Lost in Translation: Mark 10:45
For even the Son of man came not to be ministered unto, but to minister, and to give his life a ransom for many.
This article is part of a series explaining the secrets hidden in the Greek of Jesus’s most popular verses. See this article for the beginning of this series.
Jesus spoke this verse after five other verses where he describes his leadership principles to his apostles. They were unhappy when James and John asked to sit at Jesus’s right and left hands when he came into his glory. Jesus starts by saying that they think of leadership in terms of how the foreigners do it. He teaches the opposite, that leading is providing service to our followers.
NIV: For even the Son of Man did not come to be served, but to serve, and to give his life as a ransom for many.
Of course, we today read this as a clear reference to Jesus’s death, but that is largely due to the way it is translated. This is not what Jesus’s followers heard at the time. The boldfaced words are the ones we will examine in this article, the words translated as “serve,” “life,” and “ransom.” The “serve” and “life” are common words, but not usually biblically translated as “serve” or “life.” The “ransom” is only used twice by Jesus and its meaning is more illusive.
To Serve Man
The Son of Man, is really from the title, “the son of the man.” That title was a lot more interesting then than how it is heard today. If interested, I will refer you to this series of three articles discussing it. They start here.
The first question we must answer is what does Jesus mean by “serve?” Does anyone else remember the Twilight Zone episode about translating a book that some aliens gave us before they began to help our world by feeding everyone and curing all diseases? The book was entitled, “To Serve Man.” It turned out to be a cookbook.
This ties in because the Greek verb translated as “serve” was often used to describe people preparing and serving food. So, it means “serve” in the same two senses as our English word, serving a meal and providing a service. Of course, that doesn’t mean that this word is usually translated as “serve.” In the KJV, it is translated more frequently as “to minister,” putting a little religious gloss on it. It is the Greek source word for today’s church position of “deacon.”
There is a noun form, translated as “servant,” that isn’t used in this verse but which plays a role. Jesus used it two verses prior to this one in Mark 10:43. But, in the previous verse, Mark 10:44, he used another noun from a different Greek root that is also translated as “servant” in the English Bible. That word really means “slave” and it means “compelled service.” It too has a verb form, but that isn’t used here. So this is not service anyone is required to do.
The Ransom of “Self”
The service described in this verse appears extreme, “giving his life.” This clearly means dying, but that is not what Jesus said. The word translated as “life” is psyche, a common word in Greek, familiar in English, meaning life in the sense of our "consciousness," and our "sense of self." In the Bible, it is most commonly translated as “soul.” Our word “self” or “ego” comes closer to the Greek word’s meaning since “soul” has become a religious concept. Read more about this word and related words in this article.
Jesus didn’t mean dying. He means giving of himself in service. Leaders are not required to die, but they are required to give of themselves.
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