{"commentary":{"id":"jamieson-fausset-brown","name":"Jamieson-Fausset-Brown Bible Commentary","website":"https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jamieson-Fausset-Brown_Bible_Commentary","licenseUrl":"https://creativecommons.org/publicdomain/mark/1.0/","licenseNotes":null,"licenseNotice":null,"englishName":"Jamieson-Fausset-Brown Bible Commentary","language":"eng","textDirection":"rtl","sha256":"db3d4c8b3c1f32ef9d1430a57392e02bda3a17aac1f9bbe398461de021a3cb13","availableFormats":["json"],"listOfBooksApiLink":"/api/c/jamieson-fausset-brown/books.json","listOfProfilesApiLink":"/api/c/jamieson-fausset-brown/profiles.json","numberOfBooks":66,"totalNumberOfChapters":1187,"totalNumberOfVerses":17056,"totalNumberOfProfiles":0,"languageName":"English","languageEnglishName":"English"},"book":{"id":"MRK","commentaryId":"jamieson-fausset-brown","name":"Mark","commonName":"Mark","introduction":"THAT the Second Gospel was written by Mark is universally agreed, though by what Mark, not so. The great majority of critics take the writer to be \"John whose surname was Mark,\" of whom we read in the Acts, and who was \"sister's son to Barnabas\" (Col 4:10). But no reason whatever is assigned for this opinion, for which the tradition, though ancient, is not uniform; and one cannot but wonder how it is so easily taken for granted by WETSTEIN, HUG, MEYER, EBRARD, LANGE, ELLICOTT, DAVIDSON, TREGELLES, &c. ALFORD goes the length of saying it \"has been universally believed that he was the same person with the John Mark of the Gospels. But GROTIUS thought differently, and so did SCHLEIERMACHER, CAMPBELL, BURTON, and DA COSTA; and the grounds on which it is concluded that they were two different persons appear to us quite unanswerable. \"Of John, surnamed Mark,\" says CAMPBELL, in his Preface to this Gospel, \"one of the first things we learn is, that he attended Paul and Barnabas in their apostolical journeys, when these two travelled together (Act 12:25; Act 13:5). And when afterwards there arose a dispute between them concerning him, insomuch that they separated, Mark accompanied his uncle Barnabas, and Silas attended Paul. When Paul was reconciled to Mark, which was probably soon after, we find Paul again employing Mark's assistance, recommending him, and giving him a very honorable testimony (Col 4:10; Ti2 4:11; Plm 1:24). But we hear not a syllable of his attending Peter as his minister, or assisting him in any capacity. And yet, as we shall presently see, no tradition is more ancient, more uniform, and better sustained by internal evidence, than that Mark, in his Gospel, was but \"the interpreter of Peter,\" who, at the close of his first Epistle speaks of him as \"Marcus my son\" (Pe1 5:13), that is, without doubt, his son in the Gospel--converted to Christ through his instrumentality. And when we consider how little the Apostles Peter and Paul were together--how seldom they even met--how different were their tendencies, and how separate their spheres of labor, is there not, in the absence of all evidence of the fact, something approaching to violence in the supposition that the same Mark was the intimate associate of both? \"In brief,\" adds CAMPBELL, \"the accounts given of Paul's attendant, and those of Peter's interpreter, concur in nothing but the name, Mark or Marcus; too slight a circumstance to conclude the sameness of the person from, especially when we consider how common the name was at Rome, and how customary it was for the Jews in that age to assume some Roman name when they went thither.\"\n\nRegarding the Evangelist Mark, then, as another person from Paul's companion in travel, all we know of his personal history is that he was a convert, as we have seen, of the Apostle Peter. But as to his Gospel, the tradition regarding Peter's hand in it is so ancient, so uniform, and so remarkably confirmed by internal evidence, that we must regard it as an established fact. \"Mark,\" says PAPIAS (according to the testimony of EUSEBIUS, [Ecclesiastical History, 3.39]), \"becoming the interpreter of Peter, wrote accurately, though not in order, whatever he remembered of what was either said or done by Christ; for he was neither a hearer of the Lord nor a follower of Him, but afterwards, as I said, [he was a follower] of Peter, who arranged the discourses for use, but not according to the order in which they were uttered by the Lord.\" To the same effect IRENÆUS [Against Heresies, 3,1]: \"Matthew published a Gospel while Peter and Paul were preaching and founding the Church at Rome; and after their departure (or decease), Mark, the disciple and interpreter of Peter, he also gave forth to us in writing the things which were preached by Peter.\" And CLEMENT OF ALEXANDRIA is still more specific, in a passage preserved to us by EUSEBIUS [Ecclesiastical History, 6.14]: \"Peter having publicly preached the word at Rome, and spoken forth the Gospel by the Spirit, many of those present exhorted Mark, as having long been a follower of his, and remembering what he had said, to write what had been spoken; and that having prepared the Gospel, he delivered it to those who had asked him for it; which, when Peter came to the knowledge of, he neither decidedly forbade nor encouraged him.\" EUSEBIUS' own testimony, however, from other accounts, is rather different: that Peter's hearers were so penetrated by his preaching that they gave Mark, as being a follower of Peter, no rest till he consented to write his Gospel, as a memorial of his oral teaching; and \"that the apostle, when he knew by the revelation of the Spirit what had been done, was delighted with the zeal of those men, and sanctioned the reading of the writing (that is, of this Gospel of Mark) in the churches\" [Ecclesiastical History, 2.15]. And giving in another of his works a similar statement, he says that \"Peter, from excess of humility, did not think himself qualified to write the Gospel; but Mark, his acquaintance and pupil, is said to have recorded his relations of the actings of Jesus. And Peter testifies these things of himself; for all things that are recorded by Mark are said to be memoirs of Peter's discourses.\" It is needless to go farther--to ORIGEN, who says Mark composed his Gospel \"as Peter guided\" or \"directed him, who, in his Catholic Epistle, calls him his son,\" &c.; and to JEROME, who but echoes EUSEBIUS.\n\nThis, certainly, is a remarkable chain of testimony; which, confirmed as it is by such striking internal evidence, may be regarded as establishing the fact that the Second Gospel was drawn up mostly from materials furnished by Peter. In DA COSTA'S'S Four Witnesses the reader will find this internal evidence detailed at length, though all the examples are not equally convincing. But if the reader will refer to our remarks on Mar 16:7, and Joh 18:27, he will have convincing evidence of a Petrine hand in this Gospel.\n\nIt remains only to advert, in a word or two, to the readers for whom this Gospel was, in the first instance, designed, and the date of it. That it was not for Jews but Gentiles, is evident from the great number of explanations of Jewish usages, opinions, and places, which to a Jew would at that time have been superfluous, but were highly needful to a Gentile. We can here but refer to Mar 2:18; Mar 7:3-4; Mar 12:18; Mar 13:3; Mar 14:12; Mar 15:42, for examples of these. Regarding the date of this Gospel--about which nothing certain is known--if the tradition reported by IRENÆUS can be relied on that it was written at Rome, \"after the departure of Peter and Paul,\" and if by that word \"departure\" we are to understand their death, we may date it somewhere between the years 64 and 68; but in all likelihood this is too late. It is probably nearer the truth to date it eight or ten years earlier. \n\n\n\nNext: Mark Chapter 1\n\n","order":41,"numberOfChapters":15,"sha256":"0f654b83a151fa3d494c85448ffc205326857378e23c164d2f68160516a6e1c6","firstChapterNumber":1,"firstChapterApiLink":"/api/c/jamieson-fausset-brown/MRK/1.json","firstChapterReference":{"commentaryId":"jamieson-fausset-brown","book":"MRK","chapter":1},"lastChapterNumber":16,"lastChapterApiLink":"/api/c/jamieson-fausset-brown/MRK/16.json","lastChapterReference":{"commentaryId":"jamieson-fausset-brown","book":"MRK","chapter":16},"totalNumberOfVerses":46},"chapter":{"number":2,"content":[{"type":"verse","number":2,"content":["And straightway many were gathered together, insomuch that there was no room to receive them, no, not so much as about the door--This is one of Mark's graphic touches. No doubt in this case, as the scene occurred at his informant's own door, these details are the vivid recollections of that honored disciple. \n\nand he preached the word unto them--that is, indoors; but in the hearing, doubtless, of the multitude that pressed around. Had He gone forth, as He naturally would, the paralytic's faith would have had no such opportunity to display itself. Luke (Luk 5:17) furnishes an additional and very important incident in the scene--as follows: \"And it came to pass on a certain day, as He was teaching, that there were Pharisees and doctors of the law sitting by, which were come out of every town,\" or village, \"of Galilee, and Judea, and Jerusalem.\" This was the highest testimony yet borne to our Lord's growing influence, and the necessity increasingly felt by the ecclesiastics throughout the country of coming to some definite judgment regarding Him. \"And the power of the Lord was [present] to heal them\"--or, \"was [efficacious] to heal them,\" that is, the sick that were brought before Him. So that the miracle that is now to be described was among the most glorious and worthy to be recorded of many then performed; and what made it so was doubtless the faith which was manifested in connection with it, and the proclamation of the forgiveness of the patient's sins that immediately preceded it.\n\n"]},{"type":"verse","number":3,"content":["And they come unto him--that is, towards the house where He was. \n\nbringing one sick of the palsy--\"lying on a bed\" (Mat 9:2). \n\nwhich was borne of four--a graphic particular of Mark only.\n\n"]},{"type":"verse","number":4,"content":["And when they could not come nigh unto him for the press--or, as in Luke (Luk 5:19), \"when they could not find by what way they might bring him in because of the multitude,\" they \"went upon the housetop\"--the flat or terrace-roof, universal in Eastern houses. \n\nthey uncovered the roof where he was: and when they had broken it up, they let down the bed--or portable couch \n\nwherein the sick of the palsy lay--Luke (Luk 5:19) says, they \"let him down through the tilling with his couch into the midst before Jesus.\" Their whole object was to bring the patient into the presence of Jesus; and this not being possible in the ordinary way, because of the multitude that surrounded Him, they took the very unusual method here described of accomplishing their object, and succeeded. Several explanations have been given of the way in which this was done; but unless we knew the precise plan of the house, and the part of it from which Jesus taught--which may have been a quadrangle or open court, within the buildings of which Peter's house was one, or a gallery covered by a veranda--it is impossible to determine precisely how the thing was done. One thing, however, is clear, that we have both the accounts from an eye-witness.\n\n"]},{"type":"verse","number":5,"content":["When Jesus saw their faith--It is remarkable that all the three narratives call it \"their faith\" which Jesus saw. That the patient himself had faith, we know from the proclamation of his forgiveness, which Jesus made before all; and we should have been apt to conclude that his four friends bore him to Jesus merely out of benevolent compliance with the urgent entreaties of the poor sufferer. But here we learn, not only that his bearers had the same faith with himself, but that Jesus marked it as a faith which was not to be defeated--a faith victorious over all difficulties. This was the faith for which He was ever on the watch, and which He never saw without marking, and, in those who needed anything from Him, richly rewarding. \n\nhe said unto the sick of the palsy, Son--\"be of good cheer\" (Mat 9:2). \n\nthy sins be forgiven thee--By the word \"be,\" our translators perhaps meant \"are,\" as in Luke (Luk 5:20). For it is not a command to his sins to depart, but an authoritative proclamation of the man's pardoned state as a believer. And yet, as the Pharisees understood our Lord to be dispensing pardon by this saying, and Jesus not only acknowledges that they were right, but founds His whole argument upon the correctness of it, we must regard the saying as a royal proclamation of the man's forgiveness by Him to whom it belonged to dispense it; nor could such a style of address be justified on any lower supposition. (See on Luk 7:41, &c.).\n\n"]},{"type":"verse","number":6,"content":["But there were certain of the scribes--\"and the Pharisees\" (Luk 5:21) \n\nsitting there--those Jewish ecclesiastics who, as Luke told us (Luk 5:17), \"were come out of every village of Galilee, and Judea, and Jerusalem,\" to make their observations upon this wonderful Person, in anything but a teachable spirit, though as yet their venomous and murderous feeling had not showed itself. \n\nand reasoning in their hearts.\n\n"]},{"type":"verse","number":7,"content":["Why doth this man thus speak blasphemies? who can forgive sins but God only?--In this second question they expressed a great truth. (See Isa 43:25; Mic 7:18; Exo 34:6-7, &c.). Nor was their first question altogether unnatural, though in our Lord's sole case it was unfounded. That a man, to all appearances like one of themselves, should claim authority and power to forgive sins, they could not, on the first blush of it, but regard as in the last degree startling; nor were they entitled even to weigh such a claim, as worthy of a hearing, save on supposition of resistless evidence afforded by Him in support of the claim. Accordingly, our Lord deals with them as men entitled to such evidence, and supplies it; at the same time chiding them for rashness, in drawing harsh conclusions regarding Himself.\n\n"]},{"type":"verse","number":8,"content":["Why reason ye these things in your hearts--or, as in Matthew, (Mat 9:4) \"Wherefore think ye evil in your hearts?\"\n\n"]},{"type":"verse","number":9,"content":["Whether is it easier to say to the sick of the palsy, Thy sins be forgiven thee--or \"are forgiven thee\"; \n\nor to say, Arise, and take up thy bed and walk?--\"Is it easier to command away disease than to bid away sin? If, then, I do the one which you can see, know thus that I have done the other, which you cannot see.\"\n\n"]},{"type":"verse","number":10,"content":["But that ye may know that the Son of man hath power on earth to forgive sins--that forgiving power dwells in the Person of this Man, and is exercised by Him while on this earth and going out and in with you. \n\n(he saith to the sick of the palsy),\n\n"]},{"type":"verse","number":11,"content":["I say unto thee, Arise, and take up thy bed, and go thy way into thine house--This taking up the portable couch, and walking home with it, was designed to prove the completeness of the cure.\n\n"]},{"type":"verse","number":12,"content":["And immediately he arose, took up the bed--\"Sweet saying!\" says BENGEL: \"The bed had borne the man: now the man bore the bed.\" \n\nand went forth before them all--proclaiming by that act to the multitude, whose wondering eyes would follow him as he pressed through them, that He who could work such a glorious miracle of healing, must indeed \"have power on earth to forgive sins.\" \n\nWe never saw it on this fashion--\"never saw it thus,\" or, as we say, \"never saw the like.\" In Luke (Luk 5:26) it is, \"We have seen strange [unexpected] things to-day\"--referring both to the miracles wrought and the forgiveness of sins pronounced by Human Lips. In Matthew (Mat 9:8) it is, \"They marvelled, and glorified God, which had given such power unto men.\" At forgiving power they wondered not, but that a man, to all appearance like one of themselves, should possess it!\n\n\n\n\nNext: Mark Chapter 4\n\n"]}],"introduction":"HEALING OF A PARALYTIC. ( = Mat 9:1-8; Luk 5:17-26). (Mar 2:1-12)\n\nAnd again he entered into Capernaum--\"His own city\" (Mat 9:1). \n\nand it was noised that he was in the house--no doubt of Simon Peter (Mar 1:29).\n\n"},"thisChapterLink":"/api/c/jamieson-fausset-brown/MRK/2.json","thisChapterReference":{"commentaryId":"jamieson-fausset-brown","book":"MRK","chapter":2},"nextChapterApiLink":"/api/c/jamieson-fausset-brown/MRK/3.json","nextChapterReference":{"commentaryId":"jamieson-fausset-brown","book":"MRK","chapter":3},"previousChapterApiLink":"/api/c/jamieson-fausset-brown/MRK/1.json","previousChapterReference":{"commentaryId":"jamieson-fausset-brown","book":"MRK","chapter":1},"numberOfVerses":11}