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Commentary Index | Return to PrayerRequest.comVincent Word Studies - Mark 3:17 - 3:17
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Although Mark mentions that the apostles were sent: out in pairs (Mar 6:7), he does not classify them here in pairs. But he alone throws Peter and James and John, the three who shared the Lord's particular intimacy, into one group. Matthew and Luke both introduce Andrew between Peter and James.
He surnamed them Boanerges (ἐπέθηκεν αὐτοῖς ὄνομα Βοανηργές)
Lit., he put upon them the name. Some uncertainty attaches to both the origin and the application of the name. Most of the best texts read ὀνόματα, names, instead of name. This would indicate that each of the two was surnamed a “son of thunder.” Some, however, have claimed that it was a dual name given to them as a pair, as the name Dioscuri was given to Castor and Pollux. The reason of its bestowal we do not know. It seems to have been intended as a title of honor, though not perpetuated like the surname Peter, this being the only instance of its occurrence; possibly because the inconvenience of a common surname, which would not have sufficiently designated which of them was intended, may have hindered it from ever growing into an appellation. It is justified by the impetuosity and zeal which characterized both the brothers, which prompted them to suggest the calling of fire from heaven to consume the inhospitable Samaritan village (Luk 9:54); which marked James as the victim of an early martyrdom (Act 12:2); and which sounds in the thunders of John's Apocalypse. The Greek Church calls John Βροντόφωνος, the thunder-voiced. The phrase, sons of, is a familiar Hebrew idiom, in which the distinguishing characteristic of the individual or thing named is regarded as his parent. Thus sparks are sons of fire (Job 5:7); threshed corn is son of the floor (Isa 21:10). Compare son of perdition (Joh 17:12); sons of disobedience (Eph 2:2; Eph 5:6).