Scriptures Plain & Simple (Mark 2:1-12)

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 2:1-12:

When Jesus returned home to Capernaum,
such a mob crowded around the door
       that no standing room was left.

Jesus was teaching when four people arrived,
       carrying a disabled man on a mat.
Unable to squeeze through the mob,
they dug through the mud roof and let the man down
       in the middle of the room.

“Such faith!” thought Jesus. Then he said to the man,
       “My friend, your sins are forgiven.”

Some biblical scholars were there and started wondering,
“Does this guy think he’s God
       with the power to forgive sins?”

Jesus realized what was going on, so he said,
       “Is it easier to forgive this man or to heal him?
I’ll show you who has the power
       to forgive sins here and now.”

So Jesus said to the man,
       “Take your mat and head home!”

At this, the man rose to his feet, picked up his mat,
and headed home, while everyone stood there stunned.
       “Praise God!” they shouted,
       “We’ve never seen anything like this before.”

Translation commentary on Mark 2:3

Exegesis:

erchontai ‘they come’ is another example of the impersonal plural. Luke (5.18) has it ‘and behold men were bringing.’ Who ‘they’ are is a matter of conjecture: Lagrange thinks they were the parents of the paralytic, as distinct from the bearers. Translator’s New Testament “men came,” Revised Standard Version “and they came” is likely to be misleading in light of the immediately preceding “them” of the previous verse.

pherontes ‘bringing’: here is proof that the verb does not always mean ‘carry,’ since airomenon ‘being carried’ is added to make clear the manner in which the paralytic was brought to Jesus (cf. 1.32).

paralutikon (2.4, 5, 9, 10) ‘paralyzed man,’ ‘paralytic,’ ‘lame.’

airomenon (some 20 times in Mark) ‘(who was) being carried.’

Translation:

They came, because of its indefinite antecedent, must in many languages be rendered as ‘some people came.’ If this is not done the impression may be given that the crowd which was gathered together (the last third person plural referent) brought the man.

Because of the two verbs bringing and carried, it may be that the total number of persons coming with the paralytic were more than four. However, in some languages it is difficult to distinguish between ‘bringing’ and ‘carrying,’ in view of the fact that the only way to bring this man was to carry him. Many languages distinguish between the processes of (1) leading, (2) accompanying, and (3) carrying, but a verb of such indefinite reference as ‘bringing’ is often lacking. However, in order to render the two verbs in the passage one may translate ‘they had with them a paralytic; four men were carrying him.’

Paralysis is spoken of in a number of different ways in various languages, as one or another feature of the disease is selected as a descriptive base, e.g. ‘a sickness which causes one not to be able to move’ (Central Mazahua), ‘all dried up’ (San Blas Kuna), ‘one half his body is dead’ (Southern Subanen), and ‘he could not move’ (Highland Puebla Nahuatl). Since there are paralytics in all societies, there is no difficulty in finding an appropriate term to describe this man’s condition.

One problem, however, is posed by the fact that in some languages one must specifically distinguish between maladies which are congenital (occurring at birth) and those which have occurred later in life. In the Scriptures, unless there is a specific statement as to the fact that a person has been suffering from birth, it is to be understood that the disease was not congenital. On the other hand, in languages which distinguish between chronic and acute illnesses, one should probably in this case assume that the paralysis was of some duration.

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 2:3

2:3a–b

This verse tells the next event in the story. This next event probably occurred while Jesus was still preaching. In some languages it may be necessary to use an introductory expression here. For example:

As he was preaching…

Then a paralytic was brought to Him, carried by four men: In Greek the expression that the Berean Standard Bible translates as a paralytic was brought to Him is literally “they came, bringing to him a paralytic.” It does not indicate how many people came or whether they were men or women. However, the phrase four men indicates that four people carried the paralytic. At least some of these were men. Scholars have two views about how many people came with the paralytic:

(1) More than four people came with the paralytic, and four of them carried him. For example:

Some people came bringing to him a paralytic, carried by four of them. (NET Bible)

(Berean Standard Bible, New International Version, King James Version, New Jerusalem Bible, Revised Standard Version, New American Standard Bible, Phillips’ New Testament in Modern English)

(2) Four people came, all carrying the paralytic. For example:

four men arrived, carrying a paralyzed man to Jesus (Good News Bible)

(Good News Bible, Contemporary English Version, New Living Translation, God’s Word, New Century Version)

It is recommended that you follow interpretation (1).

a paralytic was brought to Him: The context implies that the people were bringing the paralytic to Jesus so that Jesus would heal him. In some languages it may be necessary to make this explicit. For example:

a paralytic was brought to him to be healed

paralytic: A paralytic is a person who is unable to move some part or all of his body. In this context the paralytic could not walk.

carried by four men: The verb here is passive. If your language would not use a passive verb in this context, you may need to make it active. For example:

four people carried him
-or-
four men arrived, carrying a paralyzed man to Jesus (Good News Bible)

In 2:4c Mark indicates that the paralytic was lying on a mat. See the note on 2:4c. In some languages it may be helpful to mention the mat here in 2:3, as well. If that is true in your language, you can use the same word for it in both verses.

Here is another way to translate this:

carrying him on a mat/stretcher

Some languages have specific words for carrying something by the four corners or carrying something from either end. If your language has such words, one of them may be appropriate here.

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