “Na, immediately they left their fishing-nets and followed now Isa.” (Source: Yakan Back Translation)
  • Western Bukidnon Manobo: “And immediately they left off netting and went with him.” (Source: Western Bukidnon Manobo Back Translation)
  • Kankanaey: “They immediately-set-down their nets and went-with him.” (Source: Kankanaey Back Translation)
  • Tagbanwa: “When those two heard, they then left their fishing and truly did go with Jesus.” (Source: Tagbanwa Back Translation)
  • Shipibo-Conibo: “Just then they abandoned the nets. Having abandoned them, they went with Jesus.” (Source: James Lauriault in The Bible Translator 1951, p. 32ff. )
  • Balinese: “He just said so, then they left their cast-nets and followed Him.” (Source: J.L. Swellengrebel in The Bible Translator 1950 p. 75ff. )

Translation commentary on Mark 1:18

Instead of ta diktua ‘the nets’ of the majority of modern editions of the Greek text, Textus Receptus and Kilpatrick have ta diktua autōn ‘their nets’ (cf. Exegesis, below).

Exegesis:

aphentes ēkolouthēsan ‘leaving … they followed’ is equal to ‘they left and followed.’ The verb aphiēmi is used in the sense of ‘abandon,’ ‘leave’ some fifteen times in Mark (cf. 2.5).

akoloutheō ‘follow’: used both in the literal sense, and with the meaning ‘follow as a disciple.’

ta diktua ‘the nets’: in this context ‘their nets’ is meant (cf. Turner), without the addition of the possessive autōn ‘their.’ diktuon (1.19) is the generic word for “net” of any kind (cf. amphiblēstron ‘casting net’ Mt. 4.18, and sagēnē ‘drag net’ Mt. 13.47).

Translation:

In verses 17 and 18 it is essential that an appropriate word for ‘follow’ be found, since a poor choice at this point may be almost disastrous. There are three principal types of meanings which must be distinguished: (1) to follow a long way off (implying either disinterest or avoidance), (2) to follow in the sense of tracking down (obviously not desirable for disciples), and (3) to follow in the sense of accompaniment, e.g. as a child follows an adult, as a dog its master, or as a friend his companion. One must make certain, however, that such a term does not imply ‘failure to work or to participate in an enterprise,’ in the sense that those who follow along may not take part or do their share.

It is essential that the nets spoken of in this verse be the same as are mentioned or implied in verse 16.

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 .