29. Is brought forth (wapaéo7). This rendering cannot be correct, for the verb is active, not passive, meaning to delwer up. Yence it is usually explained, shall have delivered itself up to harvest ; which is stilted and artificial. Rev. zs ripe, is a free rendering from the margin of A. V. It is, perhaps, better to explain, as Meyer does, whose rendering is adopted by Rev. in margin: When the fruit shall have allowed, i.e., shall have admitted of being harvested. Xenophon and Herodotus use the word in the sense of permit or allow; and an exact parallel to this occurs in the historian Polybius (xxii., 24, 9): “ When the season permitted” (rapadib0ven).
Putteth in (dzroarédner). —_Lit., sendeth forth. So Rey. in margin. The yendering, putteth in, misses the figure. The verb is the same as that used of sending forth the apostles to reap the harvest of souls. See especially John iv. 38: “T sent (améoteida) you to reap.”
30. Peculiar to Mark.
With what comparison shall we compare it? (ev tive avriy TapaBomy Japev ;). Lit., In what parable might we put
184 WORD STUDIES IN THE NEW TESTAMENT. [Ca. IV.
a? Rev., In what parable shall we set it forth? Note the we, taking the hearers, with a fine tact, into consultation.
31. When it is sown (étav oraph). This phrase is repeated in ver. 32. Here the emphasis is on é6rav, when. It is small at the time when it is sown. In ver, 32 the emphasis is on orapn, wt is sown. It begins to grow great from the time when at ts sown.
That are upon the earth. A little detail peculiar to Mark. 32. Groweth up. Mark only.
Herbs (rav Aaydvwvr). Rev., rightly, the herbs ; those which people are wont to plant in their gardens. The word denotes garden—or pot-herbs, as distinguished from wild herbs.
Shooteth out great branches (rove? Krddovs meydnous). Lit., maketh, etc. Rev., putteth out. Peculiar to Mark. Mat- thew has becometh a tree. On branches, see note on Matt. xxiv. 32. One of the Talmndists describes the mustard-plant as a tree, of which the wood was sufficient to cover a potter’s shed. Another says that he was wont to climb into it as men climb into a fig-tree. Professor Hackett says that on the plain of Akka, toward Carmel, he found a collection of mustard-plants from six to nine feet high, with branches from each side of a trunk an inch or more in thickness. Dr. Thomson relates that near the bank of the Jordan he found a mustard-tree more than twelve feet high. ;
Lodge (katacxnvodv). See on Matt. viii, 20, Lit., pitch their tents.
33. Such. Implying that Mark knew yet more parables that were spoken at that time.
As they were able to hear it. Peculiar to Mark.
Cu. IV.] MARK. 185
36. Even as he was in the ship. Rev., boat. Just as he was, in the boat in which he was then sitting. Mark adds the detail about the accompanying boats.
37. Storm (Aatvayy). So Luke. Distinctively a furous storm or hurricane. Compare Septuagint, Job xxxviii. 1, of the whirlwind out of which God answered Job. See, also, Job xxi. 18. Matthew uses cevopos, a shaking. See on Matt. viii. 24. Mr. Macgregor (“‘ Rob Roy on the Jordan ”) says that “on the sea of Galilee the wind has a singular force and suddenness ; and this is no doubt because that sea is so deep in the world that the sun rarefies the air in it enormously, and the wind, speeding swiftly above a long and level plateau, gathers much force as it sweeps through flat deserts, until suddenly it meets this huge gap in the way, and it tumbles down here irresistible.”
38. A pillow (70 rpockepddaov). The definite article indi- cates a well-known part of the boat’s equipment—the coarse leathern cushion at the stern for the steersman. The Anglo- Saxon version has bolster.