Mark 14:45

14:45 When Judas ¹  arrived, he went up to Jesus ²  immediately and said, “Rabbi!” and kissed ³  him.

Mark 1:31

1:31 He came and raised her up by gently taking her hand. Then the fever left her and she began to serve ⁴  them.

Mark 10:2

10:2 Then some Pharisees ⁵  came, and to test him ⁶  they asked, “Is it lawful for a man to divorce his ⁷  wife?” ⁸ 

Mark 6:35

6:35 When it was already late, his disciples came to him and said, “This is an isolated place ⁹  and it is already very late.

Mark 12:28

The Greatest Commandment

12:28 Now ¹⁰  one of the experts in the law ¹¹  came and heard them debating. When he saw that Jesus ¹²  answered them well, he asked him, “Which commandment is the most important of all?”

[14:45]  ¹ tn Grk “he”; the referent (Judas) has been specified in the translation for clarity.

[14:45]  ² tn Grk “him”; the referent (Jesus) has been specified in the translation for clarity.

[14:45]  ³ sn Judas’ act of betrayal when he kissed Jesus is especially sinister when it is realized that it was common in the culture of the times for a disciple to kiss his master when greeting him.

[1:31]  ⁴ tn The imperfect verb is taken ingressively here.

[10:2]  ⁷ tc The Western text (D it) and a few others have only καί (kai) here, rather than καὶ προσελθόντες Φαρισαῖοι (kai proselqonte" Farisaioi, here translated as “then some Pharisees came”). The longer reading, a specific identification of the subject, may have been prompted by the parallel in Matt 19:3. The fact that the mss vary in how they express this subject lends credence to this judgment: οἱ δὲ Φαρισαῖοι προσελθόντες (Joi de Farisaioi proselqonte", “now the Pharisees came”) in W Θ 565 2542 pc; καὶ προσελθόντες οἱ Φαρισαῖοι (kai proselqonte" Joi Farisaioi, “then the Pharisees came”) in א C N (˹: καὶ προσελθόντες ἐπηρώτησαν αὐτὸν οἱ Φαρισαῖοι) 579 1241 1424 pm; and καὶ προσελθόντες Φαρισαῖοι in A B K L Γ Δ Ψ Ë¹³ 28 700 892 2427 pm. Further, the use of an indefinite plural (a general “they”) is a Markan feature, occurring over twenty times. Thus, internally the evidence looks rather strong for the shorter reading, in spite of the minimal external support for it. However, if scribes assimilated this text to Matt 19:3, a more exact parallel might have been expected: Matthew has καὶ προσῆλθον αὐτῷ Φαρισαῖοι (kai proshlqon aujtw Farisaioi, “then Pharisees came to him”). Although the verb form needs to be different according to syntactical requirements of the respective sentences, the word order variety, as well as the presence or absence of the article and the alternation between δέ and καί as the introductory conjunction, all suggest that the variety of readings might not be due to scribal adjustments toward Matthew. At the same time, the article with Φαρισαῖοι is found in both Gospels in many of the same witnesses (א Ï in Matt; א pm in Mark), and the anarthrous Φαρισαῖοι is likewise parallel in many mss (B L ˹³ 700 892). Another consideration is the possibility that very early in the transmissional history, scribes naturally inserted the most obvious subject (the Pharisees would be the obvious candidates as the ones to test Jesus). This may account for the reading with δέ, since Mark nowhere else uses this conjunction to introduce the Pharisees into the narrative. As solid as the internal arguments against the longer reading seem to be, the greatest weakness is the witnesses that support it. The Western mss are prone to alter the text by adding, deleting, substituting, or rearranging large amounts of material. There are times when the rationale for this seems inexplicable. In light of the much stronger evidence for “the Pharisees came,” even though it occurs in various permutations, it is probably wisest to retain the words. This judgment, however, is hardly certain.

[10:2]  ⁸ tn In Greek this phrase occurs at the end of the sentence. It has been brought forward to conform to English style.

[10:2]  ⁹ tn The personal pronoun “his” is not in the Greek text, but is certainly implied and has been supplied in the English translation to clarify the sense of the statement (cf. “his wife” in 10:7).

[10:2]  ¹⁰ tn The particle εἰ (ei) is often used to introduce both indirect and direct questions. Thus, another possible translation is to take this as an indirect question: “They asked him if it were lawful for a man to divorce his wife.” See BDF §440.3.

[6:35]  ¹⁰ tn Or “a desert” (meaning a deserted or desolate area with sparse vegetation).

[12:28]  ¹³ tn Here καί (kai) has been translated as “now” to indicate the transition to a new topic.

[12:28]  ¹⁴ tn Or “One of the scribes.” See the note on the phrase “experts in the law” in 1:22.

[12:28]  ¹⁵ tn Grk “he”; the referent (Jesus) has been specified in the translation for clarity.