Lange Commentary - Mark 3:1 - 3:12

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Lange Commentary - Mark 3:1 - 3:12


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Fifth Conflict.—Healing of the Withered Hand on the Sabbath. The Traditionalists hardened into purposes of Murder. Withdrawal of Jesus to the Sea. Mar_3:1-12

(Parallels: Mat_12:9-21; Luk_6:6-11; Mar_3:17-19.)

1And he entered again into the synagogue; and there was a man there which had a withered hand. 2And they watched him, whether he would heal him on the Sabbath day; that they might accuse him. 3And he saith unto the man which had the withered hand, Stand forth [up]. 4And he saith unto them, Is it lawful to do good on the Sabbath days, or to do evil? to save life, or to kill? But they held their peace. 5And when he had looked round about on them with anger, being grieved for the hardness of their hearts, he said unto the man, Stretch forth thine hand. And he stretched it out: and his hand was restored [whole as the other]. 6And the Pharisees went forth, and straight way took counsel with the Herodians against him, how they might destroy him. 7But Jesus withdrew himself with his disciples to [ åἰò , unto] the sea: and a great multitude from Galilee followed him, and from Judea, 8And from Jerusalem, and from Idumea, 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. 9And he spake to his disciples, that a small ship should wait on him because of the multitude, lest they should throng him. 10For he had healed many; insomuch that they pressed upon him for to touch him, as many as had plagues. 11And unclean spirits, when they saw him, fell down be fore him, and cried, saying, Thou art the Son of God. 12And he straitly charged them that they should not make him known.

EXEGETICAL AND CRITICAL

See on the parallels—The narrative of Mark is here particularly vivid and pictorial. He places the scene actually before us, giving his relation very much in the present tense. Like Matthew, he regards the incident in the light of an important turning-point. But he omits the parabolic word concerning the sheep fallen into a pit.

Mar_3:1. And He entered again.—According to Luke, this occurred eight days later, on the Sabbath which immediately followed the Sabbath of the previous narrative. By the side of the reading åἰò ôὴí óõíáãùãÞí , Cod. D. [which Tischendorf follows] places the reading åἰò óõí , into a synagogue: probably an exegetical hint that it was not the same synagogue as before. But the expression, “into the synagogue,” does not designate of itself any definite synagogue. It has, however, this advantage, that it marks the fact of Jesus having gone into the synagogue again, in spite of all the machinations of the Pharisees and scribes.

Mar_3:3. Stand forth.—Meyer: “Up! into the midst!”

Mar_3:4. To do good.—The ἀãáèïðïéῆóáé and êáêïðïéῆóáé may be taken generally, to do good and to do evil; or, more concretely, to benefit and to injure. Erasmus, De Wette, and others, take it in the latter sense; Meyer, in the former, and Matthew decides us for this. The question of Jesus, that is, was an answer to their question, May a man heal on the Sabbath? This question Jesus answers by an impregnable principle; as appears also from the words, It is lawful to do good, to perform a good act, on the Sabbath-day ( êáëῶò ðïéåῖí ).—To save life.—The antithesis of doing good and doing evil now receives its concrete force, to benefit or to injure, and thereby its application to the present case.

Mar_3:5. With anger.—Mark gives vivid prominence to the indignation of Jesus. With a glance of displeasure and discomposure He looked round upon the assembly of men who were hardening their hearts before His eyes, as they could not refute His vindication of the right of healing, by reference to the design of the Sabbath—Grieved, óõëëõðïýìåíïò —The óõí establishes Meyer’s translation, “feeling compassion for.”

Mar_3:6. With the Herodians.—Comp. on Matthew. De Wette, without reason, thinks that the Herodians have been by error introduced here from Mat_22:16. Tiberias in Galilee was a place of residence for the Herodians, that is, the Herodian political party; and the time had come when they began to take part in the persecution of the Lord. But it marks a great advance in the enmity of the Pharisees, that they, who had before leagued themselves with the disciples of John for the sake of gathering weight against Christ, now entered into fellowship with the Herodians, whom in reality they hated, in order to destroy Him whom they hated still more, by machinations behind his back.—How they might destroy Him.—Thus the Galilean conflicts had in rapid process reached their conclusion.

Mar_3:7. To the sea.—Not merely to the coast. The life on the sea, in the ship which was now His chief place of instruction in opposition to the synagogue, and which more than once served Him for a transient retreat to the opposite bank, here had its commencement. Matthew also had made this turning-point prominent. But in Mark it is plainly enough characterized as a withdrawal of Christ from His customary work in the synagogue to the ship.—And a great multitude.—The great crowds who heard the ship-discourses of Jesus were formed of two main masses, who are distinguished by ἠêïëïýèçóáí and ἦëèïí ðñὸò áὐôüí . Thus, after the words, “followed Him,” we must, with Griesbach, and De Wette, and Meyer, place either a colon or a period. The Jews from Galilee followed Him. The strangers from other parts came to Him. The “following” does not merely indicate external following; it includes a moral element also. In the conflict between Jesus and the Pharisees, they held with Jesus. It was the beginning of a specific discipleship, from which indeed most afterwards receded, but from which the germ of the Galilean believers was afterwards developed. The remaining multitude testifies the extent of the fame of Jesus; but we must also take into account the Jewish traffic, and the commercial route through Capernaum, which attracted multitudes in that direction. The description of the crowd brings them from all parts.

Mar_3:8. They about Tyre and Sidon are the Jews of that district. We quote the good remark of Meyer: “Observe the different position of ðëῆèïò in Mar_3:7 and Mar_3:8. In the one, the greatness of the mass of people is prominent; in the other, the idea of the mass itself is presented;” or rather their coming from all distances. With the followers, the most important thing was, that it was a great multitude; with the crowds coming, it was that they came from all parts, and from all distances. Comp. Luk_6:17; Mat_12:15. Moreover, we must remark that the concourse of people round Jesus stood in a reciprocal relation to His excitement and His breach with the Pharisees. The time had now come when the people began to display an inclination to make a political party in His favor, and to exalt Him into a king. And on this account, also, He was constrained to withdraw from the people, now to this and now to the other side of the lake, in the ship that was provided. Comp. Mar_4:1 seq.; Joh_6:15. We must bear in mind the tendency of the vigorous and brave Galilean people to insurrection and uproar.—And from Idumea.—John Hyrcanus had brought the Idumeans by violence to embrace the Jewish faith. There were possibly some of that people by this time who voluntarily adhered to it, notwithstanding that unholy violence. But the words may refer to Jews who had been dispersed so far as Idumea and Arabia.—[“This is the fullest statement to be found in any of the Gospels as to the extent of our Lord’s personal influence and the composition of the multitudes who followed Him.” Alexander in loc.—Ed.]

Mar_3:9. A small ship should wait on Him.—The immediate object was that the people should not throng Him. But this does not exclude the ulterior purpose, of having a freer position in the ship, and retreating often to the other shore.

Mar_3:10. Insomuch that they pressed upon Him.—The cause of the thronging. It was not merely the pressure of a vast listening multitude towards the central speaker; it was rather the intenser earnestness of many who were urged by their desire to touch Him for their cure.

Mar_3:11. Unclean spirits.—That is, demons, who identified themselves with these.

Mar_3:12. That they should not make Him known.—That is, as the Messiah.

DOCTRINAL AND ETHICAL

1. See on the parallels.—The Pharisees now seek to involve the Lord Himself in the charge of Sabbath desecration. The present case seemed to differ from the former in this, that the healing of the withered hand was a matter that might have been postponed. And it did not appear to be one of those urgent works of necessity which even the Pharisees permitted themselves to do. On the other hand, the Lord declares the work of compassionate love, or doing good generally, to be of itself always urgent; and the thought is further involved, that sickness does not tarry at a. stand, but that there is a continual sinking into deeper danger and need.

2. On the previous Sabbath a work of necessity was justified and established; on the present, the Lord justifies and establishes a work of love. The Christian glorification of the Sabbath into the Lord’s day assumes two aspects: 1. The ethical law of the day of rest is, with the other laws of the decalogue, transformed into an ethical principle for the Christian social world, especially the State. 2. The divine law, and the human tradition, of the festival become now the Incarnate Lord’s creation and institution of the Sunday. The Sabbath was the end of the old world,—a figure of its rest in death after its labor under the law. The Sunday was the beginning of the new world,—a figure of the rising to a new life, which began with the resurrection of Christ. The former was the close of a week of labor which had passed in restless activity, like the days’ works of creation; the latter was the beginning of a festal week, the works of which should be performed in the joyful light of the Spirit and of love. On the historical and general relations of the day, consult Hengstenberg’s treatise (Berlin, 1852). Comp. also the writings of Rücker, Liebetrut, Oschwald, Wilhelmi, and others.

3. Christ the personal fulfilment and manifestation of the law in glorified form, and thus also of the Sabbath. The source and the founder of the day; Himself the Sun of the Christian Sunday.

4. The Pharisees and the Herodians. “Hierarchs and despots are necessary to each other.” F. v. Bander.

HOMILETICAL AND PRACTICAL

See the parallels.—The Lord’s Sabbath work: saving life and the soul; the traditionalists’ Sabbath work: destroying life (that of the Messiah Himself).—The needy and wretched in the synagogue; or, the school of the law cannot save and heal.—The envious glance of the spy in the sanctuary; or, how carnal zeal does not look up to the Lord, but sideways at what others are doing.—Christ performs the glorious work of heaven in the midst of the dark contentions of those who harden themselves in unbelief: standing alone as Saviour with His faithful few.—The Lord’s glance in the world is a looking around in indignation, or a looking upon in love.—The hardening of His enemies under the very eye of Christ.—Christ is to some a savor of life unto life; to others, a savor of death unto death.—As the paralytic, who could not move, took the boldest course through faith (over the roof); so the man with the withered hand learns by faith to come forward and stretch out his hand in spite of the mightiest enemies of faith.—As it was divinely great to work wonders in the midst of this envious circle of enemies, so it was humanly great to maintain faith in such a circle.—The old and new connection between need and the boldness of faith.—The leagues between carnal religious zeal and secular power against Christ (Pharisees and Herodians).—The transference of Christ’s preaching from the synagogue to the ship, in its significance; or, God’s word is not bound.—The thronging of the people round the Lord, in its various aspects: 1. A confused impulse to seek help, confused by a craving for the miraculous in that help; 2. an act of homage to the Prince of life: at Golgotha a band of deadly enemies, who cast Him out as if He had been the great enemy of man and destroyer of the people.—How men have ever sought to change the pastoral office, and preaching of the Gospel of Christ for the good of souls, into an office of external acts and helps (changing the spiritual Messiah into a worldly one).—Christ must often withdraw Himself, not only from His enemies, but also from His friends, in order to maintain the spirituality and freedom of His vocation.—It is beyond all important that we should accept Christ as the Physician of souls; for the redemption of the soul occurs now, the resurrection of the body at the last day.—The earthly mind would fain invert this order.—The ship of the Church must save Christianity from intermingling with the politics of the world.—How often did Jesus retreat before the disposition of the people to proclaim Him as a Messiah in the carnal sense!—The crying demons mislead the people.—The infinitely discordant mixture of dispositions and characters in an excited mass of people.—The test of right-coming to Jesus: 1. A coming to Him alone, not only with, but also in spite of, the multitude; 2. a being alone with Him, whether among many or few; 3. a remaining alone with Him, and entering through Him into the fellowship of the saved.—The confession of the demons: how the Lord estimated its ambiguity and recoiled from it.—The demons were first in the confession that Jesus was the Messiah, but their confession was a slavish one.—The Lord had here to do not merely with the words of truth, but with the truth of the words.—The glance of Christ’s anger a prelude of the judgment; yet it was qualified by compassion.—Christ, the gentlest friend of men, will one day be a most terrible personage to many.

Starke:—Majus:—The contradiction and slander of enemies should not restrain us from avowing the truth, but make us more courageous and joyful in our confession.—Quesnel:—A miser, ah unfruitful Christian, a negligent ruler, a strong man that will not help, are all mere withered hands.—O avarice, how withered is thy hand!—To suck poison out of what is good, or to slander, is devilish.—Hypocrites are very urgent about ceremonies; but as it regards true discipline, they know nothing about it.—When we do what is right, we Seed not fear secret slanderers.—True love is not afraid of wicked men when it would do good to others.—Canstein:—The enemies of Christ are not sincere; they have seared consciences, and backbite in secret.—Quesnel:—There is much silence that proceeds from the Spirit of God, but there is also a devilish silence.—Here anger and love meet together; but the Socinians cannot, and will not, reconcile these.—The passions of Christ are a great mystery.—Majus:—Divine zeal against sin must be connected with love, with tender compassion towards the sinner.—Quesnel:—What a mystery is an envious heart! It poisons everything, and extracts poison from everything.—When Jesus is persecuted or forsaken of all, there is yet a little company of the faithful who follow Him.—Osiander:—The more fiercely the Gospel of Christ is persecuted; the more surely and widely it is diffused.—The hearing about Christ is not saving of itself; it must lead the soul to Himself.—Quesnel:— True love makes no difference among men, but does good to all, even to those who come with excitement and at an unseasonable time.—Christ would receive no testimony from lying spirits.

Gerlach:—The Sabbath was to remind us of, and introduce us into, that rest which God enjoyed when He contemplated the creatures happy in Himself after creation was finished, and that into which redeemed men shall again enter at the finishing of the new creation.—This rest is not the rest of death, but the highest life; and to spread abroad life and blessedness in the spirit of love, is the proper business of the Sabbath.—Lisco:—Herod’s servants are his servile dependants. (This is true; for the dependants of an absolute despot can only be his servants.) Braune:—That the Sabbath would not tolerate what might be postponed, was a law to them: he that had the withered hand was not in deadly danger, and his cure might as well take place the next day. Jesus penetrated their thoughts. Jesus established, that the not doing good was equivalent to the doing of evil; the sin of omission as bad as the sin of commission.—Their mouth was stopped, but their heart was not emptied of envy and malice.—Jesus’ glance: the enemy of sin, the friend of the sinner.—The withered hand, 1Ki_13:4.—Instead of joining the tempted Saviour, they made a compact with their deadliest enemies, the dependants of Herod; and instead of sanctifying the Sabbath by doing good and preserving life, they engaged in plans to put to death the Lord of the Sabbath and of life.—The hatred which Jesus encountered was already an earnest of His death; and the multitude of the people coming to Him from Gentile lands was already an earnest of the blessing of His death.—The praise of the Holy One cannot issue from unholy lips and an unclean spirit.—Beda:—Jesus had victoriously defended His disciples from the charge of violating the Sabbath; but the Pharisees were all the more vehement in involving Him, the Master Himself, in the same condemnation.—Chrysostom:—Jesus places the unhappy man in the midst of the assembly, that his appearance might excite compassion, and his healing shame the wickedness of the enemies.—Schleiermacher:—What good thing we have to do, we must set about doing at once.—These Pharisees confederated with the officials of Herod against Him; those Pharisees in Jerusalem brought the affairs of the Redeemer before the Roman governor.—We see how one party stood in need of the other in order to accomplish that which was in each party a foul wrong, though there was something at the bottom like a dependence upon what they thought was the law of God.—How many examples of a similar kind in the history of the Christian Church!—(The withdrawal to the sea.) Here also He remained in the way of His vocation, and retreated from them without neglecting His mission.—(The cry of the demons.) The Redeemer would not that any faith in Him should arise which had not the right foundation.—Gossner:—The Saviour can be severe; but He is grieved that He must be angry.—Bauer:—The Pharisees were silent. The eye of the Lord rested upon them, but none of the Pharisees could stand that glance.—They kept angry silence, like that which precedes the storm.

Footnotes:

Mar_3:5.—“Whole as the other” wanting in the most important Codd. Probably brought over from Mat_12:13.

Mar_3:7.—E ἰò , after D., P., Lachmann, Tischendorf; stronger than the ðñüò .

Perhaps there is an allusion here to the “nave” of the church edifice, which is derived from the Latin navis, from a supposed resemblance to the hull of a vessel.—Ed.