Text:

After sunerchontai ‘they come together,’ Textus Receptus, Soden, Vogels, Souter, and Kilpatrick add autō ‘to him,’ which is omitted by the majority of modern editions of the Greek text.

Exegesis:

sunerchontai (cf. 3.20) ‘they come together,’ ‘they assemble,’ ‘they gather’: the verb here expresses the act of coming together, rather than describes the gathering as having taken place. Therefore, ‘they came together’ or ‘they assembled themselves’ is a better translation than Revised Standard Version ‘were assembled’ (which is the meaning of sunēchthēsan in the parallel passage Mt. 26.57).

The other words in this verse have already been dealt with: for apagō ‘lead off’ cf. v. 44; for ho archiereus ‘the high priest’ cf. v. 47; for hoi archiereis kai hoi presbuteroi kai hoi grammateis ‘the chief priests and the elders and the scribes’ cf. 8.31.

Translation:

For high priest and chief priests see verse 47; for elders see 8.31, and for scribes see 1.22.

Were assembled may be rendered as ‘came together into an assembly,’ ‘got together in a council,’ or ‘came together to decide on the matter.’

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:

ti gar epoiēsen kakon; ‘why, what evil (thing) has he done?’: in such a question gar means ‘why!’ ‘how so!’

kakos (cf. 7.21) ‘evil deed,’ ‘bad thing.’

perissōs (cf. 10.26) ‘exceedingly,’ ‘all the more.’

Translation:

Said to them may require modification to ‘asked them.’

Why may be expanded slightly in order to be an equivalent expression of concern, e.g. ‘why so’ or ‘why say that.’

What evil has he done may be paralleled by ‘what sin has he committed’ or ‘what bad deed has he done.’

All the more is a kind of comparative, indicating at the same time a high degree of activity, e.g. ‘yelled more, more’ or ‘shouted so much greater.’

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 katethēken ‘he deposited’ of the majority of editions of the Greek text, Westcott and Hort, Souter, Lagrange, and Taylor have ethēken ‘he placed.’

Exegesis:

agorasas (cf. 6.36) ‘buying’: according to normal usage of the aorist participle, ‘he bought’ indicates here an action which followed the actions in the preceding verses (and preceded the action of the main verb in this verse). It is not, therefore, to be translated ‘he had bought.’

sindona (cf. 14.51) ‘a linen cloth,’ ‘a linen sheet’: Revised Standard Version ‘linen shroud’ is derived, of course, from the use to which the cloth was put.

kathelōn (cf. v. 36) ‘taking down (from the cross).’

auton ‘him,’ i.e. Jesus, and not ‘it’ (the body).

eneilēsen (only here in the N.T.) ‘he wound in,’ ‘he wrapped in.’

katethēken (only here in Mark) ‘he deposited,’ ‘he placed.’

en mnēmati (cf. 5.3) ‘in the tomb.’

ēn lelatomēmenon (only here in Mark) ‘it had been hewn out’: here this verbal phrase has its proper meaning as a pluperfect, indicating an action completed in the past.

ek petras (only here in Mark; cf. petrōdēs, 4.5) ‘out of the rock’: as further details indicate, this is to be thought of as an artificial cave or cavern dug out from the side of the rock, and not a grave dug into the ground, below the surface of the earth.

prosekulisen lithon epi tēn thuran ‘he rolled a stone against the entrance.’ thura here not to be thought of as a ‘door’ or ‘gate,’ its normal meaning; it is the entrance to the tomb.

For mnēmeion ‘tomb’ cf. 5.2.

Translation:

Linen shroud is generally ‘linen cloth,’ or where linen is quite unknown ‘good white cloth’ is used as a functional equivalent.

Though the Greek text refers to ‘him,’ rather than the body, as being taken down from the cross, in translations it is often necessary to specify the body, since ‘him’ would refer only to a living person or to his ghost. Hence, ‘took the body down, wrapped it in a linen cloth, and laid it in a tomb’ is the only correct equivalent expression for the Greek text.

Tomb may be described as ‘a small cave which was cut (or ‘dug’) out of the rock.’

Rock may be translated as ‘rock cliff,’ so as to indicate that the cave was dug into a rock cliff, rather than excavated out of the ground.

Rolled a stone against the door has very often been mistranslated in such a way that people assume that a door was used to close the tomb and then that a large stone was rolled up in front of the door so as to prevent easy entrance. Rather the meaning is that ‘a large stone was rolled up to cover the entrance to the tomb.’

In some languages distinctions must be made between various kinds of stone, ‘limestone’ vs. ‘sandstone’ (Shipibo-Conibo). It is more likely that the tomb was hewn out of limestone.

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:

sparaxan (9.26) ‘convulsing.’ The word clearly points to a seizure, a convulsion (cf. 9.20, Lk. 9.39). A man suffering an attack of this sort is described as anthrōpos sparattomenos ‘a man convulsed.’

to pneuma to akatharton ‘the unclean spirit’ is in the nominative case, and is the subject of all the verbs in the verse.

sparaxan … kai phōnēsan ‘convulsing … and shouting’ are both aorist participles, whose action is simultaneous with that of the main verb exēlthen ‘went out.’ The Revised Standard Version “crying” should not be understood in the sense of weeping.

Translation:

Convulsing him should be translated by a term used to identify such types of seizures as occur in epilepsy. It is not enough to say ‘shook him.’ Such fits may of course be described in various ways in different languages. In Tzeltal, for example, such an attack is spoken of as ‘his wind was stopped.’

Crying with a loud voice is simply ‘yelled,’ but note that the spirit is the one who is credited with the scream, not the man.

In some languages the three actions of ‘convulsing,’ ‘yelling,’ and ‘coming out’ may have to be placed in a temporal sequence, but generally they can be rendered as ‘as the unclean spirit caused the man to have a fit and screamed out it came out of him.’

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:

paragōn (cf. 1.16) ‘passing by.’

ton tou Alphaiou ‘the (son) of Alphaeus’: the regular way of denoting filial relationship.

kathēmenon epi ‘sitting at’ (not ‘upon’).

to telōnion ‘revenue office,’ ‘custom house,’ ‘toll house’: Translator’s New Testament “customs office.” This customs office in Capernaum would be in the service of Herod Antipas, tetrarch of Galilee.

akolouthei moi ‘follow me (in discipleship)’ (cf. 1.18).

Translation:

In some languages the transition between taught them and passed on is somewhat too abrupt. This may require the addition of some temporal particle such as ‘then,’ so as to show the proper sequence of events and to avoid the words ‘passing on’ being confusedly taken as more or less part of the teaching.

The tax office is ‘where they received taxes’ (or ‘customs’). This does not refer to the collection of personal taxes on wealth, but to the collection of customs on produce being transported to or through Capernaum. The equivalent of this type of tax in many communities are the levies imposed on merchants or farmers from surrounding regions who come into a market town to sell their wares or produce.

For an adequate translation of follow see 1.17.

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 kai emeristhē ‘and is divided’ read by the majority of the modern editions of the Greek text, Textus Receptus and Soden read kai memeristai ‘and has been divided’; Tischendorf and Kilpatrick read emeristhē kai ‘is divided and.’

Exegesis:

anestē eph’ heauton kai emeristhē ‘he rose against himself and is divided’: i.e. if Satan is at war against himself, if there is faction or division in his kingdom, among his subordinates.

telos echei (cf. Heb. 7.3) ‘he has an end,’ i.e. “he is done for” (Manson), “he is finished”, “that is the end of him” (Translator’s New Testament). What is meant is the end of his power, or his kingdom (cf. Lagrange), rather than the end of his existence (as O Novo Testamento de Nosso Senhor Jesus Cristo. Revisdo Autorizada perece has it).

Translation:

Risen up against himself may be rendered as ‘Satan fighting against himself’ (Amganad Ifugao, Shilluk). On the other hand, one may employ a less violent, but equally meaningful type of equivalent, as in Kekchí e.g. ‘if Satan hates himself’ (literally, ‘looks mean at himself’).

To speak of Satan as being ‘divided’ may mean that he is literally cut into two pieces, obviously not the meaning of the passage. On the other hand, it is quite possible to speak of ‘his power is divided,’ and by this means employ a very close equivalent.

Cannot stand may be treated as in the preceding two verses.

In some languages a person cannot ‘come to an end,’ but ‘his power will end’ (Loma (Liberia)). In others, one may translate ‘he will disappear’ or ‘he will no longer exist.’

It should be noted, that though these conditional sentences (verses 24-26) are given as simple conditionals: ‘if … is…, is (or, will)’; nevertheless, they are essentially conditions contrary to fact: ‘if … should be…, then … would be….’ One must often be quite careful to distinguish between simple conditions, which in this case would imply that Satan cannot stand, as of now, and conditions contrary to fact, implying that Satan was not divided against himself, for certainly Jesus was not acting on the authority of Beelzebul.

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:

The sense of the order is: ‘whenever you enter a town stay in the same house until you leave that town’ (cf. Mt. 10.11).

menete (14.34) ‘stay,’ ‘remain,’ ‘abide.’

heōs an (9.1; 12.36) ‘until’: the verb which follows is in the subjunctive mode.

Translation:

If this verse is translated literally, it may result in nonsense, e.g. ‘when you enter a house, stay in the house, till you leave the house.’ This is precisely what a number of translations mean, and it is not without reason that readers are puzzled. The meaning (see the Matthaean parallel, Mt. 10.11) is ‘when you enter a house as a guest, do not change residence till you leave the town.’ This was designed to prevent the practice employed by some religious teachers who went from house to house, imposing on the hospitality of as many people as possible.

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 .