Exegesis:

heis tōn archisunagōgōn ‘one of the rulers of the synagogue.’

heis ‘one’ may be the equivalent of tis ‘a certain one’: ‘a certain ruler of the synagogue.’

archisunagōgos (cf. 5.35, 36; Luke 8.49) ‘leader of the synagogue’ charged with administrative duties, not spiritual (cf. Swete). The plural here ‘rulers of the synagogue’ is not to indicate that there were necessarily several in that particular place: it indicates simply the class to which Jairus belonged.

piptei pros tous podas autou ‘he falls at his feet,’ ‘he prostrates himself.’

piptō (cf. 4.4) ‘fall.’

pous (6.11; 7.25; 9.45; 12.36) ‘foot.’

parakalei auton polla ‘he begged him urgently,’ ‘he entreated him insistently.’

parakaleō (cf. 1.40) ‘request,’ ‘beg,’ ‘entreat.’

polla (cf. 5.10) is adverbial ‘much,’ ‘strongly,’ ‘urgently.’

eschatōs echei (only here in Mark) ‘is in a critical stage,’ ‘is at the point of death’: for a similar construction cf. kakōs echei ‘is in a bad way’ in 1.32. Notice that (Matthew 9.18) has arti eteleutēsen ‘just now died’ and (Luke 8.42) says apethnēsken ‘is dying.’

hina elthōn epithēs ‘so that you may come and place’: it is generally agreed that this construction represents the use of hina to express an imperative (here a request, rather than a command): ‘Come and place….’

epitithēmi (cf. 3.16) ‘place upon,’ ‘lay,’ ‘set’: for the phrase ‘place the hand (hands) upon’ in Mark see 6.5; 7.32; 8.23, 25; 16.18.

hina sōthē kai zēsē ‘that she may be healed and live’: the two verbs represent two ideas, both of which should be expressed.

sōzō (cf. 3.4) ‘save’; here, in the passive, ‘be healed,’ ‘be made well.’

zaō (12.27; 16.11) ‘live.’

Translation:

Since the phrase one of the rulers of the synagogue does not refer to Jairus as being one of several rulers of the particular synagogue in question, but simply to him as being a person with a particular function, one must in some languages recast this phrase as ‘a man, named Jairus, who was a ruler in a synagogue’ or ‘a man, he was called Jairus, was one who had command over the affairs of the synagogue.’

Jairus by name is an awkward construction even in English. The equivalent is more likely to be ‘he was called Jairus,’ ‘people called him Jairus,’ or ‘he had the name Jairus,’ often expressed as a paratactically combined clause.

The order of the constituents in the first part of verse 22 must often be rearranged, for the order is unusual in that Jairus is separated from the pronominal referent ‘one.’

The pronouns him, he … his may need more specific identification, e.g. ‘when Jairus saw Jesus, he fell at his feet.’

In translating the expression fell at his feet one must make certain that the phrase in the receptor languages does not mean – as it often has – stumbled and collapsed at Jesus’ feet. The equivalent in many languages is ‘bowed himself to the ground at Jesus’ feet’ or ‘lay face down at the feet of Jesus.’

As in so many instances besought … saying may be better translated by a single verb.

At the point of death may be rendered as ‘about to die.’

Live must be translated with care in some languages which clearly indicate aspectual differences. For example, in Kekchí one cannot use the verb ‘to live’ in the future. One may ‘continue to live,’ but ‘will live’ means ‘will be born.’ A better rendering at this point, however, is ‘so that she may … not die.’

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 .