translation_id: net-engnet

book_id: MAT

label: NET translator note

text: Or “desert.”


text: Grk “and having fasted forty days and forty nights, afterward he was hungry.”


text: Grk “say that these stones should become bread.”


text: Grk “answering, he said.” The participle ἀποκριθείς ( apokriqeis ) is redundant, but the syntax of the phrase has been changed for clarity.


text: Or “a person.” Greek ὁ ἄνθρωπος ( Jo anqrwpo" ) is used generically for humanity. The translation “man” is used because the emphasis in Jesus’ response seems to be on his dependence on God as a man .


text: Grk “will not live.” The verb in Greek is a future tense, but it is unclear whether it is meant to be taken as a command (also known as an imperatival future) or as a statement of reality (predictive future).


text: Grk “and he stood him.”


text: Grk “glory.”


text: Grk “if, falling down, you will worship.” BDAG 815 s.v. πίπτω 1.b. α . ב has “ fall down, throw oneself to the ground as a sign of devotion, before high-ranking persons or divine beings.”


text: 565 579* 700 al ). Thus, both externally and internally, the shorter reading is strongly preferred.


text: Grk “and behold, angels.” The Greek word ἰδού ( idou ) has not been translated because it has no exact English equivalent here, but adds interest and emphasis (BDAG 468 s.v. 1 ).


text: Grk “he.”


text: Or “arrested,” “taken into custody” (see L&N 37.12).


text: For location see Map1-D3 ; Map2-C2 ; Map3-D5 ; Map4-C1 ; Map5-G3 .


text: Grk “and leaving Nazareth, he came and took up residence in Capernaum.” sn Capernaum was a town located on the northwestern shore of the Sea of Galilee, 680 ft (204 m) below sea level. It was a major trade and economic center in the North Galilean region, and it became the hub of operations for Jesus’ Galilean ministry. map For location see Map1-D2 ; Map2-C3 ; Map3-B2 .


text: Or “by the lake.” sn By the sea refers to the Sea of Galilee.


text: The redundant participle λέγοντος ( legontos ) has not been translated here.


text: Grk “and to say.”


text: Here δέ ( de ) has not been translated.


text: The two phrases in this verse placed in parentheses are explanatory comments by the author, parenthetical in nature.


text: The Greek term ἄνθρωπος ( anqrwpos ) is used here in a generic sense, referring to both men and women, thus “people.” sn The kind of fishing envisioned was net – not line – fishing (cf. v. 18 ; cf. also BDAG 55 s.v. ἀμφιβάλλω , ἀμφίβληστρον ) which involved a circular net that had heavy weights around its perimeter. The occupation of fisherman was labor-intensive. The imagery of using a lure and a line (and waiting for the fish to strike) is thus foreign to this text. Rather, the imagery of a fisherman involved much strain, long hours, and often little results. Jesus’ point may have been one or more of the following: the strenuousness of evangelism, the work ethic that it required, persistence and dedication to the task (often in spite of minimal results), the infinite value of the new “catch” (viz., people), and perhaps an eschatological theme of snatching people from judgment (cf. W. L. Lane, Mark [NICNT], 67). If this last motif is in view, then catching people is the opposite of catching fish: The fish would be caught, killed, cooked, and eaten; people would be caught so as to remove them from eternal destruction and to give them new life.


text: Or “their boat.” The phrase ἐν τῷ πλοίῳ ( en tw ploiw ) can either refer to a generic boat, some boat (as it seems to do here); or it can refer to “their” boat, implying possession. Mark assumes a certain preunderstanding on the part of his readers about the first four disciples and hence the translation “their boat” is justified (cf. also v. 20 in which the “hired men” indicates that Zebedee’s family owned the boats), while Matthew does not.


text: Here καί ( kai ) has been translated as “then” to indicate the implied sequence of events within the narrative.


text: Grk “And he.”


text: Grk “And they”; “they” is probably an indefinite plural, referring to people in general rather than to the Syrians (cf. v. 25 ).


text: Grk “those who were moonstruck,” possibly meaning “lunatic” (so NAB), although now the term is generally regarded as referring to some sort of seizure disorder such as epilepsy (L&N 23.169; BDAG 919 s.v. σεληνιάζομαι ).


text: The translation has adopted a different phrase order here than that in the Greek text. The Greek text reads, “People brought to him all who suffered with various illnesses and afflictions, those possessed by demons, epileptics, and paralytics.” Even though it is obvious that four separate groups of people are in view here, following the Greek word order could lead to the misconception that certain people were possessed by epileptics and paralytics. The word order adopted in the translation avoids this problem.


text: Here καί ( kai ) has not been translated before each of the places in the list, since English normally uses a coordinating conjunction only between the last two elements in a series of three or more. sn The Decapolis refers to a league of towns (originally consisting of ten; the Greek name literally means “ten towns”) whose region (except for Scythopolis) lay across the Jordan River.


text: For location see Map5-B1 ; Map6-F3 ; Map7-E2 ; Map8-F2 ; Map10-B3 ; JP1-F4 ; JP2-F4 ; JP3-F4 ; JP4-F4 .


text: “River” is not in the Greek text but is supplied for clarity. The region referred to here is sometimes known as Transjordan (i.e., “across the Jordan”).