2. σκοπός, a mark to keep the eye on, in shooting or running; Wis 5” ‘Like as when an arrow is shot at a mark’ (ἐπὶ σκοπόν) ; 54, Ph 34 ‘I press toward the mark for the prize of the high ca ling of God in Christ Jesus’ (κατὰ σκοπόν ; RV ‘towards
bruise’).
the goal,’ but it is not a technical word in the race. course ; in class. Gr. it is a target, here like 1 Co 9% οὐκ ἀδήλως, ‘not in the dark,’ or as Moule, ‘ with my goal clear in view ἢ. Cf. Pref. to AV ‘We never thought from the beginning that we should need to make a new Translation, nor yet to make of a bad one a good one. . . but to make a good one better, or out of many good ones, one ~vincipall good one, not justly to be excepted against ; that hath been our indeavour, that our mark’; Shaks.
3. y352, place of striking or impinging, é.e. a butt or mark : Job 7” ‘why hast thou set me as a mark
understands Job to be a target for the arrow of God’s ae RV that he is an object over
stumbles. ‘Job,’ says Davidson, ‘feels that he is continually in the way of God, an is always of nought is one
4, nix sign, token: Gn 4} “And the Lord set a mark upon Cain, lest any finding him should kill him,’ RV ‘appointed a sign for Cain.’ ‘A mark set upon Cain would have distinguished him, so that all who met him might know him. This would be no pledge of security, no consolation to the guilty man. But when we see that the Lord appointed a sign for Cain, so that, looking upon it, he might be remind-d of the divine protection, the words of the passage become easy to understand ’— Ryle in Expos. Tumes, iii, 211; and Larly Narra-
5. ypyp a puncture, tattoo: Ly 19% ‘Ye shall not make any cuttings in your flesh for the dead, nor print any marks upon you.’ Driver and White (in SBOT) tr. ‘You shall not make any incisions in your skin for the dead; nor shall you tattoo any marks upon you,’ and explain that the tattooing here alluded to implied probably dedication to a
Emith, Kinship and Marriage, 212 δ, and RS 384; also Stade, ZATW xiv.
6. τ tdw, the letter T, the last of the Heb. alphabet, which in the old Pheenician characters
9*-6, the mark set on the forehead of those that
Vulg. tr. of 94 is signa thau super frontes virorum gementium, to which Tindale refers when he speaks (Expositions, 13) of ‘the sign Thau, that defendeth us from the ἘΠΟΙΤΌΕ and ody of the evil angels.’
used of a person’s signature : ef. Shaks. IJ Henry VI. Iv. ii. 110, ‘ Dost thou use to write thy name ? or hast thou a mark to thyself,
7. χάραγμα (fr. χαράσσω, to cut, engrave), a stamp or brand. This word is used in Ac 1739 of seulp- tured work, and tr‘ in EV by the verb ‘ graven.’ Elsewhere it is found onl in Rev (13% 17 14% 1 16? 192 20; TR and AV add 152, omitted by edd ) of the brand (EV ‘ mark’) by which the followers of the Beast were known. The brand was on the right hand or on the forehead (1315). See MAN OF
8. μώλωψ, weal, quoted in 1 P 2" from Is 535 and tr ‘stripe,’ is in Sir 231° rendered in AV ‘blue mark,’ ‘a servant that is continually beaten shal] not be without a blue mark’ (RV ‘shall not lack a
9. στίγμα (from στίζω, to prick ; connected with Eng. ‘sting’), brand, sear: Gal 6” only, ἐγὼ γὰρ τὰ στίγματα τοῦ [Κυρίου] Ἰησοῦ ἐν τῷ σώματί μου βαστάζω (edd. omit Κυρίου of TR after best text) ; Vulg. ‘Ego enim stigmata Domini Iesu in corpore meo porto’; Wye. ‘For I bere in my bodi the
MARK (JOHN)
MARK (JOHN) 245
tokenes of oure Lord Jhesu Crist’; Tind. ‘For I beare in my bodye the markes of the lorde Jesu,’ ro succeeding VSS including AV ; RV ‘for I bear branded on my body the marks of Jesus’). The reference is to the suffering which the apostle had endured in the service of Christ, of which he gives a rapid account in 2 Co 11**7, and which, whether Jewish whipping, or Roman flogging, or more barbarous mob violence, must have left scars on his person, some of them no doubt visible. But why does he call them the sears or brands of Jesus? Two explanations have been given. (1) The marks which were left in the body of Jesus by the nails and the sword are reproduced figuratively in the apostle’s body. Cf. 2 Co 4!° ‘always bearing about in the body the dying (RVm ‘putting to death’) of Jesus’ (παντότε τὴν νέκρωσιν τοῦ ᾿Ιησοῦ ἐν τῷ σώματι περιφέροντες) ; also 2 Co 15, Col 1°4; and especiall the references to his crucifixion with Christ, Ro 6°, Gal 2%, This interpretation is forcibly illustrated by the stigmata of St. Francis of Assisi, to whom the word (left untranslated in the Lat. versions) ‘suggested, whether by a more or less distant association, the idea which took so strong a hold upon his mind, that in a moment of extreme spiritual tension the actual marks of the Passion seemed to imprint themselves upon his body ’— Sanday, NT Com. for Eng. Readers. Among recent commentators Moule (Camb. Bible) con- siders that there is ‘something to be said’ for this explanation, and Huxtable (Pul. Com.) argues ably and at length in its favour. (2) The marks identify the apostle as belonging to Jesus. This receives the nearly unanimous consent of modern expositors, and is actually introduced into the translation of the RV, on which Westcott (Lessons eh the RV of NT, 130) comments, ‘ the addition of the word branded—I bear branded on my body the marks of Jesus—points the reference to the slaves who bore the names of the deities to whose service they were consecrated.’ (Cf., further, art. CuT- TINGS IN THE FLESH, vol. i. p. 538"). But even on this interpretation the question remains, Does St. Paul refer to the custom of marking the devotees of a deity, or to the custom of branding deserters and evil-doers asa sign of degradation? Lightfoot (Com. on Gal.) refers the metaphor to the practice of brand- ing slaves and other persons who were devoted to the service of some deity, and considers that ‘such a practice at all events cannot have been unknown in a country which was the home of the worship of Cybele.’ But the verb used (βασγάξω, which im- plies at least that the thing carried is easily seen, cf. Ac 9 ‘a chosen vessel unto me to bear my name before the Gentiles,’ βαστάσαι. .. ἐνώπιον ἐθνῶν), and the apostle’s gloryiny in being regarded as περικαθάρματα τοῦ κόσμου, πάντων περίψημα, ‘the filth of the world, the offscouring of all things’ (1 Co 41%), make the reference most probable to such stigmata as (now also in the modern use of the word) carried punishment and degradation. These are the only marks that would involve at once much suffering at the time of their infliction and much courage to carry afterwards. J. HASTINGS.