Mark 14:6

14:6 But Jesus said, “Leave her alone. Why are you bothering her? She has done a good service for me.

Mark 7:27

7:27 He said to her, “Let the children be satisfied first, for it is not right to take the children’s bread and to throw it to the dogs.” ¹ 

Mark 9:50

9:50 Salt ²  is good, but if it loses its saltiness, ³  how can you make it salty again? Have salt in yourselves, and be at peace with each other.”

Mark 4:8

4:8 But ⁴  other seed fell on good soil and produced grain, sprouting and growing; some yielded thirty times as much, some sixty, and some a hundred times.”

Mark 4:20

4:20 But ⁵  these are the ones sown on good soil: They hear the word and receive it and bear fruit, one thirty times as much, one sixty, and one a hundred.”

Mark 9:5

9:5 So ⁶  Peter said to Jesus, ⁷  “Rabbi, it is good for us to be here. Let us make three shelters ⁸  – one for you, one for Moses, and one for Elijah.”

Mark 9:42-43

9:42 “If anyone causes one of these little ones who believe in me to sin, it would be better for him to have a huge millstone ⁹  tied around his neck and to be thrown into the sea. 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 ¹⁰  two hands and go into hell, ¹¹  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 ¹²  two feet and be thrown into hell.

Mark 9:47

9:47 If your eye causes you to sin, tear it out! ¹³  It is better to enter into the kingdom of God with one eye than to have ¹⁴  two eyes and be thrown into hell,

Mark 14:21

14:21 For the Son of Man will go as it is written about him, but woe to that man by whom the Son of Man is betrayed! It would be better for him if he had never been born.”

[7:27]  ¹ tn Or “lap dogs, house dogs,” as opposed to dogs on the street. The diminutive form originally referred to puppies or little dogs, then to house pets. In some Hellenistic uses κυνάριον (kunarion) simply means “dog.”

[9:50]  ¹ sn Salt was used as seasoning or fertilizer (BDAG 41 s.v. ἅλας a), or as a preservative. If salt ceased to be useful, it was thrown away. With this illustration Jesus warned about a disciple who ceased to follow him.

[9:50]  ² sn The difficulty of this saying is understanding how salt could lose its saltiness since its chemical properties cannot change. It is thus often assumed that Jesus was referring to chemically impure salt, perhaps a natural salt which, when exposed to the elements, had all the genuine salt leached out, leaving only the sediment or impurities behind. Others have suggested the background of the saying is the use of salt blocks by Arab bakers to line the floor of their ovens: Under the intense heat these blocks would eventually crystallize and undergo a change in chemical composition, finally being thrown out as unserviceable. A saying in the Talmud (b. Bekhorot 8b) attributed to R. Joshua ben Chananja (ca. a.d. 90), when asked the question “When salt loses its flavor, how can it be made salty again?” is said to have replied, “By salting it with the afterbirth of a mule.” He was then asked, “Then does the mule (being sterile) bear young?” to which he replied: “Can salt lose its flavor?” The point appears to be both are impossible. The saying, while admittedly late, suggests that culturally the loss of flavor by salt was regarded as an impossibility. Genuine salt can never lose its flavor. In this case the saying by Jesus here may be similar to Matt 19:24, where it is likewise impossible for the camel to go through the eye of a sewing needle.

[4:8]  ¹ tn Here καί (kai) has been translated as “but” to indicate the contrast present in the final stage of the parable.

[4:20]  ¹ tn Here καί (kai) has been translated as “but” to indicate the contrast present in this context.

[9:5]  ¹ tn Here καί (kai) has been translated as “so” to indicate the implied sequence of events within the narrative.

[9:5]  ² tn Grk “And answering, Peter said to Jesus.” The participle ἀποκριθείς (apokriqeis) is redundant and has not been translated.

[9:5]  ³ tn Or “dwellings,” “booths” (referring to the temporary booths constructed in the celebration of the feast of Tabernacles).

[9:42]  ¹ tn Grk “the millstone of a donkey.” This refers to a large flat stone turned by a donkey in the process of grinding grain (BDAG 661 s.v. μύλος 2; L&N 7.68-69). The same term is used in the parallel account in Matt 18:6.

[9:43]  ¹ tn Grk “than having.”

[9:43]  ² 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]  ¹ tn Grk “than having.”

[9:47]  ¹ tn Grk “throw it out.”

[9:47]  ² tn Grk “than having.”