He gave freedom to those in bondage of evil (image)

“In Thai society, those who are possessed by evil spirits are usually the weak or mentally unstable. This man is shown as freed from his spiritual and physical chains. Even though he is naked Jesus is not ashamed to be close to him.”

Drawing by Sawai Chinnawong who employs northern and central Thailand’s popular distinctive artistic style originally used to depict Buddhist moral principles and other religious themes; explanation by Paul DeNeui. From That Man Who Came to Save Us by Sawai Chinnawong and Paul H. DeNeui, William Carey Library, 2010.

For more images by Sawai Chinnatong in TIPs see here.

complete verse (Mark 5:1)

Following are a number of back-translations of Mark 5:1:

  • Uma: “From there, they arrived at the other side of the lake, in the land of Gerasa.” (Source: Uma Back Translation)
  • Yakan: “So-then Isa and his disciples arrived on the other side of the lake Jalil, there in the place of the people of Gerasa.” (Source: Yakan Back Translation)
  • Western Bukidnon Manobo: “Jesus and company came ashore on the other side of the lake, and that was the land of the Gerasene people.” (Source: Western Bukidnon Manobo Back Translation)
  • Kankanaey: “Plural Jesus continued crossing the lake until they landed in the region of Gerasa.” (Source: Kankanaey Back Translation)
  • Tagbanwa: “Jesus and company came to shore on the other side of the Lake of Galilea. The Geraseno were the people who lived there.” (Source: Tagbanwa Back Translation)

Translation commentary on Mark 5:1 – 5:2

Text:

Instead of Gerasēnōn ‘Gerasenes’ of the great majority of modern editions of the Greek text, Textus Receptus and Vogels have Gadarenōn ‘Gaderenes’ (the correct reading in Mt. 8.28).

Exegesis:

tēn chōran tōn Gerasēnōn ‘the region of the Gerasenes’ (cf. 1.5 for chōra ‘region’): for the exact identification of this region, which is disputed.

hupēntēsen (only here in Mark) ‘he met,’ ‘he encountered’; sometimes in a hostile sense (cf. Lk. 14.31).

ek tōn mnēmeiōn ‘out of the tombs,’ i.e. ‘coming out of the tombs’ (cf. Goodspeed, Manson, The Modern Speech New Testament).

mnēmeion (6.29; 15.46; 16.3, 5, 8) ‘grave,’ ‘tomb’ (synonym of mnēma ‘tomb’ vv. 3, 5).

Translation:

For difficulties involved in expressions of ‘going to the other side,’ see 4.35.

The country of the Gerasenes may be variously translated, depending upon the usage of the receptor language in question, e.g. ‘land where the Gerasenes lived,’ ‘land which belonged to the Gerasene people,’ ‘region inhabited by the Gerasene tribe.’

The apposition involved in the expressions to the other side … to the country … may be treated in some instances as two paratactically combined clauses: ‘they went to the other side of the lake; this was the land of the Gerasene people.’

For problems involved in verbs for ‘coming’ and ‘going’ see 1.14. In many languages one must translate came to the other side as ‘arrived at the other side’ and come out of the boat as ‘went out of…’ or ‘climbed out of….’

The word tombs refers either to cave-like rooms cut into the rock or small mausoleum-like structures, which might provide some shelter for the demoniac. If people have a custom of burying the dead in such places, there is generally no problem, except where, as in one language, the informants insisted that the demoniac could not come out of more than one tomb at a time, hence, ‘met him, coming out of the tomb’ or ‘met him, coming from where the tombs were.’ On the other hand, if people bury only in holes in the ground, it would be quite misleading to imply that the demoniac came out of the graves in the ground. In such instances, the closest equivalent is usually ‘came from where the dead were buried,’ i.e. from the cemetery.

For unclean spirit see 1.26.

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 .