my blood of the covenant

The Greek that is translated as “this is my blood of the covenant” is translated into Tase Naga as “this is my blood that caused the covenant to come into being.”

covenant

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The Hebrew, Greek, and Latin that are translated as “covenant” in English are translated in a variety of ways. Here are some (back-) translations:

  • Mossi: “helping promise”
  • Vai: “a thing-time-bind” (i.e. “an arrangement agreed upon for a period of time”)
  • Loma (Liberia): “agreement”
  • Northwestern Dinka: “agreement which is tied up” (i.e. “secure and binding”)
  • Chol: “a word which is left”
  • Huastec: “a broken-off word” (“based on the concept of ‘breaking off a word’ and leaving it with the person with whom an agreement has been reached”)
  • Tetelcingo Nahuatl: “a death command” (i.e. “a special term for testament”)
  • Piro: “a promised word”
  • Eastern Krahn: “a word between”
  • Yaka: “promise that brings together” (source for this and all above: Bratcher / Nida)
  • Nabak: alakŋaŋ or “tying the knot” (source: Fabian 2013, p. 156)
  • Nyamwezi: ilagano: “agreement, contract, covenant, promise” (source: Pioneer Bible Translators, project-specific translation notes in Paratext)
  • Q’anjob’al: “put mouths equal” (representing agreement) (source: Newberry and Kittie Cox in The Bible Translator 1950, p. 91ff. )
  • Manikion, Indonesian: “God’s promise” (source: Daud Soesilo)
  • Natügu: nzesz’tikr drtwr: “oneness of mind” (source: Brenda Boerger in Beerle-Moor / Voinov, p. 164)
  • Tagalog: tipan: mutual promising on the part of two persons agreeing to do something (also has a romantic touch and denotes something secretive) (source: G. Henry Waterman in The Bible Translator 1960, p. 24ff. )
  • Tagbanwa: “initiated-agreement” (source: Tagbanwa Back Translation)
  • Guhu-Samane: “The concept [in Mark 14:24 and Matthew 16:28] is not easy, but the ritual freeing of a fruit and nut preserve does afford some reference. Thus, ‘As they were drinking he said to them, ‘On behalf of many this poro provision [poro is the traditional religion] of my blood is released.’ (…) God is here seen as the great benefactor and man the grateful recipient.” (Source: Ernest Richert in The Bible Translator, 1965, p. 81ff. )
Law (2013, p. 95) writes about how the Ancient Greek Septuagint‘s translation of the Hebrew berith was used by the New Testament writers as a bridge between the Old and New Testaments (click or tap here to read more):

“Right from the start we witness the influence of the Septuagint on the earliest expressions of the Christian faith. In the New Testament, Jesus speaks of his blood being a kaine diatheke, a ‘new covenant.’ The covenant is elucidated in Hebrews 8:8-12 and other texts, but it was preserved in the words of Jesus with this language in Luke 22:20 when at the Last Supper Jesus said, ‘This cup that is poured out for you is the new covenant in my blood. Jesus’s blood was to provide the grounds for the ‘new covenant,’ in contrast to the old one his disciples knew from the Jewish scriptures (e.g., Jeremiah 31:31-34). Thus, the earliest Christians accepted the Jewish Scriptures as prophecies about Jesus and in time began to call the collection the ‘Old Testament’ and the writings about Jesus and early Christianity the ‘New Testament,’ since ‘testament’ was another word for ‘covenant.’ The covenant promises of God (berith in Hebrew) were translated in the Septuagint with the word diatheke. In classical Greek diatheke had meant ‘last will, testament,’ but in the Septuagint it is the chosen equivalent for God’s covenant with his people. The author of Hebrews plays on the double meaning, and when Luke records Jesus’ announcement at the Last Supper that his blood was instituting a ‘new covenant,’ or a ‘new testament,’ he is using the language in an explicit contrast with the old covenant, found in the Jewish scriptures. Soon, the writings that would eventually be chosen to make up the texts about the life and teachings of Jesus and the earliest expression of the Christian faith would be called the New Testament. This very distinction between the Old and New Testaments is based on the Septuagint’s language.”

See also establish (covenant) and covenant (book).

complete verse (Mark 14:24)

Following are a number of back-translations of Mark 14:24:

  • Uma: “He said to them: ‘This is my blood that will be spilled when I die to redeem / take-the-place-of many people. This blood of mine strengthens the promise that connects God with mankind.” (Source: Uma Back Translation)
  • Yakan: “Isa said to them, ‘This is my blood which will soon be poured out because of/on behalf of many people. This is a sign that God is fulfilling/will fulfill his covenant.” (Source: Yakan Back Translation)
  • Western Bukidnon Manobo: “And Jesus said, ‘This is my blood which will be shed when I am killed in order to annoint many people. This is the sign of the way of setting free which God has established.” (Source: Western Bukidnon Manobo Back Translation)
  • Kankanaey: “Jesus said, ‘This is my blood that ratifies (lit. ties-in-a-knot) God’s new agreement. It will flow-out when I die for the many people.” (Source: Kankanaey Back Translation)
  • Tagbanwa: “‘That,’ said Jesus, ‘that is my blood which is the strength/pledge of the initiated-agreement of God with people. For I will shed (lit. cause to drip) my blood so that many can be forgiven.” (Source: Tagbanwa Back Translation)
  • Choapan Zapotec: “… This is my blood which I will shed in order that you will know God has entered into an agreement with mankind. Also in order that he might forgive the sins of mankind.”
  • Southern Puebla Mixtec: “… This is my blood. It is going to run out for many people. By my blood God makes a new agreement with people.”
  • Isthmus Mixe: “… his is my blood which will run out in behalf of many people, this is a sign that God has made a new agreement with you.”
  • Peñoles Mixtec: “… This is my blood which is for a contract God spoke for all people. My blood will be spilled and for this reason people will find salvation.”
  • Tewa: “… This is my blood. I will spill my blood for many people, and because I do this, what God has promised will come to pass.” (Source for this and four above: B. Moore / G. Turner in Notes on Translation 1967, p. 1ff.)

the last supper (image)

Click here to see the image in higher resolution.

Willy Wiedmann, the artist, commented on this picture: “In spite of some difficulty, and unlike Leonardo da Vinci [see here ] I did not set my last supper in a theatrical scene with Jesus in the center behind an elongated table with all the disciples, with two at each end so that that there are 11 seated behind the table. And not like the panel by Juan de Juanes (1623-79) [see here ] in which the six disciples left and right are very dynamic figures. And also not like Martin Schongauer’s Last Supper [see here ] with a slightly shorter table (also incidentally very similar to Juanes in the attitudes of the figures) and two figures seen from the back in the foreground of the panel. Instead I have given the Master the middle place to the foreground, with his back to us to finally leave the controversial Jesus-existential questions unanswered. Slightly symbolically it means that he is leaving his world. The iris color is meant to transfer the rainbow to Jesus, that God once linked to Noah (my kingdom is not of this world). I attempted to present answers that correspond to the characters of each individual.”

Image and text taken from the Wiedmann Bible. For more information about the images and ways to adopt them, see here .

For other images of Willy Wiedmann paintings in TIPs, see here.

 

Painting by Wang Suda 王肅達 (1910-1963),
Copyright by the Catholic University Peking, China.

Text under painting translated from Literary Chinese into English:

Beginning of the Holy Communion
You have this as food and this is my body.

Image taken from Chinese Christian Posters . For more information on the “Ars Sacra Pekinensis” school of art, see this article , for other artworks of that school in TIPs, see here.

the last supper (icon)

Following is a contemporary Ukrainian Orthodox icon of the last supper by Ulyana Tomkevych.

 

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 )

Translation commentary on Mark 14:24

Text:

After mou ‘my’ Textus Receptus adds to ‘the,’ which is omitted by all modern editions of the Greek text.

Before diathēkēs ‘covenant’ Textus Receptus adds kainēs ‘new,’ which is omitted by all modern editions of the Greek text.

Exegesis:

to haima mou tēs diathēkēs ‘my blood of the covenant’: the phrase is perhaps consciously modelled after Ex. 24.8 “Behold the blood of the covenant (Septuagint to haima tēs diathēkēs) which the Lord has made with you.” “The blood of the covenant” is the blood which ratifies, or seals, the covenant God made with his people.

diathēkē (only here in Mark) ‘will,’ ‘testament,’ ‘compact,’ ‘covenant’: it is agreed that the meaning of the word in New Testament is to be derived from the use and meaning of berith in the O.T., with reference to the ‘covenant’ which God made with the people of Israel. Rather than translate the Hebrew word by sunthēkē, the normal Greek word for ‘agreement,’ ‘covenant,’ the Septuagint uses diathēkē, perhaps with the purpose of avoiding the implication in sunthēkē of an agreement reached by a settlement between two parties who stand as equals; for in the O.T. God’s berith with his people is, so to speak, drawn up, proposed and executed by God alone.

to ekchunnomenon (only here in Mark) ‘the (blood) poured out’: several commentators translate the present participle ‘(the blood) which is now being poured out,’ as though in the mind of Jesus his blood were already being shed. It is better, however, to take the participle as having a future force, in accordance with Aramaic usage, ‘(the blood) which will be poured out’ (cf. The Modern Speech New Testament, Goodspeed).

huper pollōn ‘in behalf of many,’ ‘for many’ (cf. the discussion on anti pollōn in 10.45).

Translation:

There are a number of expressions used to signify covenant, some of which closely resemble the force of the Greek diathēkē, while others are simply general terms for a contract or agreement, e.g. ‘to put mouths equal,’ signifying complete assent on the part of all (Conob); ‘helping promise’ (More); ‘a thing-time-bind,’ that is to say, an arrangement agreed upon for a period of time (Vai); ‘an agreement’ (Loma (Liberia)); ‘agreement which is tied up,’ i.e. secure and binding (Northwestern Dinka); ‘a word which is left’ (Chol); ‘a broken-off word,’ based on the concept of ‘breaking off a word’ and leaving it with the person with whom an agreement has been reached (Huastec); ‘a death command,’ a special term for testament (Tetelcingo Nahuatl); ‘a promised word’ (Piro); ‘a word between’ (Eastern Krahn); and ‘promise that brings together’ (Yaka).

Perhaps a more difficult problem than finding a term for covenant is relating this expression to the preceding, namely, ‘blood,’ for the of in English cannot be reproduced by any possessive construction, as some translators have tried to do. The covenant does not possess the blood; it is only that the covenant is established or ratified by means of the blood. This relationship must be made explicit in some languages, e.g. ‘blood which establishes the promise…’ (Yaka), ‘blood which arranges…’ (Central Pame), ‘blood that makes the word between us strong’ (Eastern Krahn), and ‘blood which confirms the covenant’ (Mitla Zapotec). In Northern Grebo the entire construction is recast as ‘agreement made by shedding my blood.’

Poured out must be carefully translated to make sure that this does not refer to the pouring of blood from a glass or other type of receptacle. This is not a reference to the pouring out of animal’s blood, but the shedding of Jesus’ own blood, translated in some languages as ‘running out,’ ‘coming out,’ and ‘gushing out.’

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 .