Karl's version of Mk 1:15

[Mark Lightman]

Hi, Karl. Can you understand this?

מלאה העת וקרבה מלכות אלהים. שובו בתשובה והאמינו בבשורה

Or were you thinking more along the lines of:

באה העת לגשת ממלכת אלהים. שובו נא מרעתך והאמינו באמרתו.

Hi, Karl,

Your rendering of Mk 1:15 compares very favorably to the BSI above and to the other three versions I am reading.

Delitzsch: מָלְאָה הָעֵת וְקָרְבָה מַלְכוּת הָאֱלׂהִים שׁוּבוּ וְהַאֲמִינוּ בַבְּשׂוֹרָה׃

Salkinson-Ginsburg: הִנֵּה מָלְאוּ הַיָּמִים וּמַלְכוּת הָאֱלֹהִים קְרֹבָה לָבֹא שׁוּבוּ מִדַּרְכֵיכֶם וְהַאֲמִינוּ בַבְּשׂוֹרָה׃

Robert Lindsey: הנה מלאו הימים ומלכות האלהים קרבה! שוב ואמינו בבשורה

The other versions have קרב for ἐγγίζειν, but your נגש works just as well, and I like your use of the infinitive. Your נא is a nice touch. I'm not sure about your use of the singular מרעתך with the plural verbs. (cf. the plural in S.G.'s מִדַּרְכֵיכֶם. .) Your אמרה instead of the more expected בשורה for εὐαγγέλιον strikes me as bold and creative. Unlike the others, your use of the pronominal suffix picks of the τοῦ θεοῦ of the original. You may very well have gotten closer to the very words of Jesus.

I'd love to see you translate more of the NT into Biblical Hebrew.

[Kirk Lowery]

Mark,

The New Testament, even in Hebrew, is rarely a subject within B-Hebrew's charter. You might try our sister forum, B-Greek, with this topic...

Thanks!

Kirk

[kwrandolph]

In deference to Kirk Lowery’s reminder, I’ll refer to only a grammatical question.

…I'm not sure about your use of the singular מרעתך with the plural verbs.

I noticed that there are cases like that in Tanakh, but as is usual in quick discussions like this, I don’t remember where I saw them. My interpretation of this construction is that a group is being addressed using the plural verb, however the speaker wants not only to acknowledge the group, but also to address each individual member of the group. Hence the noun is singular.

The use of the plural noun is more common.

It was a judgement call whether to use a plural or singular noun. Based on my understanding above and on my understanding of the text translated, opted for the singular noun.

I'd love to see you translate more of the NT into Biblical Hebrew.

The real need is to have good translations into modern languages that people speak and read daily. Other than crazy nuts like us, who reads Tanakh in Biblical Hebrew almost daily? And even among us, Biblical Hebrew is not that well known. There are still gaps in our knowledge. We understand it well enough to get the gist of the message, but when we get to the fine details, that’s where our ignorance starts to shine. I don’t envy translators who have to snow job their way through those gaps in our knowledge. Then, as one harps from the peanut gallery, we can find all sorts of reasons to criticize their translations.

Karl W. Randolph.