faint

The Greek in Mark 8:3 that is translated as “faint” or similar in English is translated in the German New Testament translation by Berger / Nord (publ. 1999) with sterben or “die.”

hungry

The Hebrew and Greek that is translated in English as “hungry” (or: “famished”) is translated in a number of ways:

  • Noongar: “without stomach” (koborl-wirt) (source: Warda-Kwabba Luke-Ang)
  • Kölsch translation (publ. 2017): nix zo Käue han or “have nothing to chew on” and singe Mage hät geknottert wie ne Hungk or “his stomach growled like a dog” (source: Jost Zetzsche)
  • German New Testament translation by Berger / Nord (publ. 1999): Hunger überfiel ihn or “Hunger overtook (lit.: “attacked”) him” (in Matthew 4:2)
  • Kupsabiny: “hunger ate him” (source: Kupsabiny Back Translation)
  • Mairasi: “feeling tuber pains” (tubers are the main staple) (source Enggavoter 2004)

Mark 8:1 - 10a in Mexican Sign Language

Following is the translation of Mark 8:1-10a 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)

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 vio a todas las personas y dijo a los discípulos: “Todas las personas ya han estado junto con nosotros por tres días, ellos no tienen comida, se ha acabado.

Sus casas, donde viven, están lejos, y si nos despedimos de ellos, se irán caminando y se caerán por ser mareados de hambre, siento dolor por los pobrecitos.”

Los discípulos dijeron: “Aqui es desierto, no hay comida, ¿Cómo y dónde vamos a encontrar pan para repartir?”

Jesús dijo: “¿Cuánto pan hay?” Los discípulos: “Hay siete panes.”

Jesús dijo a las personas: “Por favor, sientense.” Jesús tomó pan, dio gracias a Dios, rompió el pan y lo puso en una canasta, rompía y lo ponía hasta que se llenó la canasta, y la dio a los discípulos. Ellos la tomaron y lo repartían.

Había unos peces pequeños, muy poquito, y Jesús los bendijo y había un montón. Les dio la canasta (a los discípulos): “Uds repartanlos.” Los discípulos tomaron la canasta y los repartían.

Todas las personas, eran más o menos 4000, estaban comiendo hasta que se llenaron y los discípulos pusieron los peces y el pan que sobró en canastas. Cuando se llenó una canasta la pusieron aparte, tomaron otra canasta y la llenaron y fueron siete canastas de sobras.

Jesús se despidió de ellos y Jesús y los discípulos fueron y entraron un barco y el barco fue navigando.


Jesus looked around at all the people and said to the disciples: “All these people have been with us for three days and they have no food, it’s all gone.

“The houses in which they live are far away and if we say goodbye to them they will go walking and they will fall over being dizzy from hunger, I feel sorry for these poor people.”

The disciples said: “It’s desert here, there is no food. How and where are we going to find bread to hand out?”

Jesus said: “How much bread is there?” The disciples: “There are seven loaves.”

Jesus said to the people: “Please, sit down.” Jesus took bread and gave thanks to God, then he broke the bread and put it in a basket, he kept breaking and putting it there until it was full, then he gave the basket to the disciples and they took it and handed it out.

There were some small fishes, a few, and Jesus blessed them and there was a heap. He gave the basket (to the disciples): “You hand them out.” The disciples took the basket and handed them out.

All the people, there were more or less 4000, ate until they were full and the disciples put the fishes and the bread that were left over in baskets. When a basket was full, they would put it aside and take another one and fill it, and there were seven baskets of leftovers.

Jesus said goodbye and Jesus and the disciples went and got into a boat and the boat left.

Source: La Biblia en LSM / La Palabra de Dios

<< Mark 7:32-37 in Mexican Sign Language
Mark 8:10b-21 in Mexican Sign Language >>

Mark 8:1-10 in Russian Sign Language

Following is the translation of Mark 8:1-10 into Russian Sign Language with a back-translation underneath:


Source: Russian Bible Society / Российское Библейское Общество

Many people had gathered to listen to Jesus. Jesus was teaching the people. But the people did not have any food with them. Jesus said to his disciples:

— I feel sorry for these people! They have been here with me for three days, but they have no food. If I let the people go hungry, some will become weak on the long journey.

The disciples began to say:

— It’s a desert here! Where are we going to get so much bread to feed such a crowd? We won’t be able to.

Jesus said:

— Maybe some of you have some bread. Look and see if you can find some. The disciples looked and found seven loaves.

Jesus asked all the people to sit down on the ground. He took the bread in his hands and began to pray to God by saying, “Thank you, God!” Then he broke the loaves and gave them to the disciples to distribute to the people. And the disciples went to distribute the bread to the people. There were also a few fish.

Jesus took the fish, looked up to heaven, said the prayer, “Thank you, God” and gave the disciples to distribute the fish to all the people.

There were about four thousand people in all who ate and had enough to eat.

Jesus said to the disciples:

— Gather the leftover pieces of food into baskets.

The disciples went to gather the leftovers, and there were seven baskets full of leftovers. When the people had eaten, Jesus let the people go, and he and his disciples got on a boat and sailed to the region of Dalmanutha.

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

Собралось множество людей, чтобы послушать Иисуса. Иисус учил народ. Но у людей не было с собой еды. Иисус сказал своим ученикам:

— Мне жаль этих людей! Они уже со мной тут три дня, но у них нет еды. Если я отпущу народ голодным, кто-то ослабеет в дальней дороге.

Ученики стали говорить:

— Тут пустыня! Где мы возьмем столько хлеба, чтобы накормить такую толпу? Мы не сможем.

Иисус сказал:

— Может быть, у кого-то из вас есть хлеб. Посмотрите, поищите. Ученики поискали и нашли семь хлебов.

Иисус попросил весь народ сесть на землю. Он взял хлеб в руки и стал молиться Богу со словами «Благодарю тебя, Боже!» Затем он разломил хлеба и дал ученикам, чтобы они раздали народу. И ученики пошли раздавать народу хлеб. Также было еще несколько рыб.

Иисус взял рыбу, посмотрел на небо, произнес молитву «Благодарю тебя, Боже…» и дал ученикам, чтобы те раздали рыбу все людям.

Всего людей, которые ели и наелись досыта, было около четырех тысяч.

Иисус сказал ученикам:

— Соберите оставшиеся куски еды в корзины.

Ученики пошли собирать остатки еды, и остатков набралось полных семь корзин. Когда народ наелся, Иисус отпустил людей, а сам с учениками сел на лодку и поплыл область Далманута.

Back-translation by Luka Manevich

<< Mark 7:31-37 in Russian Sign Language
Mark 8:11-13 in Russian Sign Language >>

complete verse (Mark 8:3)

Following are a number of back-translations of Mark 8:3:

  • Uma: “Yet if I order them to go home still hungry, maybe they will faint on the road. For there are some of them from far away.'” (Source: Uma Back Translation)
  • Yakan: “If I send them home without them having eaten, they will faint on the way. And-what’s-more some of them have a long way to go home.'” (Source: Yakan Back Translation)
  • Western Bukidnon Manobo: “And if I send them away without having eaten, they might become weak on the trail for some of them are far from home.'” (Source: Western Bukidnon Manobo Back Translation)
  • Kankanaey: “If I send-them -home and they haven’t yet eaten, some will become-faint-from-hunger on the way, because some, it is far to where-they -go-home.'” (Source: Kankanaey Back Translation)
  • Tagbanwa: “Today/now, if I send them home hungry, maybe they won’t make it. Some of them have come from far.'” (Source: Tagbanwa Back Translation)

Translation commentary on Mark 8:3

Text:

apo ‘from’ is omitted by Textus Receptus, but included in all modern editions of the Greek text.

Instead of eisin ‘they are’ read by Nestle, Westcott and Hort, Kilpatrick, and Lagrange, hēkasin ‘they have come’ is preferred by Tischendorf, Soden, Souter, Merk, and Taylor; Textus Receptus and Vogels have hēkousi ‘they are come.’

Exegesis:

apolusō (cf. 6.36) ‘I should send away,’ ‘I should dismiss.’

nēsteis (only here in Mark) ‘hungry,’ ‘unfed,’ ‘without eating.’

eis oikon autōn (cf. 2.11; 5.19; 7.30) ‘to their homes.’

ekluthēsontai (only here in Mark) ‘they shall become weary,’ ‘they shall faint,’ ‘they shall give out.’

en tē hodō ‘in the road’: i.e. ‘on the way,’ ‘as they go (home).’

apo makrothen (cf. 5.6) ‘from afar,’ ‘from a distance.’

(If hēkasin ‘they have come’ is read – see above – it occurs only here in Mark, and means ‘be present,’ ‘have come’).

Translation:

Send them away hungry to their homes may require some realignment of constituent parts, e.g. ‘send them to their homes without their having eaten anything’ or ‘send them to their homes while they are still hungry.’

Faint on the way may be ‘collapse along the trail.’

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 8:3

8:3–4

There is implied information that connects 8:3 and 8:4. In 8:3 Jesus implied that he wanted to feed the crowd before he sent them home. In 8:4 the disciples implied that they thought that it would be impossible to feed the crowd. In some languages it may be necessary to make this connection more explicit. For example, the Good News Bible translates 8:3a as:

If I send them home without feeding them…

In other languages it may be more natural to put the implied information after 8:3 or near the beginning of 8:4. For example:

3b–c“If I send them home hungry, they will collapse on the way. Some have come a great distance. We should feed them.” His disciples answered, “Do you want us to feed them? Where could anyone…?”

8:3a–b

If I send them home hungry, they will faint along the way: This clause expresses a situation that Jesus was thinking about. It was not something that would actually happen.

Here is another way to translate this:

I do not want to send them home hungry because then they might collapse

Languages often have special ways to express imagined situations like this. Use a natural way in your language.

send them home: In this context the Greek word that the Berean Standard Bible translates as send means to “send away, dismiss.” To send them home means “to tell them to return to their homes.” In some languages it may be natural to use a phrase like “cause them to go home.” Be careful not to imply that Jesus intended to force people to go to their homes.

they will faint: The Greek word that the Berean Standard Bible translates as faint means “to become weary, weak, exhausted.” It refers to being unable to complete the journey because of hunger.

Here are some other ways to translate this:

collapse (New International Version)
-or-
become exhausted (God’s Word)

along the way: The phrase along the way refers to the journey that the people would make in order to return to their homes.

8:3c

For some of them have come a great distance: Jesus was saying that some people in the crowd had traveled several hours or days from their homes to be with him. This statement implies that they would also have to travel a long distance in order to return to their homes.

General Comment on 8:3a–c

In some languages it may be more natural to change the order of the parts of this verse. For example:

3cSome of these people have come from far places. 3aIf I send them home hungry, 3bthey will collapse on the way.

© 2008 by SIL International®

Made available under the terms of a Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 License (CC BY-SA) creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0

All Scripture quotations in this publication, unless otherwise indicated, are from The Holy Bible, Berean Standard Bible.
BSB is produced in cooperation with Bible Hub, Discovery Bible, OpenBible.com, and the Berean Bible Translation Committee.