Text:

Instead of sumboulion hetoimasantes ‘reaching a decision’ of Tischendorf, Nestle, Soden, Kilpatrick, and Merk, the majority of editions of the Greek text have sumboulion poiēsantes ‘holding a counsel,’ which is the text of Revised Standard Version. The external evidence does not seem decisive either way (some mss. and versions have epoiēsan); internal evidence would prefer poiēsantes as the “harder” reading, more likely, therefore, to be original.

Exegesis:

prōi (cf. 1.35) ‘early,’ ‘in the morning’: apparently it is meant to indicate here the sunrise.

sumboulion poiēsantes ‘holding a counsel,’ ‘holding a consultation’: so the majority of the Greek texts (see Text, above). The Nestle reading sumboulion hetoimasantes means ‘reaching a decision,’ ‘formulating a plan.’

sumboulion (cf. 3.6) ‘counsel,’ ‘consultation.’

hoi archiereis meta tōn presbuterōn kai grammateōn (cf. 8.31) ‘the chief priests with the elders and scribes.’

holon ton sunedrion (cf. 14.55) ‘the whole Council,’ ‘the entire Sanhedrin.’

dēsantes … apēnegkan ‘binding … they took away,’ ‘they bound … and took away.’

deō (cf. 3.27) ‘bind,’ ‘tie,’ ‘fasten.’

apopherō (only here in Mark; cf. pherō 1.31) ‘lead away,’ ‘take away’: Moulton & Milligan cite the use of the verb in the papyri of forcible removal.

paredōkan Pilatō ‘they delivered (him) to Pilate’: for paradidōmi ‘hand over,’ ‘deliver’ cf. 1.14. Pontius Pilate was the Roman procurator of Judea. A.D. 25/6–36, governing under the legatus of Syria. His official residence was in Caesarea, on the sea coast.

Translation:

Translation notes are to be found on several of the key words: chief priests (2.26; 8.31, and 14.47), elders (8.31), and scribes (1.22).

And the whole council may constitute a problem in some languages since the use of and in the meaning of ‘with’ or ‘in company with’ may imply that the chief priest, elders, and scribes were not themselves members of the council. To correct this meaning of the conjunction, one may translate as ‘and all the rest of the members of the council.’

Council is not usually difficult to translate since such institutions exist in almost all societies. Some typical renderings are ‘officials who gather together’ (Tzeltal), ‘those who think together’ (Copainalá Zoque), and ‘those who take charge of the affairs’ (Amganad Ifugao).

Held a consultation may be either ‘thought about the matter together’ or ‘talked about the matter.’

Delivered him may be equivalent to ‘turned him over to’ or ‘put him in the custody of.’

Led him away must be translated in such a manner as to be applicable to prisoners, and not as in some translations connoting the leading of children.

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 .