Mark 11:3

ὁ κύριος α. χ. ἔχει, the Master hath need of him. Vide on this at Matthew 21:3. καὶ εὐθὺς, etc., and straightway He returneth him (the colt) again. πάλιν, a well-attested reading, clearly implies this meaning, i.e., that Jesus bids His disciples promise the owner that He will return the colt without delay, after He has had His use of it. So without hesitation Weiss (in Meyer) and Holtzmann (H. C.). Meyer thinks this a paltry thing for Christ to say, and rejects πάλιν as an addition due to misunderstanding. Biassed by the same sense of decorum “below the dignity of the occasion and of the Speaker” the Speaker's Comm. cherishes doubt as to πάλιν, sheltering itself behind the facts that, while the MSS. which insert “again” are generally more remarkable for omissions than additions, yet in this instance they lack the support of ancient versions and early Fathers. I do not feel the force of the argument from decorum. It judges Christ's action by a conventional standard. Why should not Jesus instruct His disciples to say “it will be returned without delay” as an inducement to lend it? Dignity! How much will have to go if that is to be the test of historicity! There was not only dignity but humiliation in the manner of entering Jerusalem: the need for the colt, the use of it, the fact that it had to be borrowed all enter as elements in the lowly state of the Son of Man. On the whole subject vide notes on Mt. This is another of Mk.'s realisms, which Mt.'s version obliterates. Field (Otium Nor.), often bold in his interpretations, here succumbs to the decorum argument, and is biassed by it against the reading πάλιν contained in so many important MSS. (vide above).