Exegesis:

ho prōtos ‘the first’: probably, though not necessarily so, the oldest of the seven.

apothnēskōn ouk aphekēn ‘dying he did not leave’: the participle is temporal, ‘when he died.’ In English the proper relation between the two verbs will be established by translating ‘he died without leaving….’

Translation:

The first is ‘the oldest brother.’

Took a wife may be quite wrongly understood if translated literally, e.g. ‘took away someone else’s wife.’ A more common idiom is ‘married a woman.’

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 .