Exegesis:

Bethany was about two miles from Jerusalem, while Bethphage was closer, probably less than one mile from the city; Dalman (op. cit., 252) calls it “a suburb, but not a separate unit” of the city of Jerusalem.

eggizousin (cf. 1.15) ‘they approach.’

to oros tōn elaiōn (13.3; 14.26) ‘the Mount of Olives.’

apostellei (cf. 1.2) ‘he sends.’

Translation:

To Jerusalem, to Bethphage and Bethany has been translated in some instances in such a way as to suggest that the crowd approached three different cities all at the same time. Actually, to Bethphage and Bethany is a kind of appositional explanation of the previous prepositional phrase, meaning ‘that is to say, to the outlying towns of Bethphage and Bethany,’ which were considered as essentially a part of the larger city unit. To make this clear one can sometimes use ‘that is’ as an introductory phrase. As a classifier for the small towns of Bethphage and Bethany, one may be able to employ some term which indicates small dependent towns on the outskirts of a larger city.

As in all instances of transliteration, one must check for possible meanings in strange words. For example, in one language in Mexico the normal transliteration of Bethphage turned out to mean ‘a debt tomorrow.’ By a slight modification in the transliterated form all possibility of misinterpretation was eliminated.

At as a preposition used with the Mount of Olives is so indefinite that it is often not readily translatable, especially in languages which require somewhat more precise indications of locations. In this instance one can say ‘on the slope of the Mount of Olives’ or ‘on the side of the Mount of Olives,’ or as in some languages ‘on the skirt of the Mount of Olives.’

Olives refers to the ‘olive trees,’ not to the fruit. In most instances the practice is to transliterate Olives, and use it strictly as a proper name, though in some instances a classifier such as ‘trees’ is employed, e.g. ‘high hill on which there were olive trees’ or ‘Mount of Olive trees.’ In some translations, however, the local equivalent of the olive tree is employed, though olive trees do not have a very wide geographical distribution. Mount should not be translated in such a way as to give the impression of a high mountain, for in comparison with the surrounding terrain it is only a high hill, even though it does rise somewhat higher than the surrounding hills.

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 .