complete verse (Mark 1:33)

Following are a number of back-translations of Mark 1:33:

  • Uma: “Many townspeople came and gathered in the yard at Simon’s house.” (Source: Uma Back Translation)
  • Yakan: “And the people of that town, gathered outside that house.” (Source: Yakan Back Translation)
  • Western Bukidnon Manobo: “Very many people there in the village were gathered in the yard of the house where Jesus was.” (Source: Western Bukidnon Manobo Back Translation)
  • Kankanaey: “All the inhabitants also gathered outside the house where he was.” (Source: Kankanaey Back Translation)
  • Tagbanwa: “There in front of the house was full of people for the whole town of people were there.” (Source: Tagbanwa Back Translation)
  • Shipibo-Conibo: “All those of that village were gathered at the door.” (Source: James Lauriault in The Bible Translator 1951, p. 32ff. )
  • Balinese: “All the inhabitants of the city came together outside the exit of the house-yard.” (Source: J.L. Swellengrebel in The Bible Translator 1950 p. 75ff. )

Translation commentary on Mark 1:33

Exegesis:

holē hē polis ‘the whole city’: another instance of a popular and vivid way of describing an event which draws the attention of a large number of people (cf. v. 5).

ēn … episunēgmenē ‘was gathered’: another example (cf. v. 6) of a verbal phrase consisting of the auxiliary verb eimi ‘to be’ plus the perfect participle of the main verb, whose meaning is not past perfect ‘had been gathered’ but perfect ‘was gathered.’

pros tēn thuran ‘toward the door.’ Swete: “the accusative dwells on the thought of the flocking up to the door … and the surging, moving mass before it” (cf. 2.2; 11.4).

Translation:

Obviously in many languages one cannot say ‘the whole city gathered together.’ This figure of speech, in which one object is used as a name for another, must be adjusted in numerous instances, e.g. ‘all the inhabitants of the city came together’ (Balinese), ‘all those of the city were gathered’ (Shipibo-Conibo), ‘and all who belonged to the same town’ (Batak Toba), and ‘all people of the town came’ (Tabasco Chontal).

Door is the door of the house, not the gate, but many languages have two words for ‘door’: (1) the object which closes the aperture and (2) the opening through which people pass. Because of the crowd and the likelihood that Jesus was in or near the doorway or that people were passing in and out, it would be better to employ the second, rather than the first meaning.

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 .