Text:

kainais ‘new’ is omitted by Westcott and Hort, and Taylor, but included by the great majority of editions of the Greek text.

Exegesis:

sēmeia (v. 20; cf. Mk. 8.11) ‘signs’: here, as in Mk. 8.11, the signs are miraculous or supernatural events attesting to the divine origin of the message proclaimed.

tois pisteusasin (cf. v. 16) ‘those who believe,’ ‘the believers.’

parakolouthēsei (not in Mark) ‘will accompany,’ ‘will follow,’ ‘will attend.’

en tō onomati mou (cf. Mk. 9.38) ‘in my name.’

daimonia ekbalousin (cf. v. 9) ‘they will expel demons.’

glōssais lalēsousin kainais ‘they will speak in new tongues’: whether these ‘new tongues’ are intelligible foreign languages, or ecstatic charismatic utterances, the text does not say. It is to be presumed, however, that the meaning here is the same as that in Acts 2.4-11, rather than that in 1 Co. 14 (it should be observed, however, that nowhere else is the phrase ‘speak in new tongues’ used: in Acts 2.4 ‘speak in other tongues’ is used, while 1 Co. 14 has simply ‘to speak in tongues’ or, ‘a tongue’).

glōssa ‘tongue,’ meaning here ‘language’ (the word is not used in this sense in Mark – cf. 7.33).

kainē ‘new’: the meaning here is, presumably, ‘new (i.e. strange) to the one speaking it’ not necessarily ‘new’ in the sense of a heretofore unknown language.

Translation:

For signs see 8.11, but in this context it is difficult to speak of ‘signs’ as ‘accompanying’ or ‘following’; these are activities restricted to persons, rather than to signs or symbols. Sometimes, however, one can say that ‘signs will be present in those who…’ or ‘signs will be with those who….’ In other languages the clause must be recast as ‘those who believe will show these signs:….’

For cast out demons see 1.26, 32, and 34; and for in my name see 9.37.

In most languages one cannot say ‘speak in a tongue.’ In fact, more often than not one speaks ‘with the mouth,’ not ‘with the tongue.’ Hence, in this passage one must use ‘speak strange languages’ or ‘speak other languages.’ If possible one should leave as ambiguous whether the ‘language’ in this case is actually a foreign language or ecstatic speech.

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 .