Lange Commentary - Mark 1:36 - 1:39

Online Resource Library

Commentary Index | Return to PrayerRequest.com | Download

Lange Commentary - Mark 1:36 - 1:39


(Show All Books | Show All Chapters)

This Chapter Verse Commentaries:

THIRD SECTION

Mar_1:36-45

________

1. The Preaching and Healing of Jesus. Mar_1:36-39

(Parallel: Luk_4:44)

36And Simon, and they that were with him, followed after him. 37And when they ha found him, they said unto him, All men seek for thee. 38And he said unto them, Let usgo into the next towns, that I may preach there also: for therefore came I forth. 39And he preached in their synagogues throughout all Galilee, and cast out devils.

EXEGETICAL AND CRITICAL

Mar_1:36. And Simon, and they that were with him.—Simon placed first, not on account of any superiority, but as the head of the house and the guide.

Mar_1:38. Into the next towns.—The êùìïðüëåéò only here in the New Testament. The primary object is to record the travelling through the Galilean hill-country, and its villages and towns.—For therefore came I forth.—The question is, whether the meaning be, “I am come from the Father to preach generally” (Bengel); or, “I have left the house (or Capernaum) in order to preach in the neighboring villages” (Meyer). We think that Christ lays stress upon preaching as His great vocation, in opposition to the pressure of individual applicants for help in Capernaum. The former of the two interpretations seems to be the better.

Mar_1:39. In their synagogues (into).—The Accusative, twice occurring, makes it emphatic that he filled the synagogues and all Judea with a might of preaching that formed a contrast to the synagogue style.

DOCTRINAL AND ETHICAL

1. Jesus prepared himself in the desert for His second great expedition. The spiritual awakening and conquest of the land of Galilee was now in question.

2. Here also Mark (like Luke) gives special emphasis to the casting out of devils, and to the command of silence, by which Jesus hindered the devils from uttering His name.

3. It is observed also that Jesus places preaching expressly above miraculous healings; this is seen in the use of the participle, äáéìüíéá ἐêâÜëëùí . But the preaching has its root in the secret devotion: His public work sprang from His solitary prayer.

HOMILETICAL AND PRACTICAL

How the Lord equipped himself anew for new labors.—Christ goes with His first four disciples into the land of Galilee: the small beginning of the universamission.—How the Lord’s preaching approves itself as the power of divine life: 1. As the spiritual word of His working; 2. as delivering power for the suffering; 3. as judicial power of victory over the demons.—Christ confronting the increasing pressure of the people: 1. How He restrains it (withdrawal into the wilderness); 2. how He regulates it (preaching on the individual miracles); 3. how He surrenders Himself to it (responding to every demand of help).—Christ does not shut up His activity within the walls of Capernaum, nor within the limits of any one people or any one confession.—The way of Christ among the surrounding villages: 1. Already to as many as possible; 2. one day to all.

Starke:—We must have village preachers.—The Gospel of Jesus must sound out in all places.—Where Christ’s kingdom is to be established, the devils must be abolished. So also in thee.—Schleiermacher:—The preaching of the kingdom of God was Christ’s vocation: 1. Concerning Himself, as He who was come to save men; 2. concerning the true righteousness which avails before God; 3. concerning the worship of God in spirit and truth.—Within these limits it was His vocation to spread that kingdom as far as He could.—Gossner:—To this end am I come (He says) to save men.—Christ did not scorn the little towns and villages.