Exegesis:
epērōtēsen (cf. 5.39) ‘he asked,’ ‘he inquired.’
su ei…; ‘are you…?’: the personal pronoun is emphatic, indicating either surprise or disdain (cf. Gould).
ho basileus tōn Ioudaiōn (15.9, 12, 18, 26; cf. ho basileus Israēl 15.32) ‘the King of the Jews.’
su legeis literally ‘you are saying (it).’ By many commentators and translators this is taken to be an unequivocal affirmation, ‘Yes,’ ‘Certainly,’ ‘I am’ (Goodspeed, Moffatt, The Modern Speech New Testament, Williams, Berkeley, Montgomery; Zürcher Bibel translates ‘You say it’ and adds, in a footnote, “This means: Yes, I am”). Goodspeed argues that a comparison between Jesus’ answer to the high priest in Mark 14.62 ‘I am’ and in Matthew 26.64 ‘You said (it),’ proves that the expression su legeis (in Matthew su eipas) must mean ‘I am (as you say).’ This, however, is to argue in a circle, on the unproved assumption that Mt. 26.64 is meant to convey the same meaning as Mk. 14.62 (which immediately raises the question, “Why, then, did not Matthew use the same expression as Mark?”).
These and other considerations would indicate that a literal translation, ‘You said it,’ ‘The statement is yours,’ is perhaps better. Notwithstanding efforts to the contrary, it has not been established that the Greek phrase represents a Jewish form of assent (cf. Rawlinson, who thus paraphrases: “The assertion is yours. I neither affirm nor deny it”). Thus the early versions (Vulgate Tu dicis – which Knox translates ‘Thy own lips have said it’; Syriac Peshitto) and later translations (Luther, Le Nouveau Testament. Version Synodale, O Novo Testamento de Nosso Senhor Jesus Cristo. Revisdo Autorizada, American Standard Version, Translator’s New Testament, Manson) agree with Revised Standard Version‘s ‘You have said so’ (Arndt & Gingrich translate, ‘That is what you maintain’).
Translation:
Where a technical term for King does not exist, one may use a descriptive substitute, based on function, e.g. ‘one who rules over,’ ‘one who bosses,’ or ‘one who is the big chief of.’
Jews may require in a receptor language a classifier, e.g. ‘Jew people.’
You have said so is variously translated, depending upon one’s exegesis of the clause. In some instances, however, ‘that is what you say’ has seemed to translators to be entirely too evasive, if not disrespectful. Accordingly, some have attempted to combine possible meanings in some such form as ‘I am as you say,’ an interpretation of affirmative assent with somewhat more of the literal form of the Greek clause.
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 .