Exegesis:

kai (at the beginning of v. 19) is adversative ‘but’: so the great majority of modern translations have it.

hai merimnai tou aiōnos ‘the anxieties of (this) age,’ that is, of the present life.

merimna (only here in Mark) ‘anxiety,’ ‘worry,’ ‘care.’

aiōn (cf. 3.29) ‘age’: here it means the present age; by an extension of meaning the word denotes the scene of this age, the place where this age is effective, i.e. “this world” (Revised Standard Version, Translator’s New Testament).

hē apatē tou ploutou ‘the deceit of riches.’

apatē (only here in Mark) may mean ‘deceitfulness’ (American Standard Version, The Modern Speech New Testament, Translator’s New Testament) or ‘pleasure’ (in a bad sense) (Goodspeed, Montgomery, Revised Standard Version; cf. Lagrange les délices de la richesse). Williams combines the two ideas ‘deceiving pleasures’; Manson has ‘glamour’; O Novo Testamento de Nosso Senhor Jesus Cristo. Revisdo Autorizada ‘fascination.’

ploutos (only here in Mark) ‘wealth,’ ‘riches.’

hai peri ta loipa epithumiai ‘and the desires for other things.’

epithumia (only here in Mark) ‘desire,’ ‘longing,’ ‘craving’: usually in a bad sense; Arndt & Gingrich classify its use here as neutral.

to loipon (14.41; 16.13) ‘the remaining,’ ‘the rest’; ta loipa means ‘the other things’ (i.e. besides riches of the previous clause). peri ta loipa ‘for other things.’

eisporeuomenai (cf. 1.21) ‘entering,’ ‘coming in’: all these things come into the individual’s heart, or life, where the seed has been planted.

sumpnigousin ton logon ‘they choke the (Christian) message’ (cf. v. 7) which has been sown.

kai akarpos ginetai ‘and it (the Word) becomes fruitless’: this is not to be taken in the sense of becoming fruitless after having been fruitful; rather, the Word bears no fruit at all.

Translation:

Even though it may be necessary to introduce the other classes of persons (or soil) (verses 15 and 16) by some sort of simile (or equivalent expression), it may be that by this verse the metaphor may be preserved without any clue phrase. But if not, or if the parallel construction would make the passage more intelligible, then all four elements in the series may be introduced in a similar manner.

The word must be translated the same in each instance, cf. verses 14, 15, 16, 17, and 18. There should be no confusion at this point that the word refers to the Christian message.

The basic problem encountered by many translators in rendering verse 19 is the fact that those factors which make the persons unfruitful are given in Greek as nouns, but they really refer to processes, i.e. events, and as such, must be translated in many languages as verbal expressions, often with a full complement of subjects and objects. The cares of the world is in some languages rendered as follows: ‘they think very much about these days now,’ in which for Greek aiōn a time equivalent of ‘days’ is better than a spatial one of ‘world’ (Kekchi); ‘they begin to worry about this world-things’ (Farefare); ‘their hearts are gone doing what they do when they pass through world,’ in which the last phrase is an idiomatic equivalent for ‘this life’ (Tzeltal); ‘they think intensely about things in this world’ (Mitla Zapotec, San Mateo del Mar Huave); ‘all the time they think about things in the world’ (Eastern Highland Otomi), ‘the longing for this world’ (Pamona); ‘they are very occupied about things in the world’ (Tzotzil); ‘they are very much afraid about what will happen in the world’ (Central Tarahumara); and ‘the heavy talk about things in the world’ (Shilluk).

The traditional interpretation of deceitfulness of riches generally causes more complications than the exegetically preferable delight in riches since the former phrase breaks the sequence of objective relationships (i.e. ‘cares about the world’ and ‘desire for other things,’ in which the second element is the object of the process implied in the first) with a subjective relationship, i.e. ‘riches deceive.’ However, this idea may be translated, but it must in many languages be somewhat expanded in form, e.g. ‘because they have much in their pockets they are deceived’ (Huichol), ‘fooled themselves in wishing to get rich’ (Western Highland Purepecha), ‘they wanted to get rich; but they deceived themselves’ (San Miguel El Grande Mixtec), and ‘their money deceives them’ (Highland Puebla Nahuatl). The objective relationship, in which the riches are the object of the delight, may be translated as follows: ‘they are happy with riches’ (Farefare), ‘they are so delighted to be rich,’ and ‘they take much pleasure in all the things they have.’

The desire for other things must frequently be translated as a verb expression, and with some type of contrastive generic value added to ‘other things,’ i.e. ‘all sorts of other things,’ since the equivalent of riches is often a word meaning abundance of ‘things,’ ‘possessions,’ and ‘objects,’ e.g. ‘they get all tied up for other sorts of things’ (Shilluk), ‘they crave many things’ (Highland Puebla Nahuatl), ‘they intensely desire other things’ (Farefare), and ‘they covet all sorts of things’ (Navajo).

If one has translated the processes ‘cares … delight … and … desire’ by verbs, it is usually impossible to talk of these experiences as ‘entering in.’ The equivalent is simply that ‘people care … delight in … and desire…; therefore the word cannot grow’ (or ‘gets shut off,’ ‘gets shaded over,’ or ‘is closed off’). Proves unfruitful means ‘does not produce anything,’ ‘did not grow anything’ (Barrow Eskimo), and ‘was killed.’

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 .