Exegesis:

prōtokathedrias en tais sunagōgais ‘the chief seats in the synagogues,’ ‘the places of importance in the synagogues’: it is explained that in the synagogue such seats were to be found in front of the Ark (which contained the sacred scrolls), facing the people, reserved for the scribes and other dignitaries.

sunagogē (cf. 1.21) ‘synagogue.’

prōtoklisias en tois deipnois ‘the chief couches at the banquets,’ ‘the places of honor at the banquets’: these were next to the host (for an instance of this cf. Lk. 14.7).

deipnon (cf. 6.21) ‘reception,’ ‘formal dinner,’ ‘banquet.’

Translation:

This verse is a continuation of the construction begun in 12.38, but it is often not possible to employ a series of relative clauses. Accordingly, one must generally break the sentence at this point and reintroduce the subject, e.g. ‘they like the best seats.’ ‘Best,’ however, should not refer to the quality of the seats, but to the distinction and prestige accompanying the position, e.g. ‘the most important seats.’

For synagogues see 1.21.

At feasts may require expansion to ‘when they attend banquets,’ or ‘when they are feasting,’ since feasts may be translatable only by what is a verb, not a noun.

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 .