The Hebrew and Greek that is typically translated/transliterated in English as “unclean spirit” or “evil spirit” is translated in Paasaal it is translated as gyɩŋbɔmɔ, which is also the term used for “demon.” Wyɩŋbɔmɔ are “beings that are in the wild and can only be seen when they choose to reveal themselves to certain people. They can ‘capture’ humans and keep them in hiding while they train the person in herbalism and divination. After the training period, which can range from a week to many years, the ‘captured’ individual is released to go back into society as a healer and a diviner. The gyɩŋbɔmɔ can also be evil, striking humans with mental diseases and causing individuals to get lost in the wild. The Pasaale worldview about demons is like that of others of the language groups in the area.” (Source: Fabian N. Dapila in The Bible Translator 2024, p. 415ff.)
Note that often the words for “demon” “unclean spirit” are being used interchangeably.
Retrotraducciones en español (haga clic o pulse aquí)
Jesús y los discípulos fueron juntos a una casa, y una multitud personas también fue a la casa y la entró y la casa estaba llena de personas y Jesús y sus discípulos no comían nada.
Personas chismearon y contaron la familia de Jesús: “Las multitudes van a él y Jesús no come nada.”
La familia (dijo): “Ay Jesús está loco, ahorita lo traigamos, vamonos”. Y fueron (por él).
En la misma casa había algunos maestros de la ley de Jerusalén que lo vieron y dijeron: “Jesús tiene adentro de él el rey de los demonios, que se llama Beelzebú. Jesús y él tienen una conspiración y el demonio ayuda a Jesús, así que puede expulsar demonios.”
Jesús dijo: “¿El demonio me ayuda? Es absurdo. Les doy un ejemplo: Si yo soy un demonio y quiero expulsar a un demonio, ¿lo puedo? No puedo, es imposible, yo también soy demonio.
Por ejemplo, primero: Si diferentes gobiernos se pelean ellos fracasarán.
Segundo: Si en una familia ellos se pelean, se separarán.
Tercero: Si dos demonios se pelean no ganan nada, los dos se eliminarán.
Otro ejemplo: Una persona entra en una casa y toma cosas, y un hombre fuerte y poderoso lo ve. Le tiene miedo (al hombre fuerte) porque lo vio.
Primero debe agarrarlo (al hombre fuerte) y atarlo hasta que esté impotente en el piso y esto hecho puede libremente recoger las cosas.
Este ejemplo del (hombre) fuerte y poderoso es como el rey de los demonios, ¿entienden?
Les advierto y digo la verdad; si una persona hace pecados diferentes y es irrespetuoso contra Dios y después pide perdón, Dios lo perdonará y borrará sus pecados.
Pero hay una excepción: Si uds insultan contra el espíritu santo y lo apodan demonio, huy, no serán perdonados jamás, habrá un castigo fuerte para siempre.”
Allá vino la familia de Jesús y tocaban alguién: “Por favor, que Jesús venga” y el hombre dijo a Jesús: “Tu mamá y tus hermanos te llaman, por allá.”
Jesús miró a sus familiares y a la multitud, a todas las personas que estaban sentadas alrededor, y Jesús dijo: “Les pregunto: ¿Quiénes son mi mamá y mis hermanos?
Uds mismos son mi familia, porque uds obedecen sólo a Dios, por eso uds son mi mamá y mis hermanos.”
Jesus and the disciples went together to a house and a multitude of people also went to the house and entered it and the house was full of people, and Jesus and his disciples did not eat anything.
Some people gossiped and told Jesus’ family: “The multitudes go to him and Jesus does not eat anything.”
The family (said): “Ah, Jesus has gone mad, we will bring him back now, let’s go.” And they went (for him).
In the same house there were some teachers of the law from Jerusalem, and they watched him and said: “Jesus has inside him the king of demons, which is called Beelzebub. Jesus and he are conspiring together and the demon is helping Jesus so that he can throw out demons.”
Jesus said: “So the demon is helping me? That’s absurd. Let me give you an example: If I am a demon and I want to throw out a demon, can I? No I cannot, it’s impossible, I am a demon myself.
“For example, firstly: If different governments fight with each other they will all go down.
“Secondly: If the people in a family fight together they will be separated.
“Thirdly: If two demons fight together, they do not gain anything, both will be eliminated.
“Another example: A person enters a house and takes things away and a strong, powerful man sees him, he gets frightened because he’s been seen.
“First he has to take hold (of the strong man) tie him up so that he lies wriggling on the floor and when that is done he can freely collect the things.
“This example of the strong and powerful (man) is like the king of demons, do you understand?
“I warn you, and I say the truth; if a person does different sins and is disrespectful towards God and afterwards asks forgiveness, God will forgive him and delete his sins.
“But there is one exception: If you insult the Holy Spirit and nickname him a demon, wow, you will never be forgiven, there will be a strong punishment forever.”
Over there the family of Jesus came and they touched someone: “Please, let Jesus come” and the man went and told Jesus: “Your mother and brothers call you, over there.”
Jesus looked at his family and at the multitude, at all the people seated around him, and Jesus said: “I ask you, who are my mother and my brothers?
“You yourselves are my family, because you obey only God, that’s why you are my mother and my brothers.”
Following are a number of back-translations of Mark 3:30:
Uma: “Yesus’ words were like that, because some had said that he was ridden [possessed] by an evil-spirit, they didn’t believe that his power was from the Holy Spirit.” (Source: Uma Back Translation)
Yakan: “The reason that Isa spoke to them like that was, because they said that he was demon possessed.” (Source: Yakan Back Translation)
Western Bukidnon Manobo: “The reason Jesus said this was because the teachers had said that the Holy Spirit which inspires Jesus was a demon.” (Source: Western Bukidnon Manobo Back Translation)
Kankanaey: “Jesus said that, because they were saying that an evil-spirit had possessed him.” (Source: Kankanaey Back Translation)
Tagbanwa: “Jesus spoke like that because some were saying that that he was possessed by an evil spirit. Well since it was like that, they were regarding/classifying as evil the Espiritu Santo who was indwelling Jesus.” (Source: Tagbanwa Back Translation)
God transcends gender, but most languages are limited to grammatical gender expressed in pronouns. In the case of English, this is traditionally confined to “he” (or in the forms “his,” “him,” and “himself”), “she” (and “her,” “hers,” and “herself”), and “it” (and “its” and “itself”).
Modern Mandarin Chinese, however, offers another possibility. Here, the third-person singular pronoun is always pronounced the same (tā), but it is written differently according to its gender (他 is “he,” 她 is “she,” and 它/牠 is “it” and their respective derivative forms). In each of these characters, the first (or upper) part defines the gender (man, woman, or thing/animal), while the second element gives the clue to its pronunciation.
In 1930, after a full century with dozens of Chinese translations, Bible translator Wang Yuande (王元德) coined a new “godly” pronoun: 祂. Chinese readers immediately knew how to pronounce it: tā. But they also recognized that the first part of that character, signifying something spiritual, clarified that each person of the Trinity has no gender aside from being God.
While the most important Protestant and Catholic Chinese versions respectively have opted not to use 祂, some Bible translations do and it is widely used in hymnals and other Christian materials. Among the translations that use 祂 to refer to “God” were early versions of Lü Zhenzhong’s (呂振中) version (New Testament: 1946, complete Bible: 1970). R.P. Kramers (in The Bible Translator 1956, p. 152ff. ) explains why later versions of Lü’s translation did not continue with this practice: “This new way of writing ‘He,’ however, has created a minor problem of its own: must this polite form be used whenever Jesus is referred to? Lü follows the rule that, wherever Jesus is referred to as a human being, the normal tā (他) is written; where he is referred to as divine, especially after the ascension, the reverential tā (祂) is used.”
In that system one kind of pronoun is used for humans (male and female alike) and one for natural elements, non-liquid masses, and some spiritual entities (one other is used for large animals and another one for miscellaneous items). While in these languages the pronoun for spiritual entities used to be employed when referring to God, this has changed into the use of the human pronoun.
Lynell Zogbo (in The Bible Translator 1989, p. 401ff. ) explains in the following way: “From informal discussions with young Christians especially, it would appear that, at least for some people, the experience and/or concepts of Christianity are affecting the choice of pronoun for God. Some people explain that God is no longer ‘far away,’ but is somehow tangible and personal. For these speakers God has shifted over into the human category.”
In Kouya, God (the Father) and Jesus are referred to with the human pronoun ɔ, whereas the Holy Spirit is referred to with a non-human pronoun. (Northern Grebo and Western Krahn make a similar distinction.)
Eddie Arthur, a former Kouya Bible translation consultant, says the following: “We tried to insist that this shouldn’t happen, but the Kouya team members were insistent that the human pronoun for the Spirit would not work.”
In Burmese, the pronoun ko taw (ကိုယ်တော်) is used either as 2nd person (you) or 3rd person (he, him, his) reference. “This term clearly has its root in the religious language in Burmese. No ordinary persons are addressed or known by this pronoun because it is reserved for Buddhist monks, famous religious teachers, and in the case of Christianity, the Trinity.” (Source: Gam Seng Shae in The Bible Translator 2002, p. 202ff. )
In Thai, the pronoun phra`ong (พระองค์) is used, a gender-neutral pronoun which must refer to a previously introduced royal or divine being. Similarly, in Northern Khmer, which is spoken in Thailand, “an honorific divine pronoun” is used for the pronoun referring to the persons of the Trinity (source: David Thomas in The Bible Translator 1993, p. 445 ). In Urak Lawoi’, another language spoken in Thailand, the translation often uses tuhat (ตูฮัด) — “God” — ”as a divine pronoun where Thai has phra’ong even though it’s actually a noun.” (Source for Thai and Urak Lawoi’: Stephen Pattemore)
The English “Contemporary Torah” addresses the question of God and gendered pronouns by mostly avoiding pronouns in the first five books of the Hebrew Bible/Old Testament (unless God is referred to as “lord,” “father,” “king,” or “warrior”). It does that by either using passive constructs (“He gave us” vs. “we were given”), by using the adjective “divine” or by using “God” rather than a pronoun.
Some Protestant and Orthodox English Bibles use a referential capitalized spelling when referring to the persons of the Trinity with “He,” “His,” “Him,” or “Himself.” This includes for instance the New American Standard Bible or The Orthodox New Testament, but most translations do not. Two other languages where this is also done (in most Bible translations) are the closely related Indonesian and Malay. In both languages this follows the language usage according to the Qur’an, which in turn predicts that usage (see Soesilo in The Bible Translator 1991, p. 442ff. and The Bible Translator 1997, p. 433ff. ).
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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.
Living Water is produced for the Bible translation movement in association with Lutheran Bible Translators. Lyrics derived from the ESV® Bible (The Holy Bible, English Standard Version®).
Instead of hamartēmatos ‘sin’ Textus Receptus has kriseōs ‘judgment,’ ‘condemnation’: this clearly inferior reading is rejected by all modern editions of the Greek text.
Exegesis:
eis to pneuma to hagion ‘into the Holy Spirit’: eis here has a hostile meaning ‘against.’
aphesin (cf. 1.4) ‘forgiveness’ (for the verb aphiēmi ‘forgive’ see 2.5).
eis ton aiōna ‘into the age,’ i.e. the ‘future age.’
eis ‘into’ indicates duration of time.
aiōn (4.19; 10.30; 11.14) ‘age’: the word reflects the Hebrew concept of time as divided into ages, generally the present age (cf. 4.19) and the future age, the age to come (cf. 10.30). In this passage the phrase means ‘eternally,’ ‘forever’ as the parallel in Mt. 12.32 makes explicit: ‘either in this age or in the coming age.’ Cf. Vulgatein aeternum; Lagrange à jamais.
enochos (14.64) ‘guilty of,’ ‘charged with,’ here indicates the crime of which the man is guilty, not the punishment to which he is liable.
aiōniou ‘of the age,’ ‘age-long’: that is ‘eternal,’ ‘endless.’
hoti elegon ‘because they were saying’: these are words of explanation which the evangelist adds. hoti is causative ‘because,’ giving the reason why Jesus said what he did concerning the unforgivable sin.
elegon ‘they were saying’ is better than ‘they had said’ of Revised Standard Version. ‘They’ are the scribes referred to in v. 22.
pneuma akatharton ‘unclean spirit,’ the same as saying ‘he has Beelzebul’ (v. 22) or ‘he has a demon’ (cf. 1.34).
Translation:
Blasphemes against the Holy Spirit may be rendered as ‘to speak against the Holy Spirit’ or ‘to say evil words about the Holy Spirit’ (for “Holy Spirit” see 1.7).
Has forgiveness is a difficult expression to translate literally, for in general one must speak of ‘to be forgiven’ or ‘to receive forgiveness’ (but for numerous idioms for forgiveness see 1.4). In languages in which an active form of the verb is required the subject ‘God’ must be introduced, ‘God will never forgive a man who speaks evil of the Holy Spirit.’
To be guilty of an eternal sin can only rarely be translated literally. Rather, this phrase must be rendered by various types of idiomatic expressions, e.g. ‘his sin stays on his head for the time that never ends’ (Farefare), ‘he carries the weight of his sin that lasts forever’ (Yaka), ‘his sins will be continually taken into account’ (Pamona), ‘he will always have his sin’ (Highland Oaxaca Chontal), and ‘he has a sin that will never be taken away’ (Huichol).
In some way, the abrupt transition before the clause for they had said … must be marked, either by some kind of a dash, or by a complete new sentence, or by some transitional expression, e.g. ‘Jesus said this because they had said…’ (South Bolivian Quechua). The reason for making this break evident is that one must not translate as ‘he is guilty of an eternal sin because of what they had said’ (though indirectly this is true). Nevertheless, the last sentence must be construed with all that precedes, not merely with the last clause.
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 .
Jesus made this statement: The phrase Jesus made this statement is not in the Greek. The Berean Standard Bible has added it because it is implied, and it makes the sentence sound natural in English. It connects 3:30 to all that Jesus said in 3:23–29.
It may also be natural and helpful in your language to add a phrase that connects 3:30 to 3:23–29. Here are some ways to do this:
Jesus talked about speaking against the Holy Spirit… -or-
Jesus warned them about insulting the Holy Spirit…
3:30b
because: The Greek conjunction that the Berean Standard Bible translates as because introduces the reason why Jesus talked about the unforgivable sin.
they: The pronoun they refers to the scribes from Jerusalem. They were saying that Jesus was doing things by Satan’s power.
3:30c
He has an unclean spirit: In this context the scribes believed that an unclean spirit controlled Jesus. They believed that Jesus was using the power of that spirit. Use an appropriate expression in your language to describe this. For example:
He is controlled by an evil spirit. -or-
He is using the power of an evil spirit.
See how you translated the similar expressions in 1:23a and 3:22c. See also evil spirit in the Glossary.
General Comment on 3:30b–c
In some languages it may be more natural to translate the quotation in 3:30b–c as indirect speech. For example, the Contemporary English Version says:
because the people were saying that he had an evil spirit in him (Contemporary English Version)
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All Scripture quotations in this publication, unless otherwise indicated, are from The Holy Bible, Berean Standard Bible.
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