Text:

Instead of ptōma ‘corpse’ of the modern editions of the Greek text, Textus Receptus has soma ‘body.’

Exegesis:

gnous (cf. 6.38; 8.17) ‘finding (it) out,’ ‘learning (it).’ Revised Standard Version adds that ‘he was dead’ for clarity: there are no equivalent words in the Greek text.

edōrēsato (only here in Mark) ‘he bestowed,’ ‘he presented,’ ‘he gave.’

to ptōma (cf. 6.29) ‘the corpse,’ ‘the (dead) body.’

Translation:

Learned from the centurion that … may require adjustment to direct discourse, e.g. ‘when the centurion had told him, Jesus is dead.’

Granted must not be translated in such a way as to imply that Pilate literally handed over to Joseph the body of Jesus. A more meaningful rendering is often ‘told him that he could take’ or ‘allowed him to have.’

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 .