In the thirteenth chapter of Mark, Jesus begins telling the disciples about future events by saying: “See that no one leads you astray…” The Greek word translated “to lead astray” here is πλανάω (plan-a-o) which is more frequently translated as “to cause to wander” in other Greek documents. It’s the root of the word πλανῆτις (plan-ay-tis) “wanderer” from which we get our word “planet”–a “star” which wanders about the heavens.
While there may be some minor distinction between “cause to wander” and “lead astray” the more interesting bit to me is the “no one.” Here we have the use of a negation (μὴ) and the indefinite pronoun τις. Indefinite means the word has no gender, only number and case. Here it’s singular and nominative but otherwise you can’t determine whether it refers to a she, a he, or an it. It could be translated as “someone,” “something,” “a certain one,” “a certain thing,” “anyone,” or “anything” given the context. Here the ESV goes with “no certain one” because of that negative particle right in front of it but there are better ways in Greek to say “no one.”
Probably the use of “no one” is justified because the next sentence is “Many will come in my name saying, “I am he!” (The “he” is supplied here. Literally it’s just “I am” which is also the Hebrew meaning of the word Yahweh so it could be taken that Jesus is really saying “I am God” and that the “many” who are to come will make the same claim.) But the whole passage that follows about the wars and earthquakes, etc. is strung together by Greek particles which are designed to connect a continuing narrative. For this reason I think it might be better to translate the verse: “See that nothing causes you to wander.”
Neither those claiming to be God or to speak for God, nor wars, nor earthquakes, nor famines, nor persecutions, nor betrayals, nor the hatred of those who love the world should cause us to wander away from the truth or prevent us from proclaiming the good news of salvation. Do not fear the Cancel Culture. Do not worry about what happened on the Sixth of January. It doesn’t matter that our Rulers in Washington and their Crony Capitalist buddies kowtow to Russian oligarchs, Iranian zealots, or even Chinese dictators who persecute Christians and Muslims with equal fervor. We’ve already read the end of the book and know that “the one who endures to the end will be saved.”
