Lange Commentary - Mark 6:45 - 6:56

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Lange Commentary - Mark 6:45 - 6:56


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This Chapter Verse Commentaries:

SEVENTH SECTION

CONTEST OF JESUS WITH THE ENMITY OF THE PHARISEES AND SCRIBES FROM JERUSALEM; HIS WITHDRAWAL INTO THE GENTILE BORDERS OF TYRE AND SIDON, AND INTO THE DISTRICT OF DECAPOLIS

Mar_6:45 to Mar_8:9

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1. The Return to Gennesaret; the Contrary Wind; Christ’s Walking on the Sea; New Miracles on the Western Coast. Mar_6:45-56

(Parallels: Mat_14:22-36; Joh_6:15-21)

      45And straightway he constrained his disciples to get into the ship, and to go to the other side before unto Bethsaida, while he sent away the people. 46And when he had sent them away, he departed into a [the] mountain to pray. 47And when even was come, the ship was in the midst of the sea, and he alone on the land. 48And he saw them toiling in rowing; for the wind was contrary unto them: and about the fourth watch of the night he cometh unto them, walking upon the sea, and would have passed by them. 49But when they saw him walking upon the sea, they supposed it had been a spirit [spectre], and cried out: 50For they all saw him, and were troubled. And immediately he talked with them, and saith unto them, Be of good cheer: it is I; be not afraid. 51And he went up unto them into the ship; and the wind ceased: and they were sore amazed in themselves beyond measure, and wondered. 52For they considered not the miracle of the loaves: for their heart was hardened. 53And when they had passed over, they came into the land of Gennesaret, and drew to the shore. 54And when they were come out of the ship, straightway they knew him, 55And ran through that whole region round about, and began to carry about in beds those that were sick, where they heard he was. 56And whithersoever he entered, into villages, or cities, or country, they laid the sick in the streets, and besought him that they might touch if it were but the border of his garment: and as many as touched him were made whole.

EXEGETICAL AND CRITICAL

See on the parallel passages of Matthew and John.—We owe to Mark the very important record, which sheds light upon the whole narrative, that the disciples were sent forward before the Lord in the direction of Bethsaida—that Bethsaida, namely, which lay on the eastern side of the sea. (See on Matthew.) Thus it was a passage across. Then his expression, ἀðïôáîÜìåíïò , is an important parallel to the ἀíå÷þñçóå in John: it gave Him trouble to release Himself from the excited and enthusiastic people. Also, in the expression, ἤèåëå ðáñåëèåῖí , he coincides, in the meaning at least, with John, Mar_6:21, ἤèåëïí ïὖí ëáâåῖí áὐôὸí , ê . ô . ë . But while Mark omits the intervening incident connected with Peter—which that Apostle, whose Evangelist he was, would modestly pass over, as making himself prominent—he lays stress upon the fact that the disciples had not been brought to a true and living faith, even by the miracle of the feeding. But he has painted most copiously and vividly the tumultuous excitement of the people, as it was occasioned by the Lord’s landing, and how they immediately knew Him and followed Him with their sick from place to place.

Mar_6:45. Unto Bethsaida.—Meyer’s notion, that this was the western Bethsaida, and not the eastern, appears entirely groundless. [Wieseler understands by it the eastern Bethesda. Alexander remarks that it was “not the city of Gaulonitis, at the northeastern end of the lake and eastward of the place where the Jordan enters it, in the desert tract southeast of which the miracle had just been wrought (Luk_9:10), but Bethsaida of Galilee, the birthplace of Simon, Andrew, and Philip (Joh_1:45), elsewhere mentioned with Capernaum (Mat_11:21; Luk_10:13), and therefore probably not far from it, but at all events upon the lake-shore, as Eusebius expressly mentions.”—Ed.]

Mar_6:46. Sent them away, ἀðïôáîÜìåíïò .—Not merely, “bade them farewell,” for which there would have been no necessity to send the disciples away first.

Mar_6:48. Would have passed by them.—They were to follow Him in a westerly direction: no longer fruitlessly rowing eastwards against the wind (see on Matthew). He went before them, as it were, to show the way. They had wished to take Him up on the eastern coast (John); He would go before them to the western coast (Mark): an intermediate course was the result in the end.

Mar_6:51. Were sore amazed in themselves beyond measure, and wondered.—The latter feeling found expression in exclamations; the whole strength of their internal amazement they did not express.

Mar_6:52. They considered not.—They had not yet come to an understanding, ïὐ , óõíῆêáí . They had not attained that living, self-developing apprehension of spirit, which would know how to draw the right consequences. Bengel: debuerant a pane ad mare concludere.

Mar_6:53. The land of Gennesaret.—See on Matthew.

Mar_6:55 Began to carry about.—Not merely in general, but some hither and others thither. It is also meant that they went with a sick man after Jesus from one place to another, when He had left the former.

DOCTRINAL AND ETHICAL

1. See on the parallel passages of Matthew and John.

2. The first miraculous feeding marks precisely the moment when our Lord had most expressly to contend with the people’s design to challenge Him as the Messiah, and make Him a king. In contrast with this design of the people, we must here take notice of the expression of Jesus’ pity for the wretched multitude: so little can the attempt of a people to exalt Him prematurely, and in a worldly sense, exert any influence upon Him. In that very circumstance the misery of the people presented itself to His view most plainly. But even this earnest effort of our Lord to withdraw Himself from the people was successful only for a short period. Very soon afterwards He was obliged, in the synagogue at Capernaum (according to John 6), to declare Himself most emphatically; and from that time onwards, that enthusiastic fanaticism among the people, which had before been prepared to take side with Him, even against Pharisaism the hierarchy and Herod, declined. From this time treachery began to germinate in the soul of Judas.

3. The miracle of Christ’s walking upon the sea was a manifestation of His divine power, not only over external objective nature, but also over His subjective nature, in the medium of His human equanimity. The mystery of this equanimity is the manifestation of the paradisaical, holy man in the midst of the nature subjected by the fall to vanity. (Meyer does not understand this: see Note on Mark.)

4. It is observable that the Evangelist Mark most expressly, and in the plainest manner, describes the state of the Apostles, down to the revelation of the risen Lord among them, as a state of dulness, hardness, and unbelief. He does not thereby deny their fidelity as disciples. But the true and perfect faith did not, in his conception, exist until the new evangelical Spirit of life was given, that life which could approve itself in a personal spontaneous development. And the disciple of Peter approaches John in this, as in many other traits of his evangelical representation.

HOMILETICAL AND PRACTICAL

See on the parallel passages in Matthew and John.—The temptability of the disciples of Jesus as over against the fanatical excitement of the people.—How Christ constrained them to take ship and go over the sea, in order to separate them from the people; and what significance this has for the Church and the ministers of Christ.—Christ (and Christianity) the guide on the sea.—The walking of Christ upon the waters.—How the phantoms and scarecrows of vain fear vanish before the glory of Christ, in sacred reverence of His divine power.—The climax of the enthusiasm of the Galilean people on behalf of Christ was also a turning-point.

Starke:—Quesnel:—Man is in the world like a little ship upon the stormy sea in the night; since he can neither counsel nor save himself. He who does not know danger, and does not pray, may soon perish.—Jesus sometimes leaves us alone, that we may know ourselves and our own weakness, and feel how deeply we are in need of Him; but He never leaves us out of His sight.—The wind of persecution is a useful wind; for it brings Christ to us, and us to land.—Christ is Lord also over all nature.—Luther:—By such an example (the feeding) they should have been made so strong in faith as not to have been terrified at an apparition.—Schleiermacher:—Thus, as the living consciousness of the Redeemer is awakened within us, our temper must be calmed into the true equanimity; and this will smooth and regulate all things external.—All the powers which God has given us we should put in motion to glorify the kingdom of God.—Gossner:—We are all still upon the sea of life.—But He never loses us out of His sight.—Bauer:—When they have rightly heard the Master’s word, phantoms and night and storm are all forgotten.

Footnotes:

Mar_6:45.—’ Áðïëýåé , after B., D., L., Ä . Tischendorf, Lachmann, Meyer.

Mar_6:48.—B., D., L., Vulgate, Lachmann, Tischendorf, Meyer, read ἰäþí instead of åἶäåí , and omit the following êáὶ (B., L.), making a parenthesis of ἦí ãὰñ ὁ , &c—Ed.]

Mar_6:52 .—B., L., Ä ., Coptic, Vulgate, Tischendorf omit êáὶ ἐèáýìáæïí ; rejected by Griesbach, bracketed by Lachmann, retained by Meyer.—Ed.]

Mar_6:54.—After áὐôüí Lachmann inserts in brackets ïἱ ἄíäñåò ôïῦ ôüðïõ ἐêåßíïõ , following A., G., Versions. Meyer rightly regards it as a gloss.—Ed.]