Text:

Nestle and the majority of editions of the Greek text have palai for ‘some time’ (before apethanen ‘he died’); Westcott and Hort, Lagrange, Taylor, Kilpatrick (and Revised Standard Version), however, read ēdē ‘already.’

Exegesis:

ethaumasen ei ‘he marvelled that’ (and not Revised Standard Version ‘he wondered if’; cf. Translator’s New Testament ‘was astonished that’): ei after thaumazō ‘to marvel,’ ‘to wonder at’ (cf. 5.20) is to be translated ‘that,’ indicating the cause of the wonder or admiration (cf. 1 Jn. 3.13 which Revised Standard Version correctly translates ‘wonder … that’). The verb thaumazō here does not mean ‘to wonder’ in the sense of ‘to conjecture,’ ‘to be undecided about’: it means ‘to wonder at,’ ‘to marvel.’

ēdē tethnēken ‘he had already died,’ ‘he was by now dead.’

thnēskō (only here in Mark; cf. apothnēskō 5.35) ‘to die.’

proskalesamenos (cf. 3.13) ‘summoning,’ ‘calling to himself.’

epērōtēsen auton ei ‘he asked him if’: ei ‘if’ used in indirect questions (cf. 3.2) has the sense of ‘whether.’

palai apethanen (Nestle text) ‘a long time (ago) he died’: although palai usually means ‘for a long time’ it can mean (as it probably does here) ‘already,’ as a virtual synonym of ēdē ‘already,’ ‘by now’; Revised Standard Version margin translates palai ‘some time.’

Translation:

Wondered if … is translatable in some languages only as direct discourse, e.g. ‘Pilate said in his mind, Is it really true that he had died?’ (Tabasco Chontal).

Were already dead identifies a state, but in some languages the process must be specifically mentioned, e.g. ‘had already died.’

Summoning is rendered in some languages as ‘sent for the centurion to come’ or ‘sent servants to say to the centurion to come.’ Summoning should not be rendered as ‘yelled at.’

Asked him whether …, if shifted into the form of direct discourse, may be translated as ‘asked him, Is Jesus already dead?’ If the indirect discourse is retained one must make certain that the proper referent for he is understood; otherwise the reader may be confused with what is grammatically a reference to the centurion or even to Pilate.

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 .