[B-Greek] Translation of Mark 1:31

Carl W. Conrad cwconrad at ioa.com
Tue Oct 18 20:15:14 EDT 2005


On Oct 18, 2005, at 7:22 PM, Dan Gleason wrote:

>> Forwarded for: "Dan Gleason" <dan-bgreek at hotmail.com>
>> Date: October 18, 2005 5:05:58 PM EDT
>> To: b-greek at lists.ibiblio.org
>> Subject: Translation of Mark 1:31 where Jesus performs a quick  
>> cure of Simon's Mother in
>>
>>
>> Thank you Dr Conrad and Andrew for your initial response.
>>
>> Here is the Greek text of Mark 1:31:
>> KAI PROSELQWN  HGEIREN AUTHN KRATHSAS THS CEIROS; KAI AFHKEN AUTHN  
>> hO PURETOS, KAI  DIHKONEI AUTOIS.
>>
>> This was my tentative translation of Mk 1:31 and I know it is very  
>> literal and wooden ... but that's the way the author wrote it:

Do you mean "that's the way you, as author of the translation, wrote  
it?"
I'd say it's a structural imitation of the Greek, not really a  
translation into idiomatic English.

>> And having-come-near, he-raised her ... taking of-the hand, and  
>> the fever
>> left her ... and she-was-serving them.
>>
>> My NAB translates this verse as:
>> He approached, grasped her hand, and helped her up. Then the fever  
>> left her
>> and she waited on them.
>> I question the NAB translation because it seems to be paraphrasing  
>> too much.
>> I had three questions which I will now reword a little by taking a  
>> position.

And I would say personally that I think the NASB is a very good  
version here --
in that it expresses in good English EXACTLY what I think the Greek  
text is saying.

>> 1) The previous verse tells us the woman was lying down because  
>> she had a hot-fever. Verse 31 tells us that Jesus did two  
>> things ... he raised the woman up from her prone position and then  
>> took away her fever. He was able to do this because of the  
>> supernatural power he possessed. Does the text allow me to say  
>> that Jesus raised the woman (she got up by herself) by just coming  
>> near her. The woman was now able to get up but she still had her  
>> fever.

I really don't understand what you're trying to say here. On the one  
hand, you say
that Jesus healed the woman because he was exercising supernatural  
power -- and
I wouldn't disagree with that. But then you seem to be asking: what  
was the mechanism
that Jesus employed to make this supernatural power work? Was it his  
approach to her?
Or was it his taking of her hand? As I tried to indicate this  
morning, I don't think that
Mark's narrative is attempting to explain the methodology of a  
supernatural cure; I think
rather that it's a description of a caring, feeling, gentle person  
approaching and gently
helping the sick woman on to her feet. The result is stated in the  
final two indicative
clauses: (everybody realized) that the fever had left her as she  
began to move around
serving them. But I really think it's pointless here to look for the  
point of time or action
where the supernatural causality begins to function or has finished  
operating.

Moreover, I would not understand AFHKEN AUTHN hO PURETOS, KAI   
DIHKONEI AUTOIS
to mean that the fever left her ONLY AFTEr she had gotten to her  
feet. Rather AFHKEN is
aorist, DIHKONEI is imperfect: I'd understand the aorist as a  
pluperfect and the imperfect
as ingressive: "... the fever had left her and she began serving them."

>> 2) Regarding the hand of Jesus causing the fever to leave the woman:
>> The text (KRATHSAS THS CEIROS) says "taking of-the hand" followed  
>> by (KAI AFHKEN AUTHN hO PURETOS) and the fiery-fever left her. The  
>> way I read this is that the woman was now standing and then she  
>> "took the hand" meaning Jesus put his hand on her (perhaps on her  
>> head, or shoulder, or her hand, or anywhere on her body). It was  
>> the laying on of his hand and the power in his hand that took away  
>> the fever.

I think you're missing the point of the word-order. KRATHSAS THS CEIROS
belongs syntactically with what precedes it, not with what follows.  
That is to say,
KRATHSAS THS CEIROS must construe with the subject of HGEIREN, which
is implicitly Jesus. Note that AFHKEN AUTHN hO PURETOS is preceded by  
KAI:
this is a new clause altogether. You really ought to understand these  
last two
clauses of the verse together as indicating the end-result of Jesus'  
lifting the
woman up when he approached her and took her hand: "Not only had the
fever left her, but she began serving them."

>> 3) Is the Greek text ambiguous enough to support my translation?

For my part, I don't think the Greek text is ambiguous at all.


Carl W. Conrad
Department of Classics, Washington University (Emeritus)
1989 Grindstaff Road/Burnsville, NC 28714/(828) 675-4243
cwconrad2 at mac.com
WWW: http://www.ioa.com/~cwconrad/




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