Text:

Instead of ek tou ouranou ‘from heaven’ of all modern editions of the Greek text, Textus Receptus has tou ouranou ‘of heaven.’

Exegesis:

hoi asteres (only here in Mark) ‘the stars.’

esontai … piptontes ‘shall be falling’: the verbal phrase is perhaps linear, denoting a succession of stars falling from heaven.

piptō (cf. 4.4) ‘fall.’

hai dunameis hai en tois ouranois ‘the powers which are in the heavens’: in accordance with Hebrew parallelism, these heavenly ‘powers’ may be simply the stars themselves, this second clause being synonymous with the first (as is probably the case in Isa. 34.4, whose language is reflected in this passage in Mark); or these ‘powers’ might be the evil spirits which, in Jewish thought, were supposed to rule the heavenly bodies. For the attributive phrase hai en tois ouranois ‘the ones in the heavens’ cf. a similar instance in 11.25.

saleuthēsontai (only here in Mark) ‘they shall be shaken’: i.e. they will be driven out of their normal course.

Translation:

It must be noted that the differences of exegesis (and exposition) of this passage (verses 24-25) may be quite pronounced, for though some persons believe that this description refers to extraordinary astronomical phenomena, others are certain that this description applies not to celestial bodies but to the collapse of earthly governments, which are often described in apocalyptic literature by these figures of speech. However, regardless of the ultimate exposition of the passage, the translation should preserve the wording as closely as possible, leaving this wider interpretation to commentaries.

Heaven is best translated as ‘sky,’ if the language in question distinguishes between words for ‘sky’ and ‘heaven’ (as the abode of God).

Powers in the heavens is translatable in some languages as the ‘authorities in the sky.’ One must avoid implying that God’s own authority is to be shaken by translating heavens as ‘the abode of God.’ However, ‘authorities’ (or ‘powers’) is not very meaningful even at best, since this type of expression is quite alien to the concepts of most people. In Navajo an alternative expression ‘that which holds things firm in the sky’ has been employed, but this is a phrase which would imply literal rearrangement of heavenly bodies.

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 .