Exegesis:

kai gamēsē allēn ‘and he should marry another’: the meaning is, naturally, ‘another woman’ (not ‘another wife’).

gameō (cf. 6.17) ‘marry.’

moichatai ep’ autēn ‘he commits adultery with reference to her’: the great majority of commentators and translators understand autēn ‘her’ to refer to the first woman, whom the husband divorced (not the second, whom he married). Lagrange: “with regard to her: for it is with respect to her and to her rights that the second act is (an act of) adultery.” Translator’s New Testament and N. Turner, however, understands it to mean ‘commits adultery with her’ (i.e. the second woman); Turner appeals to Septuagint Jer. 5.8 chremetizō epi ‘neigh after’: he cannot, however, cite any instance of Mark’s using epi with the accusative meaning ‘with.’

epi ‘upon,’ ‘with reference to’: in a hostile sense, ‘against’ (cf. its use with this meaning in 3.24, 25, 26; 13.12; 14.48).

Translation:

The clause introduced by whoever may be shifted to a conditional clause, as is required by many languages, ‘if any one does…, he….’

Against her is not only a difficult expression for exegesis, but also a complicated phrase to translate. In some languages the reference must be made more specific, to be meaningful at all, e.g. ‘commits adultery against the first woman’ (Amganad Ifugao). In Huastec one may say ‘commits sin against her.’ In Conob an idiomatic phrase is commonly used ‘did evil against her eyes,’ but in some languages (e.g. Yaka, Tzeltal) the phrase is best omitted, since ‘adultery’ is understood with reference to the first woman, and any attempt to translate this phrase is either highly redundant or is understood as applying somehow to the second woman.

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 .

Exegesis:

prōtos (cf. 6.21) ‘first’: as in 9.35 and 10.31 the word indicates rank.

doulos (12.2, 4; 13.34; 14.47) ‘slave,’ ‘bond-slave’ (as distinguished from diakonos ‘servant’ and misthōtos (1.20) ‘hired man.’

Translation:

For translations of first see 10.31 and 9.35. In this context, however, first, in the sense of the first in a line, may not be applicable, for in this passage ‘strongest to command’ may be a closer correspondence in meaning.

Where a term for slaves is not known, there are sometimes different grades of servants. For example, among the Tzotzil a servidor (borrowed from Spanish) is ‘one who works for hire,’ but a mozo (likewise from Spanish) is one who is working off a debt, and for all practical purposes is a slave, for the chances of his ever paying off the debt are rather remote, unless he can obtain some legal help.

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 .

Text:

Instead of elabete ‘you received’ of all modern editions of the Greek text, Textus Receptus has lambanete ‘you receive.’

Exegesis:

panta hosa (cf. 6.30; 12.44) ‘all things whatsoever.’

proseuchesthe kai aiteisthe ‘you pray and ask for’: as Lagrange points out, this is a Semitic construction meaning simply ‘you ask in prayer,’ ‘you ask for as you pray.’

proseuchomai (cf. 1.35) ‘pray.’

aiteō (cf. 6.22) ‘ask for,’ ‘request.’

pisteuete hoti elabete ‘believe that you received it’: American Standard Version and Revised Standard Version ‘you receive it’ is obscure because of the tense forms. Most translations accurately give the sense of the aorist elabete: cf. especially Moffatt and Manson ‘you have got it.’

kai estai humin ‘and it shall be done for you’: the phrase is identical in construction and probably parallel in meaning to estai autō of the previous verse, though in this context it could mean ‘it will be yours’ (cf. Goodspeed and Moffatt).

Translation:

Ask in prayer may require expansion into two verb constructions, e.g. ‘ask as you talk to God’ or ‘ask for when you talk to God.’

There is a subtle use of the aorist tense of elabete ‘received,’ which cannot always be indicated in another language. Where possible, however, it is well to translate this as ‘believe that you have surely got it and it will be yours.’ On the other hand, such an idiom is not always possible, and one must settle for an emphatic future in the first clause, e.g. ‘believe that you will indeed receive it, and it will be yours.’

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 .

Exegesis:

ou dia touto…; ‘is it not on account of this…?’ ‘is this not the reason why…?’

planasthe (12.27; 13.5, 6) ‘you err,’ ‘you are mistaken’: the verb may be read as a middle, ‘you deceive yourselves,’ but is probably to be taken as passive, ‘you are misled.’

mē eidotes ‘not knowing’: the participle is causal, ‘because you do not know.’

tas graphas (cf. 12.10) ‘the Scriptures’: by this, of course, the Hebrew Scriptures are meant.

tēn dunamin (cf. 5.30) ‘the power.’

Translation:

Why you are wrong refers to their mistake in judgment and speech, not to “wrong” in the moral sense. In Tzeltal this meaning is brought out nicely by ‘you go off the wrong road in speech.’

Since the final clause introduced by that states the cause of the wrong judgment (grammatically anticipated in the words this why), one may substitute a causative conjunction, ‘is not this the reason why you are wrong, because you know….’

Know the power of God may give rise to two quite different meanings: (1) to experience the power of God, which is obviously not the meaning of this passage, and (2) to know about the power of God, e.g. ‘to know how God has power’ (Tzeltal).

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 .

Exegesis:

epanastēsontai tekna epi goneis ‘and children will rise against their parents’: the clause recalls the language of Micah 7.6.

epanistēmi (only here in Mark) ‘raise up against’: in the middle, as here, ‘rise up against.’

goneis (only here in Mark) ‘parents.’

thanatōsousin (14.55) ‘they will put to death,’ ‘they will hand over to be killed.’

Translation:

Deliver up … to death means ‘hand them over in order to have them killed’ or ‘hand them over so that they will be killed.’

Brother … brother gives rise to certain problems of translation when there are various terms for ‘brother.’ One may, for example, use a generic term such as ‘siblings will hand over siblings.’ On the other hand, where ‘older brother’ and ‘younger brother’ must be distinguished, one may say, ‘an older brother will hand over a younger brother and a younger brother will hand over an older brother.’ In some languages, however, this doubling of the expression is not necessary, since general truths about reciprocal activities may be expressed as ‘older brothers will hand over younger brothers.’ Note, however, that in many instances one must use plural rather than singular forms, in order for the statement to be generally applicable and not merely restricted to a particular event.

Because of the necessity for plural forms, and in some instances for a filling out of the elliptical expressions, one may translate the clause as ‘fathers will hand over their children to be killed and children will be angry with their parents and cause them to be killed.’

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 .

Exegesis:

pantote (only here in Mark) ‘all times,’ ‘always.’

hotan (cf. 11.19) ‘whenever,’ indicating here more than one definite occasion.

eu poiēsai (only here in the N.T.; cf. agathopoiēsai 3.4) ‘to do good.’

Translation:

The expression have … with may require recasting in some such form as ‘the poor people are always with you’ or ‘there are always poor people where you are.’

In contrast with the Greek and English of the two clauses whenever … to them, some languages require the first of the two clauses to be the full one and the second one the elliptical one, e.g. ‘whenever you want to do good to them, you can’ or ‘if ever you want to do good to such people, you are able to.’

Have me must be recast in much the same way as the first clause of this verse, e.g. ‘I will not always be here with you’ (Tzeltal) or ‘I will not always be here where you are.’

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 .

Exegesis:

apelthōn ‘going away’: i.e. from the three disciples.

ton auton logon ‘the same word’: in this context, ‘the same prayer’ or ‘the same petition’ (cf. similar use of logos in 5.36; 7.29; 8.32; 9.10; 10.22; 11.29; 12.13).

Translation:

Saying the same words must refer to the previous prayer, not to the immediately preceding words uttered by Jesus, e.g. ‘he spoke to God with the same words with which he had spoken to God’ or ‘he talked to God just as he had done before.’

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 .

Exegesis:

anathematizein (only here in Mark) ‘to invoke anathema,’ ‘to devote to destruction,’ ‘to put under the curse’: the verb means to pronounce anathema (Hebrew cherem), i.e. ‘devoted to destruction,’ upon someone, in this case on the speaker himself. ‘May I be accursed if (what I say is not true)!’ For instances of this cf. 1 Sam. 20.13; 2 Sam. 3.9; Acts 23.12.

omnunai (cf. 6.23) ‘to swear,’ ‘to put oneself on oath’: neither one of the two verbs here employed would suggest vulgarity or profanity on the part of Peter (cf. Gould); they are rather, on his part, expressive and solemn protestations of the truth of his assertion.

Translation:

In most societies there is some means whereby a person may put himself under a curse if his statement is not true, e.g. ‘said that he wanted God to punish him if it were not so’ (Central Pame). However, in some languages the description of such a process would take a paragraph, since curses are not normally invoked as proof of one’s veracity. In these instances, ‘declare with solemn words’ or ‘say with very strong words’ may be the closest parallel.

Curse and swear are distinct processes, even though the witness of God or supernatural sanctions are invoked in both instances. In the first case, God is asked to punish one for not telling the truth, and in the second, God is asked to be a witness of the truth, e.g. ‘God truly sees me that I don’t know the one you say’ (Tzeltal).

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 .