Exegesis:
Iōsēph ho apo Harimathaias ‘Joseph who (was) from Arimathea,’ ‘Joseph of Arimathea’: the man is identified by the name of the town from which he hailed. Arimathea was a city in Judea which Dalman locates to the northwest of Jerusalem of Jerusalem.
euschēmōn (only here in Mark) ‘prominent,’ ‘of repute,’ ‘noble’: perhaps, ‘wealthy’ (cf. Mt. 27.57).
bouleutēs (only here in Mark) ‘counsellor,’ i.e. a member of the Sanhedrin (cf. Lk. 23.50-51).
ēn prosdechomenos (only here in Mark) ‘he was waiting for,’ ‘he was expecting.’
tēn basileian tou theou (cf. 1.15) ‘the kingdom of God’: Joseph is spoken of as awaiting its arrival, its coming, as in 1.15; 9.1.
tolmēsas (cf. 12.34) ‘being bold’: here, as Revised Standard Version has it, ‘he took courage.’
The action of Joseph of Arimathea in requesting the body of Jesus was probably motivated by the requirement in the Jewish law (Deut. 21.23) that prohibited leaving the bodies of executed men exposed overnight.
Translation:
The sentence which begins with verse 42 and extends through verse 43 is relatively difficult to translate, not primarily because of its length, but because of the shifts in subject and the included explanatory expressions. In some languages, it is preferable to make verse 42 a separate sentence, e.g. ‘it was already evening, since it was the day of Preparation, that is the day before the sabbath.’ Verse 43 can then begin, ‘Joseph of Arimathea, who was a respected member … and who was looking…, took courage….’
Of Arimathea may be translated in some languages as ‘from the town of Arimathea.’
Respected member of the council involves two concepts: (1) the respect with which Joseph was regarded and (2) his function as a member of the Sanhedrin. These two ideas are variously combined: ‘one of the members of the council and noble (Yucateco), a true man among the older men’ (Tabasco Chontal), ‘a fixer of affairs who was respected’ (Huastec), ‘a big honorable official’ (Tzeltal).
Looking for must not be understood in the sense of ‘out searching,’ but rather waiting for with hope and expectancy, e.g. ‘waiting for the time when God would rule’ (Copainalá Zoque) and ‘wait, hoping for God’s rule.’
For the kingdom of God see 1.15 and 4.11.
Took courage may be translated in a manner similar to take heart (6.50). In Copainalá Zoque one may say ‘took strength and went to Pilate.’ In Tzeltal the expression is rendered in a negative form ‘was not afraid to go to Pilate.’
Body is often translated by two quite different words, depending upon whether the person is alive or dead. In this case one would use the equivalent of ‘corpse.’
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 .