Text:

After hē mētēr sou ‘your mother’ Tischendorf, Nestle, Soden, Vogels, and Kilpatrick add kai hai adelphai sou ‘and your sisters’: this clause is omitted by Textus Receptus, Westcott and Hort, Taylor, Lagrange, Merk, Revised Standard Version. Since the manuscript evidence is not decisive one way or the other, internal evidence will determine whether or not the words should be included.

Exegesis:

idou (cf. 1.2) ‘look,’ ‘see’: should not be omitted (as is done by Revised Standard Version).

exō zētousin se ‘outside they are asking for you.’

exō ‘outside’: ordinarily taken with ‘mother and brothers’: ‘your mother and brothers are outside.’ Moffatt, however, joins it to the verb, ‘wanting you outside.’

zēteō ‘search for,’ ‘ask,’ ‘request’: here in the latter sense of ‘asking,’ ‘wanting’: they were not looking for him since they knew him to be there. In Mark zēteō is used in both ways: (1) ‘search for,’ ‘seek’ (1.37; 14.55; 16.6); with the idea of ‘examine,’ ‘consider’ (11.18; 14.1, 11); (2) ‘want,’ ‘request,’ ‘ask’ (3.32; 8.11, 12); with the idea of ‘attempt,’ ‘try’ (12.12).

Translation:

Though the equivalent of Greek idou ‘behold,’ ‘look,’ ‘pay attention’ should be rendered in some manner, it is not always easy to find just the right introductory particle. Probably, the meaning here is really not ‘look,’ but rather a kind polite way in which the crowd could interrupt Jesus, in order to call his attention to the request of mother and brothers. One must choose a form which would be appropriate for the context, e.g. ‘listen’ (Tzeltal), ‘but listen’ (Shilluk).

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 .