Exegesis:

homoiōs (15.31) ‘likewise,’ ‘in like manner’: that is, these are (like those, in v. 15, who are along the path) those who are sown upon rocky places.

hoi epi ta petrōdē speiromenoi ‘they who are sown upon rocky places’: notice plural petrōdē ‘rocky places’ instead of the sing. petrōdes in v. 5.

meta charas lambanousin auton ‘with joy receive it.’

chara (only here in Mark) ‘joy,’ ‘happiness.’

lambanō (some 20 times in Mark) ‘receive,’ ‘accept.’

ouk echousin rizan en heautois ‘they have no root in themselves,’ that is, have no depth of conviction or belief: due to the sparsity of soil the roots do not develop and sink as deeply as they should. The figure is that of lack of firmness, stability, endurance: they are proskairoi ‘lasting only for a time,’ ‘temporary.’

eita genomenēs thlipseōs ē diōgmou ‘then when affliction or persecution comes.’

thlipsis (13.19, 24) ‘tribulation,’ ‘affliction,’ ‘distress’ (Translator’s New Testament “trouble” is not quite adequate): cf. Lagrange.

diōgmos (10.30) ‘persecution.’

euthus skandalizontai ‘immediately they are scandalized’: this clause parallels that of v. 16 ‘immediately they receive it with joy.’

skandalizomai literally ‘to be ensnared,’ ‘be trapped’ (cf. Moulton & Milligan, Lagrange). The word appears in Mark in the active and in the passive: (1) in the active it is causative, ‘cause to be ensnared,’ ‘cause to stumble,’ 9.42, 43, 45, 47; (2) in the passive ‘to be ensnared,’ ‘be offended,’ 4.17; 14.27, 29; in 6.3 ‘to be offended by (someone).’

The English “scandalize” does not adequately translate the Greek verb, and other verbs are used to convey the meaning: “fall away” (Revised Standard Version, Translator’s New Testament, Montgomery), with its note of finality, is perhaps too strong; “are repelled” (Moffatt), “stumble” (American Standard Version), “stumble and fall” (Berkeley, The Modern Speech New Testament), Zürcher Bibel nehmen sie Anstoss ‘they take offense,’ are other possibilities. The idea conveyed by the Greek verb is that of being offended and repelled to the point of abandoning (whether temporarily or permanently, the word itself does not specify) belief in the Word (cf. Lk. 8.13), or one’s relation with Jesus (14.27, 29).

Translation:

The phrase in like manner helps to indicate the symbolic character of the passage, and may serve to make the figurative expression more like a simile, e.g. ‘in a similar way others are the people who are sown….’ At this point, however, one must be careful that the resulting phrase ‘sown on the rocky ground’ does not mean ‘thrown down on the rocks’ (as in some translations). It is all right to speak of ‘seed being thrown into the rocky ground’ but to speak of ‘people being thrown into rocky ground’ may completely destroy the value of the figure. This difficulty may be solved by translating ‘others are the people who are there where the rocky ground is….’

The syntax of the constructions ‘these … the ones … who, when…; then when…’ is very complex, and usually some drastic alterations must be made to adapt this to the grammatical requirements of the receptor language, e.g. ‘these are the people in the rocky ground; just as soon as they hear the word they hold it in their heart (Shilluk) accept it and are happy. But they do not have a sort of root in themselves, and they only last for a little while. When difficulties come and people hate them because of the good news, they immediately give up.’

Since the phrase receive with joy involves two processes, it is often translated as two related events, e.g. ‘agree quickly and are happy’ (Loma (Liberia)), ‘they hear it and are glad’ (Sayula Popoluca), ‘they receive it while their heart is glad’ (Batak Toba). In other cases the expression may be combined as a single phrase ‘hold it in their heart’ (Shilluk), which involves the meaning of not only accepting the truth but receiving it with gladness.

They have no root in themselves must be treated as a simile in many languages, e.g. ‘they do not have as it were any root’ or ‘their hearts do not have any root-like thing.’

Endure for a while is idiomatically translated in Kekchí as ‘they are like passers by,’ an apt description of the transient enthusiast for Christianity. Cf. Toraja-Sa’dan ‘their heart is shallow,’ Javanese ‘they are not steadfast,’ Pamona ‘only a moment is their heart quiet.’

Tribulation may be rendered as ‘difficulties,’ ‘hardships,’ ‘troubles.’ These are events which may or may not have human instigation. The persecution, however, is the result of hatred, enmity, or malintent of others, e.g. ‘being hated’ (Copainalá Zoque), ‘caused to see trouble,’ or ‘being stoned’ – an expression used in Central Pame to include all types of persecution.

There are a number of senses in which the Greek verb skandalizō may be taken in this context and only rarely can one use the meaning of ‘to stumble.’ In various languages the resulting equivalent expressions vary widely, e.g. ‘to give up’ (Tzeltal, Western Highland Purepecha), ‘no longer like it’ (Navajo, Copainalá Zoque), ‘get rid of it right away’ (Kituba – reminding one of our game of “hot potato”), ‘to turn back’ (Huichol), and ‘to go by another road’ (Piro). This last expression is particularly suggestive of the moral and spiritual issues involved.

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 .