Text:

After euaggelion ‘gospel’ Textus Receptus has tēs basileias, ‘gospel of the kingdom of God,’ with considerable mss. support. Although ‘of the kingdom’ is rejected by Tischendorf, Nestle, Westcott and Hort, Vogels, Kilpatrick, Merk, Souter, Turner argues for its originality, in which he is followed by F. C. Grant. Considerable weight, notwithstanding mss. evidence, must be given Turner’s arguments: “the gospel of God” is far less probable, in Mark, than “the gospel of the kingdom of God.”

Exegesis:

meta de to paradothēnai ton Iōannēn ‘after John had been arrested’: an introductory temporal clause; ton Iōannēn ‘John’ is the subject of the passive infinitive to paradothēnai ‘to be arrested.’ A free translation could be ‘after the arrest of John.’

paradidōmi (20 times in Mark): ‘hand over,’ ‘turn over,’ ‘give up a person’; as a technical term of police and courts, ‘hand over into (the) custody (of).’ Moulton & Milligan quote examples from the papyri with the meaning ‘deliver up’ to prison or judgment.

kērussōn ‘proclaiming’ (cf. v. 4).

euaggelion ‘the gospel’ in the technical, Christian sense: the contents of the Christian message (cf. v. 1).

tou theou ‘of God’ (omitting tēs basileias ‘of the kingdom’): the meaning is ‘the gospel proceeding from God’ (cf. Gould, Turner). The phrase to euaggelion tou theou ‘the gospel of God’ is called a “Pauline phrase” (cf. Rom. 1.1, 15.16, 2 Cor. 11.7, 1 Thess. 2.8, 9; cf. 1 Pet. 4.17). This observation has no bearing, however, on whether or not tēs basileias ‘of the kingdom’ should be read in this passage.

Translation:

Arrested may be translated in a number of different ways, depending upon the manner in which such an event is described in the language in question, e.g. ‘taken prisoner’ (Kpelle, Pamona, Javanese) or ‘put in jail’ (Balinese).

The verbs for come and go tend to create all sorts of confusion in translating, since the viewpoint of the writer is so differently interpreted in various languages. There is no help in the Greek at this point for the same verb erchomai may be rendered either ‘come’ or ‘go,’ though ‘come’ is the more usual meaning. However, Mark does not always preserve the same geographic orientation, for in 10.46 he speaks of ‘coming to Jericho.’ The systems of geographical orientation are, of course, quite different as one goes from one language to another. In some instances one is supposed to preserve the viewpoint of the position of the writer; in others, the position of the eye-witness, i.e. of Jesus’ disciples or followers. But whatever may be the type of orientation employed in indigenous narration, it is extremely important that one use this system, for otherwise the reader will be badly confused. In this particular instance, many languages require a verb meaning ‘to go,’ since the viewpoint of the writer is assumed to be that of a companion of Jesus, and hence Jesus would be going to a point away from the writer, rather than coming to a place where the writer was.

If one follows a Greek text omitting ‘of the kingdom,’ the relationship between ‘good news’ and ‘God’ is probably subjective. That is to say, this would be ‘the good news that comes from God,’ He being the source of the glad tidings (the possible interpretation ‘good news about God,’ though theoretically possible, is rather unlikely).

If, however, we include ‘of the kingdom’ the construction becomes distinctly objective (in the grammatical sense), for in this instance the text is certainly speaking about ‘the good news about the kingdom of God.’ But this expression is very difficult to translate in some languages, for there is simply no ready equivalent of ‘kingdom,’ as this is popularly understood. In the first place, most people do not have kings, but they almost always have rulers, chiefs, headmen, etc. In the second place, in so many societies there is not the emphasis upon geographical extension or territory which the English word kingdom seems to imply. However, this should not provide special difficulty, for in the Greek the central meaning of basileia is not the region, but the rule. In other words, the Greek word applies primarily to the fact of God’s rule, rather than the territory over which he governs. Once we understand these two principal limitations, it is not too difficult to construct a functional equivalent. For example, in San Blas Kuna the ‘kingdom of God’ is ‘God’s government,’ in Navajo ‘what God has charge of,’ in Laka ‘God’s commanding,’ in Tzeltal ‘the jurisdiction of God’ (in the sense of where God has the authority), in Highland Puebla Nahuatl ‘the leadership of God,’ in Wayuu ‘where God is chief,’ in Kekchí ‘power (or authority) of God,’ and in Javanese ‘the rule of God.’

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 .