1
Καὶ ὅτε ἐγγίζουσιν εἰς Ἱεροσόλυμα εἰς Βηθφαγὴ καὶ Βηθανίαν πρὸς τὸ Ὄρος τῶν Ἐλαιῶν, ἀποστέλλει δύο τῶν μαθητῶν αὐτοῦ
And when they draw near to Jerusalem, to Bethphage and Bethany, toward the Mount of Olives, he sends two of his disciples
2
καὶ λέγει αὐτοῖς· Ὑπάγετε εἰς τὴν κώμην τὴν κατέναντι ὑμῶν, καὶ ⸀εὐθὺς εἰσπορευόμενοι εἰς αὐτὴν εὑρήσετε πῶλον δεδεμένον ἐφ’ ὃν οὐδεὶς ⸀οὔπω ἀνθρώπων ⸀ἐκάθισεν· ⸂λύσατε αὐτὸν καὶ φέρετε⸃.
and says to them, “Go into the village opposite you, and as soon as you enter it you will find a colt tied, on which no one has yet sat. Untie it and bring it.
3
καὶ ἐάν τις ὑμῖν εἴπῃ· Τί ποιεῖτε τοῦτο; εἴπατε ⸀ὅτι Ὁ κύριος αὐτοῦ χρείαν ἔχει· καὶ ⸀εὐθὺς αὐτὸν ἀποστέλλει ⸀πάλιν ὧδε.
And if anyone says to you, ‘Why are you doing this?' say, ‘The Lord has need of it, and he sends it back here at once.'”
4
⸂καὶ ἀπῆλθον⸃ καὶ εὗρον πῶλον δεδεμένον ⸀πρὸς θύραν ἔξω ἐπὶ τοῦ ἀμφόδου, καὶ λύουσιν αὐτόν.
And they went away and found a colt tied at a door outside on the street, and they untie it.
5
καί τινες τῶν ἐκεῖ ἑστηκότων ἔλεγον αὐτοῖς· Τί ποιεῖτε λύοντες τὸν πῶλον;
And some of those standing there were saying to them, “What are you doing, untying the colt?”
6
οἱ δὲ εἶπαν αὐτοῖς καθὼς ⸀εἶπεν ὁ Ἰησοῦς· καὶ ἀφῆκαν αὐτούς.
And they told them just as Jesus had said, and they let them go.
7
καὶ ⸀φέρουσιν τὸν πῶλον πρὸς τὸν Ἰησοῦν, καὶ ⸀ἐπιβάλλουσιν αὐτῷ τὰ ἱμάτια αὐτῶν, καὶ ἐκάθισεν ἐπ’ ⸀αὐτόν.
And they bring the colt to Jesus, and throw their garments on it, and he sat on it.
8
⸂καὶ πολλοὶ⸃ τὰ ἱμάτια αὐτῶν ἔστρωσαν εἰς τὴν ὁδόν, ἄλλοι δὲ στιβάδας ⸂κόψαντες ἐκ τῶν ἀγρῶν⸃.
And many spread their garments on the road, and others leafy branches they had cut from the fields.
9
καὶ οἱ προάγοντες καὶ οἱ ἀκολουθοῦντες ⸀ἔκραζον· Ὡσαννά· Εὐλογημένος ὁ ἐρχόμενος ἐν ὀνόματι κυρίου·
And those going ahead and those following were crying out, “Hosanna! Blessed is the one who comes in the name of the Lord.
Why this rendering
Mark.11.9 Observation
Syntactic observation
Ὡσαννά is a Semitic transliteration that Mark does not gloss. Usually he does gloss what he brings over — 3:17 Boanerges with sons of thunder, 5:41 Talitha koum with which translated means, 7:11 Korban with which is, Gift, 7:34 Ephphatha with be opened, 15:22 Golgotha with place of a skull, 15:34 Eloi Eloi with its rendering, and at 10:46 he unpacks the name Bartimaeus as the son of Timaeus. What he leaves unglossed is Hosanna (11:9, 10), the Rabbi forms (9:5, 10:51, 11:21, 14:45) and Beelzeboul (3:22) — Amen and Satan stand apart, having become words that decline inside Greek sentences. Hosanna comes twice, both in this scene. Εὐλογημένος is a perfect passive participle — blessed, the blessing already given and standing. The direction matters: the crowd is not pronouncing a blessing but naming the one who comes as one already blessed. Verse 10 applies the same form to a kingdom — Εὐλογημένη ἡ ἐρχομένη βασιλεία, blessed, the coming kingdom. Man and kingdom set side by side in the same participial shape. SBLGNT marks a variant in this verse (⸀ἔκραζον·).
Rendering options · 2
Adopted “Blessed is the one who comes in the name of the Lord.”
Basis Keeps the direction of the passive participle: he is the one blessed.
“Praise to him who comes in the name of the Lord.”
Basis Renders the shout as an act of praise.
Rejected The direction reverses. The Greek says not what the crowd does but what the one coming is — and since v.10 lays the same form on a kingdom, only keeping the form lets the two shouts read as a pair.
Lost in translation
what Hosanna once meant The text supplies no gloss, so what the word once meant is knowledge from outside it. Keeping the transliteration keeps the silence Mark left.
10
Εὐλογημένη ἡ ἐρχομένη ⸀βασιλεία τοῦ πατρὸς ἡμῶν Δαυίδ· Ὡσαννὰ ἐν τοῖς ὑψίστοις.
Blessed is the coming kingdom — the kingdom of our father David. Hosanna in the highest.”
11
Καὶ εἰσῆλθεν εἰς ⸀Ἱεροσόλυμα εἰς τὸ ἱερόν· καὶ περιβλεψάμενος πάντα ⸀ὀψὲ ἤδη οὔσης τῆς ὥρας ἐξῆλθεν εἰς Βηθανίαν μετὰ τῶν δώδεκα.
And he entered Jerusalem, into the temple; and having looked around at everything, the hour being already late, he went out to Bethany with the twelve.
12
Καὶ τῇ ἐπαύριον ἐξελθόντων αὐτῶν ἀπὸ Βηθανίας ἐπείνασεν.
And on the next day, as they were coming out from Bethany, he was hungry.
13
καὶ ἰδὼν συκῆν ⸀ἀπὸ μακρόθεν ἔχουσαν φύλλα ἦλθεν εἰ ἄρα ⸂τι εὑρήσει⸃ ἐν αὐτῇ, καὶ ἐλθὼν ἐπ’ αὐτὴν οὐδὲν εὗρεν εἰ μὴ φύλλα, ⸂ὁ γὰρ καιρὸς οὐκ ἦν⸃ σύκων.
And seeing from a distance a fig tree in leaf, he went to see whether he would find anything on it. And coming to it he found nothing but leaves; for it was not the season for figs.
14
καὶ ⸀ἀποκριθεὶς εἶπεν αὐτῇ· Μηκέτι ⸂εἰς τὸν αἰῶνα ἐκ σοῦ⸃ μηδεὶς καρπὸν φάγοι. καὶ ἤκουον οἱ μαθηταὶ αὐτοῦ.
And answering he said to it, “May no one ever eat fruit from you again.” And his disciples were listening.
Why this rendering
Mark.11.14 Observation
Syntactic observation
φάγοι is an optative. And **it is the only optative in the whole of Mark** — one word out of 11,286. The book runs on imperatives and subjunctives; the mood shifts only in this one sentence, spoken to a fig tree. The optative is the mood of wish, so the sentence has the shape not of a command but of a wish: may no one ever eat fruit from you again. The curse arrives in the grammar of prayer. What makes it hard is the placement of the line before it — at v.13 the narrator adds ὁ γὰρ καιρὸς οὐκ ἦν σύκων, for it was not the season for figs. The author states the reason there was no fruit, and then records the curse. And at the end he attaches καὶ ἤκουον οἱ μαθηταὶ αὐτοῦ, and his disciples were listening — marking that the words are aimed not at the tree but at the hearers. The temple scene of vv.15-19 is then inserted, and v.20 returns to the withered tree: Mark's recurring sandwich arrangement. SBLGNT marks a variant in this verse (⸀ἀποκριθεὶς ⸂εἰς σοῦ⸃).
Rendering options · 2
Adopted “May no one ever eat fruit from you again.”
Basis Renders the optative as a wish — may no one — rather than converting it to a command.
“No one will ever eat fruit from you again.”
Basis Renders it as a future statement.
Rejected A prediction and a wish are not the same speech. This is the one place the book changes mood, and a plain future erases that singularity from the sentence.
Lost in translation
the shift of mood Neither Korean nor English has a distinct optative. May carries the sense, but the fact that this is a grammatical form appearing exactly once in the book has nowhere to show itself in a translation.
15
Καὶ ἔρχονται εἰς Ἱεροσόλυμα. καὶ ⸀εἰσελθὼν εἰς τὸ ἱερὸν ἤρξατο ἐκβάλλειν τοὺς πωλοῦντας καὶ ⸀τοὺς ἀγοράζοντας ἐν τῷ ἱερῷ, καὶ τὰς τραπέζας τῶν κολλυβιστῶν καὶ τὰς καθέδρας τῶν πωλούντων τὰς περιστερὰς κατέστρεψεν
And they come to Jerusalem. And entering the temple he began to drive out those selling and those buying in the temple, and he overturned the tables of the money-changers and the seats of those selling doves;
16
καὶ οὐκ ἤφιεν ἵνα τις διενέγκῃ σκεῦος διὰ τοῦ ἱεροῦ,
and he would not allow anyone to carry a vessel through the temple.
17
καὶ ἐδίδασκεν ⸂καὶ ἔλεγεν⸃ ⸀αὐτοῖς· Οὐ γέγραπται ὅτι Ὁ οἶκός μου οἶκος προσευχῆς κληθήσεται πᾶσιν τοῖς ἔθνεσιν; ὑμεῖς δὲ ⸀πεποιήκατε αὐτὸν σπήλαιον λῃστῶν.
And he was teaching and saying to them, “Is it not written, ‘My house shall be called a house of prayer for all the nations'? But you have made it a den of robbers.”
Why this rendering
Mark.11.17 Observation
Syntactic observation
λῃστής occurs three times in Mark, and the three places run in a line. At 11:17 Jesus calls the temple a den of λῃσταί; at 14:48, being arrested, he asks whether they came out with swords and clubs as against a λῃστής; at 15:27 he is crucified between two λῃσταί. Whether that line is visible depends on the rendering — not a thief but an armed robber, a word that in the period could also mean an armed insurgent. σπήλαιον, cave or den, occurs only here in the book. The extent of the quotation is worth noting too: the sentence quotes through πᾶσιν τοῖς ἔθνεσιν, for all the nations, and the next sentence follows on the fact that this court was the court of the nations. προσευχή likewise has only two places in Mark — 9:29 and here. And the sentence is a question: it opens Οὐ γέγραπται, is it not written, putting back to them what they already know. SBLGNT marks a variant in this verse (⸂καὶ ἔλεγεν⸃ ⸀αὐτοῖς· ⸀πεποιήκατε).
Rendering options · 2
Adopted “a den of robbers” — the same word as at 14:48 and 15:27
Basis Binds the three places with one word, so the name he uses becomes the name used of him at his arrest and the name of the men beside him.
“a den of thieves”
Basis Renders the traders' dishonesty as theft.
Rejected λῃστής is not the κλέπτης who steals in secret but the man who takes by force. Rendered thief, the arrest of 14:48 and the two men of 15:27 become different words and the line breaks.
Lost in translation
the political grain of λῃστής That the word was also used of armed insurgents in the period comes from lexica and historians, not from the text. Robber carries the violence but not that grain.
18
καὶ ἤκουσαν οἱ ⸂ἀρχιερεῖς καὶ οἱ γραμματεῖς⸃, καὶ ἐζήτουν πῶς αὐτὸν ἀπολέσωσιν· ἐφοβοῦντο γὰρ αὐτόν, ⸂πᾶς γὰρ⸃ ὁ ὄχλος ἐξεπλήσσετο ἐπὶ τῇ διδαχῇ αὐτοῦ.
And the chief priests and the scribes heard, and were seeking how they might destroy him; for they feared him, since all the crowd was astounded at his teaching.
19
Καὶ ⸀ὅταν ὀψὲ ἐγένετο, ⸀ἐξεπορεύοντο ἔξω τῆς πόλεως.
And whenever evening came, they were going out of the city.
20
Καὶ ⸂παραπορευόμενοι πρωῒ⸃ εἶδον τὴν συκῆν ἐξηραμμένην ἐκ ῥιζῶν.
And passing by early in the morning, they saw the fig tree withered from the roots.
21
καὶ ἀναμνησθεὶς ὁ Πέτρος λέγει αὐτῷ· Ῥαββί, ἴδε ἡ συκῆ ἣν κατηράσω ἐξήρανται.
And remembering, Peter says to him, “Rabbi, look — the fig tree you cursed has withered.”
22
καὶ ἀποκριθεὶς ὁ Ἰησοῦς λέγει αὐτοῖς· Ἔχετε πίστιν θεοῦ·
And answering, Jesus says to them, “Have faith in God.
23
⸀ἀμὴν λέγω ὑμῖν ὅτι ὃς ἂν εἴπῃ τῷ ὄρει τούτῳ· Ἄρθητι καὶ βλήθητι εἰς τὴν θάλασσαν, καὶ μὴ διακριθῇ ἐν τῇ καρδίᾳ αὐτοῦ ἀλλὰ ⸀πιστεύῃ ὅτι ⸂ὃ λαλεῖ γίνεται, ἔσται αὐτῷ⸃.
Amen I say to you that whoever says to this mountain, ‘Be lifted up and thrown into the sea,' and does not waver in his heart but believes that what he says comes about — it will be his.
24
διὰ τοῦτο λέγω ὑμῖν, πάντα ὅσα ⸂προσεύχεσθε καὶ αἰτεῖσθε⸃, πιστεύετε ὅτι ⸀ἐλάβετε, καὶ ἔσται ὑμῖν.
Therefore I say to you, whatever you pray and ask for, believe that you received it, and it will be yours.
Why this rendering
Mark.11.24 Observation
Syntactic observation
ἐλάβετε is aorist indicative — you received. The two verbs before it are present (προσεύχεσθε, you pray; αἰτεῖσθε, you ask) and the one after is future (ἔσται, it will be); only the content of the believing stands in the past. The tenses run present—past—future, out of joint, and the dislocation is what the sentence asks: while asking now, believe you have already received, and then it will be. The Textus Receptus prints λαμβάνετε, present, you receive, smoothing the tense to match its neighbours — the direction in which the difficulty disappears. SBLGNT prints the aorist and marks it. The aorist is the harder reading. SBLGNT marks a variant in this verse (⸂προσεύχεσθε αἰτεῖσθε⸃, ⸀ἐλάβετε,).
Rendering options · 2
Adopted “believe that you received it, and it will be yours.”
Basis Keeps the aorist of the base text. The dislocation of tense is what the sentence asks.
“believe that you receive.”
Basis Follows the present of the Textus Receptus.
Rejected By our base-text decision we follow SBLGNT, and the direction runs one way: a copyist smoothing a dislocated tense is easy to imagine, one dislocating a smooth tense is not.
25
καὶ ὅταν ⸀στήκετε προσευχόμενοι, ἀφίετε εἴ τι ἔχετε κατά τινος, ἵνα καὶ ὁ πατὴρ ὑμῶν ὁ ἐν τοῖς οὐρανοῖς ἀφῇ ὑμῖν τὰ παραπτώματα ⸀ὑμῶν.
And whenever you stand praying, forgive, if you have anything against anyone, so that your Father in the heavens may also forgive you your trespasses.”
Why this rendering
Mark.11.25 Observation
Syntactic observation
**Verse 26 is absent from SBLGNT** — 25 is followed by 27. The Textus Receptus adds here: but if you do not forgive, neither will your Father in heaven forgive your trespasses — the positive of v.25 turned negative to complete the pair, the same kind of verse as Mark 7:16 and 9:44, 46. 개역한글, though of the Textus Receptus line, prints no verse 26 here. The inside of v.25 is likewise full of rarities for this book: παράπτωμα, trespass, occurs only here in Mark, and calling God ὁ πατὴρ ὑμῶν ὁ ἐν τοῖς οὐρανοῖς, your Father who is in the heavens, happens only here — Mark's other places for God as father (8:38, his Father; 13:32, the Father; 14:36, Abba) take other forms. στήκετε names the posture: standing. SBLGNT marks a variant in this verse (⸀στήκετε ⸀ὑμῶν.).
Rendering options · 2
Adopted End at v.25; print no verse 26
Basis Follows the base text, showing the numbering skip from 25 to 27.
Print verse 26
Basis Follows the Textus Receptus.
Rejected By our base-text decision we follow SBLGNT. Completing a positive with its negative to round out a parallel is a common direction in copying.
27
Καὶ ἔρχονται πάλιν εἰς Ἱεροσόλυμα. καὶ ἐν τῷ ἱερῷ περιπατοῦντος αὐτοῦ ἔρχονται πρὸς αὐτὸν οἱ ἀρχιερεῖς καὶ οἱ γραμματεῖς καὶ οἱ πρεσβύτεροι
And they come again to Jerusalem. And as he was walking in the temple, the chief priests and the scribes and the elders come to him,
28
καὶ ⸀ἔλεγον αὐτῷ· Ἐν ποίᾳ ἐξουσίᾳ ταῦτα ποιεῖς; ⸀ἢ τίς σοι ⸂ἔδωκεν τὴν ἐξουσίαν ταύτην⸃ ἵνα ταῦτα ποιῇς;
and were saying to him, “By what authority are you doing these things? Or who gave you this authority to do them?”
29
ὁ δὲ ⸀Ἰησοῦς εἶπεν αὐτοῖς· Ἐπερωτήσω ⸀ὑμᾶς ἕνα λόγον, καὶ ἀποκρίθητέ μοι, καὶ ἐρῶ ὑμῖν ἐν ποίᾳ ἐξουσίᾳ ταῦτα ποιῶ·
And Jesus said to them, “I will ask you one thing; answer me, and I will tell you by what authority I do these things.
30
τὸ βάπτισμα ⸀τὸ Ἰωάννου ἐξ οὐρανοῦ ἦν ἢ ἐξ ἀνθρώπων; ἀποκρίθητέ μοι.
The baptism of John — was it from heaven or from men? Answer me.”
31
καὶ ⸀διελογίζοντο πρὸς ἑαυτοὺς λέγοντες· ⸂Τί εἴπωμεν;⸃ ἐὰν εἴπωμεν· Ἐξ οὐρανοῦ, ἐρεῖ· Διὰ τί ⸀οὖν οὐκ ἐπιστεύσατε αὐτῷ;
And they were reasoning with themselves, saying, “What shall we say? If we say ‘From heaven,' he will say, ‘Why then did you not believe him?'
32
ἀλλὰ εἴπωμεν· Ἐξ ἀνθρώπων;— ἐφοβοῦντο τὸν ⸀ὄχλον, ἅπαντες γὰρ εἶχον τὸν Ἰωάννην ⸂ὄντως ὅτι⸃ προφήτης ἦν.
But shall we say, ‘From men'?” — they feared the crowd, for all held that John really was a prophet.
33
καὶ ἀποκριθέντες ⸂τῷ Ἰησοῦ λέγουσιν⸃· Οὐκ οἴδαμεν. καὶ ὁ ⸀Ἰησοῦς λέγει αὐτοῖς· Οὐδὲ ἐγὼ λέγω ὑμῖν ἐν ποίᾳ ἐξουσίᾳ ταῦτα ποιῶ.
And answering Jesus they say, “We do not know.” And Jesus says to them, “Neither do I tell you by what authority I do these things.”