The following is a representation of the story of Jesus calming the sea in Shor with traditional throat singing. The singers are Lubov Arbachakova (with no instrument) and Irena Kiskurova:
A translation of the Russian subtitles into English:
0:11 Once Jesus was at the sea with his disciples.
0:24 A multitude of people gathered, and he began to teach them.
0:36 When evening came, He said to His disciples:
0:45 “Let’s move to the other side.”
0:48 The disciples asked the people to leave,
0:56 they were all in the boat together in Jesus and set out on the other side of the sea.
1:22 Suddenly there was a strong storm.
1:30 The waves beat the boat so that it was filled with water.
1:42 And Jesus at this time slept in the stern of the boat, laying his head on the steersman’s seat.
1:58 The disciples woke him up and said:
2:08 “Teacher! Do you really care that we are dying?”
2:11 Jesus stood up, calmed the wind, and said to the sea:
2:20 «Hush, shut up!»
2:23 The wind died down, and there was a complete calm on the sea.
2:35 And Jesus rebuked the disciples:
2:46 “Why are you so timid? Do you have absolutely no faith?”
2:52 They continued sailing, and the disciples spoke to each other with fear:
3:11 “Who is He, that even the wind and the sea listen to Him?”
“Fishermen relied upon their folk knowledge in order to survive. It is strange that they did not know what to do in the midst of a storm but Jesus did.”
Following are a number of back-translations of Mark 4:41:
Uma: “His disciples were very afraid, and they spoke to one another, they said: ‘Just who is this person? The wind and lake get-quiet following his command!'” (Source: Uma Back Translation)
Yakan: “They were very afraid. Therefore they asked among-themselves, they said, ‘What person is this? Even the wind and the waves obey his command!'” (Source: Yakan Back Translation)
Western Bukidnon Manobo: “And then his disciples were very much amazed, and they asked each other saying, ‘What kind of a person is this? Why is it that even the wind and the waves obey him?'” (Source: Western Bukidnon Manobo Back Translation)
Kankanaey: “The fear of all of them was extreme and they said-to-each-other, ‘What kind-of-person is this? Why (surprised realization particle) even the wind and waves, they obey what he says!'” (Source: Kankanaey Back Translation)
Tagbanwa: “When the disciples observed that, fear reached them and they were very amazed. They were saying, ‘Who truly is he that even the wind and lake, they obey him?'” (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.
In v. 40 after este ‘you are’ Textus Receptus, Nestle, Tischendorf, Soden, Vogels, Taylor and Kilpatrick add houtōs ‘thus’ which is omitted by Westcott and Hort, Lagrange, Souter, Merk and Revised Standard Version.
In v. 40 instead of pōs ouch echete ‘how (is it that) you do not have’ read by Textus Receptus, Tischendorf, Merk and Nestle; oupō echete ‘do you not (yet) have’ is preferred by Westcott and Hort, Souter, Soden, Vogels, Lagrange, Revised Standard Version, Kilpatrick.
Exegesis:
deiloi (only here in Mark) ‘timid,’ ‘fearful,’ ‘cowardly.’
pōs ‘how?,’ ‘how is it possible that…?’
pistin (cf. 2.5) ‘faith,’ ‘belief,’ ‘trust’: whether in God, or in Jesus himself, the text does not specify.
ephobēthēsan phobon megan ‘they feared a great fear’: a Semitic manner of intensive statement ‘they feared greatly,’ ‘they were very much afraid.’
phobeomai (5.15, 33, 36; 6.20, 50; 9.32; 10.32; 11.18, 32; 12.12; 16.8) ‘to be afraid,’ ‘to be awed.’
pros allēlous (8.16; 9.34; 15.31; en allēlois 9.50) ‘to themselves,’ i.e. ‘to one another’ (not privately, each one to himself, but in the group, one to the other).
ara (11.13) ‘then,’ ‘therefore’: as an inference from all that has preceded; ‘In light of this, who, then, is this man?’
kai ho anemos ‘even the wind’: so the great majority of modern translations (American Standard Version, Revised Standard Version, Goodspeed, Berkeley, Manson, The Modern Speech New Testament, Williams, Montgomery, Zürcher Bibel, O Novo Testamento de Nosso Senhor Jesus Cristo. Revisdo Autorizada); Translator’s New Testament, however, “both wind and….”
hupakouei (cf. 1.27) ‘they obey.’
Translation:
Them must in some languages be clearly indicated as ‘disciples’ because of the immediately preceding reference to the ‘wind and sea.’
The description of fear leads to a number of idioms, e.g. ‘your heart trembles’ (Tzeltal), ‘shiver in your liver’ (Uduk), and ‘to have such little hearts’ (Tzotzil). This fear must be carefully distinguished from the meaning of fear as reverence or respect.
For faith see 1.15. In some languages, however, one cannot speak of faith without indicating the object of the faith. Despite the fact that the Greek does not specify whether this is faith in Jesus or God, it is probably more acceptable to translate as ‘faith in God,’ since it would seem that faith is here spoken of in terms of its widest application to experiences of confidence and trust, rather than with regard to specific reliance on Jesus’ own leadership and provision for their needs.
Filled with awe is equivalent in some instances to ‘completely amazed,’ ‘their thoughts left them,’ ‘their hearts fell.’
Who, introducing the last question is not a simple interrogative pronoun relating to identity. It rather asks ‘what sort of person is this that….’ Or, as in some languages, ‘who is this sort of person that….’ At any rate, there must usually be some type of qualifier to supplement the words as they stand in the English text.
Obey him may be rendered as ‘do what he says’ (or ‘commands’).
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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