Online Resource Library
Commentary Index | Return to PrayerRequest.com | DownloadHeinrich Meyer Commentary - Mark 4:21 - 4:23
(Show All Books | Show All Chapters)
This Chapter Verse Commentaries:
Mar_4:21-23. Comp. Luk_8:16 f. Meaning (comp. Mat_5:15; Mat_10:26): “the light, i.e. the knowledge of the μυστήριον τῆς βασιλείας , which ye receive from me, ye are not to withhold from others, but to bring about its diffusion; for, as what is concealed is not destined for concealment, but rather for becoming manifest, so also is the mystery of the Messiah’s kingdom.”[83] These sayings, however, as far as Mar_4:25, have not their original place here, but belong to what (according to Papias) Mark wrote οὐ τάξει . Holtzmann judges otherwise, p. 81, in connection with his assumption of a primitive-Mark. The collection of Logia is sufficient as a source. Comp. Weiss in the Jahrb. f. D. Theol. 1864, p. 88.
ἔρχεται ] Doth the lamp then possibly come, etc.? ἔρχεσθαι is used of inanimate things which are brought; very frequently also in classical writers.
ὑπὸ τὸν μόδιον ] See on Mat_5:15.
ΚΛΊΝΗΝ ] a table-couch. Comp. Mar_7:4. After κλίνην there is only a comma to be placed: the question is one as far as τεθῇ .
According to the reading ἘᾺΝ ΜῊ ΦΑΝΕΡ . (see the critical remarks), the rendering is: nothing is hidden, if it shall not (in future) be made manifest.[84] So surely and certainly does the ΦΑΝΈΡΩΣΙς set in!
ἈΛΛʼ ἽΝΑ ΕἸς ΦΑΝ . ἜΛΘῌ ] The logical reference of ἈΛΛʼ is found in a pregnant significance of ἈΠΌΚΡΥΦΟΝ : nor has there anything (after ΟὐΔΈ , ΤΙ is again to be mentally supplied) taken place as secret, i.e. what is meant to be secret, but what in such a case has come to pass, has the destination, etc.
[83] According to others, Jesus gives an allegorical exhortation to virtue: “ut lucerna candelabro imponenda est, sic vos oportet, discipuli, non quidem vitam umbratilem sine virtutis splendore agere; sed,” etc., Fritzsche, comp. Theophylact, Grotius, and others. But the kindled light would, in fact, be already the symbol of virtue, and Jesus would forbid the exercise of it in secret! Moreover, this view is not required by ver. 20, since with ver. 21 a new portion of the discourse commences; and our view is not forbidden by ver. 11 (comp. ver. 34), since in ver. 11 Jesus is only speaking of the then unsusceptible multitude, and, if pushed to consistent general application, these words spoken at ver. 11 would quite annul the apostolic calling. History has refuted this general application. Erasmus, Paraphr., aptly says: “Nolite putare me, quod nunc secreto vobis committo, perpetuo celatum esse velle; … lux est per me in vobis accensa, ut vestro ministerio discutiat tenebras totius mundi.”
[84] “Id fit successive in hoc saeculo, et fiet plene, quum lux omnia illustrabit, 1Co_4:5,” Bengel.