But I wish to discuss more than that single verse, Mark 13.11. I believe that it belongs, in context, with verses 9 and 12-13. (Verse 10 is so out of place that I have already pinned as a possible harmonization with Matthew; I believe it entered the text later than any of its immediate context.) These verses form their own unit in the Olivet discourse:
Mark 13.5-31:
5 And Jesus began to say to them, "See to it that no one misleads you. 6 Many will come in My name, saying, 'I am He!' and will mislead many. 7 And when you hear [ὅταν δὲ ἀκούσητε] of wars and rumors of wars, do not be frightened; those things must take place; but that is not yet the end [ἀλλ᾽ οὔπω τὸ τέλος]. 8 For nation will arise against nation, and kingdom against kingdom; there will be earthquakes in various places; there will also be famines. These things are the beginning of birth pangs [ἀρχὴ ὠδίνων ταῦτα].
9 But you, watch out for yourselves [βλέπετε δὲ ὑμεῖς ἑαυτούς]; for they will deliver [παραδώσουσιν] you to the courts, and you will be flogged in the synagogues, and you will stand before governors and kings for My sake, as a testimony to them. 10 And the gospel must first be preached to all the nations. 11 And when they arrest you [καὶ ὅταν ἄγωσιν ὑμᾶς], delivering [παραδιδόντες] you up, do not be anxious beforehand about what you are to say, but say whatever is given you in that hour; for it is not you who speak, but it is the Holy Spirit. 12 And brother will deliver [παραδώσει] brother to death, and a father his child; and children will rise up against parents and have them put to death. 13 And you will be hated by all on account of My name, but the one who endures to the end, he shall be saved.
14 But when you see [ὅταν δὲ ἴδητε] the abomination of desolation standing where he should not be — let the reader understand — then let those who are in Judea flee to the mountains. 15 And let him who is on the housetop not go down, or enter in, to get anything out of his house; 16 and let him who is in the field not turn back to get his cloak. 17 But woe to those who are with child and to those who nurse babes in those days [ἐν ἐκείναις ταῖς ἡμέραις]! 18 But pray that it may not happen in the winter.
19 For those days [αἱ ἡμέραι ἐκεῖναι] will be a time of tribulation such as has not occurred since the beginning of the creation which God created, until now, and never shall. 20 And unless the Lord had shortened the days, no life would have been saved; but for the sake of the elect whom He chose, He shortened the days. 21 And then if anyone says to you, 'Behold, here is the Christ,' or, 'Behold, He is there,' do not believe him; 22 for false Christs and false prophets will arise, and will show signs and wonders, in order, if possible, to lead the elect astray. 23 But take heed; behold, I have told you everything in advance.
24 But in those days [ἐν ἐκείναις ταῖς ἡμέραις], after that tribulation, the sun will be darkened, and the moon will not give its light, 25 and the stars will be falling from heaven, and the powers that are in the heavens will be shaken. 26 And then they will see the Son of Man coming in clouds with great power and glory. 27 And then He will send forth the angels, and will gather together His elect from the four winds, from the farthest end of the earth, to the farthest end of heaven.
28 Now learn the parable from the fig tree: when its branch has already become tender, and puts forth its leaves, you know that summer is near. 29 Even so, you too, when you see these things happening, recognize that He is near, right at the door. 30 Truly I say to you, this generation will not pass away until all these things take place. 31 Heaven and earth will pass away, but My words will not pass away."
5 And Jesus began to say to them, "See to it that no one misleads you. 6 Many will come in My name, saying, 'I am He!' and will mislead many. 7 And when you hear [ὅταν δὲ ἀκούσητε] of wars and rumors of wars, do not be frightened; those things must take place; but that is not yet the end [ἀλλ᾽ οὔπω τὸ τέλος]. 8 For nation will arise against nation, and kingdom against kingdom; there will be earthquakes in various places; there will also be famines. These things are the beginning of birth pangs [ἀρχὴ ὠδίνων ταῦτα].
9 But you, watch out for yourselves [βλέπετε δὲ ὑμεῖς ἑαυτούς]; for they will deliver [παραδώσουσιν] you to the courts, and you will be flogged in the synagogues, and you will stand before governors and kings for My sake, as a testimony to them. 10 And the gospel must first be preached to all the nations. 11 And when they arrest you [καὶ ὅταν ἄγωσιν ὑμᾶς], delivering [παραδιδόντες] you up, do not be anxious beforehand about what you are to say, but say whatever is given you in that hour; for it is not you who speak, but it is the Holy Spirit. 12 And brother will deliver [παραδώσει] brother to death, and a father his child; and children will rise up against parents and have them put to death. 13 And you will be hated by all on account of My name, but the one who endures to the end, he shall be saved.
14 But when you see [ὅταν δὲ ἴδητε] the abomination of desolation standing where he should not be — let the reader understand — then let those who are in Judea flee to the mountains. 15 And let him who is on the housetop not go down, or enter in, to get anything out of his house; 16 and let him who is in the field not turn back to get his cloak. 17 But woe to those who are with child and to those who nurse babes in those days [ἐν ἐκείναις ταῖς ἡμέραις]! 18 But pray that it may not happen in the winter.
19 For those days [αἱ ἡμέραι ἐκεῖναι] will be a time of tribulation such as has not occurred since the beginning of the creation which God created, until now, and never shall. 20 And unless the Lord had shortened the days, no life would have been saved; but for the sake of the elect whom He chose, He shortened the days. 21 And then if anyone says to you, 'Behold, here is the Christ,' or, 'Behold, He is there,' do not believe him; 22 for false Christs and false prophets will arise, and will show signs and wonders, in order, if possible, to lead the elect astray. 23 But take heed; behold, I have told you everything in advance.
24 But in those days [ἐν ἐκείναις ταῖς ἡμέραις], after that tribulation, the sun will be darkened, and the moon will not give its light, 25 and the stars will be falling from heaven, and the powers that are in the heavens will be shaken. 26 And then they will see the Son of Man coming in clouds with great power and glory. 27 And then He will send forth the angels, and will gather together His elect from the four winds, from the farthest end of the earth, to the farthest end of heaven.
28 Now learn the parable from the fig tree: when its branch has already become tender, and puts forth its leaves, you know that summer is near. 29 Even so, you too, when you see these things happening, recognize that He is near, right at the door. 30 Truly I say to you, this generation will not pass away until all these things take place. 31 Heaven and earth will pass away, but My words will not pass away."
That these verses form their own little textual unit is clear from two considerations. First, Matthew locates this entire paragraph at a different spot in his gospel: to wit, in Matthew 10.17-22, as part of the mission discourse. In the parallel spot on Olivet he actually inserts 24.9-14, which invokes some of the same themes, but in terms more reminiscent of Didache 16 than of Mark 13. So the pericope is movable. Second, these few verses revolve around the word παραδίδωμι ("to deliver"), which appears no fewer than three times in their brief span but nowhere else on Olivet. The rest of the discourse is eschatological, involving signs (and also false signs) of the times and what to do at the crucial moment; but this pericope exudes normalcy, as it were. Its focus is on how to respond to the everyday persecution that one may expect as a disciple of Christ.
The position in the discourse at which this pericope exudes that kind of normalcy is a bit awkward, as well. The previous pericope (verse 5-8), characterized by hearing ("when you hear") and by distant events ("in various places"), has just listed things which are not specific signs of the end but which are just the beginning of the birth pangs. The next pericope (verses 14-18) after the one under discussion, characterized by seeing ("what you see"), is about when stuff "gets real," so to speak, and the time comes to flee (in "those days"). So what are verses 9-13 doing here? Do they come after the beginning of the birth pangs but before the signal to flee? It honestly does not appear to me that this was the intended effect — namely, that wars, earthquakes, and famines were to be followed by persecutions of Christians — but it is the natural effect; Luke actually adjusts the sequence by adding "but before all these things" in 21.12!
Luke 21.10-19: 10 Then He continued by saying to them, "Nation will rise against nation and kingdom against kingdom, 11 and there will be great earthquakes, and in various places plagues and famines; and there will be terrors and great signs from heaven. 12 But before all these things, they will lay their hands on you and will persecute you, delivering you to the synagogues and prisons, bringing you before kings and governors for My name’s sake. 13 It will lead to an opportunity for your testimony. 14 So make up your minds not to prepare beforehand to defend yourselves; 15 for I will give you utterance and wisdom which none of your opponents will be able to resist or refute. 16 But you will be betrayed even by parents and brothers and relatives and friends, and they will put some of you to death, 17 and you will be hated by all because of My name. 18 Yet not a hair of your head will perish. 19 By your endurance you will gain your lives.
While the hearing of Mark 13.7 is a false sign, if you will, and the seeing of Mark 13.14 is the sign that one now needs to flee, there is another kind of seeing in Mark 13.9-13 which muddies the waters a bit: "But you, watch out for yourselves." Proceeding from nonsigns characterized by hearing and distance to a clear sign characterized by seeing and thus proximity is a strong sequence; adding a bit about watching out for oneself in the middle, in a passage which does not really seem to belong chronologically to the middle of the sequence, weakens the flow in between the "beginning of the birth pangs" and the period referred to thrice as "those days," the period of tribulation.
Finally, there is the matter of antecedents. Greek writers, at least those who are writing as informally as the evangelists, do not always specify antecedents for their pronouns, implicit or explicit, but in a passage which already looks somewhat out of place it piques the suspicions, I think, to find Mark writing in verse 9 that "they will deliver you up," with no contextual antecedent for "they" (implicit in the verb παραδώσουσιν), especially when we find that Matthew's parallel material in his mission discourse provides exactly the antecedent that we would like to see:
Matthew 10.17-22: 17 "But beware of men [ἀπὸ τῶν ἀνθρώπων], for they will deliver [παραδώσουσιν] you over to the courts and scourge you in their synagogues; 18 and you will even be brought before governors and kings for My sake, as a testimony to them and to the Gentiles. 19 But when they hand you over, do not worry about how or what you are to say; for it will be given you in that hour what you are to say. 20 For it is not you who speak, but it is the Spirit of your Father who speaks in you. 21 Brother will betray brother to death, and a father his child; and children will rise up against parents and cause them to be put to death. 22 You will be hated by all because of My name, but it is the one who has endured to the end who will be saved."
Matthew 10.17 strikes me as containing the original introduction of the pericope, but Mark 13.9 has changed "beware of men" to "watch out for yourselves," thus inadvertently deleting the antecedent.
None of these considerations is extremely strong on its own; individually, each one probably admits of other explanations. But in a cumulative sense I think it is at least worth considering whether or not Mark has introduced two of his favorite themes, persecution (8.34-38; 9.12-13; 10.28-31, 39) and the nexus of sin, blasphemy, and the spirit (2.5b-10; 3.28-30; 14.63-64), into a context which was originally all about upcoming eschatological events.
Ben.
ETA: I just noticed another difference between Mark 13.9, 11-13 and its context. Verse 13 concludes the pericope with the promise that the one who endures "to the end" (εἰς τέλος) will be saved; since verse 12 has just mentioned the possibility of being handed over to death, "the end" here seems to be the end of one's life. But "the end" under discussion as of 13.7 is the end of an era in human history, not of an individual life. This is another example of how the contents and themes of this pericope contrast with its immediate surroundings.