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Commentary Index | Return to PrayerRequest.com | DownloadCambridge Greek Testament for Schools and Colleges - Mark 3:33 - 3:33
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33. ἀποκριθεὶς αὐτοῖς λέγει. “To them” means to those who had passed on the message to Him. The Hebraistic pleonasm ἀποκριθεὶς λέγει or ἀποκ. εἶπεν is very freq. in N.T. and LXX., but the curious combination of aor. with pres. is in N.T. almost peculiar to Mk. See on Mar 8:29 sub fin. Nowhere in Jn does ἀποκριθείς occur. Syr-Sin. omits it here. Occasionally the converse is found, ἀπεκρίθη λέγων (Mar 15:9), but never ἀπεκρίθη εἰπών. In Mar 7:28 we have ἀπεκρίθη καὶ λέγει, and in LXX. the more logical ἀπεκρίθη καὶ εἶπεν (Exo 4:1; Num 22:18; Jos 7:20; etc.). Blass, § 74, 3; Winer, p. 327.
Τίς ἐστιν ἡ μήτηρ μου; There is no need to surmise that here Christ raised His voice so that His family might hear; Mar 3:34 shows whom He is addressing. He is not repudiating His Mother, still less rebuking her before the whole crowd. Although Joh 2:12 probably does not mean “What does that matter to either of us?,” but amounts to a rebuke (see note ad loc.), yet it was spoken to her privately. Here non maternae refutat obsequia pietatis (Bede). But He never neglected an opportunity of doing good, and this interruption gave Him an opening for teaching an important lesson. It is not blood-relationship to the Son of Man which counts, but loyal obedience to the will of God. Those who have that are bound to Him by closer ties than the ties of family; for the former are spiritual, while the latter are carnal. He is not slighting the latter, but intimating that they do not come first and that they do not last for ever: indeed in this life they may have to be severed (Mat 10:37; Luk 14:26). That much is clear; He is teaching His audience that they can be as strongly united to Him as His nearest relations are. It is not so clear that He is teaching them that healing men’s bodies and saving their souls are more important than care of one’s relations (Euthym.), or that His Mother is to be honoured, not merely because she gave birth to Him, but because of her great virtues (Theoph.).