Mark 2:1-12
On the cure of the _paralytic_, see on Matthew 9:2-8, and comp. Luke 5:17-26. Mark's account is the most minute and graphic.... [ Continue Reading ]
On the cure of the _paralytic_, see on Matthew 9:2-8, and comp. Luke 5:17-26. Mark's account is the most minute and graphic.... [ Continue Reading ]
Mark 2:1. CAPERNAUM. ‘His own city.' Matthew 9:1. AFTER SOME DAYS. More than one day, but how many does not appear. Still even this indefinite mark of time favors the view, that the order of this Evangelist is exact. NOISED. This suggests a private entrance into the city, and then a general repo... [ Continue Reading ]
Mark 2:2. The description of Mark is here minute, but is paraphrased in the common version. INSOMUCH THAT NOT EVEN THE PARTS ABOUT (or ‘towards') THE DOOR (much less the house), COULD ANY LONGER HOLD THEM _._ This suggests a constantly increasing crowd, at length filling even the porch leading fro... [ Continue Reading ]
Mark 2:3. BORNE OF FOUR. ‘In a bed' Mark 2:4 (and Luke). Mark alone mentions the number of men.... [ Continue Reading ]
Mark 2:4. COULD NOT COME NIGH UNTO HIM. The doorway was full (Mark 2:2). THEY UNCOVERED (_unroofed)_ THE ROOF WHERE HE WAS _._ Luke says what is here implied: ‘they went upon the housetop,' probably by an outside staircase. That they merely removed the awning from the court is not in accordance wit... [ Continue Reading ]
Mark 2:5. See on Matthew 9:2. ‘Be of good cheer,' is omitted here, and in Luke's account, the latter has ‘Man' instead of ‘Son.'... [ Continue Reading ]
Mark 2:6. CERTAIN OF THE SCRIBES SITTING THERE. The authorized expounders of the law. Luke defines them more particularly (Mark 5:17). These were of the Pharisaical party. From Luke's account and from the term ‘sitting,' we infer that they came early; it is probable they were in the upper room where... [ Continue Reading ]
Mark 2:7. WHY DOTH THIS MAN THUS SPEAK? HE BLASPHEMETH! WHO CAN _,_ etc. This is the best established sense of the verse. ‘This one,' contemptuously; ‘thus,' _i.e.,_ such great things; the words in the original resemble each other: _This one in this wise._ If our Lord were what the scribes deemed Hi... [ Continue Reading ]
Mark 2:8. IN HIS SPIRIT. An immediate and supernatural knowledge is thus indicated: itself no slight evidence of His power to forgive sins. WHY REASON YE? Comp, on Matthew 9:4, where their thoughts are called ‘evil.'... [ Continue Reading ]
Mark 2:9-11. See on Matthew 9:5; Matthew 9:7.... [ Continue Reading ]
Mark 2:12. BEFORE THEM ALL. A hint that the account comes from an eye-witness. THEY WERE ALL AMAZED _,_ etc. Matthew, ‘feared;' Luke combines all three, and tells that the man also glorified God. The impression produced was a very powerful one, and the emotions were of a mixed character: wonder, g... [ Continue Reading ]
ON the chronology, see on Matthew 9:2-17. According to the view there defended, the feast and discourse (Mark 2:15-22) occurred some time after the call of Levi, and these verses only, in the first thirteen Chapter s of Mark, are out of chronological order.... [ Continue Reading ]
Mark 2:13-14. THE CALL OF LEVI _._ Undoubtedly the same as Matthew the Apostle and Evangelist. See on Matthew 9:9. The three accounts agree in matter, but with the usual variation in words. Mark 2:13 is more specific than the parallel passages. WENT FORTH AGAIN. Either with a reference to Mark 2:1... [ Continue Reading ]
Mark 2:15. IN HIS HOUSE. That of Levi, who made the feast for our Lord (Luke 5:29). The passage before us does not decide this, but any other view needlessly creates a discrepancy. Our Lord did not pass directly from the custom house to the feast. In all three accounts the interval is left indefinit... [ Continue Reading ]
Mark 2:15-22. THE FEAST AT LEVI'S HOUSE AND DISCOURSES THERE. _See on Matthew 9:10._... [ Continue Reading ]
Mark 2:16. See on Matthew 9:11. Both Mark and Luke, in different forms, say that these SCRIBES WERE OF THE PHARISEES, _i.e.,_ of that party. WHEN THEY SAW THAT HE EATETH. It is probable that they came, not as guests, but toward the close of the feast, so that they may or may not have actually witne... [ Continue Reading ]
Mark 2:18. AND JOHN'S DISCIPLES AND THE PHARISEES WERE FASTING. This explanatory remark, peculiar to Mark, may point to some particular fast, which these classes were then observing. The form of the question in Matthew and Luke indicates the habits of these classes. THEY COME. Matthew says ‘the di... [ Continue Reading ]
Mark 2:19-22. See on Matthew 9:15-17. The matter is precisely the same, but Mark is in some respects fuller than the others, showing that his account cannot be an abridgment of the others. Comp. especially the phrase: THE DISCIPLES OF JOHN AND THE DISCIPLES OF THE PHARISEES. As long as they have th... [ Continue Reading ]
Mark 2:21. THAT WHICH FILLETH IT UP (lit, ‘the fulness') TAKETH AWAY FROM IT, THE NEW FROM THE OLD, AND A WORSE RENT IS MADE _._ The form is peculiar to Mark, and characteristic of his lively style. The variations show entire independence. Compare: THE WINE WILL BURST THE SKINS, AND THE WINE PERISHE... [ Continue Reading ]
Mark 2:23. HIS DISCIPLES BEGAN. While so doing they were interrupted by the objection of the Pharisees. BEGAN TO MAKE THEIR WAY, PLUCKING OFF THE EARS. That they ate the grain, appears not only from the parallel passages, but from the reference to David's eating (Mark 2:26). Some think the sense i... [ Continue Reading ]
CHRONOLOGY. See on Matthew 11:1-21. These events took place just before the choosing of the Twelve (Mark 2:14, etc.). On the theory of a three years' ministry in Galilee, they occurred shortly after the visit to Jerusalem mentioned in John 5, when the enmity of the Jews was awakened on this point of... [ Continue Reading ]
Mark 2:24. See on Matthew 12:21, for the Pharisaical views of the Sabbath.... [ Continue Reading ]
Mark 2:26. WHEN ABIATHAR WAS HIGH-PRIEST. The argument is the same as in Matthew 12:3-4. The name here introduced occasions some difficulty. According to 1 Samuel 21 ‘Ahimelech' was the high-priest who gave David the hallowed bread. ‘Abiathar' was the son of Ahimelech (1 Samuel 22:20) and the friend... [ Continue Reading ]
Mark 2:27. THE SABBATH WAS MADE FOR MAN, AND NOT MAN FOR THE SABBATH. Peculiar to Mark, but intimately connected with the quotation from Hosea (Matthew 12:7). The Sabbath is a means to an end; it was instituted by God (in Paradise, and, like marriage, has survived the fall), for the moral and physic... [ Continue Reading ]
Mark 2:28. SO THAT THE SON OF MAN IT LORD ALSO OF THE SABBATH. The connection here differs from that of the other accounts, and the idea is more full. Since the Sabbath was made for the benefit of man, it follows that _the Son of Man_ (the Messiah, but especially in His character as the Head and Rep... [ Continue Reading ]