Cambridge Greek Testament Commentary

Mark 4:31

ὡς κόκκῳ σινάπεως. The verse is a medley of confused constructions, but with its meaning sufficiently plain. The three words seem to mix the forms of reply to the two questions, ὡς answering to πῶς and κόκκῳ to τίνι. Hence the reading κόκκον ([870][871][872] After the second ἐπὶ τῆς γῆς, the constr. is lost in the superfluous καὶ ὅαν σπαρῇ. The corrections in MSS. are various, and it is difficult to determine how much of the defective grammar is due to the Evangelist. Lk. connects the parable with the healing of a woman in a synagogue on the Sabbath. Neither Mk nor Mt. gives any hint of time or place.

[870] Codex Alexandrinus. 5th cent. Brought by Cyril Lucar, Patriarch of Constantinople, from Alexandria, and afterwards presented by him to King Charles I. in 1628. In the British Museum. The whole Gospel. Photographic facsimile, 1879.
[871] Codex Ephraemi. 5th cent. A palimpsest: the original writing has been partially rubbed out, and the works of Ephraem the Syrian have been written over it; but a great deal of the original writing has been recovered; of Mark we have Mark 1:17 to Mark 6:31; Mark 8:5 to Mark 12:29; Mark 13:19 to Mark 16:20. In the National Library at Paris.

[872] odex Regius. 8th cent. An important witness. At Paris. Contains Mark 1:1 to Mark 10:15; Mark 10:30 to Mark 15:1; Mark 15:20 to Mark 16:20, but the shorter ending is inserted between Mark 16:8 and Mark 16:9, showing that the scribe preferred it to the longer one.

μικρότερον ὂν πάντων τ. σπ. This is the main feature; the smallness of the seed compared with the greatness of the development. This use of the comparative is freq. in N.T. Cf. Mark 9:34; Luke 7:28; Luke 9:48. The seed now is, not the Gospel, but the Kingdom. Again Christ seems to be using a current proverbial saying; cf. Mark 4:22; Mark 4:24. “Small as a mustard-seed” was a Jewish proverb. Lk. says that the man sows the seed “in his own garden.”

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Cambridge Greek Testament Commentary

Mark 4:31

Old Testament

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