MARK 8:27 TO MARK 9:1. THE GREAT CONFESSION, AND THE FIRST VIEW OF THE CROSS. Here opens a new section of the gospel. The tendency to seek retirement with the Twelve, pronounced from Mark 6:31 onwards, now dominates the story. Jesus devotes Himself to traming the Twelve in the shadow of the Cross. T... [ Continue Reading ]
THE WASHING OF HANDS AND THE TRADITIONS OF THE ELDERS. This discussion with the Pharisees serves to bring out the antagonism of Jesus to the restrictions which separated Jews from Gentiles. Perhaps for this reason it is associated with the story of the Syro-Phœ nician woman. In substance it is conne... [ Continue Reading ]
THE HEALING OF THE GREEK WOMAN'S DAUGHTER. Jesus now leaves Galilee and withdraws to Gentile districts, not to evangelize them, but to avoid Herod and the Pharisees, and to train the Twelve. A Greek, _i.e._ a pagan, woman discovers Him, and requests Him to heal her daughter. Jesus asserts His convic... [ Continue Reading ]
THE HEALING OF A DEAF-MUTE. The cure of the Syro-Phœ nician woman's daughter threatens the privacy Jesus sought in Tyre. He therefore withdraws to Decapolis (another Gentile district, Matthew 4:25 *), going northward through Sidon, and presumably reaching Decapolis by a circuitous route which avoide... [ Continue Reading ]