your daughter is dead

The Greek that is translated in English as “your daughter is dead” is translated in Mangga Buang with the euphemism “your daughter’s eyes are closed.” (Source: Deibler / Taylor 1977, p. 1078)

Raising a Girl (image)

Painting by Wang Suda 王肅達 (1910-1963),
Copyright by the Catholic University Peking, China

Text under painting translated from Literary Chinese into English:
Raising a Girl
Proof that Jesus is the true God

Image taken from Chinese Christian Posters . For more information on the “Ars Sacra Pekinensis” school of art, see this article , for other artworks of that school in TIPs, see here.

complete verse (Mark 5:35)

Following are a number of back-translations of Mark 5:35:

  • Uma: “While Yesus was still speaking, several messengers from Yairus’s house arrived and said to Yairus: ‘Your (sing.) child has died. Don’t trouble the Teacher any longer.'” (Source: Uma Back Translation)
  • Yakan: “So-then, while Isa was still speaking to the woman, some people arrived from the house of Jairus. They said to Jairus, ‘Your daughter is no more. Do not trouble the Teacher any more.'” (Source: Yakan Back Translation)
  • Western Bukidnon Manobo: “While Jesus was still talking, some people came from the house of Jairus. And they said to Jairus, they said, ‘Don’t bother anymore to have Jesus come for you can no longer overtake the breath of your child.'” (Source: Western Bukidnon Manobo Back Translation)
  • Kankanaey: “Jesus was still talking while-simultaneously some from Jairus’ house arrived saying to him, ‘Let’s not (lit. even-if we not) be-distracting the teacher any more, because your (sing.) child died.'” (Source: Kankanaey Back Translation)
  • Tagbanwa: “Jesus hadn’t yet finished what he was saying when some (people) arrived coming along after Jairo. They said to Jairo, ‘Your daughter has died now (lit. illness became extreme). Probably the Teacher doesn’t need to be caused to continue on to the house now.'” (Source: Tagbanwa Back Translation)

Translation commentary on Mark 5:35

Exegesis:

eti autou lalountos ‘while he was speaking’: the present participle portrays the action still in progress.

erchontai apo tou archisunagōgou ‘they come from the (house of the) ruler of the synagogue’: so the majority of modern translations. Another translation is possible by understanding apo ‘from’ to mean ‘some from’: the phrase would then mean ‘some men of the household of the ruler of the synagogue’ (cf. Translator’s New Testament ‘some of the men of the officer of the synagogue’).

erchontai ‘they come’ is another example of the impersonal plural: ‘men come.’

apethanen (5.39; 9.26; 12.19, 20, 21, 22; 15.44) ‘she died,’ ‘she is dead.’

ti eti skulleis ton didaskalon ‘why are you still bothering the Teacher?’

skullō (only here in Mark) literally ‘flay’; ‘bother,’ ‘annoy,’ ‘trouble.’

ho didaskalos (cf. 4.38) ‘the Teacher,’ ‘the Rabbi.’

Translation:

The impersonal indirect type of expression there came … some must frequently be shifted to a more direct form, e.g. ‘some men from the ruler’s house came…’ or ‘some men came from the ruler’s house.’

Though the Greek has only ‘ruler of the synagogue,’ a type of compound, it is often necessary to add ‘the house’ (as in English). One may, of course, also use ‘synagogue’ in this phrase if this is required by the context, but generally the complete expression, as given in 5.22, is sufficiently full that in verse 5.35 one need only speak of the ‘ruler’ or the ‘leader.’

Said must in some languages be expanded to include the object of the saying, namely, the ruler of the synagogue.

The sequence of events may require is dead to be rendered as ‘is now dead’ or ‘has now died.’

For the translation of teacher, see 2.13.

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 .