¹ tn Grk “And the whole Judean countryside.” Mark uses the Greek conjunction καί (kai) at numerous places in his Gospel to begin sentences and paragraphs. This practice is due to Semitic influence and reflects in many cases the use of the Hebrew ו (vav) which is used in OT narrative, much as it is here, to carry the narrative along. Because in contemporary English style it is not acceptable to begin every sentence with “and,” καί was often left untranslated or rendered as “now,” “so,” “then,” or “but” depending on the context. When left untranslated it has not been noted. When given an alternative translation, this is usually indicated by a note.

² map For location see Map5 B1; Map6 F3; Map7 E2; Map8 F2; Map10 B3; JP1 F4; JP2 F4; JP3 F4; JP4 F4.

³ tn Grk “they were being baptized by him.” The passive construction has been rendered as active in the translation for the sake of English style.

⁴ tn Grk “They were laughing at him.” The imperfect verb has been taken ingressively.

⁵ tn Or “threw them all outside.” The verb used, ἐκβάλλω (ekballw), almost always has the connotation of force in Mark.

⁶ tn Grk “those with him.”

⁷ tn Grk “into where the child was.”

⁸ tn Because of the length and complexity of the Greek sentence, a new sentence was started here in the translation.

⁹ tc ‡ Most mss (Ì⁴⁵ A D W Θ Ë^1,13 Ï lat sy) have αὐτοῦ (autou, “his”) after τοῖς μαθηταῖς (toi" maqhtai", “the disciples”), but several excellent witnesses (א B L Δ 33 579 892 1241 1424 2427 pc) lack the pronoun. This kind of variant is often a predictable expansion of the text; further, that many important mss lack the pronoun gives support for the shorter reading. For these reasons, the pronoun is considered to be secondary. NA²⁷ puts αὐτοῦ in brackets, indicating some doubts as to its authenticity.

tn Grk “the disciples”; the Greek article has been translated here as a possessive pronoun (ExSyn 215).

¹⁰ tn Grk “asked that they might touch.”

¹¹ tn Grk “this time” (καιρός, kairos), but for stylistic reasons this has been translated “this age” here.

¹² tn Grk “with persecutions.” The “all” has been supplied to clarify that the prepositional phrase belongs not just to the “fields.”

¹³ 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).

¹⁴ tn The imperfect ἐδίδασκεν (edidasken) is here taken ingressively.

¹⁵ sn A quotation from Isa 56:7.

¹⁶ tn Or “a hideout” (see L&N 1.57).

¹⁷ sn A quotation from Jer 7:11. The meaning of Jesus’ statement about making the temple courts a den of robbers probably operates here at two levels. Not only were the religious leaders robbing the people financially, but because of this they had also robbed them spiritually by stealing from them the opportunity to come to know God genuinely. It is possible that these merchants had recently been moved to this location for convenience.

¹⁸ tn Here καί (kai) has been translated as “now” to indicate the transition to a new topic.

¹⁹ tn Or “One of the scribes.” See the note on the phrase “experts in the law” in 1:22.

²⁰ tn Grk “he”; the referent (Jesus) has been specified in the translation for clarity.