Translation commentary on Mark 1:26

Exegesis:

sparaxan (9.26) ‘convulsing.’ The word clearly points to a seizure, a convulsion (cf. 9.20, Lk. 9.39). A man suffering an attack of this sort is described as anthrōpos sparattomenos ‘a man convulsed.’

to pneuma to akatharton ‘the unclean spirit’ is in the nominative case, and is the subject of all the verbs in the verse.

sparaxan … kai phōnēsan ‘convulsing … and shouting’ are both aorist participles, whose action is simultaneous with that of the main verb exēlthen ‘went out.’ The Revised Standard Version “crying” should not be understood in the sense of weeping.

Translation:

Convulsing him should be translated by a term used to identify such types of seizures as occur in epilepsy. It is not enough to say ‘shook him.’ Such fits may of course be described in various ways in different languages. In Tzeltal, for example, such an attack is spoken of as ‘his wind was stopped.’

Crying with a loud voice is simply ‘yelled,’ but note that the spirit is the one who is credited with the scream, not the man.

In some languages the three actions of ‘convulsing,’ ‘yelling,’ and ‘coming out’ may have to be placed in a temporal sequence, but generally they can be rendered as ‘as the unclean spirit caused the man to have a fit and screamed out it came out of him.’

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 1:26

1:26a–b

This verse describes three different things that the evil spirit did. It convulsed the man, left him, and shrieked. The Greek text does not indicate the exact order of these events. It says literally:

Having convulsed him and having cried out with a loud voice, the unclean spirit came out of him.

Possibly the demon was shrieking at the same time as it was convulsing the man. Possibly it was still shrieking as it left the man. You may use whatever order is natural in your language to describe a situation like this.

1:26a

the unclean spirit threw the man into convulsions: The Greek verb that the Berean Standard Bible translates as threw…into convulsions means that the evil spirit caused the man to have a seizure or a convulsion. It does not mean that the evil spirit grabbed the man’s body and threw him. Use a natural way in your language to describe a seizure or convulsion.

1:26b

and came out: The verb came out was also used in Jesus’ command in 1:25b.

with a loud shriek: The Greek phrase that the Berean Standard Bible translates as with a loud shriek is literally “having cried out with a great voice.” This phrase emphasizes the loudness of the sound. You may use whatever verb is natural in your language to describe the shouting or screaming of an unclean spirit. See the note on 1:23b, which uses a different Greek verb that has a similar meaning.

The unclean spirit shrieked using the man’s mouth. In some languages it may be more natural to describe this action by saying:

the unclean spirit caused the man to shriek

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