Exegesis:
apo makrothen (8.3; 11.13; 14.54; 15.40) ‘from afar,’ ‘from a distance.’
ed ramen kai prosekunēsen auton ‘he ran and prostrated himself before him.’
trechō (15.36) ‘run.’
proskuneō (15.19) ‘do reverence,’ ‘make obeisance,’ ‘bow down to,’ ‘worship’: not in the technical Christian sense of worshiping Jesus, but in the general sense of paying him reverence (cf. 3.11 prosepipton autō ‘they fell down before him’; cf. the parallel Lk. 8.28 prosepesen autō ‘he fell down before him’) Most English translations have “knelt before him.”
ti emoi kai soi (cf. 1.24) ‘why do you bother me?’
huie tou theou tou hupsistou ‘son of the Most High God.’
hupsistos (11.10) ‘(the) Most High’: title of the God of the Jews. The word is the superlative form of the adverb hupsi ‘on high.’
horkizō se ton theon ‘I implore you by God’: the accusative ton theon ‘God’ denotes the thing (or, name) by which one swears (cf. Acts 19.13 ton Iēsoun ‘by Jesus’).
horkizō (only here in Mark) ‘put on oath’ (horkos ‘oath’), ‘cause to swear,’ ‘adjure,’ ‘entreat earnestly,’ ‘implore.’
basanisēs (6.48) ‘torment,’ ‘torture’: here probably with the idea of temporal punishment (Mt. 8.29 and Lk. 8.28, 31 interpret it of eschatological punishment).
Translation:
Worshiped is most generally rendered as ‘knelt down before’ or ‘fell down before in reverence.’
Crying with a loud voice is equivalent to ‘shouted out strong’ or ‘yelled.’
For a discussion of some of the problems in the idiom “What have you to do with me”, see 1.24. In this context Tzotzil has ‘what does it serve you to me’ and Loma (Liberia) has ‘what is your palaver on me.’
The superlative Most High cannot always be translated literally. In some instances, even though a superlative form does not exist, some relatively satisfactory equivalent may be used, e.g. ‘extremely high above’ (Kekchi). In other cases, one must substitute location, e.g. ‘high in heaven’ (Huichol), for an expression meaning ‘highest’ would refer only to physical size. In still other languages, one must substitute general size for height, as an expression of distinction, e.g. ‘really great’ (Conob).
Adjure is variously translated, e.g. ‘tell you before God’ (Copainalá Zoque), ‘ask in front of God’ (Huautla Mazatec), ‘ask you by God’ (Eastern Highland Otomi), ‘ask you in God’s presence’ (Southern Subanen), ‘I swear, calling on the name of God, requesting you’ (Toraja-Sa’dan), ‘I want your oath by God’ (Indonesian), ‘will assure me by using a curse on yourself calling on the name of God’ (Pamona), and ‘ask you; God has seen it’ (Tzotzil). The concept of adjure involves two relationships: (1) the asking of the person and (2) the witness or participation of the deity called to witness or validate the request. Such actions, though rather unfamiliar to people in our Western culture, are common enough in most societies.
Torment may be rendered as ‘cause to suffer.’
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 .