A couple of weeks ago we celebrated Trinity Sunday. The Gospel of that day in the Roman Rite is the ending of Mark’s Gospel I was surprised to hear in the official translation ‘ . . . make disciples of all nations; baptise them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit’. In modern English, if we say that we are doing something ‘in the name’ of somebody, we mean that we are doing it with their authority or in their place. Is this what the biblical text means? Looking at the Greek original, I noticed that it does not say ‘in the name’ (en toi onomati) but ‘into the name’ (eis to onoma).
To enter into a name is to enter a family. Hence, after baptism, but not before, we are able to address God as our Father.
Last Sunday, the liturgical tenth Sunday of the Year, we heard from the Gospel of Mark that Jesus ‘went home’ with his disciples, and that his relatives came looking for him. Did Jesus have a home? Did he live with his mother, and perhaps with others? This passage of Mark’s gospel is puzzling. But the Greek original says nothing of Jesus’ home. It simply says that he went into ‘a house’.
Let us hope that the new official translation of the Lectionary, soon to be available, will be more faithful to the original texts.
