Mark — Greek text and reception
Choose a chapter to explore the source readings and their notes. Original references, source labels, and review records are retained.
Source guide and review record
Saints Translation
Mark
Complete working translation draft, V2, Sep 13, 2026. Every selected Greek main-text verse and both bracketed endings translated after direct source reading. English and structural review completed; selected edition apparatus and four patristic sources checked. Independent specialist review remains outstanding.
Text and translation
The Greek New Testament: SBL Edition (SBLGNT), edited by Michael W. Holmes (2010); Faithlife publisher-linked electronic repository, current master retrieved Sep 8, 2026; repository identifies public version 1.2. Ancient main text with edition's bracketed endings.
Conventional Mark numbering is retained through all 16 chapters. There are 673 numbered entries in the SBLGNT Greek source, plus its complete shorter ending embedded after 16:8. Five conventional numbers have no main-text wording: 7:16; 9:44,46; 11:26; 15:28. These receive explicit editorial absence notices. The shorter ending is a separate row labeled 16:8 (shorter ending), without inventing a new verse number. The longer ending is 16:9–20. Both endings retain the edition’s double brackets. Thus all 678 conventional verse positions are accounted for, with 679 document rows including the separate shorter-ending row; this is not a claim of 679 biblical verses.
The three columns contain the verse reference, an independent Greek–English translation, and textual or reception notes. Patristic interpretation is identified separately from the wording of the biblical source.
Sources and textual basis
All sources below were accessed on Sep 8, 2026.
[SBL-MARK] Michael W. Holmes, ed., The Greek New Testament: SBL Edition, Mark; Faithlife electronic text
All of Mark 1–16 directly read chapter by chapter, including the complete shorter and longer double-bracketed endings; 673 numbered Greek entries
Direct Greek main-text file; downloaded, SHA-256 fe1b5a4c15db71e7e30f33fb67966ca93baffae377085ece0b88f66316729638
[SBL-MARK-APP] SBLGNT electronic edition-comparison apparatus, Mark
Directly read selected entries: 1:1,41; 6:22; 7:4,15,19,28; 9:29,43,45,49; 10:2,24; 11:25; 14:24,68,70,72; 15:27; 16:8,9,14,17,18,19,20. The complete electronic file was downloaded; no claim of exhaustive apparatus analysis or manuscript collation.
Direct electronic edition apparatus, not manuscript collation; downloaded SHA-256 25f90cb6d683f4cf4e0aa3e14931cfcf514f20e5ced8e039ea913a3050b53f35
[SBL-REPO] Faithlife/SBLGNT publisher repository: version and licensing declaration
Readme: source provenance, version history, CC BY 4.0 license
Publisher source repository; linked from sblgnt.com/download
[IREN-MARK] Irenaeus, Against Heresies 3.10.5; Alexander Roberts and William Rambaut translation, Ante-Nicene Fathers 1 (1885), New Advent presentation
3.10.5 directly read: Mark’s opening citation and explicit citation of Mark 16:19
Direct reading of published English translation of patristic primary work; no Greek/Latin manuscript or critical-edition collation
[CLEM-RICH] Clement of Alexandria, Who Is the Rich Man That Shall Be Saved?; William Wilson translation, Ante-Nicene Fathers 2 (1885), New Advent presentation
Sections 4–5 and 11–14 directly read: Mark 10 citation and interpretation of wealth
Direct reading of published English translation of patristic primary work; not a Greek critical-edition check
[ATH-ARIAN] Athanasius, Discourse III Against the Arians; John Henry Newman and Archibald Robertson translation, Nicene and Post-Nicene Fathers, Second Series 4 (1892), New Advent presentation
3.42–45 directly read: the Son’s knowledge and the saying concerning the day and hour
Direct reading of published English translation of patristic primary work; no Greek manuscript or apparatus collation
[AMB-MYST] Ambrose, On the Mysteries, New Advent English presentation
1.3–4 and 4.24–25 directly read: Ephphatha initiation rite and the baptismal dove
Direct reading of published English translation of patristic primary work; no Latin critical-edition check
Terminology
εὐαγγέλιον → good news. Retains the proclamation's ordinary lexical sense; no replacement of the named Jesus Christ.
βασιλεία τοῦ θεοῦ → kingdom of God. Consistent kingdom vocabulary while retaining verbs of coming or drawing near.
υἱὸς τοῦ ἀνθρώπου → Son of Man. Retained as Jesus' self-designation.
βαπτίζω / βάπτισμα → baptize / baptism. Established religious wording without specifying a ritual mode beyond the source.
λέπρα → leprosy. Project preference; the ancient designation is not equated with one modern clinical diagnosis.
κύριος → Lord; master or owner when referring to an ordinary person. Divine and Christological use remains Lord; no YHWH is inserted into this Greek-only translation.
σῴζω / ψυχή → save / life or soul. Save preserves the shared rescue/healing verb, with context noted at 5:34. Psychē is life in 8:35–37 and 10:45, soul in 12:30 and 14:34, according to context.
δηνάριον; λεπτόν; κοδράντης → denarius; lepton; quadrans. Ancient denominations retained; plural denarii and lepta. The two-lepta/one-quadrans relation at 12:42 is Mark’s own explanation.
μόδιος; ξέστης → modius basket; xestes vessel. Ancient measure/vessel vocabulary is retained without fixed modern conversion.
κόφινος / σπυρίς → basket / hamper. Distinction retained between the two feeding accounts and in Jesus’ explicit recollection at 8:19–20.
διάκονος / δοῦλος → servant / slave. The distinction is visible particularly in 10:43–44.
γέεννα → Gehenna. The source designation is retained in 9:43–47, with the associated fire language translated in full.
ἱερόν / ναός → temple / sanctuary. The broader temple precinct vocabulary remains distinct from sanctuary language in the trial and passion.
παραδίδωμι → hand over; permits in the harvest idiom at 4:29. The repeated handover wording links arrest, passion prediction, betrayal, and judicial transfer without forcing one motive into every occurrence.
Editorial decisions
Independent English translation after direct Greek reading; no modern English running base.
Jesus' and God's clear personal pronouns capitalized according to the reference guide.
Edition apparatus compares printed editions; no manuscript agreement is inferred beyond the apparatus actually read.
Copyright 2010 Society of Biblical Literature and Logos Bible Software. Greek source licensed CC BY 4.0; this independently authored English draft is an adaptation from that source.
Single Greek source: no Hebrew counterpart is invented. Three columns carry reference, English translation, and textual/reception notes; comparison classification labels and totals do not apply.
The source edition’s selected readings are translated, including 1:1 without Son of God, anger at 1:41, unnamed questioners at 10:2, and the speech clause at 14:70. No silent eclectic substitutions were made.
WH denotes Westcott–Hort; Treg, Tregelles; RP, Robinson–Pierpont; NA28, Nestle–Aland 28. NIV is the apparatus’s label for the Greek text underlying the New International Version, not a modern English running base. These sigla are reported as the current electronic apparatus prints them.
Reception notes are independently attributed summaries from the listed patristic passages. They distinguish direct citation, related scriptural reception, sacramental application, and doctrinal interpretation.
No shorter or longer ending is omitted. SBLGNT’s brackets remain visible, and Irenaeus’s explicit reception of 16:19 is recorded separately.
English review corrected missing closing quotation marks at 2:26 and 4:8, standardized Sabbath capitalization, made the shared muzzling image explicit at 1:25, strengthened the departure verb at 1:43, and repaired English agreement at 3:33. Final syntax checks made the purpose clause at 14:49 explicit in English and clarified the recipient of the report in the shorter ending.
License: Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 license.
Review and open questions
Qualified independent Greek second-reader review remains outstanding; this draft is not certified publication-ready.
The semantic choices specifically discussed in notes—including pygmē at 7:3, katharizōn at 7:19, pistikēs at 14:3, and epibalōn at 14:72—remain suitable subjects for specialist review.
Reception coverage is selective, from four patristic authors; no exhaustive patristic or rabbinic commentary survey has been performed.
The textual history of Mark’s endings requires a broader critical and manuscript study beyond the edition comparisons and verified Irenaeus citation used here.
Apparatus review: Selective edition-comparison entries listed in SBL-MARK-APP; no direct manuscript collation and no exhaustive critical apparatus claim.
Direct greek source reading: Complete: every Mark chapter and both printed bracketed endings were directly read before independent English drafting.
Independent review: Not performed.
Reception review: Exact locations in four primary patristic works read through the specified published English presentations; source wording and later interpretation kept separate.
Structural review: All 16 chapters, 673 numbered source entries, five absence notices, and complete separate shorter ending accounted for; 679 unique row references. Quote pairing and bracket pairing checked.
Translation review: Clauses, agents, negatives, numbers, names, source-specific readings, and lexical choices reviewed during chapter drafting; whole-book English/terminology pass and flagged-source rechecks completed by the drafting agent.
Collation against Nestle–Aland 28
On 13 September 2026 every verse of this book where the SBLGNT and NA28 differ was identified from the edition marks of Tyndale House's Translators Amalgamated Greek New Testament (STEPBible, CC BY 4.0) and the SBLGNT apparatus, and the rendering above was read at each one. 61 verses differ; 22 of them would read differently in English if NA28 were translated instead of the SBLGNT, and each of those carries a note above beginning "NA28". The collation is against TAGNT's edition marks and the SBLGNT apparatus; a printed NA28 apparatus has not been consulted, and NA28's square brackets are inferred, not recorded.
At 1 place the English coincides with an NA28 plus that idiom could also supply, and the note marks the word as supplied: 1:4. Each is marked in its note.