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Mar_13:9-13. See on Mat_24:9; Mat_14:10-13; Luk_21:12-18. Mark has here interwoven some things from the discourse which is found at Mat_10:17-22.
ἀρχαί ] prefixed with emphasis: beginnings of sorrows (comp. τὸ τέλος , Mar_13:7) are these.
βλέπετε δὲ κ . τ . λ .] but look ye (ye on your part, in the midst of these sorrows that surround you) to yourselves, how your own conduct must be. Comp. on βλέπ . ἑαυτ ., 2Jn_1:8; Gal_6:1.
συνέδρια ] judicial assemblies, as Mat_10:17.
καὶ εἰς συναγωγ .] attaches itself, as εἰς συνέδρια precedes, most naturally to this (Luther, Castalio, Erasmus, Beza, Calovius, Elz., Lachmann), so that with δαρήσεσθε begins a further step of the description. The more usual connection with δαρήσεσθε , preferred also by Buttmann, neut. Gr. p. 287 [E. T. 333] and Bleek, is inadmissible, because εἰς cannot be taken in the pregnant meaning (instead of ἐν ; for the element of “motion towards” is not implied in δαρήσ .), and because the explanation (see my first edition): ye shall be brought under blows of scourges into synagogues (comp. Bengel, Lange), is not accordant with fact, since the scourging took place in the synagogues; see on Mat_10:17; Act_22:19. That δαρήσ . comes in asyndetically, is in keeping with the emotional character of the discourse.
εἰς μαρτύρ . αὐτοῖς ] i.e. in order that a testimony may be given to them, the rulers and kings, namely, regarding me (comp. previously ἕνεκεν ἐμοῦ ), regarding my person and my work (not: “intrepidi, quo causam meam defendatis, animi,” Fritzsche)—which, no doubt, involves their inexcusableness in the event of their unbelief; but it is arbitrary to explain the dative here just as if it were εἰς κατηγορίαν κ . ἔλεγχον αὐτῶν (Euthymius Zigabenus, Theophylact, and many others). Comp. on Mat_10:18.
Mar_13:10. And this your vocation fraught with suffering will not soon pass away; among all nations ( πάντα has the emphasis) must first (before the end of the sorrows appears, comp. ἀρχαὶ ὠδίνων , Mar_13:9), etc. These words are neither disturbing nor inappropriate (as Köstlin judges, p. 352, comp. Schenkel and Weiss); they substantially agree with Mat_24:14, and do not betray a “more advanced position in point of time” on Mark’s part (Hilgenfeld), nor are they concocted by the latter out of κ . τοῖς ἔθνεσιν , Mat_10:18 (Weiss).
Mar_13:11. μελετᾶτε the proper word for the studying of discourses. See Wetstein. The opposite of extemporizing. Comp. Dem. 1129, 9 : μελετᾶν τὴν ἀπολογίαν ὑπὲρ ἑαυτῶν .
δοθῇ ] has the emphasis.
οὐ γάρ ἐστε ὑμεῖς ] of them it is absolutely denied that they are the speakers. Comp. on Mat_10:20.
Mar_13:12. See on Mat_10:21. From that hostile delivering up, however (comp. παραδιδόντες , Mar_13:11), neither the relationship of brother nor of child, etc., will protect my confessors.
Mar_13:13. ὑπομείνας ] according to the context here: in the confession of my name. See above, διὰ τὸ ὄνομά μου . See, moreover, on Mat_24:13. The τέλος is that of the ὠδίνων , Mar_13:9, not that “of the theocratic period of the world’s history” (Schenkel).