Open Bible Data Home About News OET Key
OET OET-RV OET-LV ULT UST BSB MSB BLB AICNT OEB WEBBE WMBB NET LSV FBV TCNT T4T LEB BBE Moff JPS Wymth ASV DRA YLT Drby RV SLT Wbstr KJB-1769 KJB-1611 Bshps Gnva Cvdl TNT Wycl SR-GNT UHB BrLXX BrTr Related Topics Parallel Interlinear Reference Dictionary Search
InterlinearVerse GEN EXO LEV NUM DEU JOB JOS JDG RUTH 1 SAM 2 SAM PSA AMOS HOS 1 KI 2 KI 1 CHR 2 CHR PROV ECC SNG JOEL MIC ISA ZEP HAB JER LAM YNA (JNA) NAH OBA DAN EZE EZRA EST NEH HAG ZEC MAL LAO GES LES ESG DNG 2 PS TOB JDT WIS SIR BAR LJE PAZ SUS BEL MAN 1 MAC 2 MAC 3 MAC 4 MAC YHN (JHN) MARK MAT LUKE ACTs YAC (JAM) GAL 1 TH 2 TH 1 COR 2 COR ROM COL PHM EPH PHP 1 TIM TIT 1 PET 2 PET 2 TIM HEB YUD (JUD) 1 YHN (1 JHN) 2 YHN (2 JHN) 3 YHN (3 JHN) REV
Mark C1 C2 C3 C4 C5 C6 C7 C8 C9 C10 C11 C12 C13 C14 C15 C16
Mark 12 V1 V3 V5 V7 V9 V11 V13 V15 V17 V19 V21 V23 V25 V27 V31 V33 V35 V37 V39 V41 V43
OET (OET-LV) the Yaʸsous/(Yəhōshūˊa) answered, that The_first is:
Israaʸl/(Yisrāʼēl) be_hearing, the_master the god of_us is one master,
OET (OET-RV) Yeshua answered, “Well, the most important is this: ‘Listen, Yisrael. Our God Yahweh is our master.
A scribe asked Jesus which was the greatest commandment in the law. Jesus said that there are two great commands: love the Lord your God with all your heart, and love your neighbor as yourself.
The scribe in this section may have been honestly seeking the truth. Or he may have been trying to discredit Jesus by asking him a difficult question.Mark 12:34 may imply that the man truly wanted to know the answer. In the parallel passage in Matthew 22:34–40, a scribe asked this same question to test Jesus. Nothing in this section in Mark suggests that the scribe was testing Jesus. It would be good to translate this section so that either interpretation is possible.
It is good to translate this section before you decide on a heading for it.
Here are some other possible headings for this section:
The Most Important Commandment (CEV, NLT)
God’s greatest command is to love him and our neighbors
There is a parallel passage for this section in Matthew 22:34–40. Mark 12:30–31 is also parallel to Luke 10:27.
This is the most important: ‘Hear…. Love…: This clause introduces the command that follows. The most important refers to the command to love the Lord in 12:30. Introduce it in a natural way in your language.
Here is another way to translate this:
The most important is, ‘Listen…you must love…. (GW)
Your translation should not imply thatmost important refers only to the command to Hear in 12:29b. The word Hear emphasizes the statement that follows. In some languages a command to “hear” may cause readers to misunderstand what Jesus said in this context. If that is true in your language, you may need to leave it implicit. For example, the CEV says:
The most important one says: “People of Israel, you have only one Lord and God. 30You must love him….”
Jesus replied, “This is the most important:
Jesus answered, “The most important command that God gave in the Scriptures is this:
Jesus said, “Here is the command/law that is more important than the others:
the most important: The phrase the most important is literally “the first,” as in the RSV. It refers to the most important command. See how you translated the phrase “the most important” in 12:28.
‘Hear O Israel, the Lord our God, the Lord is One.
‘Listen, people of Israel, the Lord our(incl) God is the only Lord.
‘You(plur) people from Israel, listen: the Lord God whom we(incl) worship is the only Lord.
In this verse Jesus quoted from Deuteronomy 6:4.This passage (Deuteronomy 6:4) was called by the Jews the “Shema,” which is based on the Hebrew word meaning “hear.” The religious Jews repeated it twice every day as the basis of their faith (UBS, page 382). If you use footnotes, you may want to cross-reference that verse.
Hear O Israel: The words Hear O Israel introduce something very important that Moses was about to tell the people of Israel about God.
Here are some other ways to introduce this:
Listen, Israel! (GNT)
Israel people, listen to me
Introduce Moses’ words in a way that emphasizes that what he was about to say was very important.
the Lord our God, the Lord is One: The words the Lord our God, the Lord is one indicate that the Lord our God is unique, there is no other God like him.Jesus quoted these words from the LXX, the Greek translation of the Old Testament. In the Hebrew text of this verse, both occurrences of the word that the BSB translates here as Lord refer to the personal name of God. In English, people sometimes write that name as Yahweh or Jehovah. It also implies that he is the only God that Israel worships.
Here are some other ways to translate the Lord our God, the Lord is one:
The Lord our God is the only Lord. (GNT)
The Lord is our God, and he is the only one like himself.
God the Lord is the only God. He is the only one whom we worship.
In some languages it is not possible to use the title “Lord” by itself. If that is true in your language, you may be able to say “our Lord.” For example:
The Lord God who is our Lord is the only/unique one.
See Lord, Context 2, in the Glossary.
our God: In some languages it may be necessary to make the meaning of our God more explicit. For example:
the God whom we worship
the God who cares for us
This “we” includes all the people of Israel.
God: The Greek word that the BSB translates as God refers here to the eternal spirit who created everything. He is more powerful than any other spirit, and he is perfectly good and wise. He deserves to be worshiped. Here are some ways to translate God:
Use a name or title for God that people in your culture already use.
Use a descriptive term that fits the truth about God that is revealed in the Bible. For example:
Creator
Great Spirit
Ruler of the universe
Use a borrowed word from the national or trade language Bible.
Choose a term that is acceptable to the believers and churches in your area. For more detailed information, see God in the Glossary.
Note 1 topic: figures-of-speech / metaphor
πρώτη
(Some words not found in SR-GNT: ἀπεκρίθη ὁ Ἰησοῦς ὅτι Πρώτη ἐστίν ἄκουε Ἰσραήλ Κύριος ὁ Θεός ἡμῶν Κύριος Εἱς ἐστίν)
Here, the Jesus is using the word first to refer to what is most important. See how you translated the word first in [12:28](../12/28.md). Alternate translation: [The most significant] or [The greatest]
Note 2 topic: figures-of-speech / nominaladj
πρώτη
(Some words not found in SR-GNT: ἀπεκρίθη ὁ Ἰησοῦς ὅτι Πρώτη ἐστίν ἄκουε Ἰσραήλ Κύριος ὁ Θεός ἡμῶν Κύριος Εἱς ἐστίν)
Jesus is using the adjective first as a noun to mean the first commandment. Your language may use adjectives in the same way. If not, you could translate this word with an equivalent phrase. Alternate translation: [The first commandment]
Note 3 topic: translate-ordinal
πρώτη
(Some words not found in SR-GNT: ἀπεκρίθη ὁ Ἰησοῦς ὅτι Πρώτη ἐστίν ἄκουε Ἰσραήλ Κύριος ὁ Θεός ἡμῶν Κύριος Εἱς ἐστίν)
If your language does not use ordinal numbers, you could use a cardinal number here or an equivalent expression. Alternate translation: [Number one]
Note 4 topic: writing-quotations
ἐστίν, ἄκουε, Ἰσραήλ, Κύριος ὁ Θεὸς ἡμῶν Κύριος εἷς ἐστιν & καὶ ἀγαπήσεις Κύριον τὸν Θεόν σου, ἐξ ὅλης τῆς καρδίας σου, καὶ ἐξ ὅλης τῆς ψυχῆς σου, καὶ ἐξ ὅλης τῆς διανοίας σου, καὶ ἐξ ὅλης τῆς ἰσχύος σου
is ˓be˒_hearing Israel ˓the˒_Lord the is (Some words not found in SR-GNT: ἀπεκρίθη ὁ Ἰησοῦς ὅτι Πρώτη ἐστίν ἄκουε Ἰσραήλ Κύριος ὁ Θεός ἡμῶν Κύριος Εἱς ἐστίν)
Here Jesus quotes from the Old Testament scriptures, specifically from [Deuteronomy 6:4–5](../deu/06/04.md). If it would be helpful to your readers, you could format these words in a different way and include this information in a footnote. Alternate translation: [is this commandment from the book of Deuteronomy: ‘Hear, Israel, the Lord our God is one Lord. And you will love the Lord your God from your whole heart, and from your whole soul, and from your whole mind, and from your whole strength.]
Note 5 topic: figures-of-speech / quotesinquotes
ἐστίν, ἄκουε, Ἰσραήλ, Κύριος ὁ Θεὸς ἡμῶν Κύριος εἷς ἐστιν & καὶ ἀγαπήσεις Κύριον τὸν Θεόν σου, ἐξ ὅλης τῆς καρδίας σου, καὶ ἐξ ὅλης τῆς ψυχῆς σου, καὶ ἐξ ὅλης τῆς διανοίας σου, καὶ ἐξ ὅλης τῆς ἰσχύος σου
is ˓be˒_hearing Israel ˓the˒_Lord the is (Some words not found in SR-GNT: ἀπεκρίθη ὁ Ἰησοῦς ὅτι Πρώτη ἐστίν ἄκουε Ἰσραήλ Κύριος ὁ Θεός ἡμῶν Κύριος Εἱς ἐστίν)
If it would be clearer in your language, you could translate this so that there is not a quotation within a quotation. Alternate translation: [is that Israel should hear that the Lord their God is one Lord and that they should love the Lord their God from their whole heart, and from their whole soul, and from their whole mind, and from their whole strength.]
Note 6 topic: figures-of-speech / exclamations
ἄκουε
˓be˒_hearing
Here, the word Hear draws the attention of the audience and asks them to listen carefully. If it would be helpful in your language, you could express Hear with a word or phrase that asks the audience to listen, or you could draw the audience’s attention in another way. Alternate translation: [Pay attention]
Note 7 topic: figures-of-speech / metonymy
Ἰσραήλ
Israel
12:28-34 After the three hostile challenges of 11:27–12:27, the reader might expect the next question to Jesus to be hostile (see 11:28; 12:13, 15, 19-23), but this was not a hostile counter. Earlier references in Mark to the teachers of religious law have portrayed them as antagonistic (2:6-7, 16; 3:22; 7:1, 5; 8:31; 9:14; 10:33; 11:18, 27), and Jesus will warn the crowds against their hypocrisy (12:38-40), but this teacher was positively inclined toward Jesus (12:28, 32) and praised him (12:32-33). Jesus described the man’s answer to his question as having understanding, and Jesus said that the man was not far from the Kingdom of God (12:34).
OET (OET-LV) the Yaʸsous/(Yəhōshūˊa) answered, that The_first is:
Israaʸl/(Yisrāʼēl) be_hearing, the_master the god of_us is one master,
OET (OET-RV) Yeshua answered, “Well, the most important is this: ‘Listen, Yisrael. Our God Yahweh is our master.
Note: The OET-RV is still only a first draft, and so far only a few words have been (mostly automatically) matched to the Hebrew or Greek words that they’re translated from.
Acknowledgements: The SR Greek text, lemmas, morphology, and VLT gloss are all thanks to the CNTR.