Contemplative Bible Reading

This note differs from most of the others. In it I am looking at the different translations of one verse – Mark 14:1. What grabbed my interest is the use of the work sly in the New International Version. I don’t recall seeing that word in many Bible passages. How did the other versions render this verse?

Below I give the version that interested me and several other versions. I don’t really have any comments on this verse, but to point out the different words and phrases.

Mark 14:1 (New International Version)

Now the Passover and the Feast of Unleavened Bread were only two days away, and the chief priests and the teachers of the law were looking for some sly way to arrest Jesus and kill him.

Mark 14:1 (King James Version)

After two days was the feast of the passover, and of unleavened bread: and the chief priests and the scribes sought how they might take him by craft, and put him to death.

Mark 14:1 (Contemporary English Version)

It was now two days before Passover and the Festival of Thin Bread. The chief priests and the teachers of the Law of Moses were planning how they could sneak around and have Jesus arrested and put to death.

Mark 14:1 (American Standard Version)

Now after two days was the feast of the passover and the unleavened bread: and the chief priests and the scribes sought how they might take him with subtlety, and kill him: