iii. 22.1 — oi ' Itpoao'ku'jtifai, they of Jerusalem} At other times, capital cities are not readily wont to follow a new institution [a new mode of life preached for the first time].
7. "Ep^srai, there cometh) immediately, and even now present. — 6 tff^uponpos) that One, who is mightier. The One Christ is greater than John, yea, infinitely greater. — \\Jsai rbv ipdvra, to unloose the latchet) We usually make fast our shoes with buckles, the ancients with thongs or strings. John seems by this pro verbial saying, perhaps unconsciously, to make allusion to the baptism of Jesus, so as to express this meaning : I am not worthy to unloose His shoe-strings, much less to impart baptism to Him. For the shoes also, as well as the garments, used to be taken off, when a person was to be baptized.
9. Els TOV) in the river.
10. E/<5«, He saw) i.e. Jesus saw : although John also saw it, John i. 32. — a^i^o^svovg, rent open) a-xjlfrai, is rent open, is said of that, which had not previously been open. Christ was the first who opened heaven. — avolysiv, to open, Matt. iii. 16, is used in the general sense ; whereas in the special sense it is used in antithesis to [as distinguished from] to rend, Acts vii. 56. See on the difference of these words, Matt, xxvii. 51, 52.2 — rb Hvzv/j,a, the Spirit} with which Jesus was about to baptize.
12. Evd'sug, immediately) So, in the case of the sons of God, temptation is wont speedily to follow after great and striking testimonies as to their state [their standing as accepted of God]. — Ix/SaXA?/, driveth out) The present.
13. Herd ruv $rip!uv, with the wild beasts) An important fact ; comp. Gen. i. 26. This was a state more trying than the mere solitude of the desert. [Here the Saviour was removed apart from angels and men ; and yet, however, not liable to the attacks of wild beasts. He even now, in the very height of His humiliation (self- emptying), exercised over the beasts the dominion which Adam had so soon suffered himself to lose ; how much more so, when exalted I Ps. viii. 8. — V. g.] Mark not only exhibits in a more compendious compass the history described by Matthew, but
1 Two Substantives coming together in apposition, so that one acts as an Adjective. — ED.
1 taxtvdv is said of the rending in two of the veil : whereas AV said of the opening of the tombs. — ED.