Sunday, June 7, 2020

Mark 4:41

The Daily Dose of Greek "re-runs" of Mark on YouTube stopt after chapter 2, but I've been continuing on my own and digging through the archives.  Last month, I finished chapter 4, and I noticed a small feature in the last verse:


"And they [the disciples] were filled with great fear and said to one another, 'Who then is this, that even the wind and the sea obey him?'"

Both that translation (ESV) and Dr. Plummer render "καὶ ὁ ἄνεμος καὶ ἡ θάλασσα" as "even the wind and the sea," but since "καὶ... καὶ..." can function as a correlative, that phrase could also be translated as "both the wind and the sea."  In that reading and because ἄνεμος is masculine and θάλασσα is feminine (as opposed to two words of the same grammatical gender), there's an even greater sense of the range of creation that is obedient to Jesus.

That said, I do think "even the wind and the sea" is a better translation.  Even provides greater emphasis.