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 13 V1 V2 V3 V4 V5 V6 V7 V8 V9 V10 V11 V12 V13 V14 V15 V16 V17 V18 V19 V20 V22 V23 V24 V25 V26 V27 V28 V29 V30 V31 V32 V33 V34 V35 V36 V37
OET (OET-LV) And then if anyone may_say to_you_all:
Behold, here is the chosen_one/messiah, or Or_see, there, be_ not _believing it.
OET (OET-RV) So don’t believe it if you hear someone say, ‘Look, the messiah has arrived here.’ or ‘There’s the one that God has sent.’
In this section Jesus told about a horrible thing that would defile God’s temple. Then God and his people would no longer meet there, and it would be left desolate (13:14). Jesus told his disciples that when they saw that defiling horror, they must flee. It would be a time of great misery for them. Some people would falsely claim to be a prophet or Christ himself. Jesus warned that his disciples must be careful not to believe people who made those claims.
It is good to translate this section before you decide on a heading for it.
Here are some other possible headings for this section:
Jesus warned his disciples about the future distress
The coming time of great trouble
The detestable thing that causes people to abandon the temple
There are parallel passages for this section in Matthew 24:15–28 and Luke 21:20–24.
At that time
¶ “During that time,
¶ “In those days of distress/suffering,
At that time: The phrase At that time refers to the time of extreme suffering that Jesus has been talking about (13:19).
if anyone says to you,
if someone says to you,(plur)
some people might say to you(plur)
if anyone says to you: This clause is a condition, that is, something that might happen. Express this condition in a natural way in your language.
Here is another way to translate this:
someone might say to you (NCV)
‘Look, here is the Christ!’ or ‘There He is!’
‘Look, here is the Christ!’ or ‘Look, there he is!’
that the Messiah has come to this place or that place.
In 13:21c, the Greek uses direct speech. In some languages it may be more natural to use indirect speech. See the General Comment on 13:21c below.
Look: The word Look is used to get the attention of the hearers. It indicates to the hearers that the information that follows is important. In some languages people may use a word like “Hey!” or “Say!” It is similar to the word “behold” in 1:2b–c. You may want to translate these two words the same way.
here is the Christ: The expression here is the Christ indicates that someone is pointing out a person as the Messiah.
the Christ: The phrase the Christ is used here as a title. In this verse it does not refer to Jesus. The people were pointing to someone else as the Christ. The Jews used the title Christ to refer to the special person whom God had appointed and promised to send as king and savior. The title Christ is the Greek translation of the Hebrew word “Messiah,” and the two words have the same meaning.
Some ways to translate Christ are:
Transliterate it according to the sounds of your language. For example:
Krais
Karisiti
Transliterate it and indicate in some way that it is a title. For example:
the Christ
the Kirisita
Transliterate Christ and include a phrase that explains the meaning. For example:
Christ, the appointed one
Cristo, the savior God promised
the Christ who comes from God
If you do not indicate the meaning of Christ in the text, you may want to include a footnote. For example:
The word/title “Christ” refers to the King and Savior whom God had promised to send.
See how you translated the Christ in 12:35c. See also Christ in the Glossary.
or: The word or is not in the Greek. In the Greek there is no joining word. The BSB has added this word because it is good English style. Another way to join the two exclamations in English is with “and.”
There He is!: The Greek phrase that the BSB translates as There He is! is spoken by a different person from the person mentioned in 13:21b. One way to translate this is to introduce the phrase in the following way:
…or if someone else says, ‘Look, there he is!’
And others might say, ‘There he is!’
In some languages, it may be more natural to use indirect speech here. For example:
If people say that the Messiah has come to this place or that place
do not believe it.
do(plur) not believe it/him.
But you(plur) must not believe what they say.
do not believe it: The Greek phrase that the BSB translates as do not believe it is literally “do not believe,” without an object. In some languages, as in English, it is necessary to specify what they should not believe. The BSB supplies the word it, but some other versions say “him” (NASB) or “them” (NCV). In some languages it may be natural to say:
do(plur) not believe what they say
See also believe, meaning 1, in the Glossary.
In some languages it may be more natural to place the verb phrase “do not believe” (13:21d) immediately after the phrase “At that time” (13:21a). For example, the GW says:
21aAt that time 21ddon’t believe 21banyone who tells you, 21c’Here is the Messiah!’ or ‘There he is!’
Note 1 topic: grammar-connect-condition-fact
τότε ἐάν τις ὑμῖν εἴπῃ
then if (Some words not found in SR-GNT: Καί τότε ἐάν τὶς ὑμῖν εἴπῃ Ἴδε ὧδε ὁ Χριστός ἤ Ἴδε ἐκεῖ μή πιστεύετε)
Jesus speaks as if this were a hypothetical situation, but he means that it will happen. If your language does not state something as a condition if it is certain or true, and if your readers might think that what Jesus is saying is uncertain, then you could translate his words as an affirmative statement. Alternate translation: [Then, although some people will say to you]
Note 2 topic: figures-of-speech / quotesinquotes
ὑμῖν εἴπῃ, ἴδε, ὧδε ὁ Χριστός, ἴδε, ἐκεῖ, μὴ πιστεύετε
˱to˲_you_all ˓may˒_say (Some words not found in SR-GNT: Καί τότε ἐάν τὶς ὑμῖν εἴπῃ Ἴδε ὧδε ὁ Χριστός ἤ Ἴδε ἐκεῖ μή πιστεύετε)
If it would be clearer in your language, you could translate this so that there is not a quotation within a quotation. Alternate translation: [says to you that you should look because the Christ is here or that you should look because he is there, do not not believe it]
Note 3 topic: figures-of-speech / explicit
ἴδε, ὧδε ὁ Χριστός, ἴδε, ἐκεῖ
(Some words not found in SR-GNT: Καί τότε ἐάν τὶς ὑμῖν εἴπῃ Ἴδε ὧδε ὁ Χριστός ἤ Ἴδε ἐκεῖ μή πιστεύετε)
Here Jesus is implying that these two statements are two examples of what people might say to the disciples. Jesus is not implying that the same person says these two sentences during the same conversation. If it would be helpful in your language, you could use a form that makes that idea more explicit. Alternate translation: [Behold, here is the Christ!’ or if anyone says to you, ‘Behold, there]
Note 4 topic: figures-of-speech / exclamations
(Occurrence -1) ἴδε
(Some words not found in SR-GNT: Καί τότε ἐάν τὶς ὑμῖν εἴπῃ Ἴδε ὧδε ὁ Χριστός ἤ Ἴδε ἐκεῖ μή πιστεύετε)
In both places, the word Behold draws the attention of the audience and asks them to look at something. If it would be helpful in your language, you could express behold with a word or phrase that asks the audience to look, or you could draw the audience’s attention in another way. Alternate translation: [Look … Look] or [Pay attention … Pay attention]
Note 5 topic: figures-of-speech / ellipsis
ἴδε, ἐκεῖ
(Some words not found in SR-GNT: Καί τότε ἐάν τὶς ὑμῖν εἴπῃ Ἴδε ὧδε ὁ Χριστός ἤ Ἴδε ἐκεῖ μή πιστεύετε)
Jesus is leaving out some of the words that a sentence would need in many languages to be complete. If it would be helpful in your language, you could supply these words from the context. Alternate translation: [Behold, there is the Christ]
OET (OET-LV) And then if anyone may_say to_you_all:
Behold, here is the chosen_one/messiah, or Or_see, there, be_ not _believing it.
OET (OET-RV) So don’t believe it if you hear someone say, ‘Look, the messiah has arrived here.’ or ‘There’s the one that God has sent.’
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.
Open Bible Data site copyright © 2023–2026 Freely-Given.org.
Python source code for creating these static pages is available on GitHub under an open licence.
For Bible data copyrights, see the details for each displayed Bible version.
The Open English Translation (OET) main site is at OpenEnglishTranslation.Bible or OET.Bible.