Text:

Instead of to ek nekrōn anastēnai ‘the rising from the dead’ of all other editions of the Greek text, Lagrange and Taylor, based on the evidence mainly of some Western mss. and some of the early versions, prefer hotan ek nekrōn anastē ‘when he should rise from the dead.’

Exegesis:

ton logon ekratēsan ‘they kept the word,’ i.e. ‘they obeyed the command,’ ‘they observed the recommendation’: for this use of krateō ‘hold’ in the sense of observing or keeping an instruction, cf. 7.3, 4, 8 (cf. Lagrange, Rawlinson). Others, however, understand it differently: Arndt & Gingrich take it to mean that they kept the saying in order to occupy themselves with it later (so Revised Standard Version). Taylor combines the two: ‘they kept it in mind and observed the charge.’ Translator’s New Testament has ‘They seized on the saying, discussing it among themselves….’

pros heautous ‘to themselves,’ ‘with themselves’: although some (Revised Standard Version and others) take this phrase with the verb ekratēsan ‘they kept,’ others take it with the participle suzētountes ‘discussing’ (cf. American Standard Version, Goodspeed, Moffatt, The Modern Speech New Testament, Translator’s New Testament, O Novo Testamento de Nosso Senhor Jesus Cristo. Revisdo Autorizada, Zürcher Bibel, Lagrange). From the use of the verb suzēteō in vv. 14, 16, it would appear that the verse here should be read, “They observed the command, questioning among themselves….”

suzētountes (cf. 1.27) ‘questioning,’ ‘discussing,’ ‘debating.’

ti estin to ek nekrōn anastēnai ‘what is the to rise from the dead.’ Depending on the use of the definite article to ‘the,’ this phrase may be understood in two different ways: (1) ‘what is the rising from the dead,’ ‘what is the resurrection from the dead’: in this case to anastēnai ‘to rise’ is understood as a verbal noun ‘the rising,’ ‘the resurrection’; this is the position of Arndt & Gingrich: ‘what is the meaning of the saying, To rise from the dead’: in this case to ‘the’ is used to introduce the following words which are taken as a saying, the equivalent in many modern languages to quotation marks, “what is ‘To rise from the dead’ .” The context would seem to favor the second interpretation: it is hardly conceivable that the disciples – Jews all – should not know what was meant by the resurrection from the dead, since it was a well-known article in Jewish faith; rather, they would be puzzled by what Jesus meant in saying that the Son of man should rise from the dead. Their question would have to do with this ‘to rise from the dead.’

Translation:

Depending primarily upon the variety of ways in which this verse may be interpreted (see above), the renderings may be quite diverse, e.g. ‘they did what they were told,’ ‘they obeyed what he had said,’ or ‘they kept to themselves the knowledge of what had happened.’

Questioning may be two quite different verbs in some languages, depending upon whether one assumes that this questioning was reciprocal among the three or entirely within the thinking of each person. If the first interpretation is taken, then the translation would be ‘asked each other’ or ‘talked about it to each other.’ If the second meaning is assumed, then one may translate ‘they thought about it in their hearts’ (Southern Subanen).

In rendering what the rising from the dead meant it is rare that one can conserve as much of the ambiguity as the Revised Standard Version has done, for in general one must choose distinctly between the first of the second interpretation (see above). In the first instance, one must often translate ‘questioned what was meant by the fact that a person may rise from the dead’ or ‘questioned how people might rise from the dead.’ The second interpretation, which seems distinctly preferable, could be rendered as ‘questioned what Jesus meant when he spoke of rising from the dead,’ thus relating Jesus’ statement to a specific occurrence, no to the general belief.

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 .