Herodians against him, how they might destroy him. 7 But Jesus withdrew himself with his disciples to the sea: and a great multitude from Galilee followed him, and from Judæa, 8 and from Jerusalem, and from Idumæa, and from beyond Jordan; and they about Tyre and Sidon, a great multitude, when they had heard what great things he did, came unto him. 9 And he spake to his disciples, that a small ship should wait on him because of the multitude, lest they should throng him. 10 For he [had] healed many; insomuch that they pressed upon him for to touch him, as many as had plagues. 11 f And dunclean fch. i. 23, 24. spirits, when they saw him, fell down before him, and 12 And hech. i. 25, 54. cried, saying, Thou art the Son of God. Luke iv. 41. Matt. xiv. 33. e straitly charged them that they should not make him known. 13 And he goeth up into a mountain, and calleth unto him whom he would: and they came unto him. 14 And he h ordained twelve, that they should be with him, and that he might send them forth to preach, 15 and to have power [ to heal sicknesses, and] to cast out devils: 16 and Simon he surnamed Peter; 17 and James [the son i John i. 42. of Zebedee, and John the brother of James; and he sur c not in the original. e render, charged them much. i omitted in some of the oldest MSS. miserable state of hard-heartedness. 7-12.] A GENERAL SUMMARY OF h render, appointed. knot expressed in the original. sible that any but the spirits could have known that He was the Son of God, so it was the material body of the possessed which fell down before Him, and their voice which uttered the cry: see note on Matt. viii. 32. The notion of the semirationalists that the sick identified themselves with the dæmons, is at once refuted by the universal agreement of the testimony given on such occasions, that Jesus was the Son of God. 13-19.] THE APPOINTMENT OF THE TWELVE, AND ITS PURPOSES. Matt. x. 1-4. Luke vi. 12-16. See Luke, where we learn that He went up overnight to pray. and called his disciples to Him when it was day,—and notes on Matthew. mountain see Matt. v, 1. On the 14. The literal sense of the word rendered ordained is made: i. e. nominated,-set apart. We have here the most distinct intimation of any, of the reason of this appointment. 16.] On the list of the Apostles, see note at Matt. x. 2. The name Peter, according to St. Mark, seems to be now first k cho vi. 31. x. 20. m Matt. ix. 34. John vii. 20: Luke 15. named them Boanerges, which is, The sons of thunder: 18 and Andrew, and Philip, and Bartholomew, and Matthew, and Thomas, and James [the son] of Alphæus, and Thaddæus, and Simon the 1 Canaanite, 19 and Judas Iscariot, which also betrayed him. k 20 And the multitude And they went into an house. cometh together again, so that they could not so much as eat bread. 21 And when his friends heard of it, they went 1 John vii. 5: out to lay hold on him: for they said, He is beside himself. 22 And the scribes which came down from Jerusalem said, m He hath Beelzebub, and by the prince of the devils casteth he out devils. 23 And he called them unto him, and said unto them in parables, How can Satan cast out Satan? 24 And if a kingdom be divided against itself, that kingdom cannot stand. 25 And if a house be divided against itself, that house cannot stand. 26 And if Satan rise up against himself, and be divided, he cannot stand, knot expressed in the original. 1 read, Cananæan: see note on Matt. x. 4. viii. 48, 52: x. 20. given. This, at all events, does not look like the testimony of Peter: but perhaps the words are not to be so accurately pressed. 17.] Boanerges,-—perhaps on account of their vehement and zealous disposition, of which we see marks Luke ix. 54: Mark ix. 38; x. 37: see also 2 John 10; but this is uncertain. 20-35.] CHARGES AGAINST JESUS,OF MADNESS BY HIS RELATIONS,OF DEMONIACAL POSSESSION BY THE SCRIBES. HIS REPLIES. Matt. xii. 2237, 46-50. Luke xi. 14-26; viii. 19-21. Our Lord had just cast out a deaf and dumb spirit (see notes on Matthew) in the open air (Matt., ver. 23), and now they retire into the house. The omission of this, wholly inexplicable if St. Mark had had either Matthew or Luke before him, belongs to the fragmentary character of his Gospel. The common accounts of the compilation of this Gospel are most capricious and absurd. In one place, St. Mark omits a discourse because it was not his purpose to relate discourses;' in another he gives a discourse, omitting the occasion which led to it, as here. The real fact being, that the sources of St. Mark's Gospel are generally of the highest order, and most direct, but the amount of things contained very scanty and discontinuous. his 20. again] resumed from ch. ii. 2. 21.] Peculiar to Mark. friends] those from his house: his relations, beyond a doubt-for the sense is resumed by then in ver. 31: see reff. the meaning He is mad: for the sense the people." He hath Beelzebub] This addition is most important. If He was possessed by Beelzebub, the prince of the dæmons, He would thus have authority over the inferior evil spirits. 23.] he called them unto him is not n but hath an end. 27 No man can enter into a strong n Isa. xlix. 24. man's house, and spoil his goods, except he will first bind the strong man; and then he will spoil his house. 28 。 Verily I say unto you, All m sins shall be forgiven unto o 1 John v. 16. the sons of men, and a blasphemies wherewith soever they shall blaspheme: 29 but he that shall blaspheme against the Holy Ghost hath never forgiveness, but is in danger of eternal damnation: 30 because they said, He hath an unclean spirit. 31 There came then his brethren and his mother, and, standing without, sent unto him, calling him. 32 And the multitude sat about him, and they said unto him, Behold, thy mother and thy brethren P without seek for thee. 33 And he answered them, saying, Who is my mother, or my brethren? 34 And he looked round about on them which sat about him, and said, Behold my mother and my brethren! 35 For whosoever shall do the will of God, the same is my brother, and my sister, and mother. IV. 1 And he began again to teach by the sea side and there was gathered unto him a great multitude, so that he entered into ba ship, and sat in the sea; and the whole m render, their sins. n render, the blasphemies. • read, guilty of eternal sin. P after brethren some ancient MSS. insert, and thy sisters. render, the. are the same person: compare ver. 26. 26.] but hath an end, peculiar to Mark. 29. guilty of eternal sin] Beza explains eternal by never to be wiped out.' It is to the critical treatment of the sacred text that we owe the restoration of such important and deep-reaching expressions as this. It finds its parallel in ye shall die in your sins, John viii. 24. Kuinoel's idea, quoted and adopted by Wordsw., that sin means the punishment of sin, seems to be entirely unfounded. And as to its being "a Novatian error to assert that sin is eternal" (Wordsw.), it is at all events a legitimate inference from "hath never forgiveness" (literally, remission). If a sin remains unremitted for ever, what is it but eternal ? 30.] explains the ground and meaning of this awful denunciation of the Lord. 31.] standing without, sent unto him, calling .... "He stretched forth his hand upon his disciples." . . . . Both accounts were from eye-witnesses, the one noticing the outstretched hand; the other, the look cast round. Deeply interesting are such particulars, the more so, as shewing the way in which the records arose, and their united strength, derived from their independence and variety. : CHAP. IV. 1-9.] PARABLE OF THE SOWER. No fixed mark of date. Matt. xiii. 1-9. Luke viii. 4-8. There is the same intermixture of absolute verbal identity and considerable divergence, as we have so often noticed which is wholly inexplicable on the ordinary suppositions. In this case the vehicles of the parable in Matthew and Mark (see Matthew, vv. 1-3; Mark, vv. 1, 2) bear a strong, almost verbal, resemblance. Such a parable would be carefully treasured in all the Churches as a subject of catechetical instruction: and, in general, in proportion to the popular nature of the discourse, is the resemblance stronger in the reports of it. 1. again] p ch. xii. 38. q John xv. 5. Col. i. 6. f multitude was by the sea on the land. 2 And he taught them many things by parables, Pand said unto them in his doctrine, 3 Hearken; Behold, there went out a sower to sow : 4 and it came to pass, as he sowed, some fell by the way side, and the fowls [d of the air] came and devoured it up. 5 And some fell on stony ground, where it had not much earth; and immediately it sprang up, because it had no depth of earth: but when the sun was up, it was scorched; and because it had no root, it withered away. 7 And some fell among thorns, and the thorns grew up, and choked it, and it yielded no fruit. 8 And other fell on 8 good ground, and did yield fruit that sprang up and increased; and brought forth, some thirty, and some sixty, and some an hundred. 9 And he said [ unto them], He that hath ears to hear, let him hear. 10 And when he was alone, they that were about him with the twelve asked of him the i parable. 11 And he said unto them, Unto you [it] is given [to know] the mystery of the kingdom of God: but unto them that are without, all these] things are done in parables: 12 that seeing they may see, and not perceive; and hearing they may 26. Rom. xi. hear, and not understand; lest at any time they should be converted, and m their sins should be forgiven them. 13 And he said unto them, Know ye not this parable? and how [then] will ye know all parables? 1 Cor.12 Col. iv. 5. 1 Thess. iv. 121 Tim. iii. 7. John xii. 40. 8. m c render, the sower went out. e render, the stony ground. render, the good ground. i read, parables. k omit. domit. f render, the thorns. homit. 1 not in the original. n not in the original. some ancient authorities read, it should be forgiven them, impersonal: i.e. they should have forgiveness. see ch. iii. 7. The began is coincident with the gathering together of the crowd. 2. Out from among the many things, the great mass of His teaching, one parable is selected, which he spoke during it-in his doctrine. 3.] Hearken -this solemn prefatory word is peculiar to Mark. 4-8.] Matthew and Mark agree nearly verbally. In ver. 7 St. Mark adds and it yielded no fruit, and in ver. 8, that sprang up and increased. 10-12.] REASON FOR SPEAKING IN PARABLES. Matt. xiii. 10-17. Luke viii. 9, 10. 10.] they that were about him with the twelve; "his disciples" Luke. 11.] the mystery; "the mysteries" Matthew and Luke. them that are without added here (“the rest," Luke) means the multitudes-those out of the circle of his followers. In the Epistles, all who are not Christians,-the corresponding meaning for those days,--are designated by it. 12.] We must keep the that strictly to its full meaning-in order that. When God transacts a matter, it is idle to say that the result is not the purpose. He doeth all things after the counsel of His own will. St. Matthew, as usual, quotes a prophecy; St. Mark hardly' ever-except at the beginning of his Gospel: St. Luke, very seldom. PA 13-20.] EXPLANATION OF THE RABLE OF THE SOWER. In this parable the general question which had been asked 14 The sower soweth the word. 15 And these are they by the way side, where the word is sown; but when they have heard, Satan cometh immediately, and taketh away the word that was sown in their hearts. 16 And these are they likewise which are sown on P stony ground; who, when they have heard the word, immediately receive it with gladness; 17 and have no root in themselves, and so 4 endure but for a time: afterward, when affliction or persecution ariseth for the word's sake, immediately they are offended. 18 And these are they which are sown among thorns; such as hear the word, 19 and the cares of t this world, and the deceitfulness of riches, and the lusts of 1Tim. vi. 9, other things entering in, choke the word, and it becometh unfruitful. 20 And these are they which are sown on a good ground; such as hear the word, and receive it, and bring forth fruit, some thirtyfold, some sixty, and some an hundred. 21 " And he brought to be put under t V 17. Luke viii. 16: xi. 33. Luke xii. 2. said unto them, Is a candle u Matt. v. 15. a bushel, or under a bed? and not to be set on w a candlestick? 22 For there is Matt. x. 26. nothing hid, which shall not be manifested; neither was any thing kept secret, but that it should come y abroad. 23 If any man have ears to hear, let him hear. • read, them. 24 And P render, the stony places. or, are creatures of circumstances: see note on Matt. xiii. 21. I read, others. t read, the. ▾ render, thirty, as in ver. 8. w Matt. xi. 15. ver. 9. $ read, these are they which have heard. a render, the good ground. ver. 10 with regard to parables is tacitly assumed to have had special reference to the one parable which has been given at length. Or we may understand, that the question of ver. 10 took the form which is given in Matthew : Why speakest thou unto them in parables?" in which case the words must mean, asked Him concerning parables; or His parables. The three explanations (see Matt. xiii. 18-23: Luke viii. 9-15) are very nearly related to one another, with however differences enough to make the common hypotheses quite untenable. Matthew and Mark agree nearly verbatim; Matthew however writing throughout in the singular. Mark has some additions, e. g. the Sower soweth the word, ver. 14,-after "the deceitfulness of riches," ver. 19, and W render, the. That of the Vatican MS. and the Sinaitic should be manifested. the lusts of other things:-and some variations, e. g. Satan for St. Matthew's "the wicked one," and St. Luke's "the devil." Such matters are not trifling, because they shew the gradual deflection of verbal expression in different versions of the same report, nor is the general agreement of St. Luke's, which seems to be from a different hearer. 16.] likewise, after the same analogy :-carrying on a like principle of interpretation. 20.] Notice the concluding words of the interpretation exactly reproducing those of the parable, ver. 8, as characteristic. It is remarkable that the same is found in Matthew but in another form and order: one taking the climax, the other the anticlimax. In Luke, the two are varied. 21-25.] Luke viii. 16-18; and for ver. 25, Matt. xiii. 12. The rest is |