Mark 10:17

The Rich Man

10:17 Now ¹  as Jesus ²  was starting out on his way, someone ran up to him, fell on his knees, and said, “Good teacher, what must I do to inherit eternal life?” ³ 

Mark 9:43

9:43 If your hand causes you to sin, cut it off! It is better for you to enter into life crippled than to have ⁴  two hands and go into hell, ⁵  to the unquenchable fire.

Mark 9:45

9:45 If your foot causes you to sin, cut it off! It is better to enter life lame than to have ⁶  two feet and be thrown into hell.

Mark 10:30

10:30 who will not receive in this age ⁷  a hundred times as much – homes, brothers, sisters, mothers, children, fields, all with persecutions ⁸  – and in the age to come, eternal life. ⁹ 

[10:17]  ¹ tn Here καί (kai) has been translated as “now” to indicate the transition to a new topic.

[10:17]  ² tn Grk “he”; the referent (Jesus) has been specified in the translation for clarity.

[10:17]  ³ sn The rich man wanted to know what he must do to inherit eternal life, but Jesus had just finished teaching that eternal life was not earned but simply received (10:15).

[9:43]  ⁴ tn Grk “than having.”

[9:43]  ⁵ sn The word translated hell is “Gehenna” (γέεννα, geenna), a Greek transliteration of the Hebrew words ge hinnom (“Valley of Hinnom”). This was the valley along the south side of Jerusalem. In OT times it was used for human sacrifices to the pagan god Molech (cf. Jer 7:31; 19:5-6; 32:35), and it came to be used as a place where human excrement and rubbish were disposed of and burned. In the intertestamental period, it came to be used symbolically as the place of divine punishment (cf. 1 En. 27:2, 90:26; 4 Ezra 7:36). This Greek term also occurs in vv. 45, 47.

[9:45]  ⁷ tn Grk “than having.”

[10:30]  ¹⁰ tn Grk “this time” (καιρός, kairos), but for stylistic reasons this has been translated “this age” here.

[10:30]  ¹¹ tn Grk “with persecutions.” The “all” has been supplied to clarify that the prepositional phrase belongs not just to the “fields.”

[10:30]  ¹² sn Note that Mark (see also Matt 19:29; Luke 10:25, 18:30) portrays eternal life as something one receives in the age to come, unlike John, who emphasizes the possibility of receiving eternal life in the present (John 5:24).