Exegesis:

Most of the words in this verse have already been dealt with: paraggellei ‘he commands,’ 6.8; anapesein ‘to recline,’ ‘to sit down,’ 6.40; labōn ‘taking,’ 6.41; paratithōsin ‘they may place,’ ‘they may set before,’ 6.41.

eucharistēsas (14.23; cf. eulogeō 6.41) ‘giving thanks (to God).’

eklasen (8.19; 14.22; cf. kataklaō 6.41) ‘he broke.’

Translation:

Commanded the crowd to sit … may be shifted to the direct form as ‘commanded the crowd, Sit down….’

In a number of languages ‘to give thanks’ requires an object. Accordingly, one may translate ‘he gave thanks to God’ or ‘he said to God, Thanks’ (Chicahuaxtla Triqui, Tzeltal).

For broke and gave to the disciples to set before see 6.41.

As in all instances of intra-Gospel parallels, one should attempt to reproduce the identical wording of the Greek text with substantially similar renderings in receptor languages. This may not always be completely possible, for certain minor shifts in wording in the Greek text may call for accompanying adaptations in receptor languages, and hence there cannot be any one-to-one system of exact correspondence. Nevertheless, the degree to which parallelism can be reproduced, whether within a single book or between books, should be a constant concern of the translator. On the other hand, it is not wise to refer to a portion already translated and to take over the wording without examination, for such arbitrary lifting of material out of context may result in very artificial transitions and syntactic relationships, especially in matters of tense sequence, conjunctions, pronominal reference, and aspects of the verb.

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 .