Mark 7:1-23. Contest with the Pharisees of Jerusalem concerning Traditions of Eating 1. _Then came together_ A few days only were assigned to the performance of those deeds of mercy described at the close of the last chapter. But the Saviour's labours of love were soon rudely interrupted. Having ke... [ Continue Reading ]
_with defiled, that is to say, with unwashen, hands_ Thus St Mark explains for his Roman readers, and then proceeds more fully to set forth certain Jewish usages. The Pharisees had probably crept in secretly into some of the social gatherings of the disciples.... [ Continue Reading ]
_except they wash their hands oft Oft_, literally, WITH THE FIST. "When they washed their hands, they washed _the fist unto the jointing of the arm_. The hands are polluted, and made clean _unto the jointing of the arm_." Lightfoot _Hor. Heb. upon St Mark_. When water was poured on the hands, they h... [ Continue Reading ]
_except they wash_ "Wash" here implies complete immersion as contrasted with the mere washing of the hands in Mark 7:3. _pots_ The original word thus translated is one of St Mark's Latinisms. It is a corruption of the Latin _sextarius_, a Roman measure both for liquids and dry things. In Tyndale an... [ Continue Reading ]
_Well hath Esaias_ Rather, WELL, or FULL WELL DID ESAIAS PROPHESY OF YOU. "_Well_" is said in irony. This expression recurs in Mark 7:9, "full well ye reject" = "_finely_do ye set at naught and obliterate." _This people honoureth me_ The words are found in Isaiah 29:13.... [ Continue Reading ]
_Honour thy father_ The words are quoted partly from Exodus 20:12, and partly from Exodus 21:17.... [ Continue Reading ]
_If a man shall say_ Literally it runs, IF A MAN SHALL SAY TO HIS FATHER OR HIS MOTHER, THAT, FROM WHICH THOU MIGHTEST HAVE BEEN BENEFITED BY ME, IS CORBAN, _that is to say, a gift_, or offering consecrated to God, HE SHALL BE FREE, AND YE SUFFER HIM NO LONGER TO DO AUGHT FOR HIS FATHER OR HIS MOTHE... [ Continue Reading ]
_through your tradition_ The Jews distinguished between the "Written Law" and the traditional or "Unwritten Law." The Unwritten Law was said to have been orally delivered by God to Moses, and by him orally transmitted to the Elders. On it was founded the Talmud or "doctrine," which consists of (1) t... [ Continue Reading ]
_all the people_ Rather, WHEN HE HAD CALLED THE PEOPLE AGAIN UNTO HIM. As Wyclif has it in his Version, "and he eftsone clepinge to be cumpanye of peple.... [ Continue Reading ]
_his disciples_ From St Matthew we learn that the questioner was St Peter (Matthew 15:15). As in the walking on the water, so here, he modestly suppresses himself in the Gospel which was written under his eye. _the parable_ They regarded the words uttered in the hearing of the mixed multitude, and... [ Continue Reading ]
_into the draught_ Comp. 2 Kings 10:27, "And they.… brake down the house of Baal, and made it a _draughthouse_unto this day." Draught = _latrina, cloaca_, from Icel. _draf_, dregs, dirt, connected with A.S. _drabbe, dréfe_. Comp. Shakespeare, _Tim. of Ath_. v. i. 105, "Hang them, or stab them, drown... [ Continue Reading ]
_evil thoughts_ Thirteen forms of evil are here noticed as proceeding from the heart. The first seven in the plural number, are _predominant actions;_the latter six in the singular, _dispositions_. Comp. the blending of the singular and plural in St Paul's enumeration of the works of the flesh, Gala... [ Continue Reading ]
_covetousness_ "avarices," Wyclif. The original word denotes more than the mere _love of money_, it is "the drawing and snatching to himself, on the sinner's part, of the creature in every form and kind, as it lies out of and beyond himself." Hence we find it joined not only with "thefts" here and w... [ Continue Reading ]
The Syrophœnician Woman 24. _from thence he arose_ The malevolence of our Lord's enemies was now assuming hourly a more implacable form. The Pharisaic party in Eastern Galilee were deeply offended (Matthew 15:12); even those who once would fain have prevented Him from leaving them (Luke 4:42) were... [ Continue Reading ]
_heard of him_ The fame of His miracles had already penetrated even to these old Phœnician cities, and we have seen (Mark 3:8) "a great multitude" from Tyre and Sidon coming to Him (comp. also Matthew 4:24).... [ Continue Reading ]
_a Greek_ St Matthew describes her as a "_woman of Canaan_" (Matthew 15:22), St Mark calls her _a Greek, a Syrophœnician_. The first term describes her religion, that she was a Gentile; the second the stock of which she came, "which was even that accursed stock once doomed of God to total excision,... [ Continue Reading ]
_But Jesus said unto her_ St Mark passes more briefly over the interview than St Matthew. The latter Evangelist points out three stages of this woman's trial; (i) Silence; "_He answered her not a word_" (Matthew 15:23); (ii) Refusal; "_I am not sent but unto the lost sheep of the house of Israel_" ... [ Continue Reading ]
_yet the dogs_ Rather, YEA LORD, FOR EVEN THE LITTLE DOGS UNDER THE TABLE EAT OF THE CHILDREN'S CRUMBS. So it is rightly translated in Wyclif's and Cranmer's Versions, following the Vulgate "Etiam, Domine, _nam et catelli_edunt." "_Truth it is Maister, for indeed the whelpes eat under the table, of... [ Continue Reading ]
_she found the devil gone out_ Thus the daughter was healed in consequence of the mother's faith and in answer to her prayers. This is an instance of a cure effected _at a distance:_other instances are, (1) the nobleman's son at Capernaum, whom our Lord healed while Himself at Cana (John 4:46), (2)... [ Continue Reading ]
The Healing of one Deaf and Dumb 31. _the coasts_ A misleading archaism is this word for "border" or "region." No allusion is made, in the original word to the sea-board. Thus we are told that Herod "slew all the children that were in Bethlehem, and in all the _coasts_thereof," though Bethlehem was... [ Continue Reading ]
_one that was deaf_ The healing of this man, on the east side of the Jordan, is related only by St Mark. _and had an impediment_ The word thus rendered does not imply that he was a mute, as some have thought, but that with his deafness was connected a disturbance of the organs of speech, so that he... [ Continue Reading ]
_aside from the multitude_ Comp. Mark 8:23. Why? (1) Some think it was to avoid all show and ostentation; (2) others, to prevent a publicity which might bring together the Gentiles in crowds; (3) others, far more probably, that apart from the interruptions of the crowd the man might be more recipien... [ Continue Reading ]
_looking up to heaven_ This upturned look expressive of an act of prayer and an acknowledgment of His oneness with the Father, occurs also (1) in the blessing of the five loaves and two fishes (Matthew 14:19; Mark 6:41), (2) at the raising of Lazarus (John 11:41), and (3) before the great high-pries... [ Continue Reading ]
_he charged them_ i. e. the friends of the afflicted man, who had accompanied or followed him into the presence of his Healer. _so much the more_ Observe the accumulation of comparatives, "_The more_He charged them, _so much the more a great deal_they published it, and were _beyond measure_astonish... [ Continue Reading ]