image

The Greek that is rendered as “image” in English translations is translated in Pökoot with körkeyïn, a word that is also used to translate words like parable and example.

See also parable.

Mark 12:13 - 17 in Mexican Sign Language

Following is the translation of Mark 12:13-17 into Mexican Sign Language with back-translations into Spanish and English underneath:


© La Biblia en LSM / La Palabra de Dios

Retrotraducciones en español (haga clic o pulse aquí)

Después los líderes elegieron algunos de los fariseos y elegieron otros de las personas que siempre defendían el Rey Herodes y los entregaron (la tarea): “vayanse y engañen a Jesús, quizás Jesús hace un error y lo podemos engañar.”

Fueron y dijeron: “Maestro sabemos que tú hablas la verdad y eres honrado, to ves a todas las personas en igual manera, tú jamás buscas favor, jamás eres tímido, tú verdaderamente enseñas la palabra de Dios.

Una pregunta: ¿Permite Dios que paguemos impuestos al emperador Cesar? ¿Debemos pagar? Dinos.

Jesús por adentro sabía que eran hipócritas y dijo”: “¿Porqué me engañan? Por favor, pido un moneda de plata, lo quiero ver.”

Una persona fue y agarró (una moneda) y se la dio. Jesús tomó la moneda (y dijo): “¿Qué significa el nombre y la cara?” Las personas (dijeron): “Son de César.”

Jesús (dijo): “Son de Cesar, bien, si él se lo pide, deben pagar.

El mismo con Dios, si él les pide algo deben obedecer a Dios.”

Las personas todas lo vieron: ¡huy! admirable, y pensaron ‘¡caray!’


Afterwards the leaders chose some from among the Pharisees and some others from the people who always supported King Herod and they handed (the task) over to them: “go and deceive Jesus, maybe Jesus will make an error and then we can denounce him.”

They went and said: “Teacher, we know that you speak the truth and you are honorable, you consider all people the same, you never seek favor and are never timid, you really teach the Word of God.

“A question: Does God allow us to pay tax to the emperor Caesar? Should we pay? Tell us.”

Jesus knew inside that they were hypocrites and he said: “Why do you deceive me? Please, I ask for a silver coin, I want to see it.”

A person went and took (a coin) and gave it to him. Jesus took the coin (and said): “What do the name and face mean?” The people (said): “They are Caesar’s.”

Jesus (said): “They are Caesar’s, right, if he asks for it you must pay it.

“The same with God, if he asks you something you must obey God.”

The people all saw it: wow, wonderful! and they thought ‘awesome!’

Source: La Biblia en LSM / La Palabra de Dios

<< Mark 12:1-12 in Mexican Sign Language
Mark 12:18-27 in Mexican Sign Language >>

Mark 12:13-17 in Russian Sign Language

Following is the translation of Mark 12:13-17 into Russian Sign Language with a back-translation underneath:


Source: Russian Bible Society / Российское Библейское Общество

After some time, the rulers chose some people from the Pharisees and some people from among those who were supporters of King Herod. They all agreed that they would go to Jesus and ask him a tricky question in order to catch Jesus in a mistake. They came to Jesus and began to say to him:

— Teacher, we know that you are honest! You do not pander to people, to your superiors. What God requires of you, you teach. We want to ask you. The Roman Emperor requires us to pay taxes. But we serve God and bring gifts to him, don’t we? Do we still need to pay taxes to the Roman Emperor?!

Jesus realized that they were wicked and said to them:

— Why are you trying to catch me? Give me a coin.

They gave him a coin. The coin had a picture of the Roman emperor and his name written on it.

Jesus asked: Who is depicted on the coin? Whose name is written?

They answer him: The Roman Emperor.

Jesus said: Then give to the Roman emperor what he requires of you. And what God requires of you, give to God.

And they were very surprised by his answer.

Original Russian back-translation (click or tap here):

Спустя какое-то время начальники выбрали несколько человек из фарисеев и несколько человек из тех людей, которые были сторонниками царя Ирода. Все они стали сговариваться, что пойдут к Иисусу и зададут ему каверзный вопрос, чтобы поймать Иисуса на ошибке. Они подошли к Иисусу и стали говорить ему:

— Учитель, мы знаем, что ты честный! У тебя нет подхалимства к людям, к начальству. То, что Бог требует от тебя, именно этому ты учишь. Мы хотим спросить тебя. Вот римский император требует с нас налоги платить. Но мы ведь служим Богу и приносим дары ему? Разве нам ещё нужно платить налоги римскому императору?!

Иисус понял, что они лукавые и сказал им:

— Зачем вы пытаетесь меня уловить? Дайте мне монету.

Ему дали монету. На монете был изображен римский император и написано его имя.

Иисус спросил: Кто изображен на монете? Чье имя написано?

Ему отвечают: Римский император

Иисус сказал: Тогда дайте римскому императору, что он требует от вас. А то, что Бог требует с вас, давайте Богу.

И они очень удивились его ответу.

Back-translation by Luka Manevich

<< Mark 12:1-12 in Russian Sign Language
Mark 12:18-27 in Russian Sign Language >>

complete verse (Mark 12:16)

Following are a number of back-translations of Mark 12:16:

  • Uma: “From there, they handed to him a silver coin [lit., money]. He said: ‘Whose image and whose name are on this money?’ They said: ‘The image and name of Kaisar.'” (Source: Uma Back Translation)
  • Yakan: “So-then they brought it to Isa. He said to them, ‘Whose picture and whose writing is it on this money?’ They said, ‘The picture of the Leader King and his writing.'” (Source: Yakan Back Translation)
  • Western Bukidnon Manobo: “And they showed Jesus a piece of money and Jesus said, ‘Whose picture and whose name is written on this?’ And they answered, ‘The name and the picture of the king in Rome.'” (Source: Western Bukidnon Manobo Back Translation)
  • Kankanaey: “When they brought it to him, he said to them, ‘Whose face and whose name is this?’ ‘The Emperador,’ they answered.” (Source: Kankanaey Back Translation)
  • Tagbanwa: “Well, he was handed some Romano money, for that’s what was being used by the Judio. Having taken it, he said, ‘Well, whose picture and name are here on this money?’ ‘Well, the Impiradur’s,’ was their reply.” (Source: Tagbanwa Back Translation)

Honorary "are" construct denoting God (“say”)

Click or tap here to see the rest of this insight.

Like a number of other East Asian languages, Japanese uses a complex system of honorifics, i.e. a system where a number of different levels of politeness are expressed in language via words, word forms or grammatical constructs. These can range from addressing someone or referring to someone with contempt (very informal) to expressing the highest level of reference (as used in addressing or referring to God) or any number of levels in-between.

One way Japanese shows different degree of politeness is through the usage of an honorific construction where the morpheme are (され) is affixed on the verb as shown here in the widely-used Japanese Shinkaiyaku (新改訳) Bible of 2017. This is particularly done with verbs that have God as the agent to show a deep sense of reverence. Here, iw-are-ru (言われる) or “say” is used.

(Source: S. E. Doi, see also S. E. Doi in Journal of Translation, 18/2022, p. 37ff. )

Scriptures Plain & Simple (Mark 12:13-17)

Barclay Newman, a translator on the teams for both the Good News Bible and the Contemporary English Version, translated passages of the New Testament into English and published them in 2014, “in a publication brief enough to be non-threatening, yet long enough to be taken seriously, and interesting enough to appeal to believers and un-believers alike.” The following is the translation of Mark 12:13-17:

Some theologians and politicians got together
and sent a committee to trick Jesus
       into making a false statement.

“Teacher,” they said, “you’re absolutely honest,
you don’t show favoritism,
       and you’re straight forward about God’s demands.
One small matter: Should we pay taxes to the government?”

Jesus knew what they were up to, so he replied
“Don’t try to play power politics with me!
       Show me a coin of the state.”

They handed him a coin, and he asked,
“Whose face is on this coin?
       What are these buildings?”
“It’s the face of our ruler,” they answered,
       “and our national headquarters.”

“Then pay the government what you owe,” said Jesus,
       “and give God what belongs to God.”

The entire committee stood there amazed.

Translation commentary on Mark 12:16

Exegesis:

eikōn (only here in Mark) ‘image,’ ‘likeness.’

epigraphē (15.26) ‘inscription,’ ‘legend (on a coin).’

The silver denarius bore, on the obverse, the likeness of the emperor’s head, in high relief, with the following inscription surrounding: TI CAESAR DIVI AVG F AVGVSTVS (‘Tiberius Caesar Augustus, son of the divine Augustus’).

Translation:

Likeness is translated as ‘picture’ (Southern Subanen, Amganad Ifugao), or ‘written mark’ (Tzeltal). In some languages engraving is referred to as ‘cutting.’ Caesar’s may require expansion to ‘these belong to Caesar.’

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 .