complete verse (Mark 14:28)

Following are a number of back-translations of Mark 14:28:

  • Uma: “But when I come back to life, I will go ahead of you to the land of Galilea, in order that we meet each other there.'” (Source: Uma Back Translation)
  • Yakan: “But when I am alive again, we (incl.) will meet. I will go ahead of you to the place Jalil.'” (Source: Yakan Back Translation)
  • Western Bukidnon Manobo: “However,’ said Jesus, ‘when I am raised from the dead, I will go ahead of you into the province of Galilee.'” (Source: Western Bukidnon Manobo Back Translation)
  • Kankanaey: “But when God makes-me -live again, I will go-ahead of you to go to Galilea.'” (Source: Kankanaey Back Translation)
  • Tagbanwa: “But on my coming alive again, I will go ahead of you there to Galilea.'” (Source: Tagbanwa Back Translation)

formal pronoun: Jesus addressing his disciples and common people

Like many languages (but unlike Greek or Hebrew or English), Tuvan uses a formal vs. informal 2nd person pronoun (a familiar vs. a respectful “you”). Unlike other languages that have this feature, however, the translators of the Tuvan Bible have attempted to be very consistent in using the different forms of address in every case a 2nd person pronoun has to be used in the translation of the biblical text.

As Voinov shows in Pronominal Theology in Translating the Gospels (in: The Bible Translator 2002, p. 210ff.), the choice to use either of the pronouns many times involved theological judgment. While the formal pronoun can signal personal distance or a social/power distance between the speaker and addressee, the informal pronoun can indicate familiarity or social/power equality between speaker and addressee.

Here, Jesus is addressing his disciples, individuals and/or crowds with the formal pronoun, showing respect.

In most Dutch translations, Jesus addresses his disciples and common people with the informal pronoun, whereas they address him with the formal form.

Translation commentary on Mark 14:28

Exegesis:

meta to egerthēnai me ‘after I am risen (from the dead)’: for the preposition meta ‘after’ with the infinitive, cf. 1.14.

egeirō (cf. 1.31) ‘raise,’ ‘rise’: if possible, the passive form of the verb should be carried over into translation, ‘I am raised’ (not ‘I rise’), as in the other places where the passive refers to rising from the dead (cf. 6.14, 16 of John the Baptist; 12.26 of the dead in general; 16.6 of Jesus).

proaxō (cf. 6.45) ‘I will go before,’ ‘I will precede’: so most commentators and translations who (comparing with 16.7) refer the saying to a Resurrection appearance of Jesus to his disciples. It has been suggested, however, that the meaning here is ‘I will lead you into Galilee,’ ‘I will go at your head to Galilee.’

Translation:

Am raised up is equivalent to ‘caused to live again’ or ‘caused to come back to life.’ As noted above, the passive should be retained, if at all possible. Where the agent must be explicitly noted, one may translate, ‘God has raised me up’ or ‘caused me to live again.’

Before you is probably better taken in the temporal sense, e.g. ‘ahead of you’ or ‘before you do.’

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 .