Exegesis:

pollakis (cf. 5.4) ‘often.’

kai eis pur … kai eis hudata either ‘both into fire … and into water’ or ‘even into fire … and into water.’

ebalen (cf. 2.22) ‘he threw,’ ‘he hurled,’ ‘he cast.’

hina ‘in order to,’ ‘so that’: expresses purpose.

apolesē (cf. 1.24) ‘he might destroy,’ ‘he might kill.’

all’ ei ti dunē ‘but if you can do anything,’ ‘but if you are at all able.’ Cf. the leper’s ean thelēs ‘if you will’ 1.40.

boēthēson (9.24) ‘help,’ ‘aid’: the imperative expresses a petition, not a command.

splagchnistheis (cf. 1.41) ‘being merciful,’ ‘having pity.’ The participle takes its mode from that of the main verb, and so is here imperatival: ‘Be merciful and help!’ (cf. similar case in 6.11).

Translation:

Cast him into is to an extent a figurative expression, equivalent in some languages to ‘caused him to fall into.’

Into the water must be translated in Copainalá Zoque as ‘under the water,’ since just throwing him into a small puddle of shallow water would not kill him. The purpose was obviously to drown him, and hence ‘under’ is required.

See pity 1.41 and mercy 5.19. In this type of context Huastec reads ‘suffer with me’ and Piro has ‘see me with sorrow.’ The essential ingredient of this type of pity is genuine empathy.

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 .