clothes

The Hebrew and Greek that is translated with “clothes” or similar in English is translated in Enlhet as “crawling-in-stuff” (source: Jacob Loewen in The Bible Translator 1971, p. 169ff. ) and in Noongar as bwoka or “Kangaroo skin” (source: Warda-Kwabba Luke-Ang).

complete verse (Mark 13:16)

Following are a number of back-translations of Mark 13:16:

  • Uma: “A person in the field should no longer return to the village to get his clothes. Flee immediately!” (Source: Uma Back Translation)
  • Yakan: “And the one who is in his field, should not return to his house to fetch his clothes.” (Source: Yakan Back Translation)
  • Western Bukidnon Manobo: “The person to whom it happens out in his field must not return home to get his blanket.” (Source: Western Bukidnon Manobo Back Translation)
  • Kankanaey: “The one also who is in the rice-field, he should not go-home to get his outer garment.” (Source: Kankanaey Back Translation)
  • Tagbanwa: “And the one in the field, he isn’t to go home to get his cloak.” (Source: Tagbanwa Back Translation)

Translation commentary on Mark 13:16

Exegesis:

ho eis ton agron ‘the man (working) in the field.’

eis here equals en ‘in’ (cf. 1.9).

agros (cf. 5.14) ‘field,’ ‘plot of ground.’

mē epistrepsatō eis ta opisō ‘he is not to go back (to the house)’: the man working in the field is enjoined to flee at once without taking time to go back to the house and get his cloak.

epistrephō (cf. 4.12) ‘turn around,’ ‘turn back’: here, with eis ta opisō (literally, ‘to the places behind’), it means ‘go back,’ ‘return.’

himation (cf. 2.21) ‘outer garment,’ ‘cloak,’ ‘mantle.’

Translation:

Turn back is often rendered as ‘return to his home.’

Let him … not turn back may be translated as a statement of obligation, e.g. ‘a man who is in the field should not return to his home to get his cloak.’

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 .