Exegesis:

exeplēssonto (6.2; 7.37; 10.26; 11.18) ‘they were astonished’: the compound verb is from plessō ‘strike,’ ‘smite’ (cf. Rev. 8.12), and has a very strong meaning ‘they were amazed,’ ‘they were overwhelmed.’ Abbott-Smith: ‘strike with panic or shock, amaze, astonish.’ The third person plural of the verb is appropriately called an “impersonal plural” by Turner: “Mark meant … simply ‘people were astonished.’”

epi tē didachē autou ‘at his teaching.’

epi ‘at,’ ‘on the ground of’: after verbs which express feelings, opinions, etc. it means ‘at,’ ‘because of,’ ‘from,’ ‘with.’

didachē ‘teaching’: either in the active sense of the act of teaching itself (cf. 4.2; 12.38), or in the passive sense of that which is taught, teaching, doctrine (cf. 1.27; 11.18). There is difference of opinion over the meaning here ; the context, however, seems to favor the active sense of the word (in v. 27, however, didachē kainē ‘new teaching’ has the passive sense).

ēn … didaskōn ‘was teaching’: this verbal phrase is better translated into English by ‘he was teaching’ rather than by ‘he taught.’

hōs exousian echōn ‘as one having authority’: the phrase describes the “manner of an action”, here, of course, the manner of teaching (cf. the parallel Lk. 4.32).

echōn ‘having’: ‘as one who has authority’ (cf. O Novo Testamento de Nosso Senhor Jesus Cristo. Revisdo Autorizada como quem tem autoridade). This participle, however, instead of being independent “one having” (as most translations have it), may modify the subject of the main verb ‘he was teaching them as though he had authority.’

exousian (1.27; 2.10; 3.15; 6.7; 11.28, 29, 33; 13.34) ‘authority’: the word has several shades of meaning: ‘freedom of choice, right to act’: ‘ability, capacity, might, power’; ‘authority, absolute power.’

The whole phrase has been examined by Daube, who concludes that it here refers to “Rabbinic [i.e. one ordained] authority, and not like the ordinary teachers.” The meaning ‘like a king’ has been advocated, receiving some support from Manson: ‘with a right to command.’

hoi grammateis (21 times in Mark) ‘the scribes.’ By the time of the N.T. the word had developed from its original sense of a copyist of the law to that of an authorized interpreter ‘a biblical scholar, teacher of the law,’ ‘experts in the law, scholars versed in the law.’ Luke uses also nomikoi ‘lawyers’ and nomodidaskaloi ‘teachers of the law.’

Translation:

To be astonished at, as might be expected of such a psychologically significant expression, is translated in a variety of ways, some of which are highly figurative, e.g. ‘confusing the inside of the head’ (Mende), ‘shiver in the liver’ (Uduk, Laka), ‘to lose one’s heart’ (Miskito, Tzotzil), ‘to shake’ (Southern Bobo Madaré), ‘to be with mouth open’ (Huanuco Quechua).

Since the subject of were astonished has not been previously identified, one must usually either specify a noun as the object of ‘taught’ (verse 21) or introduce a subject such as ‘the people’ as the subject of ‘were astonished’ in verse 22. More often than not, however, the verb ‘to teach’ requires an object, and hence an object introduced at the end of 21 provides the appropriate referent for the subject of verse 22. (For a discussion of some of the lexical problems in “teach” see 2.13).

Since teaching should probably be taken in the active sense in this context, it is often rendered best as ‘astonished at the way he taught.’ In Central Tarahumara this is rendered idiomatically as ‘when he taught them they kept quiet.’

Authority is a term with a very wide area of meaning, and in this situation it must usually be qualified in such a way as to make it contextually appropriate. In some languages, of course, one can speak of ‘power,’ ‘right,’ or ‘strength to command’; but in other languages one must say ‘taught them like a chief not like the writers of the law’ or ‘taught like a person who had the power to command them.’ Cf. Pamona ‘someone who thrones upon (sits on the chair of) authority.’

The scribes (see above) were more than mere writers of the law. They were the trained interpreters of the law and expounders of tradition. In Yaka, spoken in the Congo, the scribes are designated as ‘clerks in God’s house’ and in Amganad Ifugao these are ‘men who wrote and taught in the synagogue.’ In Navajo a compound expression ‘teaching-writers’ is used, as an attempt to emphasize their dual function. In Shipibo-Conibo, however, it seemed enough simply to call such people ‘book-wise persons’ (knowledge of books and writing would of necessity mean a distinct prestige class to these rather primitive Shipibo-Conibo people in Upper Amazonia). In San Blas Kuna an excellent descriptive phrase has been employed, namely, ‘those who knew the Jews’ ways.’ Among the Loma (Liberia) people of Liberia it has seemed quite enough to call the scribes ‘the educated ones,’ while in San Mateo del Mar Huave the area of learning is more circumscribed, e.g. ‘those knowing holy paper,’ and in Central Mazahua the equivalent is ‘writers of holy words.’ In Indonesian they are called ‘experts in the Torah’ and in Pamona ‘men skilled in the ordinances.’

Some languages require the full form of clauses which in Greek or English may be left elliptical, e.g. and not as the scribes becomes ‘he did not teach as the scribes taught’ (Southern Bobo Madaré).

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 .