Translation commentary on Mark 12:28

Text:

Instead of eidōs ‘knowing,’ ‘perceiving’ of the great majority of modern editions of the Greek text, Taylor, Turner and (apparently) Revised Standard Version have idōn ‘seeing.’

Exegesis:

Some of the words in this verse have already been dealt with: for proserchomai ‘come to,’ ‘approach’ cf. 1.31; grammateus ‘scribe’ cf. 1.22; suzēteō ‘dispute’ cf. 1.27; kalōs ‘well,’ ‘fittingly’ cf. 7.6; entolē ‘commandment’ cf. 7.8; prōtē ‘first’ (of rank, or importance, not of time) cf. 6.21.

heis ‘one’: as in 5.22 the numeral is equivalent to the indefinite pronoun tis ‘a certain one.’ The whole phrase heis tōn grammateōn means simply ‘a scribe.’

akousas ‘hearing’: the participle here is practically in the nature of a relative clause, ‘who heard.’

poia (cf. 11.28) ‘what,’ ‘which’: although some (cf. Swete, Lagrange) hold that the pronoun has here the qualitative force ‘of what sort,’ ‘of what kind,’ most commentators and translations take it to be simply interrogative, equivalent to tis ‘what?,’ ‘which?’

prōtē pantōn ‘(the) first of all’: it is to be noticed that pantōn ‘of all’ is not feminine, in agreement with prōtē ‘first (commandment),’ but is either masculine or neuter. It probably is to be taken in a general way “first of all commandments” even though there is no concordance of genders (in which Taylor sees Semitic influence); Field, however, takes it to mean omnium rerum “of all things” (cf. also Lagrange le premier de toutes choses).

Translation:

Them disputing with one another may have one of two different meanings: (1) Jesus is included in the group disputing, and hence it is a case of the Sadducees disputing with Jesus, or (2) the Sadducees may be regarded as disputing among themselves on the basis of Jesus’ answer. Where the ambiguity of the Greek may be preserved, one should attempt to do so. Otherwise, one can choose either of the alternative meanings and translate the clause in such a way as to relate it meaningfully to the following.

Because of the series of verbs, involving three different subjects (came up … heard … disputing … seeing … answered … asked), it is often necessary to break the sentence up into smaller units, e.g. ‘a scribe came up and heard them disputing with one another; he saw that Jesus was answering them well; he asked Jesus.’

First must be understood in terms of importance or value, not with reference to time or position, except as these elements may also imply importance. One may translate accordingly, ‘what is the most important commandment?’

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 .

SIL Translator's Notes on Mark 12:28

Section 12:28–34

Jesus taught people which command is the most important

A scribe asked Jesus which was the greatest commandment in the law. Jesus said that there are two great commands: love the Lord your God with all your heart, and love your neighbor as yourself.

The scribe in this section may have been honestly seeking the truth. Or he may have been trying to discredit Jesus by asking him a difficult question. (Mark 12:34 may imply that the man truly wanted to know the answer. In the parallel passage in Matthew 22:34–40, a scribe asked this same question to test Jesus. Nothing in this section in Mark suggests that the scribe was testing Jesus.) It would be good to translate this section so that either interpretation is possible.

It is good to translate this section before you decide on a heading for it.

Here are some other possible headings for this section:

The Most Important Commandment (Contemporary English Version, New Living Translation)
-or-
God’s greatest command is to love him and our neighbors

There is a parallel passage for this section in Matthew 22:34–40. Mark 12:30–31 is also parallel to Luke 10:27.

Paragraph 12:28–31

12:28a

Now one of the scribes had come up and heard: The scribe had approached or arrived at the place where Jesus was. He had heard the discussion between Jesus and the Sadducees.

In some languages it may be necessary to indicate that the scribe had arrived before the discussion took place. This may be done in several ways. For example:

One of the teachers of religious law was standing there listening to the debate. (New Living Translation)
-or-
One of the teachers of the Law of Moses came up while Jesus and the Sadducees were arguing. (Contemporary English Version)

scribes: The Greek word that the Berean Standard Bible translates as scribes refers to men who studied, interpreted, and taught the law of Moses. These men are called scribes because their original work was to copy the laws of Moses by hand. In New Testament times, this was no longer their main task. This word is sometimes translated as “teachers of the law,” as in the New International Version.

Here are some other ways to translate this term:

teachers of the Law of Moses. (Contemporary English Version)
-or-
teachers of religious law. (New Living Translation)
-or-
experts on the law.

See how you translated this in 11:27c. Also see teacher of the law in the Glossary.

their: The Greek word that the Berean Standard Bible translates as their refers to the Sadducees and Jesus. In 12:18–27 they had been talking about whether or not God raised dead people to life.

debate: The Greek word that the Berean Standard Bible translates as debate refers to an “argument” or “disagreement” about something.

Here are some other ways to translate this:

argument (God’s Word)
-or-
disagreement

12:28b

Noticing how well Jesus had answered them: The Greek word that the Berean Standard Bible translates as Noticing is literally “seeing.” Here it means “realizing.” The scribe realized that Jesus had wisely answered the Sadducees’ question. The New Living Translation says:

He realized that Jesus had answered well.

General Comment on 12:28a–b

In some languages it may be necessary to reorder some of the information in 12:28a–b so that the order of events is clear. In the examples below, the action of coming closer to Jesus occurs after 12:28b:

28aA teacher of the law heard their arguing. 28bHe realized that Jesus’ answer was good/correct, 28aso he approached…
-or-
28aA teacher of the law was standing there listening to their discussion. 28bWhen he observed that Jesus’ answer to them was good, 28ahe went closer to Jesus…

12:28c

he asked Him: This phrase expresses a result of 12:28b. Some English versions use a connector like “so” here to indicate the connection. Others do not use a connector. Use a natural way to show the connection in your language.

he…Him: The pronoun he refers to the scribe. The pronoun Him refers to Jesus.

asked: The text does not indicate here whether the scribe asked his question in order to trick Jesus. Your translation also should not indicate this.

Which commandment is the most important of all: This question implies that Jesus should consider all the commands that God had given his people. Then Jesus should say which command was the most important. Jewish religious leaders often discussed which of God’s commands was the most important. (They would say “Which is heavier (more important)?” or “Which is lighter (less important)?” (Keener, page 169). ) They did not imply that some commands were not important. All were important, but some were more important than others.

Here are some other ways to translate this question:

Which commandment is the most important of all? (Good News Bible)
-or-
What is the most important commandment? (Contemporary English Version)

In some languages it may be helpful to include the implied information that the commandments were from God. For example:

God gave us many commandments. Which one is the most important?

Which commandment: The phrase Which commandment asks about all the commands that God gave to his people. The scribe may have meant any command in the Old Testament. However, he probably referred primarily to the Law of Moses, the first five books of the Old Testament. The word “command” has the same meaning in English as commandment. It has the same meaning as “law.” In some languages there may not be separate words for “law” and “commandment.” In such languages, this phrase may be translated as:

Which law

commandment: The word commandment here refers to what God told the Jewish people to do and also to what he told them not to do. In some languages it may be necessary to use a more explicit expression for this idea. For example:

God told us what we should do and what we should not do.

is the most important of all: The Greek word that the Berean Standard Bible translates as important is literally “first.” In this context it means “first in importance” or “more important than all the rest.” In some languages it may be difficult to express this comparison. If that is true in your language, you may be able to say:

is important surpassing all the others?

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