Lange Commentary - Mark 6:7

Lange Commentary - Mark 6:7 - 6:44

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Lange Commentary - Mark 6:7 - 6:44

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This Chapter Verse Commentaries:

SIXTH SECTION

CONFLICT OF JESUS WITH HEROD. THE CALL AND MISSION OF THE TWELVE APOSTLES. THE BEHEADING OF JOHN THE BAPTIST. THE WITHDRAWAL OF JESUS INTO THE WILDERNESS, AND THE MIRACULOUS FEEDING OF THE FIVE THOUSAND

Mar_6:7-44

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1. The Calling and Mission of the Twelve. Mar_6:7-13

(Parallels: Mat_10:1; Mat_10:7; Mat_10:9-11; Mat_10:13; Luk_9:1-6.)

⁷And he called unto him the twelve, and began to send them forth by two and two; and gave them power over unclean spirits; ⁸And commanded them that they should take nothing for their journey, save a staff only; no scrip, no bread, no money in their ⁹, purse [girdle]: But be shod with sandals; and not put on two coats. ¹⁰And he said unto them, In what place soever ye enter into an house, there abide till ye depart from that place. ¹¹And whosoever shall not receive you, nor hear you, when ye depart thence, shake off the dust under your feet for a testimony against them. Verily I say unto you, It shall be more tolerable for Sodom and Gomorrha in the day of judgment than ¹², for that city. And they went out, and preached that men should repent. ¹³And they cast out many devils, and anointed with oil many that were sick, and healed them.

EXEGETICAL AND CRITICAL

1. Compare on the parallel passages of Matthew 10 and Luke 9.—It has been already observed, on Mar_3:13-19, that he distinguishes the separation of the Twelve from their first mission: Luke does the same, while Matthew combines their call and mission in one. The two events are indeed one, as Matthew records them, in this respect, that the separation took place with reference to an appointment of duty which then immediately impended. But they are distinguished by this, that the election occurred in the solitude of the mountain-range (hence Mark and Luke place them on a mountain, the latter connecting with the event the Sermon on the Mount; while the mission, on the other hand, occurred at the beginning of the third preaching-journey, on which our Lord passed through the sea-towns of Galilee, as we are told by Matthew. But, since the calling of the Twelve, between the Sermon on the Mount and the passage to Gadara (the second Galilean journey), was only as yet a preparatory vocation, we must make a distinction between a general separation of the narrower circle of disciples and that calling of the Twelve on the mountain which briefly preceded their sending forth in the valley, during the first year of Christ’s ministry. Now it is peculiar to Mark that he gives prominence only to the most essential points of the mission; that he records it as the beginning of the apostolical missions (Mar_6:7), and as a mission in pairs; that he lays emphasis exclusively upon the power given over unclean spirits (not that of healing the sick), in harmony with his fundamental point of view, and that to him this involved at the same time the preaching of the kingdom; that he most precisely gives the Lord’s injunctions touching their staff, their shoes, and their clothing; and that he finally makes allusion to the anointing-the sick with oil, in its relation to the work of the Apostles—here mentioning the sick, who had been previously omitted. Mark’s more limited account of the instructions given to the Apostles in comparison with that given by Matthew, is to be explained by the fact, that he has this first mission exclusively in view; while Matthew combines it with all subsequent missions, and consequently presents it in its ideal meaning.

Mar_6:8. Save a staff only.—Meyer insists that there is here a discrepancy between Mark, on the one hand, and Matthew and Luke, on the other—to be explained, as it regards the two latter, by exaggeration. (Comp., on the contrary, Ebrard, p. 382; Lange, Leben Jesu, ii. 2, p. 712.) They were to go forth with their staff, as they had it at the time; but they were not to seek one carefully, or make it a condition of their travelling. And thus it becomes no more in Mark than a rather more precise statement of the meaning of Matthew and Luke. The same may be said of the permission to take sandals, in opposition to the prohibition of the ὑðïäÞìáôá , or travelling shoes proper, in Matthew. So the injunction not to put on two coats (in change), is only another form of the injunction not to have two garments. The fundamental idea is this, that they were to go forth with the slightest provision, and in dependence upon being provided for by the way. Gfrörer and Baur see in Mark’s expressions only intentional qualifications and softenings. We find in them no other than a more express view of their pilgrim-state, burdened with the least possible incumbrance, and as free as might be from all care.

Mar_6:11. For a testimony against them.—As a symbolical, but to an Israelite perfectly intelligible, declaration, that they were excommunicated,—“no better than heathen.”

Mar_6:12. Preached, that men should repent ( ἵíá ).—They not only preached the doctrine of repentance, amongst other articles of doctrine; but their whole preaching had for its end the producing of penitence, and change of mind.

Mar_6:13. And anointed with oil.—Oil was generally a very important medicament among the Orientals, according to Lightfoot and others. Here it is simply a symbolical medium of the miraculous work; just as the application of the spittle was (Mar_8:23; Joh_9:6), on the part of the Lord Himself. Meyer does well to contend against the supposition that the oil was applied as a natural means of cure (Baur, Weisse), or that it was used as a mere symbol (Theophylact, Beza, etc.),—not to mention other still less tenable notions. He is not right, however, in altogether detaching the symbolical significance from the medium. It is a fact, that the Old Testament anointing with oil preceded, as a symbol, the New Testament bestowment of the Spirit; and that it re-appears in the Catholic church, where the real impartation of the Spirit is wanting. Hence, it may be assumed that for the disciples, who could not like the Lord Himself awaken faith, it was appropriate to appoint such a medium for their miraculous power as would be at the same time a symbolical sign of the impartation of the Spirit, and the energy that awakens faith. Thus the anointing was a symbol of the bestowment of the Spirit as the preliminary condition of healing; consequently, not of the divine mercy (Theophylact), the healing virtue of which was symbolized by balsam, or of the divine regeneration (Euthym. Zigabenus), the symbol of which was water. The anointing with oil, which James prescribed to the elders in their ministry for the sick (Mar_5:14), appears, on the other hand, to have been a blending of the natural means of health with the saving energy of prayer as symbolized by it.

DOCTRINAL AND ETHICAL

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

2. The sending of the Apostles by two and two.—According to Grotius, with allusion to the Old Testament law concerning witnesses ad plenam testimonii fidem. But also for mutual complement, and encouragement, and strengthening. We have, accordingly, six special embassages: six was the number of labor and toil. The twelve missions of the individual Apostles were as yet only in the prospect.

3. We need only suggest here, that the New Testament anointing with oil—even that later one which James prescribed to the elders in their care of the sick—forms a perfect contrast to the extreme unction of the Romish Church. To us, this ecclesiastical anointing seems no other than an unconscious admission, on the part of the ceremonial church, that it had yet to bestow on its dying member the real communication of the Holy Spirit, whose type the oil was.

HOMILETICAL AND PRACTICAL

The first sending of the Apostles abroad into the world may also be likened to the little seed-corn.—He began to send: the end of His sending is the end of the world.—The mission of the Apostles by two and two, in its significance for the Church: 1. As to ecclesiastical office, 2. as to the people.—The blessing of the mutual help of laborers in the kingdom of God.—The embarrassments, dangers, and disgraces which so often follow a too early isolation in office, and in the religious life generally.—Christianity in life and office is a discipline of unenvying brotherly love.—The messengers and pilgrims of Christ not without needs, but without anxious needs.—The world loses, amidst its external equipments and means of resource, the internal end of life: the servants of the Gospel obtain, while they supremely regard the end, all the other equipments and resources.—The destruction of the kingdom of Satan, and the abolition of his power, is the great task of Christ’s servants, after the example and in the strength of their Lord.—The shaking the dust from their feet is in its kind a Christian martyrdom to the disciples of Jesus (a testimony in suffering).—The anointing with oil; or, how the miracles of the kingdom of Christ have leaned upon the marvellous powers of the kingdom of nature.—The kingdom of the Son attaches itself to the kingdom of the Father in the great whole as well as in individual things.—Those bound by Satan, and the sick, are everlasting tokens of the need of Christ and His messengers.

Starke:—This authorization a demonstration of the divinity of Christ.—The ministers of the Gospel should be one and united.—Quesnel:—Ambition and avarice perilous things to the preacher and his work.—Osiander:—Ministers should be satisfied, though they do not at once have all advantages they could desire, and things at their will.—Gerlach:—On account of their weakness, the Lord does not send His disciples alone. Laborers in the Lord’s harvest should look round for helpers in their work.—Schleiermacher:—The Lord’s direction in regardto the equipments of the Apostles no literal rule [he refers to the cloak of Paul, 2Ti_4:13], but a rule of wisdom.—If the provision of all these external things is so great as to rob us of a portion of our true strength, they are no real advantage, but tend rather to impair our usefulness and peace.—Bauer:—They were not to act as if they thought they might force men to hear.

Footnotes:

Mar_6:9.—The best reading is ἐíäõóÞóèå (A., C., D., E., &c.), which Griesbach, Lachmann, Tischendorf, and others adopt. The change in the construction, or the direct quotation of this command, makes it more emphatic.

Mar_6:11.—Tischendorf, after B., L., Ä ., &c.: ὅò ἆí ôüðïò ìὴ äÝîçôáé ìçäὲ ἀêïýóùóéí ὑìῶí . Preferable in regard to importance of Codd., and is the more difficult reading. “Verily,” &c., wanting in B., C., D., L., Ä . Probably taken from Mat_10:15.