Questions Misunderstood as Declarations: Exhibit XI, B (Mk. 14:41 f.)
Continuation of the chapter titled "Questions Misunderstood as Declarations" in Our Translated Gospels: Some of the Evidence, by Charles Cutler Torrey:
Mark 14:41 f., Matthew 26:45. The two Greek verbs in the first clause here translated have in recent times occasionally been interpreted as present tense rather than as imperative, making the clause a question. Thus, the American edition of the English R.V. has in the margin: Do ye sleep on, then, and take your rest? The commentary of Klos.-Gressm. has Schlaft ihr nun und ruht? These renderings are forbidden, however, by the Greek adverb. See the commentaries by Swete and Lagrange. The ancient versions could only render by the imperative; and the commentators, from the earliest times, have understood the command (or rather permission) as ironical. But irony has no place in the scene, especially after what Jesus had said in verse 38: "the spirit indeed is willing, but the flesh is weak."
The Greek mistranslates the Aramaic adverb, as in several other places; here as in John 13:19, it means simply "now"; not, as it appears to mean (and as the Greek translators always render it), "from now on, henceforth." Accordingly, there being no indication of a question, the Greek interpreter could see in the two Aramaic adverbs ("imperfect" tense, ordinarily rendered by the Greek future) only an ironical injunction: "you may sleep on."
There is another false rendering in the passage; apparently the translator of Mark was not a native Palestinian. The adverb kaddū, in Syriac, ordinarily means "enough," and so the Greek renders it here. In the Palestinian dialect it always means "now, already," and in this verse it begins the second sentence. The Aramaic text of Matthew differed slightly from that of Mark, reading "See, the hour is at hand (girbath)" instead of "Already the hour has come (ĕthāth)."
To be continued...
Continuation of the chapter titled "Questions Misunderstood as Declarations" in Our Translated Gospels: Some of the Evidence, by Charles Cutler Torrey:
Mark 14:41 f. according to Greek: Sleep on now, and take your rest (תִּדְמְכוּן מִכְּעַן וּתְנוּחוּן) it is enough (כַּדּוּ); the time has come; the Son of Man is delivered into the hands of evil men. Up, lets us go; he who betrays me is at hand.
True rendering: Would you sleep now, and take your rest? (same Aramaic); Already (כַּדּוּ) the time has come, etc.
True rendering: Would you sleep now, and take your rest? (same Aramaic); Already (כַּדּוּ) the time has come, etc.
Mark 14:41 f., Matthew 26:45. The two Greek verbs in the first clause here translated have in recent times occasionally been interpreted as present tense rather than as imperative, making the clause a question. Thus, the American edition of the English R.V. has in the margin: Do ye sleep on, then, and take your rest? The commentary of Klos.-Gressm. has Schlaft ihr nun und ruht? These renderings are forbidden, however, by the Greek adverb. See the commentaries by Swete and Lagrange. The ancient versions could only render by the imperative; and the commentators, from the earliest times, have understood the command (or rather permission) as ironical. But irony has no place in the scene, especially after what Jesus had said in verse 38: "the spirit indeed is willing, but the flesh is weak."
The Greek mistranslates the Aramaic adverb, as in several other places; here as in John 13:19, it means simply "now"; not, as it appears to mean (and as the Greek translators always render it), "from now on, henceforth." Accordingly, there being no indication of a question, the Greek interpreter could see in the two Aramaic adverbs ("imperfect" tense, ordinarily rendered by the Greek future) only an ironical injunction: "you may sleep on."
There is another false rendering in the passage; apparently the translator of Mark was not a native Palestinian. The adverb kaddū, in Syriac, ordinarily means "enough," and so the Greek renders it here. In the Palestinian dialect it always means "now, already," and in this verse it begins the second sentence. The Aramaic text of Matthew differed slightly from that of Mark, reading "See, the hour is at hand (girbath)" instead of "Already the hour has come (ĕthāth)."
To be continued...
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