Text:

Instead of (the first) autous ‘them’ of all modern editions of the Greek text, Textus Receptus has tous grammateis ‘the scribes.’

Exegesis:

autous ‘them’: to whom did Jesus direct his question? The text allows two or possibly three alternatives: (1) the disciples: inasmuch as in v. 14 it is said that Jesus came to his disciples, around whom there was a great crowd and with whom scribes were arguing, it would seem natural that Jesus should ask them the question (so Bengel); (2) the scribes: copyists who introduced into some manuscripts the words tous grammateis ‘the scribes’ (see Text, above), understood them to be the ones to whom Jesus spoke (so F. C. Grant); (3) the crowd: since one of the crowd answers (next verse), the majority of commentators (Gould, Swete, Lagrange, Taylor and others) assume that the crowd was being addressed. If so, the question ‘What are you discussing with them?’ must be taken in a general sense, since it was not the crowd but the scribes who were discussing with the disciples. Of the three alternatives the context favors the first one: Jesus would be more likely to question his disciples than the scribes (or the crowd).

The majority of translations have simply ‘he asked them,’ undefined, carrying over the same ambiguity that exists in the Greek text.

pros autous ‘with them’: who is referred to here depends on the interpretation given autous ‘them.’ If ‘them’ refers to the crowd or to the scribes, ‘with them’ refers to the disciples; if, on the other hand, ‘them’ refers to the disciples, as is probable, ‘with them’ refers to the scribes. For this second autous Kilpatrick has heautous, translated ‘among yourselves.’

Translation:

The fact that one person in the crowd should respond to the question of Jesus does not seem to be particularly strange, even though Jesus may have directed his words to the disciples, for obviously the action of the man in question was what had prompted the discussion with the scribes. One can, of course, attempt to reproduce the ambiguity of the Greek text, though in some languages this is not possible.

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 .