I grew up reading the NIV, but for whatever reason, the phrase "Get thee behind me, Satan," from the King James Version stuck in my mind. Jesus had been talking about his death and resurrection, and Peter took him aside and told him to stop saying these things. The NIV's translation of Mark 8:33, says: "But when Jesus turned and looked at his disciples, he rebuked Peter. 'Get behind me, Satan!' he said."
In one of the Swahili Bible translations (Habari Njema) and the Ikizu translation, however, the phrase is a little different: "Get out of in front of me." When I was checking this verse earlier today, I had to decide if it was accurate or not. What did Jesus mean when he said that to Peter? Did he actually want Satan to get behind him? No, of course not!
Jesus was telling Peter that his thoughts were from Satan. Peter was tempting Jesus to not follow God's plan, and Jesus was not going to have any of that! He used an idiom Peter would have understood to be quiet and rejoin the group. In Ikizu, the idiom that means that is "get out of in front of me." I deemed it to be a correct translation.
As an interesting side note in thinking about temptation, it seems that you can flee temptation, or you can tell temptation to flee you. Some modern English paraphrase probably has the phrase, "Get lost, Satan. Out of my face!"
No comments:
Post a Comment