Retrotraducciones en español (haga clic o pulse aquí)
Un hombre sordo que no hablaba bien, las personas lo ayudaron (y lo dijeron que) vieniera con ellos. Fueron y dijeron a Jesús: “Él es sordo, por favor, ponle la mano y sanalo.”
Jesús (le hizo señal a que) vieniera, y fueron los dos a donde no había gente. Jesús puso los dedos en los oídos del hombre, escupió en sus dedos, metió los dedos y tocó la lengua del hombre. Entonces Jesús miró al cielo, suspiró y dijo: “Efata”, que significa ‘abre’ y al instante los oídos del hombre se abrieron y podía oír y hablar bien.
Los dos regresaron y Jesús dijo a las personas: “No digan nada, silencio, es un secreto.”
Las personas hablaban y lo decían a muchos, y Jesús les dijo que fueran silenciosos. Pero seguían diciendo y contandolo y se difundía: Jesús puede hacer todo bien, igual otra persona sorda que no puede hablar, Jesús puede mandarlo y el oído se abre, y puede hablar bien ¡huy, es increíble!”
A deaf man who didn’t speak well was helped by people who told him to come with them. They went and said to Jesus: “He is deaf, please put your hand on him and heal him.”
Jesus (gestured to him ) to come, and the two of them went to where there were no people. Jesus put his fingers in the man’s ears, spit on his fingers, stretched them out and touched the tongue of the man. Then Jesus looked up heaved a great sigh and said: “Ephphatha”, which means ‘open’ and at once the ears of the man were opened and he could hear and speak well.
The two of them came back and Jesus said to the people: “Don’t say anything, be quite, it’s a secret.”
The people talked and told many, but Jesus told them to be quiet. They continued telling people and it spread widely: Jesus can do everything well, in the same way another deaf person that cannot not talk, Jesus can order him and his ears open and he can speak well, wow it’s incredible!”
From the neighborhood of Tyre Jesus went to Sidon. There was a lake in Galilee and 10 towns near it. Jesus went out to the lake in the area where the towns were. As Jesus was walking, crowds of people gathered. There was one man there who was deaf. Jesus was told:
— This man here is deaf, he cannot speak. Lay your hands on him, maybe then he will begin to hear and begin to talk.
Jesus took the deaf man to a secluded place where there were no witnesses. There they were left alone. Jesus laid his hands on the deaf man’s ears, then spat on his fingers and touched his mouth, then prayed and said in a loud voice: “Ephphatha!” That means, “Open up.”
And the deaf man began to hear! He heard everything perfectly. He had not been able to speak before, but now he spoke with a clear voice.
Jesus and the man who used to be deaf went out to the people. Those were amazed and said to each other:
— He can speak! He hears perfectly and can speak!
Jesus turned to the people:
— Don’t tell anyone about this miracle — that he used to be deaf and then he began to hear, you’d better keep quiet.
The people agreed, but it was useless. The more Jesus forbade, the more people talked about him. When all the crowd dispersed, people began to spread the news about Jesus, how he was able to heal the deaf man, who began to hear everything and speak clearly.
Original Russian back-translation (click or tap here):
Из окрестностей Тира Иисус пошел в Сидон. В Галилее было озеро, а рядом с ним 10 городов. Иисус вышел к озеру в той области, где были эти города. Пока Иисус шел, собирались толпы народа. Там был один человек, который был глухим. Иисусу сказали:
— Вот этот человек — глухой, он не может говорить. Возложи на него руки, может быть, тогда он начнет слышать и начнет разговаривать.
Иисус повел глухого в уединенное место, где не было свидетелей. Там они остались наедине. Иисус возложил руки на уши глухого, затем плюнул себе на пальцы и прикоснулся к его рту, потом начал молиться и громко сказал: Еффафа! Это означает «Откройся».
И глухой начал слышать! Он все отлично слышал. Раньше он не мог разговаривать, а теперь он говорил чистым голосом.
Иисус и человек, который раньше был глухим вышли к людям. Те были поражены и говорили друг другу:
— Он может говорить! Он слышит прекрасно и может говорить!
Иисус обратился к народу:
— Не рассказывайте никому об этом чуде — что раньше он был глухой, а потом начал слышать, лучше молчите.
Люди согласились, но все было бесполезно. Чем больше Иисус запрещал, тем больше люди говорили о Нем. Когда все толпа разошлась, люди стали распространять весть об Иисусе, как он смог исцелить глухого, тот начал все слышать и чисто говорить.
Following are a number of back-translations of Mark 7:32:
Uma: “There, some people brought a person who was deaf and who could not talk. They requested that he lay-hands-on him.” (Source: Uma Back Translation)
Yakan: “A man who was deaf and had a speech impediment was brought to Isa by people. They begged Isa, asking him to place his hands on him.” (Source: Yakan Back Translation)
Western Bukidnon Manobo: “There were people who brought to Jesus a person who was deaf with an impediment when he spoke, and they begged Jesus to place his hand on him and heal him.” (Source: Western Bukidnon Manobo Back Translation)
Kankanaey: “There were those who brought to him a man that was deaf and had-a-speech-impediment. They entreated Jesus to lay-hands-on that man so-that he would get-well.” (Source: Kankanaey Back Translation)
Tagbanwa: “Taken to Jesus was a man who was deaf and couldn’t-form-words either. Jesus was being asked for help that he would touch that person.” (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 choice of a benefactive construction as shown here in the widely-used Japanese Shinkaiyaku (新改訳) Bible of 2017.
Here, oite (置いて) or “place” is used in combination with kudasaru (くださる), a respectful form of the benefactive kureru (くれる). A benefactive reflects the good will of the giver or the gratitude of a recipient of the favor. To convey this connotation, English translation needs to employ a phrase such as “for me (my sake)” or “for you (your sake).” (Source: S. E. Doi, see also S. E. Doi in Journal of Translation, 18/2022, p. 37ff. )
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®).
pherousin (cf. 1.32) ‘they bring’: an impersonal plural meaning ‘people (men) brought.’
kōphon (7.37; 9.25) literally ‘dull’: it may either ‘dumb,’ ‘mute,’ or (as it does here) ‘deaf.’
mogilalon (only here in the N.T.) ‘speaking with difficulty’ (mogis ‘with difficulty’), ‘speaking with an impediment.’
The rest of the words have already been dealt with: parakalousin (cf. 1.40) ‘they begged’; hina (cf. 5.10, 18) ‘that,’ of content; epithē … tēn cheira (cf. 5.23) ‘he place his hand upon.’
Translation:
They may need to be more specific, so as not to refer to the disciples, e.g. ‘some people’ or ‘certain persons.’
Either in this verse, or in the preceding, it may be necessary to use ‘Jesus’ in place of a pronoun, since the closest specific referent is several verses back (note that in the Revised Standard Version text one has to go back to 6.30).
Deaf may be translated simply as ‘he could not hear,’ though there are always quite adequate terms for ‘deaf.’
Impediment in his speech may be equivalent to ‘he could not speak well’ (Southern Subanen) or ‘he had difficulty speaking.’ This would seem to imply that the man had either been deaf a long while or was congenitally so, in which case the impediment would have been serious indeed.
The pronouns they … him … his … him must be carefully handled, e.g. ‘the people asked Jesus to lay his hands on the sick man.’ One must avoid any connotations of ‘laying on hands’ to arrest. This is the ‘touching’ of healing and mercy.
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 .
In this verse some people brought to Jesus a man who was deaf and had a speech defect. The Greek text does not specify the cause of these disabilities, but they were probably caused by disease or injury. (Lane, page 266.) Your translation should not imply that the man was demon-possessed.
7:32a
In Greek this verse begins with the common connector that is often translated as “and.” It introduces what happened after Jesus and his disciples arrived near the Sea of Galilee. Use a natural way in your language to connect 7:31 and 7:32. For example:
There (New International Version) -or-
While he was there (New Century Version)
Some people brought: The Greek word that the Berean Standard Bible translates as Some people brought is literally “they brought.” In 7:33, these people are referred to as “a crowd.” In some languages it may be more natural to use the same term here. Use a term that is natural in your language to introduce this group of people.
to Him: The pronoun Him refers to Jesus.
a man who was deaf: The word deaf means “unable to hear.”
7:32b
and hardly able to speak: The Greek word that the Berean Standard Bible translates as hardly able to speak literally means “to speak with difficulty.” It indicates here that the man was unable to speak clearly. He was probably not completely mute, but other people could not understand his speech easily. (There are two interpretations: (1) He had a speech impediment; (2) He could not speak intelligibly. Many commentaries support each view, but all the English versions on TW support (1).)
Here are some other ways to translate this:
could not talk plainly (New Century Version) -or-
had difficulty speaking (NET Bible) -or-
had a speech defect (God’s Word)
General Comment on 7:32a–b
The deaf man is in focus in this story. Because of this, it may be more natural to introduce him before you introduce the people who brought him. For example:
A certain man was there. He was deaf and could hardly speak. Some people brought him to Jesus. -or-
A man who was deaf and could hardly talk was brought by some people to Jesus.
7:32c
they: The pronoun they refers to the same people who brought the man to Jesus.
begged: In this context the Greek word that the Berean Standard Bible translates as begged indicates that the people made an earnest request.
Here are some other ways to translate this word:
earnestly asked -or-
pleaded
Refer to how you translated this same word in 5:10. (The same verb parakale? is also used in 5:17–18 and 5:23a, but in the latter verse an intensifying word is added.)
Jesus: The Greek word that the Berean Standard Bible translates as Jesus is literally “him,” as in the Revised Standard Version. The Berean Standard Bible uses the word Jesus so that it is clear that the people are speaking with Jesus, not with the deaf man. Refer to Jesus in a way that is natural in your language.
to place His hand on him: The people asked Jesus to place His hand on him in order to heal the man. If the purpose of their request is not clear in your language, it may be necessary to make this information explicit. For example, the New Living Translation says:
to lay his hands on the man to heal him
place His hand: The text does not say where Jesus should place His hand. In some languages it may be more natural to use a general expression. For example, the Contemporary English Version says:
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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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