taking down the body (image)

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

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Following is a hand colored stencil print on momigami by Sadao Watanabe (1980):

Image taken with permission from the SadaoHanga Catalogue where you can find many more images and information about Sadao Watanabe.

For other images of Sadao Watanabe art works in TIPs, see here.

complete verse (Mark 15:46)

Following are a number of back-translations of Mark 15:46:

  • Uma: “Yusuf bought white cloth to use as a burial-item for him. He took his body off the cross and wrapped it with the cloth. After that he put it in a grave that was dug into the side of a rock mountain, and he rolled a rock to close up the door of the grave.” (Source: Uma Back Translation)
  • Yakan: “So-then Yusup bought white-cloth (kakana’) and after he had taken Isa down from the post, he shrouded him with the white-cloth. Then he laid him in a burial cave, a hollowed out stone. Then he rolled a stone to close-off the entrance of the cave.” (Source: Yakan Back Translation)
  • Western Bukidnon Manobo: “Joseph bought a white banket and took the body of Jesus and wrapped it in the blanket. There was a burial cave cut out of a limestone cliff. He put the body of Jesus there, and he rolled a large stone to cover the grave.” (Source: Western Bukidnon Manobo Back Translation)
  • Kankanaey: “That being so, Jose went to go buy white cloth. Then he went and lowered Jesus’ body from the cross, and he wrapped it in that-aforementioned cloth, after which he placed-(it)-in a cave that was chipped-from rock. That being finished, he rolled a large stone in order that the cave would be closed (lit. doored).” (Source: Kankanaey Back Translation)
  • Tagbanwa: “Therefore Jose went-and-bought first-class cloth. And then having removed the body of Jesus from the cross, he wrapped it in that. He put it in a grave which was hollowed out of rock. After-laying- Jesus -out inside, he caused a big rock to be rolled to block off the mouth of that grave.” (Source: Tagbanwa Back Translation)

Translation commentary on Mark 15:46

Text:

Instead of katethēken ‘he deposited’ of the majority of editions of the Greek text, Westcott and Hort, Souter, Lagrange, and Taylor have ethēken ‘he placed.’

Exegesis:

agorasas (cf. 6.36) ‘buying’: according to normal usage of the aorist participle, ‘he bought’ indicates here an action which followed the actions in the preceding verses (and preceded the action of the main verb in this verse). It is not, therefore, to be translated ‘he had bought.’

sindona (cf. 14.51) ‘a linen cloth,’ ‘a linen sheet’: Revised Standard Version ‘linen shroud’ is derived, of course, from the use to which the cloth was put.

kathelōn (cf. v. 36) ‘taking down (from the cross).’

auton ‘him,’ i.e. Jesus, and not ‘it’ (the body).

eneilēsen (only here in the N.T.) ‘he wound in,’ ‘he wrapped in.’

katethēken (only here in Mark) ‘he deposited,’ ‘he placed.’

en mnēmati (cf. 5.3) ‘in the tomb.’

ēn lelatomēmenon (only here in Mark) ‘it had been hewn out’: here this verbal phrase has its proper meaning as a pluperfect, indicating an action completed in the past.

ek petras (only here in Mark; cf. petrōdēs, 4.5) ‘out of the rock’: as further details indicate, this is to be thought of as an artificial cave or cavern dug out from the side of the rock, and not a grave dug into the ground, below the surface of the earth.

prosekulisen lithon epi tēn thuran ‘he rolled a stone against the entrance.’ thura here not to be thought of as a ‘door’ or ‘gate,’ its normal meaning; it is the entrance to the tomb.

For mnēmeion ‘tomb’ cf. 5.2.

Translation:

Linen shroud is generally ‘linen cloth,’ or where linen is quite unknown ‘good white cloth’ is used as a functional equivalent.

Though the Greek text refers to ‘him,’ rather than the body, as being taken down from the cross, in translations it is often necessary to specify the body, since ‘him’ would refer only to a living person or to his ghost. Hence, ‘took the body down, wrapped it in a linen cloth, and laid it in a tomb’ is the only correct equivalent expression for the Greek text.

Tomb may be described as ‘a small cave which was cut (or ‘dug’) out of the rock.’

Rock may be translated as ‘rock cliff,’ so as to indicate that the cave was dug into a rock cliff, rather than excavated out of the ground.

Rolled a stone against the door has very often been mistranslated in such a way that people assume that a door was used to close the tomb and then that a large stone was rolled up in front of the door so as to prevent easy entrance. Rather the meaning is that ‘a large stone was rolled up to cover the entrance to the tomb.’

In some languages distinctions must be made between various kinds of stone, ‘limestone’ vs. ‘sandstone’ (Shipibo-Conibo). It is more likely that the tomb was hewn out of limestone.

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 .