The region of Galilee. Jesus came to Galilee, to the lake, with his disciples. Jesus had healed many people before, made them well, and cast out many demons from people. Word of his work spread throughout Galilee. They also knew about him in Judea, in the city of Jerusalem, in Idumea, near the Jordan River, also in the city of Tyre and Sidon — in all these places people heard about Jesus. And people were coming to Jesus from everywhere. Jesus saw that there were many people coming and going to him. So he asked his disciples for a boat so that he could get into it and sail away from the shore when the crowds became too great. Many different sick people came to him. They all hoped that they could at least touch Jesus and become well. Jesus healed and cured everyone. Even the demons from the possessed people ran away when they saw Jesus. Some demons were shouting:
— Jesus! You are the son of God!
Jesus forbade the demons:
— Be silent! Don’t you dare talk about me.
Original Russian back-translation (click or tap here):
Область Галилея. Иисус пришел в Галилею, к озеру, вместе с учениками. До этого Иисус очень многих людей исцелял, делал их здоровыми, также изгнал множество бесов из людей. По всей Галилее разнесся слух о его делах. Также знали о нем в Иудее, в городе Иерусалиме, в Идумее, возле реки Иордан, также в городе Тир и Сидон — во всех этих местах люди слышали об Иисусе. И люди отовсюду шли к Иисусу. Иисус видел, что к нему все идут и идут люди, народа очень много. Тогда он попросил у учеников лодку, чтобы сесть в нее и отплыть от берега, когда народу станет слишком много. Приходило к нему множество разных больных. Все они надеялись, что они смогут хотя бы прикоснуться к Иисусу и стать здоровыми. Иисус всех исцелял и исцелял. Даже бесы из одержимых людей убегали, завидев Иисуса. Некоторые бесы кричали:
Following are a number of back-translations of Mark 3:10:
Uma: “He healed many people that were sick, with the result that the people crowded-each-other to get close to him, wanting to touch him. From the manyness of the people, that is why he ordered his disciples to prepare a boat for him to ride, so that he would not be crowded by the people.” (Source: Uma Back Translation)
Yakan: “Because many people were healed by him, therefore those who had sickness pressed towards him in order to touch him.” (Source: Yakan Back Translation)
Western Bukidnon Manobo: “He healed many sick people and because of this the sick people there crowded in to force their way to Jesus so that they might touch him and be healed.” (Source: Western Bukidnon Manobo Back Translation)
Kankanaey: “Because he had healed many, therefore those who were still sick crowded-around him in order to touch him.” (Source: Kankanaey Back Translation)
Tagbanwa: “For many now who were ill had been healed by Jesus. That’s why he was now being jostled by others who were ill so that they could even just touch the body of Jesus.” (Source: Tagbanwa Back Translation)
God transcends gender, but most languages are limited to grammatical gender expressed in pronouns. In the case of English, this is traditionally confined to “he” (or in the forms “his,” “him,” and “himself”), “she” (and “her,” “hers,” and “herself”), and “it” (and “its” and “itself”).
Modern Mandarin Chinese, however, offers another possibility. Here, the third-person singular pronoun is always pronounced the same (tā), but it is written differently according to its gender (他 is “he,” 她 is “she,” and 它/牠 is “it” and their respective derivative forms). In each of these characters, the first (or upper) part defines the gender (man, woman, or thing/animal), while the second element gives the clue to its pronunciation.
In 1930, after a full century with dozens of Chinese translations, Bible translator Wang Yuande (王元德) coined a new “godly” pronoun: 祂. Chinese readers immediately knew how to pronounce it: tā. But they also recognized that the first part of that character, signifying something spiritual, clarified that each person of the Trinity has no gender aside from being God.
While the most important Protestant and Catholic Chinese versions respectively have opted not to use 祂, some Bible translations do and it is widely used in hymnals and other Christian materials. Among the translations that use 祂 to refer to “God” were early versions of Lü Zhenzhong’s (呂振中) version (New Testament: 1946, complete Bible: 1970). R.P. Kramers (in The Bible Translator 1956, p. 152ff.) explains why later versions of Lü’s translation did not continue with this practice: “This new way of writing ‘He,’ however, has created a minor problem of its own: must this polite form be used whenever Jesus is referred to? Lü follows the rule that, wherever Jesus is referred to as a human being, the normal ta (他) is written; where he is referred to as divine, especially after the ascension, the reverential ta (祂) is used.”
In that system one kind of pronoun is used for humans (male and female alike) and one for natural elements, non-liquid masses, and some spiritual entities (one other is used for large animals and another one for miscellaneous items). While in these languages the pronoun for spiritual entities used to be employed when referring to God, this has changed into the use of the human pronoun.
Lynell Zogbo (in The Bible Translator 1989, p. 401ff) explains in the following way: “From informal discussions with young Christians especially, it would appear that, at least for some people, the experience and/or concepts of Christianity are affecting the choice of pronoun for God. Some people explain that God is no longer ‘far away,’ but is somehow tangible and personal. For these speakers God has shifted over into the human category.”
In Kouya, God (the Father) and Jesus are referred to with the human pronoun ɔ, whereas the Holy Spirit is referred to with a non-human pronoun. (Northern Grebo and Western Krahn make a similar distinction.)
Eddie Arthur, a former Kouya Bible translation consultant, says the following: “We tried to insist that this shouldn’t happen, but the Kouya team members were insistent that the human pronoun for the Spirit would not work.”
In Burmese, the pronoun ko taw (ကိုယ်တော်) is used either as 2nd person (you) or 3rd person (he, him, his) reference. “This term clearly has its root in the religious language in Burmese. No ordinary persons are addressed or known by this pronoun because it is reserved for Buddhist monks, famous religious teachers, and in the case of Christianity, the Trinity.” (Source: Gam Seng Shae in The Bible Translator 2002, p. 202ff.)
In Thai, the pronoun phra`ong (พระองค์) is used, a gender-neutral pronoun which must refer to a previously introduced royal or divine being. Similarly, in Northern Khmer, which is spoken in Thailand, “an honorific divine pronoun” is used for the pronoun referring to the persons of the Trinity (source: David Thomas in The Bible Translator 1993, p. 445). In Urak Lawoi’, another language spoken in Thailand, the translation often uses tuhat (ตูฮัด) — “God” — ”as a divine pronoun where Thai has phra’ong even though it’s actually a noun.” (Source for Thai and Urak Lawoi’: Stephen Pattemore)
The English “Contemporary Torah” addresses the question of God and gendered pronouns by mostly avoiding pronouns in the first five books of the Hebrew Bible/Old Testament (unless God is referred to as “lord,” “father,” “king,” or “warrior”). It does that by either using passive constructs (“He gave us” vs. “we were given”), by using the adjective “divine” or by using “God” rather than a pronoun.
Some Protestant English Bibles use a referential capitalized spelling when referring to the persons of the Trinity with “He,” “His,” “Him,” or “Himself.” This includes for instance the New American Standard Bible, but most translations, especially those published in the 21st century, do not. Two other languages where this is also done (in most Bible translations) are the closely related Indonesian and Malay. In both languages this follows the language usage according to the Qur’an, which in turn predicts that usage (see Soesilo in The Bible Translator 1991, p. 442ff. and The Bible Translator 1997, p. 433ff. ).
See also this chapter in the World Atlas of Language Structures on different approaches to personal pronouns.
hina ploiarion proskarterē autō ‘that a boat be ready for him’: in this clause hina does not denote purpose ‘in order that’ but simply indicates the content of the order given the disciples.
ploiarion (only here in Mark) ‘a boat’: the diminutive of ploion (cf. 1.19) ‘boat.’ It is not necessary to suppose, however, that a very exact distinction between the two is made by the evangelist.
proskartereō (only here in Mark) ‘attend constantly,’ ‘wait on’: used here of a boat it means ‘stand ready, be in constant attendance’ (cf. Gould).
hina mē thlibōsin auton ‘in order that they not crush him’: here is the purpose (hina ‘in order that’) of the command that a boat be at hand.
thlibō (7.14) ‘press upon,’ ‘crowd,’ ‘crush’: ‘they’ refers to ho ochlos ‘the crowd’ of the preceding clause.
etherapeusen (cf. 1.34) ‘he healed’: American Standard Version and Revised Standard Version “had healed” is not to be understood in the sense that the healing ministry was finished; cf. “healed” of Moffatt, Translator’s New Testament (cf. Manson “made many cures”).
hōste epipiptein (cp. 1.27 for this construction) ‘so as to press upon’: the verb epipiptō (only here in Mark) means literally ‘to fall upon’ and is here used in the sense ‘to crowd upon,’ ‘to approach impetuously’ .
autou hapsōntai (cp. 1.41) ‘that they might touch him.’
hosoi eichon mastigas ‘as many as had diseases,’ ‘all who had diseases.’
mastix (5.29, 34) ‘whip,’ ‘scourge,’ ‘torment’: used of disease and suffering as divine chastisement. It is probable, however, that the word had lost its original sense of ‘scourge’ inflicted by the gods and meant simply ‘disease’ (cf. Lagrange). Cf. the similar use, in English, of the word ‘plague.’
Translation:
After the verb told it is quite frequent that the following order of Jesus must be stated in a direct form, e.g. ‘told his disciples: Have a boat ready for me because….’
To have a boat ready is not always an easy idea to translate literally. Some languages may speak of people being ‘ready’ (i.e. ‘prepared for action’) but inanimate objects such as boats cannot be spoken of as ‘ready.’ The closest equivalent in San Mateo del Mar Huave, for example, is to say ‘to have a boat tied (anchored) near by,’ Pamona and Javanese, ‘a little ship had to be close-by.’ On the other hand, one can usually speak of ‘preparing a boat for a person’ and this may be the best equivalent in some languages.
The two expressions (1) because of the crowd and (2) lest they should crush him are better coalesced into one clause in some languages since the logical subject is identical for each, e.g. ‘in order that the crowd would not push hard against him.’
The conjunction for introducing verse 10 may pose certain difficulties, since, if it is understood to suggest a reason for the immediately preceding action, there is a non sequitur, that is to say, people will not be able to understand why the people would crush him because he had healed so many. Actually, this conjunction introduces a reason, not for the immediately preceding action, but for the previous statement by Jesus, namely, that the disciples should keep a boat ready for him. In order, to make the relationship quite clear one may render the passage as ‘Jesus did this because he had healed many and as a result all who….’
Pressed upon him to touch him must be translated with care, for ‘to press upon’ may imply by its very form physical contact. Accordingly, readers may wonder why the phrase ‘to touch him’ should be added. However, the description of what was happening in this crowd can be readily described as ‘they kept pushing one another in order to touch him’ (Amganad Ifugao) or ‘kept shoving toward him in order to touch him’ (Tabasco Chontal).
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 .
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