Exegesis:

pote (cf. 9.19) ‘when?’

tauta ‘these things’: refers back to the statement that not one stone of the Temple would be left standing on another. In the next clause tauta … panta ‘all these things’ would appear to include more than the single tauta of the first clause. A reasonable explanation is offered by Lagrange who takes ‘all these things’ to refer to everything connected with the destruction of the Temple, the destruction itself being only one of a series of events. The second question, then, represents an expansion of the first one, in normal Semitic style.

sēmeion (cf. 8.11) ‘sign’: here in the sense of a ‘token’ or ‘indication’ pointing to the events referred to. In this context the ‘sign’ asked for would be an indication that the events were about to take place.

hotan mellē tauta sunteleisthai panta ‘when all these things are about to be accomplished.’

hotan (cf. 11.19) ‘when’: indicates one single event.

mellō (cf. 10.32) ‘about to be,’ ‘on the point of.’

sunteleō (only here in Mark) ‘to fulfil,’ ‘accomplish’: the meaning ‘come to an end’ is suggested as possible here by Arndt & Gingrich.

Translation:

Tell us may require a shift to ‘answer us,’ since questions follow.

This, which is an ambiguous or obscure reference, may require a translation by ‘what you said’ (Tzeltal) if the meaning is to be intelligible.

For sign see 8.11.

Accomplished is translatable only as ‘happen’ in some languages.

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 .