Exegesis:

epetrepsen … grapsai kai apolusai ‘he allowed … (a man) to write and to divorce (her)’: by law a Jewish husband had to write a divorce certificate in the presence of witnesses, sign it and deliver it to his wife, saying, “Here is your bill of divorce.”

epitrepō (cf. 5.13) ‘allow,’ ‘permit’: the Pharisees cannot quote a Mosaic commandment concerning divorce, but only what Moses allowed (Deut. 24.1).

biblion apostasiou (only here in Mark) ‘a document of divorce,’ ‘a certificate of divorce’: in the Septuagint the word apostasion ‘putting away’ is always used in the sense of divorce.

Translation:

Certificate of divorce is translatable as ‘paper concerning sending his wife away’ (Amganad Ifugao), ‘write her a paper when he puts her out’ (Highland Puebla Nahuatl), or ‘write a paper and she will no longer be his wife’ (Piro).

Put her away must not be translated literally in most languages, for this would imply ‘storing her’ or ‘placing her in a position away from people,’ a not uncommon mistake in translating. As in all such instances the receptor language idiom should be one commonly used for a man getting rid of or abandoning a wife.

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 .