Text:

Before hoi grammateis ‘the scribes’ Tischendorf and Soden have hoi Pharisaioi kai ‘the Pharisees and,’ which is omitted by all other editions of the Greek text.

Exegesis:

hoti ‘why?’: interrogative, as in 2.16.

For hoi grammateis ‘the scribes’ cf. 1.22; dei ‘it is necessary’ cf. 8.31.

Translation:

For scribes see 1.22.

First must in some languages be grammatically related to the subject Elijah, rather than to the verb, e.g. ‘that Elijah will be the first to come.’ The only alternative in certain languages is to say ‘Elijah will come before anything else happens.’ Whichever expression is employed there is a degree of obscurity, even as there is in the Greek text itself.

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 .