Text:

eis to peran ‘to the other side’ is omitted by Taylor and Manson, but retained by all other modern editions of the Greek text.

Exegesis:

ēnagkasen … embēnai … kai proagein ‘he compelled … to enter … and to go ahead.’

anagkazō (only here in Mark) ‘force,’ ‘compel’; Arndt & Gingrich see a weakened meaning ‘strongly urge.’ The word implies unwillingness on the part of the disciples.

embainō (cf. 4.1) ‘get in,’ ‘embark.’

proagō (10.32; 11.9; 14.28; 16.7) ‘lead the way,’ ‘go before,’ ‘precede.’

eis to peran (cf. 4.35) ‘to the other side’: on the difficulties of joining this phrase to pros Bēthsaida ‘to Bethsaida’ see the commentaries. It is generally agreed that this is Bethsaida Julias on the east side of the Lake.

heōs autos apoluei ‘while he dismisses.’

heōs ‘until’: with the present indicative (as here) it means while the action indicated by the verb is in processfor further examples cf. Mt. 5.25, Jn. 9.4).

apoluō (cf. 6.36) ‘send away,’ ‘dismiss.’

Translation:

Made his disciples get into the boat is a verbal, not a direct, instrumental causative, i.e. ‘he told his disciples to get into the boat.’ One must avoid the impression of Jesus manhandling his disciples, an easy mistake to make at this point.

If a verb of ‘speaking’ or ‘commanding’ is used, one may shift this verse to direct discourse, ‘he ordered his disciples, Get into the boat and go on ahead of me to the other side, to the town of Bethsaida….’

Dismissed the crowd is paralleled in some languages by ‘told the crowd to go home’ (Southern Subanen), but see also 6.36.

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 .