Exegesis:

hoi katesthontes ‘the ones devouring’: there is lack of syntactical concordance, inasmuch as the participle here is in the nominative case, in apposition to houtoi ‘these’ of the last clause, and not in the genitive, in agreement with tōn grammateōn ‘the scribes’ to which it refers. The difficulty may be resolved by making this a relative clause, ‘who devour’ (Revised Standard Version), or by starting a new sentence, as Translator’s New Testament, ‘They who devour….’ Revised Standard Version, however, makes for greater clarity and intelligibility.

katesthō or katesthiō (cf. 4.4) ‘devour’: here, figuratively, meaning ‘rob,’ ‘exploit,’ ‘consume,’ ‘destroy.’ Arndt & Gingrich suggest ‘appropriate illegally,’ and give examples. Lagrange suggests that they despoiled the widows by their knowledge of the law.

tas oikias tōn chērōn ‘the houses of widows’: a summary way of saying ‘their belongings,’ ‘their fortunes’ (cf. Lagrange les biens).

chēra (12.42, 43) ‘widow.’

kai prophasei makra proseuchomenoi ‘and for a pretense make long prayers.’ The exact force of prophasis (only here in Mark) is not clear: (1) it may be connected with what precedes, meaning ‘and to cover it up make long prayers’ (Goodspeed; cf. also O Novo Testamento de Nosso Senhor Jesus Cristo. Revisdo Autorizada; cf. Gould); (2) it may modify the subject (‘the scribes’) and mean ‘for a pretense’ (Revised Standard Version), ‘for show’ (Berkeley, Translator’s New Testament), ‘for appearance’ sake’; (3) it may modify the object (‘the long prayers’ implied in the clause makra proseuchomenoi ‘praying long’), ‘offer long, unreal prayers’ (Moffatt), ‘make long but insincere prayers’ (Manson). Grammar alone cannot decide the question: it would appear, however, that the context favors the second possibility.

prophasis ‘pretense,’ ‘pretext,’ ‘ostensible reason.’

makra is adverbial (neuter accusative plural of the adjective makros ‘long’; cf. the adverb makran 12.34) ‘lengthily,’ ‘extensively.’

proseuchomai (cf. 1.35) ‘pray.’

lēmpsontai perissoteron krima ‘they shall receive greater condemnation’: the meaning is eschatological, ‘they shall receive from God on the day of Judgment a more severe sentence.’

perissoteron (cf. 7.36) ‘greater’: here it is an adjective, modifying krima.

krima (only here in Mark) ‘condemnation,’ ‘judgment,’ ‘sentence.’

Translation:

Devour widows’ houses is a metaphor which is quite meaningless in many languages. In some, however, it would convey an entirely wrong idea. For example, in one language scribes, which was rendered by a transcribed borrowing from a trade language (and hence was not fully understood), was thought to be the name of a special kind of animal which could consume the thatch and cornstalk houses so often used as shelters by the poor widows. When, however, ‘devour widows’ houses’ does not convey the proper meaning, one can shift the metaphor to a nonmetaphor in any one of several ways, e.g. ‘cause houses to come to nothing’ (Piro), ‘take away all the widows have’ (Southern Subanen), ‘eat up what widows have’ (Copainalá Zoque), ‘take away what belongs to poor women and use it up,’ in which ‘poor women’ is the usual term for ‘widow’ (Tzeltal), and ‘eat up the money of the houses of widows’ (Tabasco Chontal).

In line with the second possible interpretation of for a pretense (see comments above), one may translate in a number of different ways, e.g. ‘only with their lips they pray very much’ (San Mateo del Mar Huave), ‘so that they may deceive they pray a long time’ (South Bolivian Quechua), ‘they make long prayers but do not mean them’ (Tzeltal), and ‘try to show they are good by making long prayers’ (Guerrero Amuzgo).

Receive the greater condemnation may be translated in terms of the sentence or judgment passed, e.g. ‘receive a bigger judgment’ (Central Tarahumara), or as in some languages by means of a reference to the punishment which results from the condemnation, e.g. ‘they will have greater pain’ (Copainalá Zoque), and ‘they will pay greater hurt’ (Guerrero Amuzgo).

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 .