MARK 16:18 Interlinear View

SIL Open Translator’s Notes:

Section 16:14–18: Jesus told his disciples to preach the good news to all people

After Jesus appeared to Mary Magdalene and two of his followers, he appeared to his eleven disciples. First, he rebuked them for their lack of faith and for refusing to believe that he had been raised from the dead. Then Jesus told them to go out into the world and preach the good news to everyone.

Here are some other possible headings for this section:

Jesus Appears to the Eleven (GNT)

What Jesus’ Followers Must Do (CEV)

There is a parallel passage for this section in Matthew 28:16–20.

16:18a

they will pick up snakes with their hands,

they will pick up poisonous snakes in their hands and not be harmed,
I will protect them if they pick up a poisonous snake in their hands;

they will pick up snakes with their hands: The clause they will pick up snakes with their hands contains implied information. This clause describes a miracle. If believers pick up poisonous snakes in their hands, the snakes will not harm them. Jesus will protect them by his name, that is, his power, from being harmed by the snakes. You may need to make this information more explicit in your translation. For example:

If they handle poisonous snakes, the snakes…will not harm them.

See the General Comment on 16:18a–b at the end of 16:18b for another suggestion.

16:18b

and if they drink any deadly poison, it will not harm them;

and they will drink deadly poison and yet nothing bad will happen;
and if they drink something poisonous, it will certainly not hurt them.

and if they drink any deadly poison, it will not harm them: This part of the verse is similar to 16:18a. By Jesus’ name, that is, his power, believers will be protected from harm if people try to poison them. The GW has another way to say this:

and if they drink any deadly poison, it will not hurt them (GW)

deadly poison: The Greek word that the BSB translates as deadly poison means “something that causes death.” In this context it refers to a poisonous liquid.

it will not harm them: The Greek word that the BSB translates as not is literally “in no way.” It is used to emphasize that believers will not be harmed in any way by drinking the poison. Try to emphasize this in a natural way in your language.

General Comment on 16:18a–b

In some languages it may be helpful to combine 16:18a–b. For example:

They will pick up snakes and drink poison without being hurt. (NCV)

…if they pick up snakes or drink any poison, they will not be harmed (GNT)

16:18c

they will lay their hands on the sick, and they will be made well.”

they will place their hands on sick people and heal them.”
I will make them able to heal sick people by placing their hands on them.”

they will lay their hands on the sick, and they will be made well: Jesus often healed sick people by placing his hands on them. For example, see 6:5b. Here, he said that believers would be able to heal sick people in this way. They would be able to do that in his name, that is, by using the authority that he would give them.

and they will be made well: The pronoun they refers to the sick people. Make sure that this is clear in your translation.

General Comment on 16:17b–18c

The phrase “in my name” in 16:17b indicates that believers will use the name of Jesus (that is, the authority and power of Jesus) to perform each of the signs in 16:17–18. In some languages it may be necessary to repeat the idea “in my name” with each of the signs. For example:

In my name they will drive out demons, and I will make them able to speak new languages. I will protect them if they pick up a poisonous snake, and if they drink any poison, I will cause it not to hurt them. They will lay their hands on sick people and because of my name, the sick people will recover.

General Comment on 16:15–18

In some languages it may be more natural to use indirect speech for Jesus’ words in these verses. For example:

^15aThen Jesus told them ^15bto go to all places and tell all people the good news. ^16aHe said that people who believe in him and receive baptism will be saved, ^16bbut that people who do not believe in him will be condemned. ^17aHe promised to help those who believe in him to do miraculous signs, ^17bthat they will use his name to force demons to leave people ^17cand they will speak different languages. ^18a–bIf they pick up a snake in their hands or drink poison, he said that he will protect them from harm. ^18cHe also promised that they will lay hands on sick people, and the sick people will get well.

If you make God explicit as the subject in any of the verses, be sure that you indicate clearly whether each clause is referring to God or to Jesus.

TSN Tyndale Study Notes:

16:9-20 Nearly all scholars agree that Mark did not write the “shorter” and “longer” endings. There are clear differences in their style, vocabulary, and theology. Also, the best two available Greek manuscripts (Codex Sinaiticus and Codex Vaticanus) lack these endings. However, there is reason to doubt that Mark intended to end his Gospel at 16:8: (1) Mark emphasizes the fulfillment of Jesus’ predictions throughout his Gospel, and if the Gospel ended with 16:8, there would be no reference to the resurrection appearance(s) of Jesus; (2) all the other Gospels contain accounts of Jesus’ appearances to the women and the disciples; (3) early readers of Mark evidently did not think the book could have ended with 16:8, because they wrote these endings; (4) there is no convincing explanation as to why Mark would have wanted to end his Gospel at 16:8 (all such explanations sound like modern existential literary interpretations that revel in paradox, very unlike the way a first-century Christian author would have thought); (5) it is strange for a Gospel to begin with a bold proclamation that Jesus is the Messiah (1:1) and end with the women’s fear; (6) it would be unique for an ancient Greek book to end with gar (“because”) as the last word—no other example of this has been found; and (7) 16:7 raises the expectation that the disciples will meet Jesus in Galilee—if 16:8 was the original ending of Mark, it is the only unfulfilled prediction in the Gospel. Many scholars conclude that the original ending was accidentally torn off and lost, or was never finished.

OET-LV English word order (‘Reverse’ interlinear)

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.

OET interlinear MARK 16:18

SR Greek word order (including unused variant words in grey)