Text:

mou ‘my’ after kataluma ‘guest room’ is omitted by Textus Receptus, but included by all modern editions of the Greek text.

Exegesis:

hopou ean (cf. 14.9) ‘wherever’: the phrase ‘wherever he enters’ refers, of course, to whatever house he should enter.

oikodespotē (only here in Mark) ‘master of the house,’ i.e. the owner of the house (cf. Lagrange proprietaire).

ho didaskalos (cf. 4.38) ‘the teacher.’

to kataluma (only here in Mark) ‘the lodging,’ ‘the guest room’ (cf. Moulton & Milligan); possibly ‘the dining room.’

to pascha ‘the Passover meal’ as in 14.12b.

Translation:

Wherever he enters must not be translated as a generic or distributive expression, meaning that the man was likely to enter a number of places and that the disciples should inquire of each householder. The equivalent expression in some languages is ‘when he goes into a house, then say to the householder there.’ Unless this clause is translated with care, the impression will be given that the disciples were to follow the servant about town, begging a place from one householder after another.

My guest room must not be rendered as a straight possessive in some languages or it will imply that Jesus himself owned a part of the house. The meaning is rather ‘a guest room for me,’ ‘a room where I may be a guest,’ or ‘a room where I am to eat’ (see above).

Am to eat is rendered as a type of future. One must not interpret am to eat in the sense of ‘destined to eat,’ as some translators have done.

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 .