Mark 8 - Introduction
CHAPTER 8. SECOND FEEDING. SIGN FROM HEAVEN. CURE AT BETHSAIDA. CAESAREA PHILIPPI.... [ Continue Reading ]
CHAPTER 8. SECOND FEEDING. SIGN FROM HEAVEN. CURE AT BETHSAIDA. CAESAREA PHILIPPI.... [ Continue Reading ]
ἐν ἐκείναις ταῖς ἡμέραις : a vague phrase, used only once again in this Gospel (Mark 1:9, in reference to Jesus going from Nazareth to be baptised), indicating inability to assign to the following incident a precise historical place. _Cf._ Matthew 3:1 for similar vague use of the expression. πάλιν π... [ Continue Reading ]
_Second feeding_ (Matthew 15:32-39).... [ Continue Reading ]
_Vide_ on Matthew 15:32.... [ Continue Reading ]
ἐκλυθήσονται, they will faint. This verb is used in N. T. in middle or passive in the sense of being faint or weary in body or mind (Galatians 6:9; Hebrews 12:3). καί τινες … εἰσίν, and some of them are from a distance, peculiar to Mark. The meaning is that such, even if in vigour at starting, would... [ Continue Reading ]
πόθεν, whence? This adverb was used by the Greeks, in speaking of food, in reference to the source of supply πόθεν φάγητε = “unde cibum petituri sitis”. Examples in Kypke, Raphel, Palairet. ἐπʼ ἐρημίας, in a desert. The scene of the first feeding is a desert place also (chap. Mark 6:32). But in that... [ Continue Reading ]
Compare the meagre statement here with the picturesque description in Mark 6:38-40. The evangelist seems to lack interest in the twice-told tale. Mark 8:7. ἰχθύδια : another of Mark's diminutives, but Matthew has it also (Mark 15:34), copied probably from Mark. In these two places only.... [ Continue Reading ]
περισσεύματα κλασμάτων, the remainders of the broken pieces. Matthew uses the singular neuter, τὸ περισσεῦον, in both feedings. σπυρίδας : in both accounts of second feeding, κοφίνους in both accounts of first (κόφινοι in Luke). On the difference in meaning, _vide_ notes on Matthew 15:37.... [ Continue Reading ]
Here as in case of first feeding there is a crossing of the lake immediately after (εὐθὺς, which has an obvious reason in first case). This time Jesus and the Twelve enter the boat together, at least in Mark's narrative (μετὰ τῶν μαθητῶν). Δαλμανουθά, in Matthew Μαγαδάν; both alike unknown: another... [ Continue Reading ]
ἐξῆλθον οἱ φ., the Pharisees went out, from their seat in the Holy Land into the heathen Decapolis, otherwise carefully shunned, in their zeal against Jesus. So Weiss (in Meyer).... [ Continue Reading ]
_Pharisees seek a sign_ (Matthew 16:1-4).... [ Continue Reading ]
ἀναστενάξας, fetching a deep sigh, here only in N. T.; in Sept [68], Lament. Mark 1:4, Sir 25:18, etc. τῷ πνεύματι α., in His spirit. The sigh physical, its cause spiritual a sense of irreconcilable enmity, invincible unbelief, and coming doom. εἰ δοθήσεται, if there shall be given = there shall not... [ Continue Reading ]
εἰς τὸ πέραν, to the other side; which, east or west? Here again opinion is divided. The reference to Bethsaida, Mark 8:22, might be expected to decide, but then there is the dispute about the _two_ Bethsaidas; Bethsaida Julias, and Bethsaida on the western shore. These points are among the obscurit... [ Continue Reading ]
_Warning against evil leavens_ (Matthew 16:4-12).... [ Continue Reading ]
εἰ μὴ ἕνα ἄρτον : a curiously exact reminiscence where so much else that seems to us more important is left vague. But it shows that we have to do with reality, for the suggestion of the Tübingen critics that it is a mere bit of word painting is not credible. The one loaf seems to witness to a Chris... [ Continue Reading ]
ἀπὸ τῆς ζύμης, etc.: _two_ leavens, one of Pharisees, another of Herod, yet placed together because morally akin and coincident in practical outcome. _Vide_ notes on Matthew 16:1-6.... [ Continue Reading ]
πρὸς ἀλλήλους. Mt. has ἐν ἑαυτοῖς. The mind of Jesus was profoundly preoccupied with the ominous demand of the sign-seekers, and the disciples might talk quietly to each other unnoticed by Him.... [ Continue Reading ]
γνοὺς : He does notice, however, and administers a sharp rebuke for _their_ preoccupation with mere temporalities, as if there were nothing higher to be thought of than _bread_. πεπωρωμένην, in a hardened state; the word stands in an emphatic position. For the time the Twelve are wayside hearers, wi... [ Continue Reading ]
repeats in reference to the Twelve the hard saying uttered concerning the multitude on the day of the parables (Mark 4:12). In Mark 8:19-20 Jesus puts the Twelve through their catechism in reference to the recent feedings, and then in Mark 8:21 (according to reading in [69]) asks in the tone of a di... [ Continue Reading ]
Βηθσαϊδάν. If there were two Beth-saidas, which of the two? If only one of course it was Bethsaida Julias. But against this has been cited the term κώμη twice applied to the town (Mark 8:23; Mark 8:26), which, however, may be regarded as satisfactorily explained by the remark: it _had been_ a villag... [ Continue Reading ]
_A blind man cured at Bethsaida_, peculiar to Mk.... [ Continue Reading ]
ἔξω τῆς κώμης, outside the village, for the same reason as in Mark 7:33, to avoid creating a run on Him for cures. Therefore Jesus becomes conductor of the blind man Himself, though he doubtless had one (Weiss-Meyer). πτύσας, spitting, in this case certainly on the diseased parts. Spittle was regard... [ Continue Reading ]
ἀναβλέψας : the narrative contains three compounds of βλέπω (ἀνὰ, διὰ, ἐν); the first denotes looking up in the tentative manner of blind men, the second looking through (a mist as it were) so as to see clearly, the third looking into so as to see distinctly, as one sees the exact outlines of a near... [ Continue Reading ]
A second touch brings better vision, so that διέβλεψεν, and he was now restored to full use of his eyes; the result being permanent perfect vision ἐνέβλεπεν, imperfect. διέβλεψεν points to the first act of distinct seeing. τηλαυγῶς (τῆλε, αὐγή here only), shining from afar. He saw distant objects di... [ Continue Reading ]
εἰς οἶκον, home. μηδὲ, etc., go not into the village; to avoid creating a sensation. It has been suggested that the gradual restoration of sight in this case was meant to symbolise the slowness of the Twelve in attaining spiritual insight. They got their eyes opened very gradually like the blind man... [ Continue Reading ]
καὶ ἐξῆλθεν : the καὶ connects very loosely with what goes before, but presumably ἐξῆλθεν refers to Bethsaida. They leave it and go northwards towards Caesarea Philippi, up the Jordan valley, a distance of some twenty-five or thirty miles. ὁ Ἰησοῦς : that Jesus is here expressly named is a hint that... [ Continue Reading ]
to Mark 9:1. _At Caesarea Philippi_ (Matthew 16:13-28; Luke 9:18-27).... [ Continue Reading ]
οἱ δὲ εἰπαν α. λέγοντες, they said, saying; tautology, somewhat like the vulgar English idiom: He said, says he; fixing attention on what is said. Ἰωάννην τ. Β.: the accusative depending on λέγουσιν οἱ ἄνθρωποί σε εἰναι understood. This infinitive construction passes into direct speech in the last c... [ Continue Reading ]
ὑμεῖς δὲ, etc.: a very pointed question given by all the Synoptists in the same terms. The reply, on the other hand, is different in each. _Vide_ on Matthew 16:16. ἀποκριθεὶς λέγει : we have here an aorist participle of identical action with a finite verb in the _present tense_. It usually goes with... [ Continue Reading ]
ἐπετίμησεν, He threatened them, spoke in a tone of menace, as if anticipating foolish talk περὶ αὐτοῦ about Him, _i.e._, about His being the Christ, as in Mt. The prohibition might have a double reference: to the people, to prevent the spread of crude ideas as to the Messiahship of Jesus; to the dis... [ Continue Reading ]
καὶ : Mt. has the more emphatic ἀπὸ τότε, indicating that then began an entirely new way of speaking as to the coming fate of Jesus. διδάσκειν, to _teach_, more appropriate is Mt.'s word, δεικνύειν, to _show_. It was a solemn intimation rather than instruction that was given. δεῖ, it must be; in all... [ Continue Reading ]
_First announcement of the Passion_.... [ Continue Reading ]
παρρησίᾳ : He spoke the word _plainly_, unmistakably. This remark was rendered almost necessary by the choice of the word διδάσκειν in Mark 8:31. Mt.'s δεικνύειν implies παρρησίᾳ. This word (from πᾶς, ῥῆσις) in ordinary Greek usage means frank, unreserved speech, as opposed to partial or total silen... [ Continue Reading ]
ἐπιστραφεὶς : the compound instead of the simple verb in Mt., which Mk. does not use. ἰδὼν τ. μαθ.: the rebuke is administered for the benefit of all, not merely to put down Peter. This resistance to the cross must be grappled with at once and decisively. What Peter said, all _felt_. In Mk.'s report... [ Continue Reading ]
τὸν ὄχλον, the crowd. Even here! A surprise; is it not a mistake? So appears to think Weiss, who (in Meyer) accounts for the reference to a crowd by supposing that the words of Matthew 10:38 are in his mind, which are given in Luke 14:25 as spoken to a crowd, probably because they were so given in h... [ Continue Reading ]
_First lesson on the cross_.... [ Continue Reading ]
τοῦ εὐαγγελίου : for my sake and _the Gospel's_, an addition of Mk.'s, possibly a gloss. σώσει, instead of the more enigmatical εὑρήσει of Mt.... [ Continue Reading ]
reproduces the _logion_ in Matthew 10:33 concerning being ashamed of Jesus, which does not find a place here in Mt.'s version. In Mt.'s form it is the outward ostensible act of denial that is animadverted on; here the feeling of shame, which is its cause Mark 9:1. καὶ ἔλεγεν αὐτοῖς : with this phras... [ Continue Reading ]