5He looked around at them with anger; he was grieved at their hardness of heart and said to the man, “Stretch out your hand.” He stretched it out, and his hand was restored.
The Greek that is translated as “hardness of heart” in English is translated as “large heart” into San Mateo Del Mar Huave, “tightness of heart” in Shilluk, “blind in their thoughts” in Copainalá Zoque, “hard heads” in Chicahuaxtla Triqui, “ears without holes” in Shipibo-Conibo and “do not have pain in their heart” in both Tzotzil and Tzeltal. (Source: Bratcher /Nida 1961)
The Hebrew and Greek that is translated as “anger” in English in this verse is translated with a variety of solutions (Bratcher / Nida says: “Since anger has so many manifestations and seems to affect so many aspects of personality, it is not strange that expressions used to describe this emotional response are so varied).”
Citak: two different terms, one meaning “angry” and one meaning “offended,” both are actually descriptions of facial expressions. The former can be represented by an angry stretching of the eyes or by an angry frown. The latter is similarly expressed by an offended type of frown with one’s head lowered. (Source: Graham Ogden)
The house of prayer of the Jews. There was a man there with a dried up hand. The Pharisees were also sitting there. On the Sabbath day Jesus went into the house of prayer. The Pharisees began to say to one another:
— If Jesus heals this man with a dried up hand, then we will rebuke Jesus for breaking the law. Today is the Sabbath, so it is not lawful to heal today.
Jesus looked around, saw a man with a dried up hand, and in full view of everyone called him to the center of the hall. The man approached Jesus. Jesus looked at the Pharisees and said to them:
— Today is the Sabbath. Tell me, what does the law allow you to do on this day? To heal and give health to the man? Or to be indifferent and ignore how he perishes? Tell me.
The Pharisees could say nothing in response. Jesus became angry with the Pharisees and said:
— It is a pity that your hearts are callous.
Jesus’ said to the man with the dry hand:
— Stretch out your hand!
The man stretched out his hand — and it became healthy!
When the Pharisees saw all this, they went out of there with indignation. The Pharisees went to the place where the men, King Herod’s supporters, were. The Pharisees went up to them and began to say to one another:
— How shall we kill this Jesus?
Original Russian back-translation (click or tap here):
Дом молитвы евреев. Там был один человек с высохшей рукой. Также там сидели фарисеи. В день субботний Иисус зашел в дом молитвы. Фарисеи стали говорить друг другу:
— Если Иисус исцелит этого человека с сухой рукой, тогда мы уличим Иисуса в нарушении закона. Сегодня суббота, поэтому исцелять сегодня нельзя по закону.
Иисус посмотрел вокруг, увидел человека с высохшей рукой, и на виду у всех позвал его в центр зала. Этот человек подошел к Иисусу. Иисус посмотрел на фарисеев и сказал им:
— Сегодня суббота. Скажите, что разрешает закон делать в этот день? Исцелить и дать здоровье человеку? Или же быть равнодушным и не обращать внимания, как он погибает? Скажите мне.
Фарисеи ничего не могли сказать в ответ. Иисус разгневался на фарисеев и сказал:
— Жаль, что у вас сердца черствые.
Портом Иисус сказал человеку с сухой рукой:
— Вытяни свою руку!
Человек протянул свою руку — и она стала здоровой!
Фарисеи, увидев все это, с возмущением вышли оттуда. Фарисеи пошли в то место, где были люди, сторонники царя Ирода. Фарисеи подошли к ним и стали говорить друг другу:
Following are a number of back-translations of Mark 3:5:
Uma: “Yesus turned around looking at them. He was angry and upset because their hearts were very hard. That is why he said saying to the man whose one hand was dead: ‘Put out your (sing.) hand.’ He put out his hand, he was healed.” (Source: Uma Back Translation)
Yakan: “Isa looked around at them. His liver was very grieved and he was angry because they had no pity for the people. So-then he said to the man with the withered hand, ‘Stretch out your hand.’ Na, he stretched it out, then his hand was already healed.” (Source: Yakan Back Translation)
Western Bukidnon Manobo: “As Jesus was looking around at the many people, he became very angry with them, and his breath became very painful because those people had no pity. Then he said to the man whose hand was destroyed, ‘Friend, straighten out your hand.’ And the man straightened out his hand and was immediately healed.” (Source: Western Bukidnon Manobo Back Translation)
Kankanaey: “Jesus was angry as he looked-fixedly at them. He also felt sad (lit. his thoughts hurt) because of their stubborn/unresponsive minds (lit. hard minds). Then he said to the one with the atrophied arm/hand, ‘Stretch-out your (sing.) arm/hand.’ He stretched it out and it was totally made-well.” (Source: Kankanaey Back Translation)
Tagbanwa: “Jesus stared at that crowd of people around him. Part of his mind/inner-being was angry. The other part was sad because of their stubbornness (lit. the hardness of their heads). He transferred his look to that person-with-something-limp and said, ‘Raise-and-stretch-out your hand/arm.’ He truly did raise-and-stretch-it -out, that limpness of his at once becoming completely better.” (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.
At the end of the verse Textus Receptus adds hugiēs hōs hē allē ‘sound as the other (hand)’ (from the parallel passage Mt. 12.13): all modern editions of the Greek text omit this phrase.
Exegesis:
periblepsamenos (3.34; 5.32; 9.8; 10.23; 11.11) ‘looking around’: the aorist participle indicates manner, and this verb is used in Mark (with the exception of 9.8 and 11.11) of Jesus’ looking upon friends or enemies.
met’ orgēs (only here in Mark) ‘with anger,’ ‘wrathfully.’
sullupoumenos (only here in N.T.) ‘grieved’: in ordinary usage this compound verb means ‘to grieve with (somebody),’ ‘to sympathize,’ and Lagrange and Swete suggest that here it indicates a mixture of grief with anger; most commentators, however, see here only a strengthened form of the simple verb ‘deeply grieved’ , or else the Greek equivalent of the Latin contristare ‘grieve,’ ‘mourn.’
epi tē pōrōsei tēs kardias autōn ‘at the hardness of their heart.’
epi ‘at,’ ‘because’: for this use of epi, see 1.22.
pōrōsis (only here in Mark) ‘hardness’: it is generally agreed that the word in the N.T. (also Rom. 11.25, Eph. 4.18) has the meaning of ‘dullness,’ ‘insensibility,’ ‘insensitiveness,’ ‘obstinacy’ (J. A. Robinson: “obtuseness or intellectual blindness”), Translator’s New Testament Glossary, Manson “stupidity,” Moffatt “obstinacy.”
kardia ‘heart’ (see 2.6 for the meaning of ‘heart’).
ekteinon ‘you stretch out’ (cf. 1.41).
apekatestathē (8.25; 9.12) ‘it was restored,’ i.e. returned to its original soundness.
Translation:
Since the clause grieved at their hardness of heart describes the reason for the anger, it must in some languages precede (Navajo). In all such instances, however, the proper antecedent of ‘their’ must be clearly evident.
Since anger has so many manifestations and seems to affect so many aspects of personality, it is not strange that expressions used to describe this emotional response are so varied: ‘to be warm inside’ (Chicahuaxtla Triqui), ‘to have a cut heart’ (Mende), ‘to have a split heart’ (Miskito), ‘to have a hot heart’ (Tzotzil), ‘a swollen heart’ (Mossi ), ‘fire of the viscera’ (Conob), ‘pain in the heart’ (San Blas Kuna), ‘not with good eye’ (Chimborazo Highland Quichua).
There are, of course, differing degrees of anger which may be indicated in various languages, but there is no reason to think that some relatively weak form of anger should be referred to here, just because Jesus is the subject of the sentence. This was genuine indignation and anger because of the callous disregard of the people for human welfare.
Since ‘anger’ is so often expressed as a process, it must be combined with the main verb of its clause as another related event, e.g. ‘Jesus’ heart was hot as he looked around’ or ‘as he looked around … his heart was swollen.’
In this verse grieve is not to be associated with weeping or mourning for the dead (a common meaning of the term), but with the concept of deep emotional upheaval and disturbance, often described in very figurative language, e.g. ‘his liver was ruined because of…’ (Shilluk).
Hardness of heart is one idiom which in a great many languages must be replaced by quite different types of expressions. For one thing, ‘hard heart’ may have quite different meanings in other languages: ‘brave’ (Tzotzil, Tzeltal, Shilluk), ‘bad character’ (Chicahuaxtla Triqui), ‘endurance’ (Sayula Popoluca), and ‘to be in doubt’ (Piro). In still other languages a phrase such as ‘hard heart’ would not mean any more than a ‘stony lung’ would mean to English-speaking persons. If, then, we are to make sense in such languages, we must adopt an expression which is the natural equivalent in this type of context as e.g. ‘large heart’ (San Mateo del Mar Huave), ‘tightness of heart’ (Shilluk), ‘blind in their thoughts’ (Copainalá Zoque), ‘hard heads’ (Chicahuaxtla Triqui), ‘ears without holes’ (Shipibo-Conibo), ‘do not have pain in their heart’ (Tzotzil, Tzeltal).
Restored may be rendered as ‘was made like it was before’ or ‘became good again.’
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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