Mark 3:27

3:27 But no one is able to enter a strong man’s 1  house and steal his property unless he first ties up the strong man. Then he can thoroughly plunder his house. 2 

Mark 9:26

9:26 It shrieked, threw him into terrible convulsions, and came out. The boy 3  looked so much like a corpse that many said, “He is dead!”

Mark 10:24

10:24 The disciples were astonished at these words. But again Jesus said to them, 4  “Children, how hard it is 5  to enter the kingdom of God!

Mark 16:5

16:5 Then 6  as they went into the tomb, they saw a young man dressed in a white robe 7  sitting on the right side; and they were alarmed.

1 sn The strong man here pictures Satan.

2 sn Some see the imagery here as similar to Eph 4:7-10, although no opponents are explicitly named in that passage. Jesus has the victory over Satan. Jesus’ acts of healing mean that the war is being won and the kingdom is coming.

3 tn Grk “he”; the referent (the boy) has been specified in the translation for clarity. Because of the length and complexity of the Greek sentence, a new sentence was started here in the translation.

5 tn Grk “But answering, Jesus again said to them.” The participle ἀποκριθείς (apokriqeis) is redundant and has not been translated.

6 tc Most mss (A C D Θ Ë1,13 28 565 2427 Ï lat sy) have here “for those who trust in riches” (τοὺς πεποιθότας ἐπὶ [τοῖς] χρήμασιν, tou" pepoiqota" epi [toi"] crhmasin); W has πλούσιον (plousion) later in the verse, producing the same general modification on the dominical saying (“how hard it is for the rich to enter…”). But such qualifications on the Lord’s otherwise harsh and absolute statements are natural scribal expansions, intended to soften the dictum. Further, the earliest and best witnesses, along with a few others (א B Δ Ψ sa), lack any such qualifications. That W lacks the longer expansion and only has πλούσιον suggests that its archetype agreed with א B here; its voice should be heard with theirs. Thus, both on external and internal grounds, the shorter reading is preferred.

7 tn Here καί (kai) has been translated as “then” to indicate the implied sequence of events within the narrative.

8 sn Mark does not explicitly identify the young man dressed in a white robe as an angel (though the white robe suggests this), but Matthew does (Matt 28:2).