Exegesis:
blepete de humeis heautous (cf. v. 5) ‘but you watch out for yourselves.’ The personal pronoun humeis is emphatic (cf. Gould).
paradōsousin (cf. 1.14) ‘they will deliver up to trial.’
eis sunedria kai eis sunagōgas ‘to councils and in synagogues’: the majority of commentators and translations divide these two clauses as does Revised Standard Version, joining ‘to councils’ with the verb ‘deliver up,’ and ‘in synagogues’ with the verb ‘beat.’ Some, however (cf. Gould, Rawlinson) join both clauses to the first verb, thus: ‘they will deliver you up to councils and synagogues,’ and take darēsesthe ‘you shall be beaten’ independently.
sunedria (here only in plural in Mark; in 14.55; 15.1 the singular refers to the Sanhedrin of the Jews in Jerusalem) ‘councils’: the local councils of the various Jewish cities.
sunagōgē (cf. 1.21) ‘synagogue.’
darēsesthe (cf. 12.3) ‘you shall be beaten.’
epi hēgemonōn kai basileōn stathēsesthe ‘before rulers and kings you shall stand.’
epi ‘upon’ means here ‘before,’ in the language of law courts.
hēgemones (only here in Mark) ‘rulers,’ ‘governors’: in the Roman system the word was used of the imperial governors of provinces.
basileis (cf. 6.14) ‘kings’: in a general sense, such as used in 6.14 of Herod Antipas.
histēmi (cf. 3.24) ‘stand’ on trial, in judgment.
heneken (cf. 10.7) ‘on account of,’ ‘because’: in this verse heneken emou is to be understood as ‘on my account,’ ‘because of me,’ and not ‘on my behalf’ (as Revised Standard Version ‘for my sake’ may be understood).
eis marturion autois (cf. 1.44; 6.11) ‘for a witness to them,’ ‘for a testimony before them.’
G. D. Kilpatrick, following earlier suggestions made by Burkitt and Turner, proposes a change in punctuation and re-arrangement of the clauses in vv. 9-11, as follows:
“But take heed to yourselves;
For they will deliver you up to councils and synagogues,
and you will be beaten before governors and kings,
for my sake you will stand for a testimony to them and among all the Gentiles.
The gospel must first be preached, and then when they bring you to trial and deliver you up, etc.”
As seen, the greatest difference between this punctuation and that normally followed, is that v. 10 is so completely altered as to say nothing about the gospel being preached in all nations. The other changes affect in a smaller measure the traditional reading of these verses. Kilpatrick’s proposal has been subjected to analysis and rejected by Austin Farrer.
Translation:
Take heed to is likely to be mistranslated since in some languages there are two quite different ways of translating such an expression: (1) ‘watch out for,’ in the sense of being solicitous for yourselves and watching out for your own interests, and (2) ‘be aware of the danger to which you will be exposed.’ The latter meaning is, of course, the correct one here, but a number of translations have used the former, with obvious contradiction with what occurs in the following verse.
They is an indefinite subject, meaning ‘persons’ or ‘some people,’ not ‘the people,’ as referring to the masses, who maintained a relative sympathy for the followers of Christ.
Deliver you up is equivalent to ‘hand you over to’ or ‘grab you and turn you over to trial.’
Councils is translatable in Copainalá Zoque as ‘where the rulers are’; in Piro a rather involved term meaning ‘where judgments are heard’ is employed. However, ‘councils,’ whether formal or informal, are known in all societies.
For synagogues see 1.21.
You will be beaten may be made active as ‘they will beat you.’
Governors and kings cannot be easily distinguished in some languages where the different classes of rulers are not parallel to classical usage. However, in some instances governors has been translated as ‘rulers’ (who are appointed by some central government or authority) and ‘chiefs’ (who are hereditary rulers).
Bear testimony may be rendered ‘to tell the truth’ (Barrow Eskimo) or ‘to tell what has happened.’
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 .