Bible Commentaries

Mark 2:1. πάλιν, again) Comp. ch. Mark 1:21; Mark 1:29.— δἰ ἡμέρων) After some days had intervened. [It is one and the same return into the city of Capernaum, of which Mark makes mention in this place after the healing of the leper; Matthew, after the return from the region of the Gergesenes, in his ch. Mark 9:1 : it is also the same man sick of the palsy, whom Mark and Luke, after Matthew, treat of.—Harm., p. 276].

Mark 2:2. ΄ηδὲ, not even) Not only the house within, but not even the hall, could contain them.

Mark 2:3. ὑπὸ τεσσαρων, by four) He was then fall grown, though not far advanced in years: comp. Mark 2:5, Son [implying he was not old].

Mark 2:4. ἀπεστέγασαν) they took off the roof) out of love, without doing injury. [So faith penetrates through all obstacles (Mark 2:5) to reach Christ.—V. g.] It is probable that it was a cottage [tugurium, hut], not a large house.— ἐξορύξαντες, digging out) the ceiling, beneath the tiles of the roof, so as to make a large aperture. The people crowding in numbers, had caused great delay in reaching Christ.

Mark 2:5. πίστιν, their faith) So painstaking.

Mark 2:8. τῷ πνεύματι αὐτοῦ, in His Spirit) The prophets became cognisant of things through the Spirit of God, but not with their own spirit: Christ, with His own Spirit, which is omniscient and Divine; comp ch. Mark 8:12. Moreover, the Holy Spirit is not called the Spirit of Christ before that great Pentecost recorded in Acts 2 The conclusion therefore remains, that we are to understand the Spirit of Jesus as applying to His Divine nature, which had its dwelling in His human nature.— τὶ, why) An allusion to their Why? in Mark 2:7.

Mark 2:14.¹⁷ τελώνιον, the receipt of custom) At the sea; Mark 2:13.

Mark 2:15.¹⁸ ἦσαν γὰρ, for they were) The Evangelist hereby explains why he had just written, with Jesus and His disciples; for they were many.

Mark 2:16.¹⁹ τὶ ὅτι) So the LXX.; Judges 11:7, etc.

Mark 2:18. νηστεύοντες, fasting) This seems here to imply both their custom and their actual fasting at that present time; comp. note on Matthew 9:14.

Mark 2:20.²⁰ ἐλεύσονται, shall come) This is the first intimation of His Passion.— ἐν ἐκείνῃ τῇ ἡμέρᾳ) So also the Gothic version reads. Moreover, the plural, which is substituted by some, comes evidently from Luke.²¹ There is but one day of the Bridegroom being taken away; many days, of His continuing absent after having been so taken away. But the days will come, when the Bridegroom shall be taken away; and then shall they fast in that day (In some one of those days, to wit, especially on the first of them). So in Luke 17:22 the plural number is used, the days shall come; and in Luke 2:31, on that day, in the singular number, with a force having relation to that plural.

Mark 2:21. αἴρει τὸ πλήρωμα τὸ καινὸν τοῦ παλαιοῦ) This reading is a mean between extremes, brief, and likely to be genuine.²² The meaning is: the new piece put in to patch up the rent, takes away with it some of the old cloth.

Mark 2:26. ἐπὶ, ἀβιάθαρ, under Abiathar) Ahimelech was the priest who gave loaves of bread to David; but on his being put to death for that very act, his son Abiathar presently after succeeded to him; and afterwards the priesthood of Abiathar and the reign of David were contemporary. The series of the priests was very well known among the Hebrews, and so the denomination of [the mode of marking] the age of David is taken from the priest of that day; and indeed the Evangelist mentions Abiathar, in whose time the actions of David seem to have been entered in the sacred records, in preference to Ahimelech; comp. the use of ἐπὶ, Matthew 1:11. Not unlike is the phraseology, Genesis 2:2, on the seventh day [God ended His work; we should have said, at the close of the sixth day], and ch. Mark 10:25, in the days of peleg (who was born a short while after) the earth was divided.

Mark 2:27 ἔλεγεν He was saying) Again beginning to address them; comp. Mark 4:21; Mark 4:24; Mark 4:26; Mark 4:30; Mark 7:20; Mark 9:1; Luke 4:24; Luke 5:36; Luke 6:5; Luke 15:11; John 1:52.— διὰ, for the sake of) An axiom. So almost similarly 2 Maccabees 5:19 : οὐ διὰ τὸν τοπον τὸ ἔθνος, ἀλλὰ διὰ τὸ ἔθνος τὸν τόπον ὁ κύριος ἐξελέξατο— ἐγένετο, was made) The origin and end of things is to be kept in view. The blessing of the Sabbath, Genesis 2:3, has regard to man.

Mark 2:28. ὥστε, therefore) The more obvious sense of this remarkable enigmatical aphorism is, Whatever right as regards the Sabbath any man hath, I also have. The more august sense, though one kept hidden [recondite] then, as suited to the relations in which that time stood to the whole divine scheme, is this, The end of the institution of the Sabbath is the salvation [welfare] of man as to his soul and body. The Son of Man is bound to ensure this salvation; and, in order to bring about this end, He the same has also authority over all things, and expressly over the Sabbath, inasmuch as it was made for man; and with a view to [in accordance with] obtaining this end, He regulates aright the whole use of the Sabbath.