Text:

At the end of the verse Textus Receptus, Soden, Vogels, and Kilpatrick add kai allos, Mēti egō; ‘and another, Is it I?,’ which is omitted by the majority of modern editions of the Greek text.

Exegesis:

ērxanto (cf. 1.45) ‘they began.’

lupeisthai (cf. 10.22) ‘to be sad,’ ‘to be sorrowful.’

heis kata heis ‘one after the other.’

mēti egō; ‘Is it I?’: the interrogative mēti expects a negative answer (cf. 4.21), and the question is not a request for information, but a protest of loyalty, ‘Surely it is not I?’ a question requesting confirmation – ‘No, it is not!’

Translation:

For sorrowful see 10.22. Began to be is equivalent in many languages to ‘became.’

To say … one after another is rendered in some languages by a distributive form of the verb ‘to say.’ In other languages one must translate, ‘one said, Is it I, and another said, Is it I, and so all said the same.’

The form of the question should definitely anticipate a negative reply, e.g. ‘I am not the one, am I?’ or ‘I will not do it, will I?’

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 .