Exegesis:

kai erchontai eis Bethsaidan ‘and they come to Bethsaida’: this is presumably the same Bethsaida referred to in 6.45.

kai pherousin autō tuphlon ‘and they bring a blind man to him’: another example of the impersonal plural: ‘people brought…,’ ‘men brought….’

pherō (cf. 1.32) ‘bring.’

tuphlos (8.23; 10.46, 49, 51) an adjective, ‘blind,’ used as a noun: ‘a blind man.’

The other words have already been dealt with: parakaleō (1.40) ‘beg,’ ‘plead’; hina (5.10, 18) ‘that,’ indicating content, not purpose; haptomai (1.41) ‘touch.’

Translation:

They must be so translated as to refer to Jesus and the disciples. Him may require translation by the word ‘Jesus’ if the reference is to be clear in some languages.

Bring may require a very special type of corresponding form, e.g. ‘led,’ ‘directed,’ or ‘showed the way.’

Note that the people are the ones who requested Jesus to touch the blind man. Touch in this case would probably be either with the finger or the hand. In Huautla Mazatec the reference must be quite specific, e.g. ‘And Jesus and the disciples arrived at the village of Bethsaida. The people brought to him a man who was blind. They asked Jesus to touch that person.’ The problems in Huautla Mazatec are especially acute because of a lack of grammatical distinctions in number and gender.

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 .