Mark 4:35

‘And on that day when evening was come he says to them, “Let us go over to the other side.” '

‘And on that day when evening was come.' This connects back with Mark 4:1 giving the impression that we are dealing with one day in the life of Jesus. And in a sense we are. But we have already noticed that it is his method to deliberately bring together incidents of a similar kind, or which go together, to present a full picture. (Mark 1:1; Mark 2:1 to Mark 3:6; Mark 3:7 and so on). And it is quite clear that Mark does not see Him as having been sitting in the boat while all that is described in chapter 4 has been happening. For example Mark 4:10 indicates a period when He was alone with His followers. The introductions in Mark 4:21; Mark 4:26; Mark 4:30 also suggest stories told at different times deliberately introduced here (Mark clearly does not present it as a continuous sermon in contrast with Matthew 5-7), and Mark 4:33 summarise a practise over a period. So the connection between the sayings are loose ones. It seems therefore that he brings into the incident described in Mark 4:1, taken with Mark 4:35, other matters which can be connected with the events of that day in order to give them a readable context. (He is not writing a chronological biography but a Gospel biography).

‘When evening was come.' Night was falling which would make what follows even more dramatic.

‘Let us go over to the other side.' It is probable that this was because He was exhausted and needed to escape from the crowds to an area where nothing was expected of Him. He in fact did no preaching on the other side which was the area of the Ten Towns (Decapolis), although that may have been because of what happened. This was a mainly Gentile area which ruled itself under Rome, although there were many Jews living there.