Text:

exelthōn ēlthen ‘he left and came’ of the Revised Standard Version is the text preferred by Swete, Merk, Taylor; the reading exelthontes ēlthon ‘they left and came’ is preferred by the majority. Turner is of the opinion that the plural is correct since it would be easier for scribes to change the plural to the singular than vice-versa.

Exegesis:

meta Iakōbou kai Iōannou ‘with James and John’ goes with ‘they left and came.’ Cf. The Modern Speech New Testament: “They came at once, with James and John, to the house….”

Translation:

Immediately in this kind of context is in many languages equivalent to ‘and then’ or ‘and next.’

Because this verse begins a new section, which is often set off by some sort of section heading or title, it may be advisable to employ ‘Jesus’ rather than ‘he,’ since the reference tends to be ambiguous, especially when four other persons are specifically named in this verse.

With James and John must be so translated that it does not mean that these two men were also co-owners of the house with Simon and Andrew, a meaning which has been inadvertently implied in a number of translations. In order to avoid the difficulty one may (1) combine James and John with the subject, ‘Jesus, accompanied by James and John, …’ (Chol, San Blas Kuna) or ‘he besides James and John they went into…’ (Kpelle), (2) set off James and John as a separate clause or sentence at the end of the verse, ‘… James and John went along’ (Central Mazahua), ‘followed by James and John’ (Balinese).

In order to specify that a house belongs to two different people, it is necessary in some languages to be quite specific, e.g. ‘house of Simon; he owned it with Andrew’ (Sayula Popoluca).

Quoted with permission from Bratcher, Robert G. and Nida, Eugene A. A Handbook on the Gospel of Mark. (UBS Handbook Series). New York: UBS, 1961. For this and other handbooks for translators see here .