complete verse (Mark 11:4)

Following are a number of back-translations of Mark 11:4:

  • Uma: “Those two disciples went off, [and] they indeed found a young keledai tied up on the side of the road close to the door of a house. They untied it.” (Source: Uma Back Translation)
  • Yakan: “Na, so-then the two went there and they saw the offspring of the asnu tied at the door of the house next to the road. So-then they untied it.” (Source: Yakan Back Translation)
  • Western Bukidnon Manobo: “And then the two went, and they saw a young asnu by the side of the a road for it was tied near the door of a certain house.” (Source: Western Bukidnon Manobo Back Translation)
  • Kankanaey: “So they went, and they truly saw the young donkey. It was on the road tethered outside a house. When they untied it,” (Source: Kankanaey Back Translation)
  • Tagbanwa: “Well, those two then went. They found that asno there at the side of the trail, tethered at the entrance to a house. When they were untying its tether,” (Source: Tagbanwa Back Translation)

Translation commentary on Mark 11:4

Exegesis:

pros thuran ‘at the door.’

exō epi tou amphodou ‘outside in the street’: so most commentators and translations.

amphodon (only here in the N.T.) ‘a city quarter’ (cf. Moulton & Milligan): by extension of meaning ‘the street (or, road) around (the quarter).’

kai luousin auton ‘and they loose it,’ i.e. ‘and they untie it.’

Translation:

Found a colt tied at the door out in the open street may require a division into two or possibly three paratactically combined sentences, because of the change in subject, e.g. ‘they found the young donkey; it was tied by the door; it was standing out in the street.’ Where the passive it was tied must be changed to active one may say ‘men had tied it.’

Some translations have taken amphodon in the sense of ‘cross-roads,’ e.g. ‘where roads come together’ or ‘where roads separate,’ but this is not the meaning of the Greek. This term has reference to the larger streets which encircled smaller quarters of a town, through which led only small passageways, often completely covered over.

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 .