Sunday, July 02, 2006

Mark 5:23

The phrase referring to the daughter of the synagogue leader translated as at the point of death (NRSV) occurs only once in the New Testament, and it's in this verse. The only way we know escatws ecw as an idiomatic expression for being about to die is from its use in ancient Greek medical writings. Escatws is an adverb meaning finally. Literally, the leader's daughter had finally had [it].

This is a tricky verse to translate. What the leader literally says is, "My daughter is finally having it, in order that, having come, you might place the hand on her, in order that she might be saved/healed and she might live." Such a literal rendering of the leader's request makes it sound like the leader sees the situation of his daughter being at death's door as an intentional opportunity for Jesus to display his power. This speaks not only to the faith of the leader but to the leader's worldview with regards to suffering.

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