Jesus heals a boy (image)

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complete verse (Mark 9:20)

Following are a number of back-translations of Mark 9:20:

  • Uma: “They did bring the child to Yesus. As soon as the evil-spirit saw Yesus, he made the child’s body hard to the point that he fell down and writhed on the ground, his mouth foaming.” (Source: Uma Back Translation)
  • Yakan: “They brought him now to him. When the demon saw Isa, the child immediately was convulsed by him. The child crashed to the ground rolling over-and-over and his mouth was foaming.” (Source: Yakan Back Translation)
  • Western Bukidnon Manobo: “Then they brought the child to Jesus. The demon, when he saw Jesus, made the child convulse, and the child was dashed to the ground, and he rolled around, and his mouth foamed.” (Source: Western Bukidnon Manobo Back Translation)
  • Kankanaey: “And they brought him. When the evil-spirit saw Jesus, right then it made-the child -convulse, and he fell-over and rolled/writhed-from-side-to-side while-simultaneously his mouth foamed.” (Source: Kankanaey Back Translation)
  • Tagbanwa: “That child was taken to Jesus. When the evil spirit saw Jesus, he caused (the madness) to flare up severely. The child convulsed again and fell to the ground, and rolled-over-and-over, his mouth frothing again.” (Source: Tagbanwa Back Translation)

Translation commentary on Mark 9:20

Exegesis:

kai ēnegkan auton pros auton ‘and they brought him (the boy) to him (Jesus).’

kai idōn auton ‘and when he saw him’: this phrase can be understood in three ways: (1) ‘when Jesus saw the boy’: although grammatically possible, this is improbable; (2) ‘when the boy saw Jesus’: among others, this is the interpretation of Bengel, Lagrange, Montgomery, Le Nouveau Testament. Version Synodale, and O Novo Testamento de Nosso Senhor Jesus Cristo. Revisdo Autorizada; in its favor should be noticed that idōn ‘seeing’ is masculine, agreeing in gender with auton ‘him’ of the previous verse (which goes back to ton huion mou ‘my son’ of v. 17); (3) ‘when the spirit saw Jesus’: although idōn ‘seeing’ is masculine and does not agree in gender with to pneuma ‘the spirit,’ neuter, in light of the masculine participles kraxas ‘shrieking’ and sparaxas ‘convulsing’ in v. 26 which are masculine and refer to the unclean spirit, it is probable that the subject of idōn ‘seeing’ is ‘the spirit’ (cf. also in 5.7-9, 11-12, the case of the Gerasene demoniac); this is the interpretation given by most commentators and translators, and probably should be preferred.

sunesparaxen (only here in Mark; cf. sparassō 1.26) ‘he pulled about,’ ‘he tore,’ ‘he convulsed.’

kai pesōn epi tēs gēs ekulieto aphrizōn ‘and he fell to the ground and rolled about, foaming (at the mouth).’

piptō (cf. 4.4) ‘fall,’ ‘fall down.’

epi tēs gēs (cf. 9.3) ‘on the ground.’

kuliomai (only here in the N. T.; cf. kulismos 2 Pet. 2.22) ‘to roll oneself,’ ‘twist about,’ ‘wallow.’

aphrizō (cf. 9.18) ‘foam at the mouth.’

Translation:

For spirit see 1.26, 32.

Note that it is the spirit which is said to see Jesus.

For convulsed see 1.26.

Fell … rolled … foaming may be treated as three coordinate verb expressions if the receptor language construction so requires, e.g. ‘he fell on the ground, he rolled about; he foamed at the mouth.’ For rolled Toraja-Sa’dan has a vivid expression referring to the wobbling to and fro of a sun hat that has been put down in a sloping position, hence ‘turning and tossing restlessly.’

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 .