While translating Mark 6:14-16 into Enga the translators had to decide on the nature of evidence that is quoted here.
Adam Boyd on his blog) explains: “”When drawing conclusions in Enga, a person has to state whether the evidence for the conclusion is visual or non-visual. So, for example, with King Herod, it is clear that his conclusion that Jesus was John the Baptist was based on non-visual evidence, namely, the reports that he had been hearing. But what about the other people who concluded that Jesus was Elijah or one of the prophets? Were their conclusions based on seeing Jesus in action or were their conclusions based only on reports that they had heard about Jesus. The text of Scripture doesn’t tell us, but in Enga, we are required to answer this question. So we decided that the reports of others were based on visual evidence, assuming that the reports had come, at least initially, from people who had been eye-witnesses of Jesus’ miraculous works.”
The name that is transliterated as “Elijah” in English is translated in Spanish Sign Language as “whirlwind” (according to 2 Kings 2:11) (Source: John Elwode in The Bible Translator 2008, p. 78ff.)
Orthodox Icons are not drawings or creations of imagination. They are in fact writings of things not of this world. Icons can represent our Lord Jesus Christ, the Virgin Mary, and the Saints. They can also represent the Holy Trinity, Angels, the Heavenly hosts, and even events. Orthodox icons, unlike Western pictures, change the perspective and form of the image so that it is not naturalistic. This is done so that we can look beyond appearances of the world, and instead look to the spiritual truth of the holy person or event. (Source )
Following are a number of back-translations of Mark 6:15:
Uma: “But others said: ‘That Yesus, he is the prophet Elia of long ago.’ Yet others said: ‘He is indeed a prophet, like a prophet of long ago.'” (Source: Uma Back Translation)
Yakan: “But others said also, ‘That is perhaps Nabi Eliyas.’ And there were still others who said, ‘Perhaps he is a nabi hep, like the prophets (nabi) of old.'” (Source: Yakan Back Translation)
Western Bukidnon Manobo: “But some said, ‘Jesus is the long ago prophet Elijah.’ And others said, ‘Jesus really is a prophet like the former prophets of God long ago.'” (Source: Western Bukidnon Manobo Back Translation)
Kankanaey: “Others also, they said that (he was) Elias who had-come-to-life again, and yet others, they said, ‘This is a prophet like the prophets in old-times.'” (Source: Kankanaey Back Translation)
Tagbanwa: “Others said, ‘It’s Elias.”He’s a prophet, like those prophets of the past,’ was the suspicion of others.” (Source: Tagbanwa Back Translation)
Eugene Nida wrote the following about the translation of the Hebrew, Aramaic and Greek terms that are typically translated with “prophet” in English:
“The tendency in many translations is to use ‘to foretell the future’ for ‘prophesy,’ and ‘one who foretells the future’ for ‘prophet.’ This is not always a recommended usage, particularly if such expressions denote certain special native practices of spirit contact and control. It is true, of course, that prophets of the Bible did foretell the future, but this was not always their principal function. One essential significance of the Greek word prophētēs is ‘one who speaks forth,’ principally, of course, as a forth-teller of the Divine will. A translation such as ‘spokesman for God’ may often be employed profitably.” (1947, p. 234f.)
Following is a list of (back-) translations from other languages (click or tap for details):
Ayutla Mixtec: “one who talks as God’s representative”
Isthmus Mixe: “speaker for God” (source for this and two above: Viola Waterhouse in Notes on Translation August 1966, p. 86ff.)
Mezquital Otomi / Paasaal: “God’s messenger” (source: Waterhouse / Parrott in Notes on Translation October 1967, p. 1ff. and Fabian N. Dapila in The Bible Translator 2024, p. 415ff.)
Noongar: Warda Marridjiny or “News Traveling” (source: Warda-Kwabba Luke-Ang)
Kutu: mtula ndagu or “one who gives the prediction of the past and the future” (Source: Pioneer Bible Translators, project-specific translation notes in Paratext)
French 1985 translation by Chouraqui: inspiré or “inspired one” (“someone in whom God has breathed [Latin: in + spiro]) (source: Watson 2023, p. 45)
In Ixcatlán Mazatec a term is used that specifically includes women. (Source: Robert Bascom)
“In some instances these spiritual terms result from adaptations reflecting the native life and culture. Among the Northern Grebo people of Liberia, a missionary wanted some adequate term for ‘prophet,’ and she was fully aware that the native word for ‘soothsayer’ or ‘diviner’ was no equivalent for the Biblical prophet who spoke forth for God. Of course, much of what the prophets said referred to the future, and though this was an essential part of much of their ministry, it was by no means all. The right word for the Gbeapo people would have to include something which would not only mean the foretelling of important events but the proclamation of truth as God’s representative among the people. At last the right word came; it was ‘God’s town-crier.’ Every morning and evening the official representative of the chief goes through the village crying out the news, delivering the orders of the chief, and announcing important coming events. ‘God’s town-crier’ would be the official representative of God, announcing to the people God’s doings, His commands, and His pronouncements for their salvation and well-being. For the Northern Grebo people the prophet is no weird person from forgotten times; he is as real as the human, moving message of the plowman Amos, who became God’s town-crier to a calloused people.” (source: Nida 1952, p. 20)
In British Sign Language it is is translated with a sign that depicts a message coming from God to a person (the upright finger) and then being passed on to others. (Source: Anna Smith)
“Prophet” in British Sign Language (source: Christian BSL, used with permission)
At the end of verse 16, after ēgerthē ‘was raised’ Textus Receptus adds ek nekrōn ‘from the dead,’ which is omitted by all modern editions of the Greek text.
Exegesis:
Ēlias (8.28; 9.4, 5, 11, 12, 13; 15.35, 36) ‘Elijah’: cf. Mal. 3.1, 4.5, for O.T. references to the coming of Elijah as predecessor of the Messiah, and see Mk. 9.9-13 for the application of this prophecy to the Baptist.
prophētēs (cf. 1.2) ‘prophet.’
hōs heis tōn prophetōn ‘as one of the prophets’: generally taken to mean ‘as one of the Prophets of old’ as Lk. 9.8 has it (cf. The Modern Speech New Testament ‘like one of the great Prophets’). Black, however, suggests ‘a prophet, like any (true) prophet.’
hon egō apekephalisa Iōannēn houtos ēgerthē ‘John, whom I beheaded, he was raised’: in a construction not at all unusual in Greek, the relative pronoun, which is the object of the verb and thus in the accusative case, is placed before its antecedent; the antecedent, being incorporated into the relative clause, is, by what is called “inverse attraction,” also in the accusative case. This construction is equivalent to Iōannēs, hon egō apekephalisa, houtos ēgerthē: ‘John’ in the nominative case, as the subject of the sentence; ‘whom’ the relative is in the accusative case as the object of ‘I beheaded’; houtos ‘this one’ the demonstrative pronoun is in the nominative case agreeing with ‘John’ to which it refers.
apokephalizō (6.28) ‘beheaded.’
egeirō (cf. 1.31) ‘rise.’
Translation:
The contrast between some (verse 14) … but others … and others must be quite explicit in some languages, e.g. ‘some people … other people … and still other people.’
Elijah should be transliterated in the form which will be employed in the Old Testament. Some translators have endeavored to use one system of transliteration when reproducing the Greek forms of names and another when transcribing the Hebrew equivalents. However, it is a mistake to spell the name of an Old Testament person in one way in the Old Testament and in another way in the New Testament. On the other hand, one should not take a name such as Jesus and make it identical with Joshua, even though they are etymologically related.
For prophet, see 1.2.
Prophets of old must not be rendered as ‘old prophets’ referring to the age of the men in question. The meaning is ‘one of the prophets who lived long ago’ or ‘one of the prophets who lived in the days of our ancestors.’
Heard of it is in some languages ‘heard what Jesus was doing,’ since it may be entirely too vague a reference to be intelligible.
Beheaded poses a subtle problem in some languages which distinguish carefully between primary and secondary agency, i.e. whether the grammatical subject actually performed an action or whether he caused it to be done through another. Obviously, Herod himself did not do the beheading, and hence, one may translate ‘caused to be beheaded’ or ‘ordered men to cut off his head.’
Has been raised is ‘has come back to life’ or ‘is living again’ (see 6.14).
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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