Cambridge Greek Testament Commentary

Mark 12:39

πρωτοκαθεδρίας. These seem to have been at one end of the synagogue, in the centre, facing the congregation. Cf. Luke 11:43. Edersheim, Sketches of Jewish Social Life, p. 263.

πρωτοκλισίας. Chief places (R.V.), not “uppermost rooms” (A.V.). We cannot be sure which these were in our Lord’s time, when Jewish customs had been modified by Greek, Roman, and Persian influences. The Talmud says that, in a couch which held three, the middle place is for the worthiest. Greeks commonly had two on a couch, but both Greeks and Romans sometimes had four. Dict. of Ant. artt. “Cena,” “Symposium,” “Triclinium.” Becker, Charicles, Sc. vi., Gallus, Sc. ix.

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Cambridge Greek Testament Commentary

Mark 12:39

Old Testament

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