21 And when his friends heard of it, they went out to lay hold on him: for they said, He is beside himself.



Ver. 21. They went out to lay hold on him] Some read, to lay hold on the multitude, as mad, because so eager and earnest, that they left not our Lord liberty for his necessary repose and repast. But if it be meant of Christ, his mother also may seem to have been in the common error, Mar_3:31. She was not then without original sin (as the Franciscans would have it, and do therefore name Joachim and Anna kissing, by which kiss Anna conceived, say they, with the Virgin Mary), neither yet without actual sin, as here, Joh_2:4. Sed si peccatrix, non deprecatrix: quae egebat, non agebat advocatum, saith an ancient.