III. (1-6) A MAN THERE WHICH HAD A WITHERED HAND. — See Notes on Matthew 12:9. St. Mark omits the reference to the sheep fallen into a pit, and, on the other hand, gives more graphically our Lord’s “looking round” with an “anger” which yet had in it a touch as of pitying grief. The form of the Gree... [ Continue Reading ]
AND FROM JUDÆA.... AND FROM JERUSALEM. — The fact thus recorded is interesting as in some degree implying the ministry in Jerusalem and its neighbourhood, which the first three Gospels, for some reason or other, pass over.... [ Continue Reading ]
FROM IDUMÆA. — The only passage in the New Testament in which this country is named. It had acquired a considerably wider range than the Edom of the Old Testament, and included the whole country between the Arabah and the Mediterranean. It was at this time under the government of Aretas (2 Corinthia... [ Continue Reading ]
THAT A SMALL SHIP SHOULD WAIT ON HIM. — The fact thus mentioned incidentally shows that in what is recorded in Matthew 13:2 our Lord was but having recourse to a practice already familiar.... [ Continue Reading ]
AS MANY AS HAD PLAGUES. — Literally, _scourges;_ the same word as in Acts 22:24; Hebrews 11:36.... [ Continue Reading ]
AND UNCLEAN SPIRITS. — The testimony which had been given in a single instance (Mark 1:24) now became more or less general. But it came in a form which our Lord could not receive. The wild cry of the frenzied demoniac had no place in the evidence to which He appealed (John 5:31), and tended, so far... [ Continue Reading ]
AND HE GOETH UP INTO A MOUNTAIN. — The sequence of events in St. Mark varies much, it will be seen, from St. Matthew, and comes nearer to that in St. Luke. What follows is, like the parallel narrative of Luke 6:12, the selection rather than the mission of the Twelve, the latter appearing in Matthew... [ Continue Reading ]
(16-19) AND SIMON HE SURNAMED. — On the list of the Apostles see Notes on Matthew 10:2.... [ Continue Reading ]
BOANERGES. — The word is an Aramaic compound (_B’nè-regesh_ = sons of thunder). We may see in the name thus given a witness to the fiery zeal of the sons of Zebedee, seen, _e.g.,_ in their wish to call down fire from heaven on the Samaritans (Luke 9:54), and John’s desire to stop the work of one who... [ Continue Reading ]
SIMON THE CANAANITE. — Better, _Cananite,_ or, following many MSS., _Cananœan, i.e.,_ the Aramaic equivalent of Zelotes. (See Note on Matthew 10:2)... [ Continue Reading ]
AND THEY WENT INTO AN HOUSE. — It would be better to put a full stop after “betrayed Him,” and to make this the beginning of a new sentence.... [ Continue Reading ]
SO THAT THEY COULD NOT SO MUCH AS EAT BREAD. — The graphic touch, as if springing from actual reminiscence of that crowded scene, is eminently characteristic of St. Mark.... [ Continue Reading ]
AND WHEN HIS FRIENDS ... — Literally, _those from Him_ — _i.e.,_ from His home. As the “mother and the brethren” are mentioned later on in the chapter as coming to check His teaching, we must see in these some whom they had sent with the same object. To them the new course of action on which our Lor... [ Continue Reading ]
(22-30) HE HATH BEELZEBUB. — See Notes on Matthew 12:24.... [ Continue Reading ]
SAID UNTO THEM IN PARABLES. — The word is used in its wider sense, as including any form of argument from analogy more or less figurative. As in most reports of discourses as distinct from facts, St. Mark is somewhat briefer than St. Matthew.... [ Continue Reading ]
IN DANGER OF ETERNAL DAMNATION. — Better, _eternal judgment,_ the Greek word not necessarily carrying with it the thoughts that now attach to the English. The best MSS., however, give, “in danger of an eternal sin” — _i.e._, of one which will, with its consequences, extend throughout the ages. It is... [ Continue Reading ]
BECAUSE THEY SAID. — This, it will be noted, is peculiar to St. Mark. It is as though he would explain to his readers what it was that had called forth so awful a warning. He does not absolutely identify what had been said with the sin against the Holy Ghost, but it tended to that sin, and therefore... [ Continue Reading ]
(31-35) THERE CAME THEN HIS BRETHREN AND HIS MOTHER. — See Notes on Matthew 12:46.... [ Continue Reading ]
THY MOTHER AND THY BRETHREN. — Many MSS. of high authority add, “and Thy sisters,” and so explain the emphatic addition of that word in Mark 3:35.... [ Continue Reading ]
AND HE LOOKED ROUND ABOUT. — Literally, _looking round on those who sat in a circle round Him._ Another graphic touch of this Evangelist.... [ Continue Reading ]