Mark 3:18-19

Ματθαῖον. One wonders why Mk. did not here say: Levi, to whom He gave the name Matthew. Or did this disciple get his new name independently of Jesus? This list of names shows the importance of the act of selecting the Twelve. He gives the names, says Victor Ant., that you may not err as to the designations, lest any one should call himself an apostle (ἵνα μὴ ὁ τυχὼν εἴπῃ ἀπόστολος γεγονέναι).

Mark 3:19-21. The friends of Jesus think Him out of His senses; peculiar to Mk. One of his realisms which Mt. and Lk. pass over in silence.

Mark 3:19 b. καὶ ἔρχεται εἶς οἶκον, and He cometh home (“nach Haus,” Weizs.) to house-life as distinct from hill-life (εἰς τὸ ὄρος, Mark 3:13). The formal manner in which this is stated suggests a sojourn on the hill of appreciable length, say, for some days. How occupied there? Probably in giving a course of instruction to the disciple-circle; say, that reproduced in the “Sermon on the Mount” = the “Teaching on the Hill,” vide introductory notes on Matthew 5.