Exegesis:

hoi mathētai autou ‘his (i.e. John’s) disciples’ (cf. 2.18).

ptōma (15.45) ‘(fallen) body,’ ‘corpse’ (from piptō ‘fall’).

ethēkan (cf. 4.21) ‘they placed,’ ‘they put.’

en mnēmeiō (cf. 5.2) ‘in a tomb,’ ‘in a grave.’

Translation:

His must be rendered as ‘John’s’ in many languages, since the usual referent of his in a phrase speaking of disciples would be Jesus, and in a number of instances people have wrongly thought that this was an act of kindness on the part of Jesus’ disciples toward John.

Came is probably better rendered as ‘went,’ unless one wishes to portray the writer Mark as narrating from Herod’s court. (For a discussion of problems involving ‘come’ and ‘go,’ see 1.14.)

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 .