Exegesis:

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

hoi dokountes archein tōn ethnōn ‘those appearing to rule the Gentiles’ the exact force of hoi dokountes ‘those who seem’ (cf. 6.49) is not certain. Moffatt‘s ‘so-called rulers’ would seem too extreme: it does not appear that Jesus was intending to deny the fact of their authority in this case. Arndt & Gingrich have ‘those who are reputed to be rulers’; Manson ‘those who claim to be rulers’; The Modern Speech New Testament ‘those who are deemed rulers’; Translator’s New Testament has ‘those who consider themselves to be rulers’ and, in a footnote, the alternative ‘are considered to be rulers.’ Perhaps best of all is ‘those who are regarded as rulers’ (cf. Montgomery, Swete).

archō (only here in the active voice in Mark; elsewhere always middle archomai ‘begin’; cf. also the participle ho archōn ‘ruler’ in 3.22) ‘to rule.’

ta ethna (cf. 10.33) ‘the nations,’ ‘the foreigners,’ ‘the Gentiles.’

katakureuousin (only here in Mark) ‘they have the mastery over.’

katexousiazousin (only here in Mark) ‘they exercise authority over.’

Translation:

Called them must refer here to all the disciples, though in many translations the reference is erroneously understood to apply only to the two immediately preceding disciples, at whom the rest were angry.

To rule is translatable as ‘to command,’ ‘to boss,’ or ‘to govern.’

For Gentiles see 10.33.

Lord it over may be rendered as referring to exorbitant demands ‘make them run back and forth’ in the sense of constantly running errands (Copainalá Zoque) or to self-exaltation, e.g. ‘raise themselves up’ (Tzeltal).

Great is usually interpreted in terms of (1) physical strength, with metaphorical extensions: ‘Strong,’ ‘mighty,’ ‘powerful’ or (2) authority or position to command: ‘with much authority’ or ‘who says strong commands.’

Exercise authority may be rendered as ‘tell them exactly what to do’ or ‘constantly boss them.’

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 .