Exegesis:

to katapetasma tou naou ‘the veil of the sanctuary,’ ‘the curtain of the temple’: it is generally assumed that the katapetasma (only here in Mark) was the veil separating the holy place from the holy of holies. This curtain is described by Edersheim as being sixty feet long, thirty feet wide, and the thickness of the palm of a man’s hand.

naos (cf. 14.58) ‘sanctuary.’

eschisthē (cf. 1.10) ‘was rent,’ ‘was torn.’

ap’ anōthen heōs katō ‘from top to bottom.’

Translation:

Curtain is not always easily translated, since in many societies such objects are not known. In Copainalá Zoque the closest equivalent is ‘cloth-closure,’ literally equivalent to ‘cloth door.’ In a number of languages curtain has been rendered by a borrowed form. It is important, however, to avoid a literal translation of veil, since this may apply only to veils worn by women, and accordingly the veil of the temple would be quite meaningless.

Was torn is a passive construction without the mention of a specific agent; nor would it be justifiable to introduce a specific grammatical subject of a transitive expression, e.g. ‘God tore the curtain.’ Accordingly, it is best, in such instances, to shift the verb expression to an intransitive equivalent, e.g. ‘the curtain split into two pieces,’ or ‘divided into two parts.’

From top to bottom is a highly elliptical expression, requiring some fuller statement in some languages, e.g. ‘the curtain began to split first at the top and then continued to split to the bottom.’

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 .