Recently when translating Mark 9:14-29 where Jesus confronts a demon that possessed a boy, Samson, one of the translators, was struck by the intensity of this conflict and Christ’s responses. In the NIV we find words like “arguing,” “overwhelmed,” “people…ran.” The situation is “hot” as Christ enters this scene. The evil spirit is ruthless, robbing the boy of speech, throwing him into convulsions, even trying to throw the boy into water or fire to try to kill him. Why couldn’t the disciples help? The father pleads, “But if you can do anything, take pity on us and help us.” Jesus response is apropos — “If I can?! All things are possible for the person who believes.” And then the beautiful response, “Lord I believe, help my unbelief!”
When Jesus confronts the spirit in Mark 9:25, he says, “You deaf and dumb spirit, I command you to come of out of this child and never enter him again!” Pastor Samson commented at this point, “If we never translated into Likonl (Komba), we wouldn’t understand the intensity of the kinds of conflict that Jesus got into.”
Komba has one word, tukpaabig ‘deaf-dumb’, which is a confrontational insult to the spirit but is also true of the spirit since it causes deafness and muteness. Samson never pictured Jesus as issuing insults, even to evil spirits. Reading in English makes it easier to gloss over the intensity of the conflict, and makes the story not nearly so poignant for most Komba readers. (Do I dare say even we first language English speakers miss some of the intensity of Jesus and the conflict in this passage? Lord help our unbelief!)
The demon responds again by throwing the boy into a convulsion that was so bad the people murmured, “Fine, now he’s dead.” This shows the people’s real fear that these demons should not be messed with, doing so only makes them more angry. But Jesus simply takes the boy by the hand and raises him to his feet. He tells his disciples, “This kind of demon can only be cast out by prayer.” Ah, what a great passage, and our prayer is that it will grip Komba people the same way it is gripping the translation team! Lord we believe, help our unbelief.
