Exegesis:

prōi ennucha lian ‘exceedingly early, while still dark’: the piling up of three adverbs indicates that it was very early, long before sunrise. The whole adverbial phrase modifies the verb ‘to rise.’

prōi (11.20; 13.35; 15.1; 16.2, 9) ‘early,’ ‘in the morning.’

ennucha (only here in N.T.), an adverb, properly the neuter plural form of ennuchos ‘in the night,’ ‘at night time.’

lian (6.51; 9.3; 16.2) ‘very,’ ‘exceedingly.’

anastas exēlthen kai apēlthen ‘rising he went out and (went) away’: Turner notes this use of two almost synonymous verbs as characteristically Marcan.

anastas occurs 17 more times in the sense of ‘rise’ (it does not appear in Mark with the meaning ‘raise’), ‘rising up (from bed or from sleep).’

exēlthen ‘he went out (from the house)’: some see the additional idea of the town (Capernaum) also (Swete, Turner).

apēlthen ‘he went away.’ Manson: “went out and away”; Moule “he left the house and went away.”

erēmon topon ‘lonely place,’ ‘isolated spot,’ ‘solitary place’: there is no desert around Capernaum.

prosēucheto (6.46; 11.24, 25; 12.40; 13.18; 14.32, 35, 38, 39) ‘he prayed,’ ‘he was praying’: the imperfect tense may have the meaning ‘he started praying.’

Translation:

The equivalent of in the morning, a great while before day may be ‘it was still very dark’ or ‘it was a long time before the sun would come up,’ or ‘long before heavens-open-door’ (Maninka).

Rose means got up from sleeping.

While in English we must use several words to describe this process of getting up early in the morning before sunup and going out from the town, in More this entire idea is expressed by a single verb, this being a very common experience of the people, who set off for their fields very early in the morning hours.

In N.T. Greek proseuchomai is one of the most common verbs for praying and as such is the most neutral term. However, in attempting to discover adequate equivalents in other languages the situation is complicated by the fact that Christian prayer is in many respects so different from pagan prayer. In general there are three alternatives: (1) a traditional term which often implies primarily incantation and reciting, e.g. ‘to speak doctrine’ or ‘repeat words,’ (2) a word which identifies primarily the process of requesting, begging, and seeking, and (3) an expression which implies ‘talking with God’ (e.g. Central Pame, Tzeltal, Chol, Ecuadorian Quechua, Shipibo-Conibo, Kaqchikel, Tepeuxila Cuicatec, Copainalá Zoque, Central Tarahumara). Though in general the last alternative seems to be the most productive, it does not mean that the first two must never be employed, especially since in certain contexts they fit very well. Moreover, there may be certain connotations of these words which render them quite acceptable. For example, in Tzotzil the word for prayer means primarily ‘to beg’ or ‘to ask,’ but the full expression is ‘to ask with one’s heart coming out’ (in the sense of ‘entreaty’), implying a degree of self-exposure and sincerity, all of which seems to make the expression quite adequate. Toraja-Sa’dan at first used mangimbo ‘to invoke the gods’; the difficulty was this ‘invocation’ was always accompanied by sacrifice, and later it was discovered that the word had the meaning of ‘curse’ in certain districts. Then the word masambajang borrowed from Malay began to be used for ‘pray.’

In some instances a word for prayer is not to be interpreted in its literal, etymological sense. For example, in Western Highland Purepecha prayer is literally ‘to say poor,’ but no Indian would ever think of this meaning. The word is simply a local equivalent of ‘to pray.’ Huichol uses a verb meaning ‘to cause God to know’ and Miskito and Lacandon say ‘to raise up one’s words to God,’ the latter implying an element of worship, as well as communication.

What one should try to avoid in the selection of a term for prayer is (1) an expression which will mean only the recitation of largely meaningless word formulae and (2) a word which connotes begging insistence, equivalent to teasing God. Neither of these types of expressions can form an adequate basis for the Scriptural teaching about prayer, and they certainly do not fit in this context. For further discussions of terms for prayer, see Bible Translating, p. 233, and God’s Word in Man’s Language, pp. 42, 158.

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 .