Text:

At the end of the verse kai alektōr ephōnēsen ‘and a cock crowed’ is included by the great majority of editions of the Greek text; it is omitted, however, by Nestle, Westcott and Hort (and Revised Standard Version), on the not inconsiderable witness of codices Vaticanus and Sinaiticus, other uncial manuscripts, and some early versions. Internal evidence also favors the omission of the phrase.

Exegesis:

ērnēsato (14.70; cf. aparneomai 8.34) ‘he denied,’ here, as for aparneomai in v. 30, the meaning is ‘repudiate,’ ‘disown.’ Translator’s New Testament understands the verb to have reference to Jesus, translating, ‘But he disowned Him….’

oute oida oute epistamai ‘I neither know nor understand’: it is to be doubted whether any distinction is to be made between the two verbs, oida (cf. 4.13) ‘I know,’ the verb commonly used in Mark, and epistamai ‘I understand,’ used only here in Mark (cf. Lagrange). Some commentators suggest the meaning to be ‘I neither know him, nor understand what you mean’: while this makes good sense it requires reading into the verse the personal pronoun ‘him’ which is not there, nor is necessarily implied. Some translations (Moffatt, Montgomery, The Modern Speech New Testament) divide the words into two separate affirmations, ‘I do not know. I do not understand….’

oute … oute (cf. 12.25) ‘neither … nor.’

su ti legeis ‘what you are saying,’ ‘what you mean.’ In the margin of their text Westcott and Hort suggest this may be taken as a separate question, ‘What are you saying?’ ‘What do you mean?,’ a suggestion Moffatt and The Modern Speech New Testament have incorporated into their translations (cf. also Rawlinson). Black supports Torrey’s conjecture that instead of ti ‘what’ the correct rendering of the underlying Aramaic di would have been tis ‘who,’ i.e. ‘I neither know nor am I acquainted with him of whom you speak.’ This conjecture, however, has been contested on the ground that the Greek text as it stands, vividly reflects the uncertainty and confusion of the apostle.

exēlthen exo eis to proaulion ‘he went out (of the courtyard) into the passageway (leading to the gate).’

proaulion (only here in the N.T.) is the ‘forecourt’ or ‘passageway’ leading from the gateway (pulōn) to the courtyard (aulē).

[kai alektōr ephōnēsen ‘and a cock crowed’: cf. v. 30.]

Translation:

Denied it must refer to the immediately preceding statement made by the maid. In some languages the proper equivalent is merely ‘he said, No.’ In others one may translate ‘he said that was not true.’

Know and understand what you mean may be variously translated, depending primarily upon one’s exegesis of the passage in question (see above). What you mean may be ‘what you are saying’ or ‘what you are trying to say,’ depending upon receptor language usage.

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 .