Mark 13:28 - 37 in Mexican Sign Language

Following is the translation of Mark 13:28-37 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)

Jesús dijo: “Cuando ven un árbol brotando hojas verdes las personas que lo ven saben que el próximo día será caloroso, esto es parecido a las cinco puntos que les conté ahorita.

Cuando en el futuro las personas vean estas cinco cosas sabrán por cierto que el Hijo de Hombre está por venir.

Les advierto: Estas personas todavía no habrán muerto pero aún estarán vivos cuando lo vean con sus propios ojos. En el futuro el cielo y la tierra desaparecerán, pero mis palabras jamás desaparecen.

Les advierto: Todas las personas no saben cuando será el día o a qué hora venga, en la misma manera los ángeles y el Hijo de Hombre, todos no saben.

El único que sabe es el Padre Dios. Uds presten atención y vigilen para cuando venga, porque no lo saben.

Por ejemplo: Un hombre es dueño de una casa, y llama a todos sus siervos a que vengan y dice: “Yo me voy de viaje, uds trabajen, tú eres encargado de vigilar la puerta” y el hombre se va.

Ellos deben vigilar para cuando venga el dueño, no saben a qué hora si será en la mañana, tarde, noche o madrugada. Si ellos duermen de repente vendrá el dueño y los verá durmiendo ¿cómo sería eso?

Yo les advierto: En la misma manera todas las personas deben prestar atención y vigilar.”


Jesus said: “When you see a tree that sprouts forth green leaves, the people who see it know that the next day will be hot, it is similar with the five things I told you just now.

“When in the future the people will see these five things they will know for sure that the Son of Man is about to come down.

“I warn you: These people will not have died yet, but will still be alive when they see it with their own eyes. In the future the heaven and the earth will disappear, but my words will never disappear.

“I warn you: All the people do not know the day or the hour that he comes, in the same way the angels and the Son of Man all do not know.

“The only one who knows is God the Father. You must pay attention and keep watch for when he comes, because you don’t know.

“For example: A man is owner of a house and he calls all the servants to come and says: ‘I am going on a journey, you all need to work, I entrust you (one particular person) with keeping watch over the door,’ and the man goes off.

“They must keep watch for when the owner comes, they do not know at which house, morning, afternoon, evening or before sunrise. If they fall asleep the owner will suddenly come and see them sleeping, how would that be?

“I warn you: In the same way all the people need to pay attention and keep watch.”

Source: La Biblia en LSM / La Palabra de Dios

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Mark 14:1-2 in Mexican Sign Language >>

Mark 13:32-37 in Russian Sign Language

Following is the translation of Mark 13:32-37 into Russian Sign Language with a back-translation underneath:


Source: Russian Bible Society / Российское Библейское Общество

Jesus said to his disciples:

— No one knows when this terrible time of suffering will begin, of which I have spoken to you. Neither the angels in heaven know, nor even I, only God knows. But you be careful — watch and pray!

For example, a man, a master, left his house and property, went far away, and ordered his servants to manage the house, guard it and not sleep. In the same way, we are awake. We do not know when the master will return — in the evening? At night? In the morning at dawn? We do not know this. And if the watchman falls asleep, and at that very time the master returns and finds the servant sleeping? What will happen then? Therefore, I am telling you now: one thing is important, that you be awake in your heart.

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

Иисус сказал ученикам:

— Никто не знает, когда начнется это страшное время страданий, о котором я говорил вам. Ни ангелы на небе не знают, ни даже я — не знаю, один только Бог знает. Вы же будьте внимательны — бодрствуйте и молитесь!

Вот, например, одни человек, хозяин, оставил свой дом и имущество, уехал далеко, а слугам своим поручил управлять домом, сторожить его и не спать. Так же мы — бодрствуем. Мы не знаем, когда вернется хозяин — Вечером? Ночью? Утром на рассвете? Мы не знаем этого. А если сторож заснет, а как раз в это время хозяин вернется и застанет слугу спящим? Что тогда будет? Поэтому я сейчас вам говорю: важно одно, чтобы вы в сердце своем бодрствовали.

Back-translation by Luka Manevich

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Mark 14:1-11 in Russian Sign Language >>

complete verse (Mark 13:34)

Following are a number of back-translations of Mark 13:34:

  • Uma: “When I come back, the event will be like this parable. A house owner intended to go to a far city. Before he left, he ordered his servants to take care of his house, each one he gave work to. To the one who watched the door, he said: ‘You (sing.) be on the watch!'” (Source: Uma Back Translation)
  • Yakan: “It’s parable is this, a certain man went to a different country. When he was about to leave, he entrusted his house to his servants. Each one was given his work to do. And the watchman at the door he told not to be careless.” (Source: Yakan Back Translation)
  • Western Bukidnon Manobo: “For I am like a person who went on a journey who did not say when he would return. He told his servants to watch his possessions. He gave each one of them work to do while he was away. And he told the person he left to watch the door that he should not go to sleep.” (Source: Western Bukidnon Manobo Back Translation)
  • Kankanaey: “I can be parabled to a man who prepares to go to a far country. He will entrust his house to his servants, and assign (lit. cause-to-be-done) to each one his proper work. He will also command the guard that he not be sleeping.” (Source: Kankanaey Back Translation)
  • Tagbanwa: “For an illustration of this is a person who went on journey to a far place. He left the responsibility for his household to his slaves, each being given by him their own responsibility/task, and he told the guard at the entrance emphatically to be always ready.” (Source: Tagbanwa Back Translation)

Translation commentary on Mark 13:34

Exegesis:

hōs anthrōpos apodēmos ‘(It is) like a man (who is going) away on a trip.’

apodēmos (only here in the N.T.; cf. apodēmeō, 12.1) is an adjective meaning ‘away on a trip,’ ‘away from one’s country.’

apheis (cf. 2.5) ‘leaving’: the participle is equivalent to the relative phrase hos aphēken ‘who left.’

doulois (cf. 10.44) ‘slaves.’

tēn exousian (cf. 1.22) ‘the authority,’ ‘the power’: here, as Revised Standard Version has it, to give the authority to the slaves means to put them in charge (cf. Goodspeed, Moffatt). Lagrange comments that ‘the authority’ given the slaves is a certain degree of autonomy: “each one will be free to do his own job in his own way.”

hekastō (only here in Mark) ‘to each one,’ ‘to every one.’

to ergon (14.6) ‘the work,’ ‘the task,’ ‘the job’: Arndt & Gingrich ‘assigned to each one his task.’ The word ergon is in the accusative case, the object of the participle dous ‘giving.’

tō thurōrō (only here in Mark) ‘to the doorkeeper,’ ‘to the gate guard.’

eneteilato hina grēgorē ‘he commanded that he be on watch,’ ‘he ordered (him) to remain alert.’

entellomai (cf. 10.3) ‘command,’ ‘order.’

hina ‘that’ denotes the content of the order, not its purpose (cf. 3.9).

grēgoreō (13.35, 37; 14.34, 37, 38) ‘be awake,’ ‘watch,’ ‘be alert’: the verb is formed from the perfect form of egeirō ‘rise.’

Translation:

It is like is a very indefinite type of transitional phrase from the preceding verse, and as such must in some languages be adapted to other syntactic and lexical requirements, e.g. ‘in the same way a man went on a journey…’ (South Bolivian Quechua), or ‘all this is like what happens when a man…’ or ‘this is just like the experience of a man who….’

Because of the relative complexity of the subject-predicate constructions in this verse, some major breaks are often required, e.g. ‘this is just like what happens when a man goes on a journey; he leaves home and gives special authority to his servants. Each has his own work. He commands the man who guards the door to be on the look-out continually.’

Puts his servants in charge is often equivalent to ‘gives his servants responsibility for everything,’ i.e. for everything about the estate.

Each with his work is translatable as ‘he gives each servant a special work to do.’

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 13:34

13:34

In this verse Jesus used a short parable or illustration to teach his disciples about how they should act while he was away from them. What follows is an explanation. It explains that his disciples should watch for the Son of Man to come like servants watch for their master to come back from a trip. Another way to express that connection is:

The coming of the Son of Man can be illustrated by the story of a man going on a long trip. (New Living Translation)

In this parable Jesus used present forms of the verbs. In some languages it may be natural for the verbs in such a story to be in the past tense. See the General Comment on 13:34a–e at the end of 13:34e for an example of how to translate it in this way.

13:34a

It is like a man: In the Greek text, the phrase that the Berean Standard Bible translates as It is like a man is literally “like a man.” The Berean Standard Bible has supplied the words It is to provide a subject and verb for the sentence, since it is necessary for good English grammar. For example:

It’s like a man… (New International Version)
-or-
It will be like a man… (Good News Bible)

Another way to say this is:

Listen to this story/illustration. There was a man…

In some languages it may be necessary to have a more specific subject like “my coming.” For example:

My coming will be like…

a man: The man is the main character of this parable. You should introduce this man in a way that is natural in your language. For example:

a certain man

The context shows that the man owned a house and had servants or slaves.

going on a journey: The Greek verb that the Berean Standard Bible translates as going on a journey refers to going away temporarily on a journey. He will come back. The God’s Word has another way to translate the whole phrase “It is like a man going on a journey”:

It is like a man who went on a trip.

13:34b–c

who left his house, put each servant in charge: The man put his servants in charge before he left. In some languages it may be more natural to change the order of the verbs. For example:

When he is about to leave his house, he puts his servants in charge
-or-
When that man was leaving his house like that, he put his servants in charge

put each servant in charge: The Greek phrase that the Berean Standard Bible translates with the English idiom put…in charge is literally “gave authority” (as in the King James Version).

Here are some other ways to translate this:

…he entrusts the work of the house to his servants.
-or-
…he gave instructions to his servants, saying “Take care of everything.”

In some languages it may be necessary to specify what the servants were put in charge of. In some languages you may need to supply a general expression like “everything” or “the house.” For example:

he puts his servants in charge of all the tasks
-or-
he tells his servants to take care of his/the house

servant: The Greek word that the Berean Standard Bible translates as servant means “slave” (as in the NET Bible). This word refers to people who were owned by another person. They worked for their owner/master without receiving pay. They had no rights of their own (or very few rights).

In some cultures, slaves may not be known. In other cultures, the word for slave may imply different customs than in biblical culture. If that is true in your language, here are some other ways to translate this:

people who belonged to someone else
-or-
owned people
-or-
people who serve someone
-or-
workers/servants

13:34d

of his own task: The clause of his own task means that the master gave work to each servant. In some languages it may be natural to translate this with a separate clause or sentence. For example:

He gave to each servant his own task to do.
-or-
He assigned work to each one (God’s Word)

13:34e

and instructed the doorkeeper to keep watch: The task that the master gave to the doorkeeper was to keep watch.

Here are some other ways to translate this:

and ordered the one at the door to keep watch
-or-
and instructed the guard to stay alert

In some languages, it may be natural to translate tells…to keep watch as direct speech. For example:

He told the doorkeeper: “You are to keep watch over my house.”

instructed: The Greek word that the Berean Standard Bible translates as instructed is literally “commanded” or “ordered.”

the doorkeeper: The Greek phrase that the Berean Standard Bible translates as the doorkeeper refers to the servant who stayed at the door to guard the house. He did not allow enemies to enter. He also unlocked the door for his master and for whomever his master wanted to enter.

Here are some other ways to translate this phrase:

one at the door (New International Version)
-or-
gatekeeper (New Living Translation)
-or-
guard (God’s Word)

to keep watch: The Greek phrase that the Berean Standard Bible translates as to keep watch means “be alert.” The master wanted the servant to keep awake and watch for his return. The servant should also stay alert to see that no enemy entered the house during his master’s absence. The form of the verb keep watch indicates that the action should be continuous.

General Comment on 13:34a–e

In some languages it may be natural for a speaker to use the past tense when telling a short story or illustration like this one. For example, the God’s Word says:

As he left home, he put his servants in charge. He assigned work to each one and ordered the guard to be alert.

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