Text:

Instead of elthontes … eidon ‘they came and saw’ of the majority of editions of the Greek text, Textus Receptus, Soden and Vogels have elthōn … eiden ‘he came and saw.’

Exegesis:

All the words of this verse have already been dealt with: for ochlos polus ‘a great crowd’ cf. 5.24; grammateis ‘scribes’ cf. 1.22; suzēteō ‘disputes’ cf. 1.27.

Translation:

The they of this verse is the same as the first they of verse 9. However, in order to make the reference clear one must in some cases translate the disciples as ‘the other disciples,’ since Peter, James, and John had accompanied Jesus.

A great crowd around them may be rendered as ‘a great many people gathered around them’ (referring to the other disciples, not to Jesus and those accompanying him).

For scribes see 1.22.

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 .