Exegesis:

paralambanei (cf. 4.36) ‘he takes,’ ‘he takes with him.’

ērxato (cf. 1.45) ‘he began’: the verb here has its proper force, and should be included in translation (as done by Revised Standard Version).

ekthambeisthai kai adēmonein ‘to be extremely distressed and troubled’: the two verbs together describe an extremely acute emotion, a compound of bewilderment, fear, uncertainty and anxiety, nowhere else portrayed in such vivid terms as here. Rawlinson: ‘shuddering awe, amazement, deep distress’; Swete: ‘amazed awe … overpowering mental distress.’ Cf. the following translations: ‘distress and dread’ (Goodspeed); ‘appalled and agitated’ (Moffatt); ‘full of terror and distress’ (The Modern Speech New Testament, Montgomery); ‘dismay and distress’ (Manson); ‘appalled and sorely troubled’ (Translator’s New Testament); ‘surprised and terrified’ (Lagrange); ‘fright and anguish’ (Le Nouveau Testament. Version Synodale, O Novo Testamento de Nosso Senhor Jesus Cristo. Revisdo Autorizada).

ekthambeō (9.15; cf. thambeomai 1.27) ‘to amaze,’ ‘to alarm’: the word denotes a distress which is the result of surprise, i.e. a dread caused by something unexpected. ‘Dismay,’ ‘distress’ or ‘dread’ would seem best to characterize the emotion indicated by the verb here.

adēmoneō (only here in Mark) ‘be in anxiety,’ ‘be troubled’: the emphasis of this verb seems to be on the element of anguish caused by uncertainty and bewilderment as to what to do. Moulton and Milligan give examples from the papyri in which the word indicates distress and bewilderment. Therefore, ‘anguish,’ or perhaps ‘despondency’ (cf. Lagrange) would convey the meaning here.

Translation:

There is almost inevitably a minor problem of interpretation in verses 32 and 33, namely, the identity of the persons to whom the command of sitting down was directed. Did Jesus, for example, tell all the disciples to sit down, and then ask the three disciples to arise and go with him? There is no way of knowing and, moreover, it does not seem particularly necessary to try to resolve such an obscurity, since the overall meaning is quite certain.

Took with him must be translated with care or the results may imply that Jesus was leading the disciples along like children. A proper equivalent in some languages is ‘caused them to go along with him’ or ‘had them accompany him.’

Distressed and troubled is not easily translated, for unless one is quite careful, the rendering will seem to refer only to purely physical trouble and hardship. However, any terms which are used to express such severe mental distress will in many instances be expressed in ways which suggest other kinds of symptoms or activity e.g. ‘began to groan and began to suffer’ (Tzeltal) or ‘began to feel trouble in his heart and his stomach.’

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 .