Mark 5 - Introduction
CHAPTER 5. THE GERASENE DEMONIAC. THE DAUGHTER OF JAIRUS. THE WOMAN WITH AN ISSUE. This group of incidents is given in the same order in all three synoptists, but in Matthew not in immediate sequence.... [ Continue Reading ]
CHAPTER 5. THE GERASENE DEMONIAC. THE DAUGHTER OF JAIRUS. THE WOMAN WITH AN ISSUE. This group of incidents is given in the same order in all three synoptists, but in Matthew not in immediate sequence.... [ Continue Reading ]
εἰς τὴν χῶραν τ. Γερασηνῶν : on the proper name to the place _vide_ at the parallel place in Mt.... [ Continue Reading ]
_The Gerasene Demoniac_ (Matthew 8:28-34; Luke 8:26-39).... [ Continue Reading ]
ἐξελ. αὐτοῦ … ὑπήντησεν αὐτῷ; note the correction of style in Luke. Mark's incorrectness is to be preferred as emphasising the fact that the meeting with the demoniac took place immediately after leaving the boat. Just on that account the εὐθὺς before ὑπήντησεν (omitted in [32]) is unnecessary. ἐκ τ... [ Continue Reading ]
Mark 5:3-5 elaborately describe the man's condition, as if the evangelist or rather his informant (Peter) were fascinated by the subject; not a case of idle word-painting, but of realistic description from vivid, almost morbid, recollection. Holtzmann (H. C.) refers to Isaiah 65:4-5, as if to sugges... [ Continue Reading ]
tells how they had often tried to bind the madman, feet (πέδαις) and hands (ἁλύσεσι, with chains, for the hands _here_, in contrast to πέδαις, chains for the feet; usually it means chains in general). συντετρῖφθαι : the use of a distinct verb in reference to the fetters suggests that they were of di... [ Continue Reading ]
As the previous verse depicts the demoniac strength, so this the utter misery of the poor sufferer. διὰ παντὸς νυκ. κ. ἡμέρ., incessantly night time and day time, even during night when men gladly get under roof (Weiss, Mc.-Evang.) and when sleep makes trouble cease for most: no sleep for this wretc... [ Continue Reading ]
ἀπὸ μακρόθεν, from afar, a relative expression, a favourite pleonasm in Mk. (Mark 14:54; Mark 15:40). προσεκύνησεν : worshipful attitude, as of one who feels already the charm or spell of Him before whom he kneels; already there is a presentiment and commencement of cure, though not yet welcome.... [ Continue Reading ]
_Meeting with Jesus_. This desperate case will test Christ's power to heal. Madness, as wild and untamable as the wind or the sea. What is going to happen?... [ Continue Reading ]
τ. θ. τοῦ ὑψίστου; Mt. has τοῦ θεοῦ only. Luke gives the full expression = the Son of God Most High. Which is the original? Weiss (Meyer) says Mt.'s, Mk. adding τ. ὑψ. to prepare for the appeal to One higher even than Jesus, in ὁρκίζω following. But why should not the demoniac himself do that? ὁρκίζ... [ Continue Reading ]
ἔλεγεν γὰρ, for He was about to say: not yet said, but evident from Christ's manner and look that it was on His tongue; the conative imperfect (Weiss).... [ Continue Reading ]
τί σοι ὄνομα; instead of saying at once what He had meant to say, Jesus adopts a roundabout method of dealing with the case, and asks the demoniac his name, as if to bring him into composure. Λεγιὼν : from the Roman legion not a rare sight in that region, emblem of irresistible power and of a multit... [ Continue Reading ]
παρεκάλει : _he_, Legion, in the name of the demons, beseeches earnestly (πολλὰ) that He would not send _them_ (αὐτὰ) out of the region (χώρας). Decapolis, beloved by demons, suggests Grotius, because full of Hellenising apostate Jews, _teste_ Joseph. (A. J., xvii., 11).... [ Continue Reading ]
ἐκεῖ, there, near by. _Cf._ Matthew 8:30. πρὸς τῷ ὄρει; on the mountain side.... [ Continue Reading ]
πέμψον : send us into the _swine_; no chance of permission to enter into _men_; no expectation either of the ensuing catastrophe.... [ Continue Reading ]
καὶ ἐπέτρεψεν : permission, not command, to enter; in Mt. not even that, simply a peremptory: Depart! _vide_ notes there. εἰσῆλθον : an inference from the sequel; neither exit nor entrance could be seen. There was doubtless a _coincidence_ between the cure and the catastrophe. ὡς δισχίλιοι : about 2... [ Continue Reading ]
εἰς τὴν πόλιν, etc.: the herds of course ran in breathless panic-stricken haste to report the tragedy _in the city and in the neighbouring farms_ (ἀγρούς). καὶ ἦλθον, etc.: and the people in town and country as naturally went to see what had happened. Their road brings them straight to Jesus (Mark 5... [ Continue Reading ]
_Sequel of the story_.... [ Continue Reading ]
The eyewitnesses in further explanations to their employers now connect the two events together the cure and the catastrophe not representing the one as cause of the other, but simply as happening close to each other. The owners draw a natural inference: cure cause of catastrophe, and (Mark 5:17) re... [ Continue Reading ]
ἐμβαίνοντος, embarking, the same day? Jesus had probably intended to stay some days on the eastern shore as on the hill (Mark 3:13), to let the crowd disperse. ἵνα μετʼ αὐτοῦ ᾖ : an object clause after verb of exhorting with ἵνα, and subjunctive instead of infinitive as often in N. T., that he might... [ Continue Reading ]
Jesus refuses, and, contrary to His usual practice, bids the healed one go and spread the news, as a kind of missionary to Decapolis, as the Twelve were to Galilee. The first apostle of the heathen (Holtz. (H. C.) after Volkmar). Jesus determined that those who would not have Himself should have His... [ Continue Reading ]
ἐν τῇ Δεκαπόλει : he took a wide range; implying probably that he was known throughout the ten cities as the famous madman of Gerasa. What was the effect of his mission in that Greek world? Momentary wonder at least (ἐθαύμαζον), perhaps not much more.... [ Continue Reading ]
ὄχλος πολὺς : the inescapable crowd, in no hurry to disperse, gathers again about Jesus, on His return to the western shore. ἐπʼ αὐτόν : not merely _to_, but _after_ Him, the great centre of attraction (_cf._ πρὸς α., Mark 2:13; Mark 4:1). παρὰ τ. θ., by the sea (here and there); how soon after the... [ Continue Reading ]
_The daughter of Jairus and the woman with bloody issue_ (Matthew 9:18-26; Luke 8:40-56).... [ Continue Reading ]
εἷς τ. ἀ.: might imply a plurality of synagogues, each having its chief ruler. But in Acts 13:14-15, one syn. has its ἀρχισωνάγωζοι.... [ Continue Reading ]
θυγάτριόν μ.: an instance of Mk.'s love of diminutives, again in Mark 7:25. ἐσχάτως ἔχει, is extremely ill, at death's door (in Mt. dead), stronger than κακῶς ἔχει; a late Greek phrase (examples in Elsner, Wetstein, Kypke, etc.), disapproved by Phryn. (Lobeck, p. 389). ἵνα ἐλθὼν ἐπιθῇς : either used... [ Continue Reading ]
ἐν ῥύσει ἁ. = αἱμορροοῦσα of Mt.: in or with a flux of blood. So in Lk. also.... [ Continue Reading ]
_The woman with an issue_.... [ Continue Reading ]
Details about the case, similarly in Lk., not in Mt.: either they expand or Mt. abbreviates. πολλὰ παθοῦσα : no wonder, remarks Lightfoot, in view of the endless prescriptions for such a case, of which he gives samples (_Hor. Heb._); physicians of the empiric or prescientific type. τὰ παρʼ αὐτῆς, he... [ Continue Reading ]
ἀκούσασα · to simplify the construction of this long sentence (Mark 5:25-27) we may, with Fritzsche, connect this participle with γυνὴ, Mark 5:25, and treat all between as a parenthesis = a certain woman (whose case was, etc.) having heard, etc. τὰ περὶ τ. Ι. The importance of the τὰ ([35] [36] [37]... [ Continue Reading ]
ἐξηράνθη ἡ πηγὴ : perhaps this means no more than Lk.'s statement that the flux was stopped, but the expression seems chosen to signify a complete permanent cure not merely the stream but the fountain dried. ἔγνω τ. σ.: she was conscious that the flow had ceased (ἔγνω διὰ τοῦ σώματος μηκέτι ῥαινομέν... [ Continue Reading ]
ἐπιγνοὺς τὴν … δύναμιν ἐξελθοῦσαν, conscious of the going forth of the healing virtue; ἐξελθ. is the substantive participle as object of the verb ἐπιγνοὺς. The statement as given by Mk. (and Lk.) implies that the cure was not wrought by the will of Jesus. But it may nevertheless have been so. Jesus... [ Continue Reading ]
τὸν ὀχ. συνθλίβοντά f1σε, the crowd squeezing Thee, as in Mark 5:24. The simple verb in Mark 3:9. The compound implies a greater crowd, or a more eager pressure around Jesus. How exciting and fatiguing that rude popularity for Him!... [ Continue Reading ]
περιεβλέπετο : Jesus, knowing well the difference between touch and touch, regardless of what the disciples had plausibly said, _kept looking around_ in quest of the person who had touched Him meaningfully. τὴν τ. ποιήσασαν : feminine, a _woman's_ touch. Did Jesus know that, or is it the evangelist... [ Continue Reading ]
φοβ. καὶ τρέμ., fearing and trembling, the two states closely connected and often combined (2 Corinthians 7:15; Ephesians 6:5; Philippians 2:12). εἰδυῖα, etc., explains her emotion: she knew what had happened to her, and thought what a dreadful thing it would be to have the surreptitiously obtained... [ Continue Reading ]
The woman had already heard the fame of Jesus (Mark 5:27). From what Jesus said to her she would for the first time get some idea of His exquisite sympathy, delicately expressed in the very first word: θύγατερ, _daughter_, to a mature woman, probably not much, if at all, younger than Himself! He spe... [ Continue Reading ]
ἀπὸ τ. ἀρχισ., from the ruler of the synagogue, _i.e._, from his _house_, as in A.V [41] (ἀπὸ τῆς οἰκίας τ. σ., Euthy.). The ruler is supposed to be with Jesus all the time. [41] Authorised Version.... [ Continue Reading ]
_The story of Jairus' daughter resumed_.... [ Continue Reading ]
παρακούσας : might mean to disregard, as in Matthew 18:17 (with genitive). So Meyer; but here probably it means overhearing a word not spoken directly to Him. The two senses are quite compatible. Jesus might overhear what was said and disregard its import, _i.e._, act contrary to the implied suggest... [ Continue Reading ]
συνακολουθῆσαι : here with μετά, in Mark 14:51, and Luke 23:49 with dative. τὸν Πέτρον, etc., Peter, James, and John; earliest trace of preference within the disciple-circle. Not in Mt., but followed by Lk. The three chosen to be witnesses of a specially remarkable event. Perhaps the number of disci... [ Continue Reading ]
θεωρεῖ : what was I going on within the house appealed to both eye and ear; here the scene is described from the spectacular side a multitude of people seen making a confused din (θόρυβον), in which sounds of weeping and howling without restraint (πολλά) are distinguishable. καὶ after θόρυβον is epe... [ Continue Reading ]
κατεγέλων : this the point of the story for the evangelist, thinks Weiss, hence related after the demoniac common link, the unbelief of the people. But surely in this case in credulity was very excusable! τὸν παρέρα, etc.: father, mother, and the three disciples taken into the sick chamber, the form... [ Continue Reading ]
Ταλιθά, κοῦμ, maiden, rise! first instance in which the words of Jesus, as spoken in Aramaic, are given. Jesus may have been a bilingual, sometimes using Greek, sometimes Syriac. He would use the vernacular on a pathetic occasion like this. The word Ταλιθά, feminine of Teli (טְלִי), is found in the... [ Continue Reading ]
περιεπάτει, etc.: the diminutive κοράσιον might suggest the idea of a mere child, therefore, after stating that she _walked about_, it is added that she was _twelve years old_. In Mk. only.... [ Continue Reading ]
διεστείλατο : that the girl had recovered could not be hid, but that she had been brought back from death might be. Jesus wished this, not desiring that expectations of such acts should be awakened. δοθῆναι φαγεῖν : she could walk and _eat_; not only alive, but well: “graviter aegroti vix solent cib... [ Continue Reading ]