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 12:15

12:15 But he saw through their hypocrisy and said ⁷  to them, “Why are you testing me? Bring me a denarius ⁸  and let me look at it.”

[6:20]  ¹ tn Grk “was fearing,” “was respecting”; the imperfect tense connotes an ongoing fear or respect for John.

[6:20]  ² tn Grk “he”; the referent (John) has been specified in the translation for clarity.

[6:20]  ³ tn Grk “he”; the referent (Herod) has been specified in the translation for clarity.

[6:20]  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.

[6:20]  ⁵ tn Grk “and.” Here καί (kai) has been translated as “and yet” to indicate the concessive nature of the final clause.

[6:20]  ⁶ tn Grk “him”; the referent (John) has been specified in the translation for clarity.

[12:15]  ⁷ tn Grk “Aware of their hypocrisy he said.”

[12:15]  ⁸ tn Here the specific name of the coin was retained in the translation, because not all coins in circulation in Palestine at the time carried the image of Caesar. In other places δηνάριον (dhnarion) has been translated simply as “silver coin” with an explanatory note.