Text:

After patera ‘father’ Textus Receptus and Kilpatrick add ē gunaika ‘or wife,’ which is omitted by all other modern editions of the Greek text.

Exegesis:

The words of this verse have already been dealt with: for aphiēmi ‘leave’ cf. 2.5; agros ‘field’ cf. 5.14; heneken ‘for the sake of’ cf. 10.7; euaggelion ‘gospel’ cf. 1.1.

Translation:

For truly as an emphatic introductory particle see 8.12.

The construction no one who … who will not … is difficult to reproduce as such in many languages. Frequently a conditional construction must be substituted, e.g. ‘if any one does…, he will…’ (San Mateo del Mar Huave). In other languages it is advisable to break this long sentence (consisting of verses 29 and 30) as ‘a man may…; he will certainly receive…’ or ‘those who have left…, they will receive….’ The difficulty with the Greek construction is not only its length but the double negative.

House refers to a man’s own home, translatable in some languages as ‘home village,’ rather than literally his ‘hut,’ for a man may leave one house for another, but this passage refers to a more permanent separation from the close village and family ties.

In languages which have special distinctions for ‘brothers and sisters’ this verse becomes somewhat more complex. For example, there may be special words for younger versus older brothers and sisters. Also, brothers and sisters may be classed not as two groups, but as one, namely, siblings. Accordingly, if in some languages one wishes to include all possibilities, the corresponding phrase must be somewhat altered, e.g. ‘older siblings and younger siblings,’ ‘older brothers and older sisters and younger siblings,’ in which older siblings are distinguished as to sex, but not younger ones (Tzeltal, Copainalá Zoque), or ‘older and younger brothers and older and younger sisters’ (Tzotzil).

For my sake may be treated either as causal ‘because of me…,’ or purposive ‘for the benefit of’ or ‘for the sake of….’ In some instances for my sake and for the gospel may be combined as ‘to help me and the good news.’

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 .