elder (of the community)

The Hebrew, Aramaic, and Greek that is typically translated as “elders” in English is translated in the Danish Bibelen 2020 as folkets ledere or “leaders of the people.”

Martin Ehrensvärd, one of the translators, explains: “The term ‘elder’ turned out to pose a particularly thorny problem. In traditional bibles, you can find elders all of over the place and they never pose a problem for a translator, they are just always elders. But how to find a contemporary term for this semi-official, complex position? This may have been our longest-standing problem. A couple of times we thought we had the solution, and then implemented it throughout the texts, only to find out that it didn’t work. Like when we used city council or village council, depending on the context. In the end we felt that the texts didn’t work with such official terms, and throughout the years in the desert, these terms didn’t make much sense. Other suggestions were ‘the eldest and wisest’, ‘the respected citizens’, ‘the Israelites with a certain position in society’, ‘the elder council’ –- and let me point out that these terms sound better in Danish than in English (‘de fremtrædende borgere,’ ‘de mest fremtrædende israelitter,’ ‘alle israelitter med en vis position,’ ‘de ældste og de klogeste,’ ‘ældsterådet’). In the end we just said ‘leaders of the people.’ After a lot of hand-wringing, it turned out that we actually found a term that worked well. So, we had to give up conveying the fact that they were old, but the most important point is that they were community leaders.” (Source: Ehrensvärd in HIPHIL Novum 8/2023, p. 81ff. )

The German das Buch translation by Roland Werner (publ. 2009-2022) translates likewise as “leader of the people” (Anführer des Volkes).

Judas (the disciple)

The term that is transliterated as “Judas” in English is translated in American Sign Language with the sign for the letter J and the sign signifying holding a bag of money, referring to John 12:6. (Source: RuthAnna Spooner, Ron Lawer)


“Judas” in American Sign Language, source: Deaf Harbor

In Spanish Sign Language it is translated with with the sign for “kiss,” referring to Matthew 26:49 et al. (Source: Steve Parkhurst)


“Judas” in Spanish Sign Language, source: Sociedad Bíblica de España

scribe

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The Greek that is usually translated as “scribe” in English “were more than mere writers of the law. They were the trained interpreters of the law and expounders of tradition.”

Here are a number of its (back-) translations:

  • Yaka: “clerk in God’s house”
  • Amganad Ifugao: “man who wrote and taught in the synagogue”
  • Navajo: “teaching-writer” (“an attempt to emphasize their dual function”)
  • Shipibo-Conibo: “book-wise person”
  • San Blas Kuna: “one who knew the Jews’ ways”
  • Loma: “educated one”
  • San Mateo del Mar Huave: “one knowing holy paper”
  • Central Mazahua: “writer of holy words”
  • Indonesian: “expert in the Torah”
  • Pamona: “man skilled in the ordinances” (source for this and all above: Bratcher / Nida)
  • Sinhala: “bearer-of-the-law”
  • Marathi: “one-learned-in-the-Scriptures”
  • Shona (1966): “expert of the law”
  • Balinese: “expert of the books of Torah”
  • Ekari: “one knowing paper/book”
  • Tboli: “one who taught the law God before caused Moses to write” (or “one who taught the law of Moses”) (source for this and 5 above: Reiling / Swellengrebel)
  • Noongar: Mammarapa-Warrinyang or “law man” (source: Warda-Kwabba Luke-Ang)
  • Mairasi: “one who writes and explains Great Above One’s (=God’s) prohibitions” (source: Enggavoter 2004)
  • Chichewa: “teacher of Laws” (source: Ernst Wendland)
  • North Alaskan Inupiatun: “teachers of law”
  • Huehuetla Tepehua: “writer”
  • Yatzachi Zapotec: “person who teaches the law which Moses wrote”
  • Alekano: “man who knows wisdom” (source for this and four above: M. Larson / B. Moore in Notes on Translation February 1970, p. 1-125.)
  • Saint Lucian Creole French: titcha lwa sé Jwif-la (“teacher of the law of the Jews”) (source: David Frank in Lexical Challenges in the St. Lucian Creole Bible Translation Project, 1998)
  • Chichimeca-Jonaz: “one who teaches the holy writings”
  • Atatláhuca Mixtec: “teacher of the words of the law”
  • Coatlán Mixe: “teacher of the religious law”
  • Lalana Chinantec: “one who is a teacher of the law which God gave to Moses back then”
  • Tepeuxila Cuicatec: “one who know well the law” (Source for this and four above: Viola Waterhouse in Notes on Translation August 1966, p. 86ff.)
  • Huixtán Tzotzil: “one who mistakenly thought he was teaching God’s commandments”(Huixtán Tzotzil frequently uses the verb -cuy to express “to mistakenly think something” from the point of view of the speaker; source: Marion M. Cowan in Notes on Translation 20/1966, pp. 6ff.)
  • German das Buch translation by Roland Werner (publ. 2009-2022): “theologian”
  • English translation by Scot McKnight (in The Second Testament, publ. 2023): Covenant Code scholar

In British Sign Language it is translated with a sign that combines the signs for “expert” and “law.” (Source: Anna Smith)


“Scribe” in British Sign Language (source: Christian BSL, used with permission)

complete verse (Mark 14:43)

Following are a number of back-translations of Mark 14:43:

  • Uma: “While Yesus was still speaking, Yudas, one of his twelve disciples, arrived. And with him were many other people who were carrying swords and clubs. They had been sent by the leading priests, religion teachers and Yahudi elders.” (Source: Uma Back Translation)
  • Yakan: “So-then while Isa was still speaking, Judas arrived. He was one of the twelve disciples of Isa. Very many people followed Judas having swords (barung) and carrying clubs. They had been commanded to go by the leaders of the priests and the teachers of the religious law and the elders.” (Source: Yakan Back Translation)
  • Western Bukidnon Manobo: “While Jesus was still talking, Jduas, one of the twelve apostles, came to him. With him were people armed with swords and clubs. They had been sent by the high priests, the teachers of the law, and the elders of the Jews.” (Source: Western Bukidnon Manobo Back Translation)
  • Kankanaey: “While Jesus was still speaking, Judas arrived who was one of those who were his twelve disciples. He had many accompanying-him whom the leaders of the priests and the elders of the Jews had sent who were carrying swords and clubs.” (Source: Kankanaey Back Translation)
  • Tagbanwa: “Jesus was still speaking when Judas arrived who was indeed one of those twelve discples. He was being accompanied by lots of people, each one having a weapon (usually a blade), clubs being what some held. They had been sent by the chiefs of the priests, the explainers of law and the important tribal leaders.” (Source: Tagbanwa Back Translation)

Translation commentary on Mark 14:43

Text:

After ochlos ‘crowd’ Textus Receptus and Kilpatrick add polus ‘great,’ which is omitted by all other modern editions of the Greek text.

Exegesis:

eti autou lalountos ‘while he was speaking’: cf. 5.35 for the identical phrase.

paraginetai (only here in Mark) ‘he is present,’ ‘he comes,’ ‘he arrives.’

heis tōn dōdeka (cf. 14.10, 20) ‘one of the Twelve.’

ochlos ‘crowd’: here, in the nature of the case, ‘mob’ (Moffatt), ‘rabble’ (Taylor).

meta machairōn kai xulōn ‘with swords and clubs’: the machairai (14.47, 48) were not necessarily swords, in the usual or technical sense of the term; they might have been knives. The xula (14.48) would be clubs, or cudgels.

para ‘from’ (cf. 8.11; 12.2, 21 for other places in which the preposition is used in this sense): here ‘from’ goes back to the main verb paraginomai ‘arrive,’ or else something like apestalmenos ‘sent’ is to be understood (cf. Lagrange envoyée).

tōn archiereōn kai tōn grammateōn kai tōn presbuterōn ‘the chief priests and the scribes and the elders,’ all three groups of the Sanhedrin (cf. 8.31).

Translation:

The syntax of this verse is deceptively simple, for there are a number of difficulties which, if not treated properly, result in misunderstanding. In the first place immediately should be related to the coming of Judas. This often requires a shift of order, e.g. ‘and while Jesus was still talking, Judas came right up’ or ‘… Judas came up immediately.’

One of the twelve is in apposition with Judas, and as such may be treated (1) as a paratactically combined expression, e.g. ‘He was one of the twelve’ or as in many languages ‘he was one with the eleven,’ or (2) as a dependent relative clause, e.g. ‘Judas, who was one of the twelve, came right up.’

The phrase with him a crowd with swords and clubs must frequently be made a separate clause, with two entirely different treatments of the preposition with, since in the first instance the meaning is accompaniment and in the second, possession, e.g. ‘a crowd who had (or ‘carried’) swords and clubs accompanied Judas.’

From the chief priests and the scribes and the elders is sometimes wrongly translated in such a way as to imply only that the swords and the clubs came from the three groups of the Sanhedrin. In still other instances, the rendering has implied that the crowd consisted of these groups. However the real meaning is that Judas and the crowd came from these authorities, in the sense of having been sent out by them. This meaning can be conveyed in some languages by a pronominal usage ‘these came from…’ or ‘they came from….’ This verse, consisting of a single sentence in Greek, must often be translated by at least three in other languages because of the radical shifts in participants and the fact that the Greek prepositions imply a complex relationship which cannot be duplicated by corresponding phrases in other languages.

For certain lexical problems, the following references are useful: chief priests (2.26; 8.31), scribes (1.22), and elders (8.31).

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 .