The Greek that is a transliteration of the Hebrew Pərūšīm and is typically transliterated into English as “Pharisee” is transliterated in Mandarin Chinese as Fǎlìsài (法利賽 / 法利赛) (Protestant) or Fǎlìsāi (法利塞) (Catholic). In Chinese, transliterations can typically be done with a great number of different and identical-sounding characters. Often the meaning of the characters are not relevant, unless they are chosen carefully as in these cases. The Protestant Fǎlìsài can mean something like “Competition for the profit of the law” and the Catholic Fǎlìsāi “Stuffed by/with the profit of the law.” (Source: Zetzsche 1996, p. 51)
In Finnish Sign Language it is translated with the sign signifying “prayer shawl”. (Source: Tarja Sandholm)
Scot McKnight (in The Second Testament, publ. 2023) translates it into English as Observant. He explains (p. 302): “Pharisee has become a public, universal pejorative term for a hypocrite. Pharisees were observant of the interpretation of the Covenant Code called the ‘tradition of the elders.’ They conformed their behaviors to the interpretation. Among the various groups of Jews at the time of Jesus, they were perhaps closest to Jesus in their overall concern to make a radical commitment to the will of God (as they understood it).”
The Greek that is usually translated as “scribe” in English “were more than mere writers of the law. They were the trained interpreters of the law and expounders of tradition.”
Tboli: “one who taught the law God before caused Moses to write” (or “one who taught the law of Moses”) (source for this and 5 above: Reiling / Swellengrebel)
Noongar: Mammarapa-Warrinyang or “law man” (source: Warda-Kwabba Luke-Ang)
Mairasi: “one who writes and explains Great Above One’s (=God’s) prohibitions” (source: Enggavoter 2004)
Chichewa: “teacher of Laws” (source: Ernst Wendland)
Lalana Chinantec: “one who is a teacher of the law which God gave to Moses back then”
Tepeuxila Cuicatec: “one who know well the law” (Source for this and four above: Viola Waterhouse in Notes on Translation August 1966, p. 86ff.)
Huixtán Tzotzil: “one who mistakenly thought he was teaching God’s commandments”(Huixtán Tzotzil frequently uses the verb -cuy to express “to mistakenly think something” from the point of view of the speaker; source: Marion M. Cowan in Notes on Translation 20/1966, pp. 6ff.)
Germandas Buch translation by Roland Werner (publ. 2009-2022): “theologian”
English translation by Scot McKnight (in The Second Testament, publ. 2023): Covenant Code scholar
In British Sign Language it is translated with a sign that combines the signs for “expert” and “law.” (Source: Anna Smith)
“Scribe” in British Sign Language (source: Christian BSL, used with permission)
Following are a number of back-translations of Mark 7:1:
Uma: “Once there were some Parisi people and Yahudi religion teachers from Yerusalem who met with Yesus.” (Source: Uma Back Translation)
Yakan: “So-then the Pariseo gathered there to Isa together with a number of teachers of the religious law from Awrusalam.” (Source: Yakan Back Translation)
Western Bukidnon Manobo: “There was a time when some Pharisees and some teachers of the law from the town of Jerusalem came to Jesus.” (Source: Western Bukidnon Manobo Back Translation)
Kankanaey: “On one-occasion, there were some Pharisees and teachers of the law who went to where Jesus was, coming-from Jerusalem.” (Source: Kankanaey Back Translation)
Tagbanwa: “Once there were some Pariseo and explainers of law who came from Jerusalem who went to Jesus.” (Source: Tagbanwa Back Translation)
The name that is transliterated as “Jerusalem” in English is signed in French Sign Language with a sign that depicts worshiping at the Western Wall in Jerusalem:
While a similar sign is also used in British Sign Language, another, more neutral sign that combines the sign “J” and the signs for “place” is used as well. (Source: Anna Smith)
“Jerusalem” in British Sign Language (source: Christian BSL, used with permission)
At the end of v. 2 Textus Receptus adds emempsanto ‘they found fault,’ which is omitted by all modern editions of the Greek text.
Exegesis:
sunagontai pros auton (cf. 6.30; 2.2) ‘they gather together to him.’
hoi Pharisaioi (cf. 2.16) ‘the Pharisees.’
tines tōn grammateōn (cf. 1.22) ‘some of the scribes’: the participial phrase elthontes apo Ierosolumōn ‘(who) came from Jerusalem’ modifies ‘some of the scribes.’
koinais chersin, tout’ estin aniptois ‘with unclean hands, that is, unwashed’: for the benefit of his readers the author explains what is meant by ‘unclean hands.’
koinos (7.5) ‘common (to all),’ ‘communal’: from this primary sense the word came to mean (in the N.T.) ‘ordinary,’ ‘profane.’ Here, then, it would mean ‘ceremonially unclean.’ Morton Smith adduces proof from Rabbinical literature to show that koinos in the N.T. refers to “objects of which the cleanness or uncleanness is uncertain, and which are therefore a sort of third class apart from the clean (certainly so) and the (certainly) unclean.”
aniptos (only here in Mark) ‘unwashed.’ As the context shows, the protest of the scribes does not reflect an interest in hygiene: it is a matter of ceremonial laws of purification which the disciples of Jesus have neglected to observe.
Translation:
Now is to be taken strictly in the transitional sense, not with any temporal meaning.
Gathered together to him is an awkward phrase, even in English. The idea is that they formed a group there where Jesus was. The Greek preposition pros indicates their direction of interest and the reciprocal nature of the meeting. This expression is made more complicated by the fact that the scribes are also involved. In some languages this means that one must say ‘when the Pharisees, together with some of the scribes (those who had come from Jerusalem), had formed a group there where Jesus was, they saw that….’ One may also use the equivalent of ‘huddled together’ or ‘came together as a group.’
For scribes, see 1.22.
Because of the considerable distance of the noun Jesus from the pronominal forms him and his, it is often necessary to employ ‘Jesus,’ especially for the first occurrence of the third person pronoun.
It is probably impossible to find an adequate term to designate the neutral concept of koinos (see above), and even an equivalent of defiled is not readily discoverable in many languages. In some cases one may say ‘dirty’ (Southern Bobo Madaré); in others, ‘spotted,’ i.e. by impurities (Copainalá Zoque). Toraja-Sa’dan says ‘with not-pure hands,’ the word masero meaning ‘pure, ritually clean, holy’; Pamona renders ‘hands that arouse aversion.’ Other possibilities are ‘they had not been purified’ or ‘they had not been made clean.’
That is is equivalent to ‘that means’ or ‘it is also said.’
In following the Textus Receptus (something which is required in certain instances – see Introduction), one must render condemn, which may be translated as ‘sought their sin’ (Tzeltal), ‘said that it wasn’t good’ (Tabasco Chontal), or ‘talked against them’ (San Blas Kuna).
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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