Text:

Instead of ei mē ‘except’ of Westcott and Hort, Souter, Nestle, Lagrange, and Taylor, alla ‘but’ is read by Textus Receptus, Tischendorf, Soden, Vogels, Kilpatrick, and Merk.

Instead of ei mē (or alla) ton Iēsoun monon meth’ heautōn ‘except (or, but) Jesus alone with them’ of Nestle, Souter, Textus Receptus, Tischendorf, Soden, Vogels, and Merk, the order of words is changed to meth’ heautōn ei mē ton Iēsoun monon ‘with them except Jesus alone’ in Westcott and Hort, Lagrange, Taylor (cf. Kilpatrick).

Exegesis:

exapina (only here in the N.T.) ‘suddenly,’ ‘unexpectedly,’ ‘abruptly.’

periblepsamenoi (cf. 3.5) ‘looking around.’

monon ‘only,’ ‘alone’: an adjective, modifying Iēsoun ‘Jesus,’ not an adverb modifying eidon ‘they saw.’

Translation:

They must be translated to refer to the disciples.

In some languages, the dependent participial construction suddenly looking around must be made into an independent or at least coordinate phrase, for it is obviously a more important aspect of the process than the negative statement which follows. Accordingly, one may translate ‘they suddenly looked around and could no longer see any one….’

But Jesus only may be translated as ‘no one except Jesus; there was no one else.’

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 .