Text:

After pōs duskolon estin ‘how hard it is’ Textus Receptus, Soden, Vogels, Souter, and Merk add tous pepoithotas epi toi chrēmasin ‘(for) those who trust in riches,’ with considerable support from Greek mss. and early versions; Tischendorf, Westcott and Hort, Nestle, Lagrange, Taylor, and Kilpatrick do not include the words.

Exegesis:

Most of the words of this verse have already been dealt with: for thambeomai ‘be amazed’ cf. 1.27; epi ‘at’ cf. 11.22; teknon ‘child’ cf. 2.5.

Translation:

For amazed see 1.22 and 27. His words may be rendered as ‘what he said.’

Children must often be adapted to the cultural framework of such an utterance, for otherwise this would seem to be a reference by Jesus to the children whom he had blessed (verse 16) and who were still standing by listening to his words. (Compare the use of my son in 2.5.) In such instances one may need to use ‘young men,’ as a culturally applicable term to designate the disciples (cf. the English usage ‘my dear young man,’ especially in a context in which one wishes to raise an objection to a statement or an inference).

Trust in riches, though not in the better Greek texts, is found widely in traditional translations. The meaning is rendered as ‘think their riches are important’ or ‘think their riches will save them’ (Tzeltal).

Quoted with permission from Bratcher, Robert G. and Nida, Eugene A. A Handbook on the Gospel of Mark. (UBS Handbook Series). New York: UBS, 1961. For this and other handbooks for translators see here .