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Mar_13:33-37. Comp. Mat_24:42, Mat_24:44 ff., Mat_25:14. By way of an energetic conclusion Mark has here a passage, which has been formed by the aggregation of several different portions—belonging to this connection, and most completely preserved in Matthew from the collection of Logia—on the part of tradition or of the evangelist himself into a well-adjusted, compact, and imposing unity.
Mar_13:34. ὡς ] an anantapodoton, as at Mat_25:14. See in loc. With ὡς the plan of the discourse was, after Mar_13:34, to subjoin: so do I also bid you: watch! Instead of this, after ἵνα γρηγορῇ , with an abandonment of the plan of sentence introduced by ὡς , there follows at once, with striking and vivid effect, the exhortation itself: γρηγορεῖτε , which now, just because the ὡς is forgotten, is linked on by οὖν .
ἀπόδημος ] is not equivalent to ἀποδημῶν (Mat_25:14), but: who has taken a journey. Pind. Pyth. iv. 8; Plut. Mor. p. 299 E. At the same time ἐνετείλατο is not to be taken as a pluperfect, but: “as a traveller, when he had left his house, after having given to his slaves the authority and to each one his work, gave to the doorkeeper also command, in order that he should watch.” In this we have to observe: (1) the ἐνετείλατο took place after the ἀπόδημος had gone out of his house; (2) καὶ δοὺς κ . τ . λ ., in which καί is also, is subordinate to the ἀφεὶς κ . τ . λ ., because prior to the leaving of the house; (3) ἄνθρωπος ἀπόδημ .] forms one notion: a man finding himself on a journey, a traveller; comp. ἄνθρωπος ὁδίτης , Horn. Il. xvi. 263; Od. xiii. 123; ἄνθρ . ἔμπορος , Mat_13:45, al.; (4) the ἐξουσία , the authority concerned in the case, is according to the context the control over the household. This He gave to all in common; and, moreover, to every one in particular the special business which he had to execute. Fritzsche is wrong in making the participles ἀφείς … καὶ δούς dependent on ἀπόδημος : “homo, qui relicta domo sua et commissa servis procuratione assignatoque suo cuique penso peregre abfuit.” Against this may be urged, partly that ἀφεὶς τ . οἰκ . αὐτοῦ would be a quite superfluous definition to ἀπόδημος , partly that δοὺς κ . τ . λ . would need to stand before ἀφεὶς κ . τ . λ ., because the man first made the arrangement and then left the house.
Mar_13:35. γρηγορεῖτε οὖν ] the apostles thus are here compared with the doorkeeper.
As to the four watches of the night, see on Mat_14:24. They belong to the pictorial effect of the parable; the night-season is in keeping with the figurative γρηγορεῖτε , without exactly expressing “a dark and sad time” (Lange). Singularly at variance with the text as it stands, Theophylact and many others interpret it of the four ages of human life.
Mar_13:37. The reference to one thought is not at variance with the use of the plural ἅ (see the critical remarks). See Kühner, ad Xen. Anab. iii. 5. 5.
πᾶσι ] to all who confess me.