The Greek that is typically transliterated in English as “Satan” is transliterated in Kipsigis as “Setani.” This is interesting because it is not only a transliteration that approximates the Greek sound but it is also an existing Kipsigis word with the meaning of “ugly” and “sneaking.” (Source: Earl Anderson in The Bible Translator 1950, p. 85ff. )
In Morelos Nahuatl it is translated as “envious one” (source: Viola Waterhouse in Notes on Translation August 1966, p. 86ff.) and in Tibetan: bdud (བདུད།), lit. “chief devil” (except in Rev. 20:2, where it is transliterated) (source: gSungrab website ).
Following are a number of back-translations of Mark 4:15:
Uma: “There are people who can be compared to the seeds that fall on the road. They do hear God’s words, but the King of Evil-ones comes and makes-them-forget/distracts them, with the result that they no longer in-heart those words.” (Source: Uma Back Translation)
Yakan: “And the other people are figuratively like the way where the word/message of God spilled onto. When they hear the message, immediately the leader of demons goes there to grab the message from their minds.” (Source: Yakan Back Translation)
Western Bukidnon Manobo: “That which is planted which fell on the path, that’s like people who hear th word of God, and Satan appeared and makes it so that they forget the word which they had heard.” (Source: Western Bukidnon Manobo Back Translation)
Kankanaey: “The ones-that-fell on the path, they are compared to the people who hear (things)-concerning God’s ruling. Whereupon Satan goes immediately and he removes from their minds the words that they heard.” (Source: Kankanaey Back Translation)
Tagbanwa: “What is meant by the pathway which got scattered on is the people who hear this teaching but then just forget it for it is quickly taken away by Satanas.” (Source: Tagbanwa Back Translation)
Mezquital Otomi: “The seeds that fell along the road are like people who hear God’s word, but right away Satan comes and causes them to forget the word which has been told to them.”
Tzotzil: “Just like the seed that falls on the road and is eaten by the birds, thus are some people who having heard the word of God, the devil comes and he takes out the word of God from their hearts.” (Source for this and one above: B. Moore / G. Turner in Notes on Translation 1967, p. 1ff.)
Instead of eis autous ‘in them’ in v. 15 read by Nestle, Westcott and Hort, Souter, Taylor, and Kilpatrick, Textus Receptus has en tais kardiais autōn ‘in their hearts’; Tischendorf, Soden, Vogels, Merk, and Lagrange have en autois ‘in them.’
Exegesis:
houtoi … hoi para tēn hodon ‘these … (are) the ones along the path’: it is to be noticed that in the explanation of the parable (vv. 15-20) the demonstratives, prepositional phrases and participles are all masculine, not neuter. The explanation of the parable has in view men (not seeds), i.e. the listeners, those who in one way or another receive the word (proclaimed to them).
hoi para tēn hodon ‘the ones along the path’: it is not said of these (as it is of the others, vv. 16, 18, 20) ‘sown on the path’ since they were not properly sown at all – they fell on the path without penetrating the soil.
In the explanation, by a change of figure, the various kinds of soil become various kinds of men who (literally) are sown therein. Properly what is sown is the (same) Word, and the soils represent the different classes of hearers: in the explanation, however, the various classes of hearers are sown. Though there is inconsistency in figures between the parable and its explanation, the meaning is clear throughout, and a straightforward translation will reproduce the meaning accurately.
ho logos ‘the Word,’ ‘the (Christian) Message’ (cf. 2.2).
eis autous ‘in them’ (not, ‘among’).
airei (some 20 times in Mark) ‘carry away,’ ‘take off.’
Translation:
In some languages a metaphor such as ‘the sower sows the word’ is meaningless, but a simile is completely understandable, and in fact is the closest natural equivalent, e.g. ‘the sower, as it were, sows the word.’ This little element ‘as it were’ (whether a complete phrase, a particle, or even a suffix on the verb) gives the clue to the reader that this is not to be understood literally, but in a figurative sense. Such shifts from strict metaphors to similes are frequently required for proper sense.
The word is in this context ‘the message,’ ‘the pronouncement,’ or even ‘the good news,’ for this is the technical use of Greek logos to represent the Christian message.
There is a certain difficulty in the words used to introduce the series of four types of persons. In the Revised Standard Version the words used are these (verse 15), these (verse 16), others (verse 18) and those (verse 20). In other languages one may need to adapt this series somewhat in order to produce an intelligible sequence, e.g. ‘some … others … still others … finally those.’
These are the ones along the path … is a metaphorical expression which may be shifted into the form of a simile by some verb such as ‘represent,’ ‘stand for,’ or ‘mean,’ e.g. ‘some represent the people along the path….’
Sown in them must in many languages be ‘sown in their hearts.’
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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