Text:
In v. 33 instead of kai ‘and’ of all other modern editions of the Greek text, Textus Receptus and Soden have ē ‘or.’
In v. 34 the order of words in Textus Receptus is changed so as to make kuklō ‘in a circle’ modify periblepsamenos ‘looking,’ i.e. ‘looking around’; all modern editions of the Greek text follow the same word order as Nestle’s whereby kuklō modifies tous kathēmenous, i.e. ‘those seated in a circle.’
Exegesis:
apokritheis … legei ‘answering … he says’: there are some 15 instances of this construction throughout the gospel of Mark. A translation in English need only give the sense ‘he answered’ without reproducing both verbs in a literal form (cf. 1.7 and 1.24 for similar constructions).
periblepsamenos (cf. 3.5) ‘looking around (him).’
tous peri auton kuklō kathēmenous ‘those seated in a circle about him.’
kuklō (6.6, 36) is adverbial ‘round about,’ ‘around.’
ide (cf. 1.2) ‘see!’ ‘here.’
hos an poiēsē ‘he who does’: the subjunctive mode of the verb is required by the construction of the sentence; there is no idea, however, of doubt or futurity. The meaning is ‘whoever does,’ ‘he who does.’
thelēma (only here in Mark) ‘will.’
Translation:
The form of the question Who are my mother … is ambiguous from the standpoint of some languages which must distinguish between identificational questions and qualificational ones, i.e. ‘who are these…’ and ‘what sort of person are….’ Note, however, in languages which must translate this sentence as qualificational, one does not question the characteristics of Jesus’ mother and brothers, but asks what sort of characteristics of people make it possible for them to be recognized as ‘mother and brothers.’ The equivalent would be ‘Who are the sort of people who are my mother and my brothers?.’
The adverb here may be translated by a gesture-like word or phrase ‘these here’ or ‘right here.’
Does the will of God is often translated as ‘does what God wants him to do.’ In Huichol this is ‘follow Gods’ heart.’
In a number of languages brothers and sisters of the same mother are grouped under a single term, meaning siblings of the same maternal line. In such languages, e.g. Highland Totonac, Barrow Eskimo, Navajo, and Highland Puebla Nahuatl , it would be quite wrong to try to use two words just because Greek has two words, when a single word is the more accurate and satisfactory term. This same word can be employed for ‘brothers’ throughout this passage, beginning with verse 31.
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 .