Text:

After dei ‘it is necessary’ Textus Receptus, Soden, Vogels, Merk add gar ‘for,’ which is omitted by the majority of modern editions of the Greek text.

Exegesis:

polemous kai akoas polemōn ‘wars and reports of wars’: akoas is probably not to be taken in the sense of ‘false rumors,’ but rather with the meaning of ‘reports,’ ‘news.’ Manson translates ‘sounds of battles close at hand and news of battles far away’ (cf. Lagrange les guerres prochaines et les guerres éloignées).

polemos (only here in Mark) ‘war,’ ‘battle.’

akoē (cf. 1.28) ‘report,’ ‘message.’

mē throeisthe ‘do not be alarmed’: the verb throeō (only here in Mark) appears in the N.T. only in the passive, meaning ‘be disturbed,’ ‘be frightened.’

dei genesthai ‘it is necessary (that these things) happen,’ ‘it must be.’

dei (cf. 8.31) ‘it is necessary.’

to telos (cf. 3.26) ‘the end’: in this context it refers to the end of the age (cf. Arndt & Gingrich “the final act in the cosmic drama”).

Translation:

Many translators have distinguished between wars and rumors of wars as wars now in progress and rumors about wars that threaten, e.g. ‘wars that have started and wars that shall come, so they shall say.’ However, the word rumors is to be understood more in the sense of ‘report’ or ‘information about’ rather than in the meaning of ‘rumor’ or ‘gossip’; hence ‘wars near and far’ is a closer equivalent of the Greek text.

This must take place involves a generic use of this to refer to all the wars, but in other languages ‘wars’ may require a plural reference, e.g. ‘these must happen.’

The end is an extremely difficult expression to translate. In the first place, it is impossible in many languages to talk about ‘the end.’ One can only speak of ‘the end of something.’ In other languages end must be translated as a verb, since in this passage one is not speaking of a point of an object, e.g. ‘the end of a stick’ or ‘the end of one’s finger,’ but of a process of termination. The equivalent expression in such a language may be ‘everything has not yet come to an end’ (or ‘terminated’). Where, however, one can use ‘end’ as a noun, though with obligatory possession, it is possible to say ‘the end of everything,’ or ‘the end of all happenings,’ or ‘the end of the age.’

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 .