Mark 6:20

6:20 because Herod stood in awe of ¹  John and protected him, since he knew that John ²  was a righteous and holy man. When Herod ³  heard him, he was thoroughly baffled, ⁴  and yet ⁵  he liked to listen to John. ⁶ 

Mark 11:18

11:18 The chief priests and the experts in the law ⁷  heard it and they considered how they could assassinate ⁸  him, for they feared him, because the whole crowd was amazed by his teaching.

Mark 12:12

12:12 Now ⁹  they wanted to arrest him (but they feared the crowd), because they realized that he told this parable against them. So ¹⁰  they left him and went away. ¹¹ 

¹ tn Grk “was fearing,” “was respecting”; the imperfect tense connotes an ongoing fear or respect for John.

² tn Grk “he”; the referent (John) has been specified in the translation for clarity.

³ tn Grk “he”; the referent (Herod) has been specified in the translation for clarity.

⁴ tc In place of ἠπόρει (hporei, “he was baffled”) the majority of mss (A C D ˹ 33 Ï lat sy) have ἐποίει (epoiei, “he did”; cf. KJV’s “he did many things.”) The best mss (א B L [W] Θ 2427 co) support the reading followed in the translation. The variation may be no more than a simple case of confusion of letters, since the two readings look very much alike. The verb ποιέω (poiew, “I do”) certainly occurs more frequently than ἀπορέω (aporew, “I am at a loss”), so a scribe would be more likely to write a more familiar word. Further, even though the reading ἐποίει is the harder reading in terms of the sense, it is virtually nonsensical here, rendering it most likely an unintentional corruption.

⁵ tn Grk “and.” Here καί (kai) has been translated as “and yet” to indicate the concessive nature of the final clause.

⁶ tn Grk “him”; the referent (John) has been specified in the translation for clarity.

⁷ tn Or “The chief priests and the scribes.” See the note on the phrase “experts in the law” in 1:22.

⁸ tn Grk “how they could destroy him.”

¹³ tn Here καί (kai) has been translated as “now” to introduce a somewhat parenthetical remark by the author.

¹⁴ tn Here καί (kai) has been translated as “so” to indicate the implied result of previous action(s) in the narrative.

¹⁵ sn The point of the parable in Mark 12:1-12 is that the leaders of the nation have been rejected by God and the vineyard (v. 9, referring to the nation and its privileged status) will be taken from them and given to others (an allusion to the Gentiles).