complete verse (Mark 6:31)

Following are a number of back-translations of Mark 6:31:

  • Uma: “At that time, a great many people were coming and going, to the point that they didn’t even have time to eat. So Yesus said to his followers: ‘Let’s go to an uninhabited place to get away from the many people, so we can stop a while.'” (Source: Uma Back Translation)
  • Yakan: “Therefore Isa said to them, ‘Let us (incl.) go to the lonely place, we (incl.) only so that you can rest a little-while.'” (Source: Yakan Back Translation)
  • Western Bukidnon Manobo: “And Jesus said to them, he said, ‘Let’s go for a while to a land where there are no people so we can rest.’ The reason he said this was because many people were coming to see Jesus, and they had no time, not even to eat.” (Source: Western Bukidnon Manobo Back Translation)
  • Kankanaey: “Then he said, ‘Let’s go to an isolated place to be-alone so that we will have a way to rest for a little-while.’ Because those-going to where they were kept-exchanging-places (i.e. going and coming) and they had no opportunity to eat.” (Source: Kankanaey Back Translation)
  • Tagbanwa: “But since many people again were going and coming, Jesus and his disciples weren’t even able to eat. That’s why Jesus said to his disciples, ‘It would be good for us just to go to a place far from people, in order to be able to rest.'” (Source: Tagbanwa Back Translation)

formal pronoun: Jesus addressing his disciples and common people

Like many languages (but unlike Greek or Hebrew or English), Tuvan uses a formal vs. informal 2nd person pronoun (a familiar vs. a respectful “you”). Unlike other languages that have this feature, however, the translators of the Tuvan Bible have attempted to be very consistent in using the different forms of address in every case a 2nd person pronoun has to be used in the translation of the biblical text.

As Voinov shows in Pronominal Theology in Translating the Gospels (in: The Bible Translator 2002, p. 210ff.), the choice to use either of the pronouns many times involved theological judgment. While the formal pronoun can signal personal distance or a social/power distance between the speaker and addressee, the informal pronoun can indicate familiarity or social/power equality between speaker and addressee.

Here, Jesus is addressing his disciples, individuals and/or crowds with the formal pronoun, showing respect.

In most Dutch translations, Jesus addresses his disciples and common people with the informal pronoun, whereas they address him with the formal form.

Translation commentary on Mark 6:31

Exegesis:

deute humeis autoi kat’ idian eis erēmon topon ‘you yourselves come in private to an isolated spot.’

deute (cf. 1.17) ‘come.’

kat’ idian (cf. 4.34) ‘privately,’ ‘alone.’

eis erēmon topon (cf. 1.35, 45) ‘to a lonely place,’ ‘to an isolated spot.’

anapausasthe (14.41) ‘rest ye.’

oligon is adverbial ‘a little (while)’ expressing time (cf. 1.19 where it expresses distance).

hoi erchomenoi kai hoi hupagontes ‘those (who were) coming and those (who were) going.’

hupagō (cf. 1.44) ‘go,’ ‘depart.’

kai oude phagein eukairoun ‘and they [i.e. Jesus and his disciples] did not have time even to eat.’

eukaireō (only here in Mark; cf. eukairos 6.21) ‘have a favorable time,’ ‘have opportunity’: here used of time (cf. Moulton & Milligan). For a similar situation cf. also 3.20.

Translation:

Said must in some languages be translated as ‘commanded’ or ‘urged,’ since the following expression is not a declarative sentence, but in the form of a command.

Come away by yourselves may be very misleading if translated literally, for it might mean that the disciples were to gather as a group without Jesus. The meaning is that they were to go together with Jesus to an isolated place. This may be rendered in some languages as ‘come away with me so that we can be alone together.’ Cf. Javanese ‘You come here and go alone with me.’

Many must refer to the people in general, the crowds. One may translate, ‘for many people were coming and going’ (literally, in some languages, ‘coming to where the disciples were and later leaving,’ or ‘joining with the disciples and then departing’). Coming and going must not be translated in such a way as to refer to the passing of people on the thoroughfare, but the coming of people to talk with Jesus and the disciples.

Leisure to eat is really ‘an opportunity (or ‘a chance’) to eat.’

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 .