Text:

In verse 19 instead of erchetai ‘he goes’ of Tischendorf, Merk, Souter, Westcott and Hort, Taylor, and Nestle, the plural erchontai ‘they go’ is preferred by Textus Receptus, Soden, Vogels, Lagrange, and Kilpatrick.

Exegesis:

Iakōbon ton tou Alphaiou ‘James the sons of Alphaeus’ (cf. 2.14).

Simōna ton Kananaion ‘Simon the Cananaean’: this is not ‘Simon from Cana’ (which would be Kanaios) or ‘Simon the Canaanite’ (which would be Chananaios, cf. Mt. 15.22); rather as a transliteration of the Aramaic qunʾan ‘enthusiast,’ ‘zealous,’ it means ‘Simon the Zealot’ (cf. Lk. 6.15 and Acts 1.13). Instead of “Cananaean” (Revised Standard Version, Translator’s New Testament), therefore, it would be better, in order to avoid misunderstanding, to translate “Zealot” (Goodspeed, Moffatt, O Novo Testamento de Nosso Senhor Jesus Cristo. Revisdo Autorizada, Lagrange); some (Swete, Lagrange) see the name as an indication of religious fervor, rather than adherence to the extremist party of Zealots (cf. Manson, “the Zealous”).

kai Ioudan Iskariōth, hos kai paredōken auton ‘and Judas Iscariot, who also delivered him up.’

Iskariōth ‘Iscariot’: generally taken to be a transliteration of ʾish qerioth ‘man from Kerioth’ (for other suggestions cf. Taylor).

kai ‘also’: should not be omitted, as does Revised Standard Version (cf. Swete): it means ‘in addition to being one of the Twelve’; it does not mean ‘who also (besides other men) delivered him up.’

paradidōmi (cf. 1.14) ‘hand over,’ ‘deliver up (to judgment or prison)’: in certain contexts it is better to preserve the literal sense of the word in a translation rather than use the common ‘betray’ (cf. 1.14 and Mt. 26.15 as striking examples of the use of the verb where ‘betray’ would be grossly inaccurate). The ‘delivering up’ of Jesus was in fact a betrayal on the part of Judas; that does not mean, however, that paradidōmi means ‘betray’ (cf. prodidōmi ‘betray,’ Liddell and Scott).

eis oikon ‘home’ (Revised Standard Version), ‘His home’ (Translator’s New Testament): cf. en oikō ‘at home’ in 2.1.

Translation:

Cananaean should be translated in the same manner as Zealot. In general this term, which comes out of a complex religious, social and political context, is perhaps most appropriately related to what might be primarily a political entity in another culture (though politics are rarely separable from social and religious considerations). Some translators have used designations which would imply that Simon was one of the ‘nationalist party.’ Others have characterized him as ‘always campaigning’ (i.e. politically zealous, without specifying his cause). The Southern Subanen describe this type of zealous, politically-minded person as ‘brave to speak.’ Within this general area of significance it is usually possible to find some relatively adequate equivalent.

Judas Iscariot should in general be transliterated, rather than translated, in the sense of ‘the man from Kerioth.’

Betrayed in this context may be rendered as ‘handed him over to enemies’ (Conob) or ‘cause his enemies to apprehend him’ (or ‘to arrest 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 .