Chrysostom says: "Martha seems to me not to understand Christ's saying. She was conscious it was some great thing, but did not perceive the whole meaning, so that when asked one thing she answered another."
Toletus remarks: "Martha thought she believed everything Christ said, while she believed Him to be the true promised Messiah. And she did truly believe, but her faith was implicit and general. It is just as if some rustic, being questioned about some proposition of faith which he does not quite com- prehend, replies, ' I believe in the Holy Church.' So here Martha said, ' I believe, Lord, that Thou art the true Christ, and that all things Thou sayest are true ; ' and yet she did not distinctly perceive them." This is a remarkable testimony from a Romanist.
Ought we not, perhaps, to make some allowance for the distress and affliction in which Martha was when she made her confession ? Is it fair to expect a person in her position to speak as distinctly and precisely as one not in trouble ?
3. — [And when she had said tJiis, etc.] The affection of Martha for her sister appears here. Once assured that her Master was come, and perhaps somewhat cheered by the few words He spoke, she hastens home to tell Mary that Jesus was come, and had called for her. We are not told expressly that Jesus had men- tioned Mary, but we may suppose that He did, and had asked where she was.
The word " secretly" may be applied to the word which fol- lows, if we like, and it would then mean that " Martha called Mary, saying secretly." This is probably the correct rendering.
The word rendered " is come" would be more literally trans- lated, "is present: is actually here."
The expression, "the Master," is probably the name by which our Lord was familiarly known by the family at Bethany. It is literally, "the Teacher."
Bullinger remarks that the word " secretly " is purposely in- serted, to show that the Jews who followed Mary had no idea that Jesus was come. Had they known it, he thinks, they would not have followed her, and so would not have seen the miracle.
Hall evidently thinks that Martha told Mary " secretly," for fear of the unbelieving Jews who were among the comforters He remarks : " Christianity doth not bid us abate anything of our wariness and honest policy : yea, it requires us to have no less of the serpent than of the dove."
E). — [As soon as she heard, etc.] The two last words in this sen- tence are both in the present tense. It would be more literally rendered, " She, when she heard, arises quickly and comes to Him." It is evident, I think, that the sudden movement of Mary
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was not caused by hearing that Jesus was come, but that Jesus called for her.
It is not unlikely, from the word " arose," that Mary was lying or sitting prostrate on the ground, under the pressure of grief. We may also well suppose that our Lord, who doubtless knew her state, asked for her, in order to rouse her to exertion. When David heard that his child was dead, and nothing left for him to do but to be resigned, he " arose from off the earth." (2 Sam. xii. 20.)