Text:

After the first kai ‘and’ Textus Receptus, Soden, Vogels and Kilpatrick add euthus ‘immediately,’ omitted by all other editions of the Greek text.

Exegesis:

sunēchthēsan (4.1; 5.21; 6.30; 7.1) ‘they were gathered together,’ ‘brought together,’ ‘collected’ (cf. episunagō in 1.33).

hōste mēketi chōrein ‘so as no longer to be room’: for the use of hōste with the infinitive of the verb to express result see 1.27.

chōrein (only here in Mark) ‘to have space for,’ ‘to hold,’ ‘to contain,’ ‘to be room (for).’

ta pros tēn thuran (cf. 1.33) ‘the (places, space) near (toward, about) the door’: the meaning is that such a crowd was gathered in the house and overflowing into the street, that not even on the street, near the door, was there room for any more people.

elalei (some 22 times in Mark) ‘he was speaking’: Revised Standard Version “preaching,” while not incorrect, is not completely consistent. It is better to reserve “preach” for kērussō ‘proclaim’ or euaggelizomai ‘preach the Gospel.’ The imperfect, describing action in progress, tells us what Jesus was doing when the paralytic was brought to him (next verse). Some translations join the last clause of this verse ‘and he was speaking the Word to them’ directly to the next verse: “And he was speaking to them the Word when…” (Moffatt, The Modern Speech New Testament, Manson, Berkeley).

ton logon ‘the word’ i.e. the Christian message, the Gospel; Lagrange “the good tidings of salvation.” Rather than “the word” it may be preferable to use capitalization – “the Word” or something similar. “The Message” would accurately convey the meaning (cf. 1.45 and Kilpatrick’s note on logos “word” in Mark, there referred to).

Translation:

The Greek verb translated were gathered together, though a passive in form, is generally best translated as an active, implying not that the people were brought, carried, or forced to come together by the actions of others, but that ‘they came together,’ or ‘crowded together.’

In some languages a verb implying the gathering of a crowd may require some statement as to the type of place in which such a gathering may occur. In this instance it is the home of Jesus.

The second clause may be rendered ‘so that there was no space for anyone else.’

About the door refers of course to the space outside the house, and the door is in this instance better taken as the opening (where a distinction is made – see 1.33), since obviously the door would be open at such a time.

Though laleō is a more colloquial term for ‘speaking,’ it is the combination with logon ‘word’ which gives it the strictly theological connotation of ‘preaching.’ The only equivalent of the word in many languages is ‘the good news.’ In Toraja-Sa’dan and Indonesian ‘the word of God’ must be used. Certainly this phrase means much more than merely ‘he was talking.’

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 .