Exegesis:

The words in this verse have already been dealt with: for zēteō ‘seek,’ here meaning ‘attempt,’ ‘try’ cf. 3.32; krateō ‘seize,’ ‘arrest’ cf. 1.31; ephobēthēsan tōn ochlon ‘they feared the crowd’ cf. 11.32; aphiēmi ‘leave,’ ‘forsake’ cf. 2.5.

egnōsan ‘they knew’ here means ‘they perceived,’ ‘they understood.’

pros ‘with reference to’; in the context, almost ‘against.’

Translation:

They is obscure, for it refers back to the ‘chief priests and the scribes and the elders’ of 11.27. However, rather than repeat this expression one can remove the ambiguity (in which the pronouns might refer to the tenants, referred to in the preceding parable, or to the people in general), by saying ‘those to whom Jesus addressed his words’ or ‘those to whom Jesus was speaking.’ In Tzotzil one may say ‘his opponents’ to distinguish this group.

Arrest may require an indirect causative in some languages ‘cause him to be seized,’ since the authorities would not themselves take him in hand but would order soldiers to do it.

Against them must refer back to the authorities.

The relationship of ideas in this verse may require in some languages a recasting of the order, since the causal introduced by for does not give the reason for the immediately preceding event, namely, ‘the fearing of the multitude’ but for the desire on the part of the authorities to arrest Jesus. The Greek order of clauses, 1, 2, 3, 4 is shifted for example in Navajo to 3, 1, 2, 4, e.g. ‘perceiving that he was speaking against them, they sought to…; but because they feared the multitude, they left 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 .