Exegesis:

gunaikes ‘women’: here ‘some women’ as in the similar case (Saddoukaioi ‘some Sadducees’) in 12.18.

apo makrothen (cf. 5.6) ‘from a distance,’ ‘from afar.’

ēsan … theōrousai (cf. 3.11) ‘they were … observing,’ ‘they were … watching.’

Maria hē Magdalēnē ‘Mary the Magdalene,’ i.e. Mary of Magdala, a town near Tiberias on the west shore of the Lake of Galilee. The only thing the Gospels say about her is that she had seven demons driven out of her by Jesus (cf. Lk. 8.2): there is nothing at all to support the past history commonly attributed to her.

Maria hē Iakōbou tou mikrou kai Iōsētos mētēr ‘Mary the mother of James the younger and of Joses’: in v. 47 she is identified as ‘the mother of Joses’ and in 16.1 as ‘the mother of James.’

Iakōbos ho mikros either ‘James the small (in stature)’ or ‘James the younger.’ Deissmann adduces evidence in support of understanding the epithet as referring to age, not to size.

Iōsēs ‘Joses’: where possible, by use of a different form of the name, this man should be distinguished from Iōsēph ‘Joseph’ (vv. 43, 45). If only one form of the name is available for both (cf. O Novo Testamento de Nosso Senhor Jesus Cristo. Revisdo Autorizada) there may arise the possibility of ‘Mary the mother of Iōsētos’ in v. 47 being thought of as being the mother of Joseph of Arimathea (v. 45): cf. the Roman Catholic translations in English which have ‘Joseph’ for both names.

Translation:

Looking on from afar may require a division into two expressions, e.g. ‘some women were standing at a distance; they were watching.’

Among whom were … is in some languages an awkward expression to try to render as a relative clause. Hence, one may need to break the sentence and translate as ‘among these women were Mary Magdalene and…’ or ‘Mary Magdalene … and Salome were among these women.’

Mary Magdalene is translatable as ‘Mary from Magdala town.’

James the younger provides certain difficulties, not only with regard to exegesis, whether this is a matter of age or stature, but with respect to the comparative. In some languages ‘James who was young’ (Southern Subanen) is used. In Tzeltal the equivalent is ‘James who grew up after.’

And Salome has been the source of considerable syntactic difficulty, since often Salome is combined with James and Joses as another child of Mary. To avoid this difficulty, without beginning an entirely new sentence, e.g. ‘Salome was also there,’ translators have shifted the order of the women’s names, e.g. ‘Mary of Magdala, Salome, and Mary the mother of James the younger and Joses.’

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 .