Exegesis:
apokopson (9.45) ‘cut (it) off.’
kullon (only here in Mark) ‘maimed,’ ‘crippled,’ ‘deformed.’
eiselthein eis tēn zōēn (9.45) ‘to enter into life’: i.e. future life, eternal life, the blessed life with God (cf. zōē aiōnios ‘eternal life’ 10.17, 30).
apelthein eis tēn geennan ‘go away to Gehenna,’ ‘go off into hell’ (for aperchomai eis ‘go away to’ cf. 6.32, 36, 46; 7.24, 30; 8.13).
apelthein ‘to go off’: in the light of the use of exelthein ‘to go out’ in 7.29 with the meaning ‘to be cast out,’ and of the passive verb blēthēnai ‘to be thrown’ in the parallel passages in vv. 45, 47, it is probable that apelthein here means simply ‘to be cast,’ ‘to be thrown,’ as synonym of blēthēnai ‘to be thrown’ in vv. 45, 47.
geenna (9.45|, 47prj:GRK.Mark 9.45) in the New Testament is ‘hell,’ the eschatological place of final punishment.
asbeston (only here in Mark) ‘unquenchable,’ ‘inextinguishable,’ ‘which cannot be put out.’
Translation:
As suggested in the previous verses ‘cause to stumble’ (which is the literal meaning of the Greek text) must be modified in various translations. In this particular verse a literal rendering might be entirely misleading, i.e. ‘to stumble over one’s hands’ or ‘to be tripped up because of one’s hands.’ Accordingly, one must use some other equivalent expression, e.g. ‘if your heart is spoiled because of your hand’ (Kekchi). In Copainalá Zoque the appropriate expression for this passage is ‘if your hand causes you to be lost.’
In languages in which comparative expressions cannot be formed by the ready use of certain special forms or idioms (there are a number of languages which have no such morphological or syntactic devices), a number of adjustments may be required. For example, in Tzeltal one may say ‘it is good if you enter … with just one hand, but if you have two hands and go to hell…, poor you!’ The comparative is only implied, not specifically stated. However, the ultimate effect of the communication is just as positive as it is in English, Greek, or any other languages which have specific comparative constructions such as better … than.
Enter life cannot be said in many languages, for the concept of ‘life’ may be translatable only as a verb. In Kekchi, for example, one must translate ‘enter into heaven and live.’ It is quite true that in the Greek text ‘enter life’ is not restricted specifically to going to heaven, but in contrast with going to Gehenna the parallelism does support such an addition.
Hell (reflecting the use of Greek Gehenna) is rendered in three principal ways: (1) by borrowing a term from a trade or national language (this is done in a number of Indian languages in Latin America, which have borrowed Spanish infierno), (2) by using an expression denoting judgment or punishment, e.g. ‘place of punishment’ (Loma (Liberia)), ‘place of suffering’ (Highland Totonac, San Blas Kuna), or ‘place of destruction,’ and (3) by describing a significant characteristic: (a) the presence of fire or burning, e.g. ‘place of fire’ (Kipsigis, More), ‘the large bonfire’ (Shipibo-Conibo), or (b) the traditionally presumed location, e.g. ‘the lowest place’ (a well-known term in Ngäbere), ‘the place inside’ long used to designate hell, as a place inside the earth (Aymara).
In choosing a word for hell it is equally important to study possibilities for translating hades (see Bible Translating, 231-32). This latter term is transliterated (not too common a practice) or described as ‘the place of the dead’ (though distinguished clearly from ‘cemetery’).
If hell is translated as ‘the place of fire,’ then the added expression to the unquenchable fire may be combined as ‘to the place of fire which cannot be put out.’
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 .