Text:

In v. 40 after este ‘you are’ Textus Receptus, Nestle, Tischendorf, Soden, Vogels, Taylor and Kilpatrick add houtōs ‘thus’ which is omitted by Westcott and Hort, Lagrange, Souter, Merk and Revised Standard Version.

In v. 40 instead of pōs ouch echete ‘how (is it that) you do not have’ read by Textus Receptus, Tischendorf, Merk and Nestle; oupō echete ‘do you not (yet) have’ is preferred by Westcott and Hort, Souter, Soden, Vogels, Lagrange, Revised Standard Version, Kilpatrick.

Exegesis:

deiloi (only here in Mark) ‘timid,’ ‘fearful,’ ‘cowardly.’

pōs ‘how?,’ ‘how is it possible that…?’

pistin (cf. 2.5) ‘faith,’ ‘belief,’ ‘trust’: whether in God, or in Jesus himself, the text does not specify.

ephobēthēsan phobon megan ‘they feared a great fear’: a Semitic manner of intensive statement ‘they feared greatly,’ ‘they were very much afraid.’

phobeomai (5.15, 33, 36; 6.20, 50; 9.32; 10.32; 11.18, 32; 12.12; 16.8) ‘to be afraid,’ ‘to be awed.’

pros allēlous (8.16; 9.34; 15.31; en allēlois 9.50) ‘to themselves,’ i.e. ‘to one another’ (not privately, each one to himself, but in the group, one to the other).

ara (11.13) ‘then,’ ‘therefore’: as an inference from all that has preceded; ‘In light of this, who, then, is this man?’

kai ho anemos ‘even the wind’: so the great majority of modern translations (American Standard Version, Revised Standard Version, Goodspeed, Berkeley, Manson, The Modern Speech New Testament, Williams, Montgomery, Zürcher Bibel, O Novo Testamento de Nosso Senhor Jesus Cristo. Revisdo Autorizada); Translator’s New Testament, however, “both wind and….”

hupakouei (cf. 1.27) ‘they obey.’

Translation:

Them must in some languages be clearly indicated as ‘disciples’ because of the immediately preceding reference to the ‘wind and sea.’

The description of fear leads to a number of idioms, e.g. ‘your heart trembles’ (Tzeltal), ‘shiver in your liver’ (Uduk), and ‘to have such little hearts’ (Tzotzil). This fear must be carefully distinguished from the meaning of fear as reverence or respect.

For faith see 1.15. In some languages, however, one cannot speak of faith without indicating the object of the faith. Despite the fact that the Greek does not specify whether this is faith in Jesus or God, it is probably more acceptable to translate as ‘faith in God,’ since it would seem that faith is here spoken of in terms of its widest application to experiences of confidence and trust, rather than with regard to specific reliance on Jesus’ own leadership and provision for their needs.

Filled with awe is equivalent in some instances to ‘completely amazed,’ ‘their thoughts left them,’ ‘their hearts fell.’

Who, introducing the last question is not a simple interrogative pronoun relating to identity. It rather asks ‘what sort of person is this that….’ Or, as in some languages, ‘who is this sort of person that….’ At any rate, there must usually be some type of qualifier to supplement the words as they stand in the English text.

Obey him may be rendered as ‘do what he says’ (or ‘commands’).

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 .