Text:

After mathētai ‘disciples,’ Textus Receptus, Soden, Vogels, Lagrange, and Kilpatrick add autou ‘his,’ which is omitted by the majority of modern editions of the Greek text.

Exegesis:

It should be noticed that ‘it’ in Revised Standard Version does not refer to ‘the city,’ but is used in the general sense of ‘the situation,’ ‘the conditions.’

Translation:

It creates a problem in some languages, since any indefinite pronoun would refer to the ‘city’ of the previous clause. Where a specific noun must be introduced, ‘room’ is probably the most satisfactory.

For prepared the passover see 14.12, e.g. ‘prepared the meal to remember the passing-over.’

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 .