Exegesis:

anabainei (cf. 1.10) ‘he goes up.’

eis to oros (cf. 6.46; 13.14) literally ‘into the hill’: what is meant is the hill district as distinct from the lowlands, especially above the Lake of Galilee.

proskaleitai hous ēthelen autos ‘he calls to himself those whom he himself wished.’

proskaloumai ‘summon,’ ‘call to oneself,’ ‘invite’: with one exception (15.44, Pilate to the centurion) this verb in Mark is used always of Jesus’ calling the disciples (3.13; 6.7; 8.1; 10.42; 12.43) or the crowd (3.23; 7.14; 8.34).

thelō (some 24 times in Mark) ‘desire,’ ‘will,’ ‘wish’: Arndt & Gingrich hold that the verb here indicates purpose and will, rather than desire; and Turner concludes that thelō in Mark must not be translated ‘wish’ or ‘desire,’ and that in the present passage the sense of the verb is that of choice: ‘whom he willed.’

autos ‘he’: since the personal pronoun is unnecessary with the verb, in Greek, it is normally emphatic when used: ‘he himself.’ Turner, however, takes it to be unemphatic in Mark, meaning, simply ‘he.’

kai apēlthon pros auton ‘and they went off (from the crowd) to him.’

Translation:

Into the hills, if translated literally, can be badly misunderstood. In Kekchi, for example, one must translate ‘on the face of the hill.’ In other languages it must be ‘in the region of the hills’ or ‘among the hills.’

For call see 1.20.

Desired in this context should not be understood in the sense of ‘personal pleasure in’ (a not uncommon mistake, and one which can lead to gross misinterpretation). The appropriate area of meaning in some languages seems to lie about half-way between ‘want’ and ‘choose.’

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 .