Jesus heals a boy (image)

Image taken from the Wiedmann Bible. For more information about the images and ways to adopt them, see here .

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complete verse (Mark 9:16)

Following are a number of back-translations of Mark 9:16:

  • Uma: “Yesus asked them: ‘What were you questioning back and forth about with those religion teachers?'” (Source: Uma Back Translation)
  • Yakan: “Isa asked his disciples, he said, ‘What are you arguing/discussing with them?'” (Source: Yakan Back Translation)
  • Western Bukidnon Manobo: “And Jesus asked his disciples, he said, ‘What are you arguing about?'” (Source: Western Bukidnon Manobo Back Translation)
  • Kankanaey: “‘What were you arguing-about with them?’ questioned Jesus.” (Source: Kankanaey Back Translation)
  • Tagbanwa: “‘What are you arguing with them about?’ asked Jesus.” (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 9:16

Text:

Instead of (the first) autous ‘them’ of all modern editions of the Greek text, Textus Receptus has tous grammateis ‘the scribes.’

Exegesis:

autous ‘them’: to whom did Jesus direct his question? The text allows two or possibly three alternatives: (1) the disciples: inasmuch as in v. 14 it is said that Jesus came to his disciples, around whom there was a great crowd and with whom scribes were arguing, it would seem natural that Jesus should ask them the question (so Bengel); (2) the scribes: copyists who introduced into some manuscripts the words tous grammateis ‘the scribes’ (see Text, above), understood them to be the ones to whom Jesus spoke (so F. C. Grant); (3) the crowd: since one of the crowd answers (next verse), the majority of commentators (Gould, Swete, Lagrange, Taylor and others) assume that the crowd was being addressed. If so, the question ‘What are you discussing with them?’ must be taken in a general sense, since it was not the crowd but the scribes who were discussing with the disciples. Of the three alternatives the context favors the first one: Jesus would be more likely to question his disciples than the scribes (or the crowd).

The majority of translations have simply ‘he asked them,’ undefined, carrying over the same ambiguity that exists in the Greek text.

pros autous ‘with them’: who is referred to here depends on the interpretation given autous ‘them.’ If ‘them’ refers to the crowd or to the scribes, ‘with them’ refers to the disciples; if, on the other hand, ‘them’ refers to the disciples, as is probable, ‘with them’ refers to the scribes. For this second autous Kilpatrick has heautous, translated ‘among yourselves.’

Translation:

The fact that one person in the crowd should respond to the question of Jesus does not seem to be particularly strange, even though Jesus may have directed his words to the disciples, for obviously the action of the man in question was what had prompted the discussion with the scribes. One can, of course, attempt to reproduce the ambiguity of the Greek text, though in some languages this is not possible.

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 .