Mark 9:23

23. [1950][1951][1952][1953][1954][1955] omit πιστεῦσαι.

[1950] Codex Sinaiticus. 4th cent. Discovered by Tischendorf in 1859 at the Monastery of St Katharine on Mount Sinai. Now at St Petersburg. The whole Gospel, ending at Mark 16:8. Photographic facsimile, 1911.

[1951] Codex Vaticanus. 4th cent., but perhaps a little later than א. In the Vatican Library almost since its foundation by Pope Nicolas V., and one of its greatest treasures. The whole Gospel, ending at Mark 16:8. Photographic facsimile, 1889.

[1952] Codex Ephraemi. 5th cent. A palimpsest: the original writing has been partially rubbed out, and the works of Ephraem the Syrian have been written over it; but a great deal of the original writing has been recovered; of Mark we have Mark 1:17 to Mark 6:31; Mark 8:5 to Mark 12:29; Mark 13:19 to Mark 16:20. In the National Library at Paris.

[1953] An asterisk denotes that the word is not found elsewhere in N.T., and such words are included in the index, even if there is no note on them in the commentary.
[1954] Codex Regius. 8th cent. An important witness. At Paris. Contains Mark 1:1 to Mark 10:15; Mark 10:30 to Mark 15:1; Mark 15:20 to Mark 16:20, but the shorter ending is inserted between Mark 16:8 and Mark 16:9, showing that the scribe preferred it to the longer one.

[1955] Codex Sangallensis. 9th or 10th cent. Contains the Gospels nearly complete, with an interlinear Latin translation. The text of Mark is specially good, agreeing often with CL. At St Gall.

23. Τὸ εἰ δύνῃ. See crit. note. Christ quotes with surprise the father’s expression of doubt, and τό is a mark of quotation. It depends on the father rather than on Christ whether the son can be healed or not. Christ can heal, if the father has faith (Mark 2:5; Mark 5:34; Mark 5:36; Mark 6:5). The leper (Mark 1:40) doubted whether Christ had the will to cleanse so unworthy a person as himself; this father doubts whether Christ has the power to heal his son. The proposal to retain the common reading and make the inserted verb imperat. (πίστευσαι instead of πιστεῦσαι) does not make the reading more probable. Both δύνῃ (Luke 16:2) and δύνασαι (Mark 1:40; Matthew 5:36) occur in N.T.

πάντα δυνατὰ τῷ πιστεύοντι. As often, Christ states a comprehensive principle and leaves us to find out the necessary limitations. See on Mark 10:27; Mark 14:36. Faith enables us to take hold of the power of God to be used in accordance with His will. Syr-Sin. has “all things can happen unto thee, if thou believest.”