he told them to give her something to eat

The Greek that is translated as “he told them to give her something to eat” or similar in English is translated in Binumarien as “he told them to give her something to eat and they did.” Native speakers wouldn’t expect the action to have taken place unless specifically indicated (source: Oates, p. 199).

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 5:43)

Following are a number of back-translations of Mark 5:43:

  • Uma: “But Yesus forbid them strongly, he said: ‘Don’t you talk about what just happened here.’ And he also said: ‘Give that child her food.'” (Source: Uma Back Translation)
  • Yakan: “So-then Isa really instructed them not to tell the people about this. And he told them to feed the child.” (Source: Yakan Back Translation)
  • Western Bukidnon Manobo: “And Jesus commanded them that they shouldn’t tell what had happened, and he told them to give their child something to eat.” (Source: Western Bukidnon Manobo Back Translation)
  • Kankanaey: “But Jesus strictly commanded that they absolutely not talk-about that-aforementioned-thing that happened to even any person. Then he told them to feed the young-lady.” (Source: Kankanaey Back Translation)
  • Tagbanwa: “Jesus emphatically told them not to go telling what he had done. And he said to Jairo-and-spouse to cause the child to eat now.” (Source: Tagbanwa Back Translation)

Translation commentary on Mark 5:43

Exegesis:

diesteilato … polla ‘commanded … much,’ i.e. ‘gave strict orders.’

diastellomai (7.36; 8.15; 9.9) ‘command,’ ‘order.’

polla (cf. 3.12; 5.10, 23) is adverbial ‘much,’ ‘strictly.’

hina ‘that’ denotes content (cf. 5.18), not purpose.

eipen dothēnai autē phagein ‘he said to be given to her to eat,’ i.e. ‘he said that she be fed.’

Translation:

Strictly charged may be rendered as ‘strongly commanded’ or ‘spoke to them in hard words.’

In some languages the rendering seems to imply a complete inconsistency between Jesus’ order to the parents of the child and the fact that others should not know. What was really meant in the command of Jesus was that they should not tell others what had happened. Hence, one may translate as ‘that no one else should come to know about,’ or ‘that no other people should hear about it,’ or ‘that they should not tell others about.’

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 .