THE
PULPIT COMMENTARY, EDITED DY THE
VERY REV. H. D. M. SPENCE, D.D., DEili OF GLOUCESTER;
AND BY THE
REV. JOSEPH S. EXELL, M.A.
WITH
INTRODUCTIONS BY THE
VERY REV. F. W. FARRAR, D.D., F.R.S., DEAN OF CANTERBURY. RIGHT REV. H. COTTERILL, D.D., F.R.S.E. VERY REV. PRINCIPAL J. TULLOCH, D.D. REV. CANON G. RAWLINSON, M.A. REV. A. PLUMMER, M.A., D.D.
NEW EDITION.
FUNK & WAGNALLS COMPANY LONDON .AND NEW YORK 1907 PllINTED BY WILLIAM CLOWES AND SONS, LIMITED, LONDON AND BECCLES. TIIE
PULPIT COMtIENTARY, EDITED BY THB
VERY REV. H: D. M. SPENCE, D.D., Dll:ill' 0'11 QLOUOlCSTEB l
A.ND BY THE
REV. JOSEPH S. EXELL, M.A.
ST. MARK. @Xl)Osi«on BY VERY REV. E. BICKERSTETH, D.D., DEAN 01' LIOBJ'IELD,
~omiletics BY REV. PROF. J. R. THOMSON, M.A..
~omiHes 11~ lTatfous fautf)ors. REV. A. ROWLAND, B.A., LL.B. REV. PROF. J. J. GIVEN, D.D. REV. A. F. MUIR, M.A. REV. PROF. E. JOHNSON, M.A. REV. B. GREEN.
VOL. I. NEW EDITION,
FUNK & WAGNALLS COMPANY LONDON AND NEW YORK 1907 THE
GOSPEL ACCORDING TO ST. MARK. INTRODUCTION. THE four living creatures mentioned in Ezekiel (i. 10), and which reappear in a modified form in the Apocalypse of St. John (iv. 7), are interpreted by very many Christian writers to signify the fourfold Gospel, the four faces representing the four evangelists. The face of a man is supposed to denote St. Matthew, who describes the actions of our Lord more especially as to h,is human nature. The face of an eagle is understood to indicate St. John, who soars at once into the highest heavens, and commences his Gospel with that magnificent declaration, " In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God." Then the face of an oz symbolizes St. Luke, who commences his narrative with the priesthood of Zacharias. While, lastly, the face of a lion represents St. Mark, because he opens his Gospel with the trumpet voice, like the roaring of a lion, the loud call of the Baptist to repentance. These four carried the chariot of the gospel throughout the world, and subdued the nations to the obedience of Christ, the mighty Conqueror. Other interesting interpretations have been suggested for these sym- bols; amongst them "the whole animate creation," the number foux being understood to symbolize the material world, as the number three represents the Divine Being. But the former interpretation is largely supported by early Christian antiquity, and has been made familiar to us through the ages past in the representations of ancient art, both sculpture and painting. If early testimony is to have its due weight, St. Mark wrote his Gospel in Greek, and at Rome, and apparently for Gentiles, certainly not exclusively, or in the first instance, for Jews. There are explanations given here and there in his Gospel which would be superfluous if it were written only for Jews. Jordan, when he first mentions it, is called "the river Jordan."· It is true that many good authorities read" the river Jordan" in St. Matthew (iii. 6); but this may have been introduced to make his Gospel more clear to those who were unacquainted with the geography of Palestine. "John's disciples and the Pharisees used to fast" (~crav Vl]UT~ovri~); literally," were fasting." This would have been unnecessary information for Jews. "The time of figs was not yet." Every inhabitant of Palestine would have known this. St. Mark alone preserves those word~ Ii INTRODUCTION TO
of our Lord, "The sabbath was made for man, and not man for the sabbath," ( eh. ii. 27)-a great principle, belonging to all nations alike. He alone quotes the words ( xi. 17), "of all nations," literally ( ,ra<n -r-o,s- l0v~aw), "for all the nations," in connection with our Lord's cleansing of the temple. Early writers speak of St. Mark as the " interpreter" of St. Peter; by which expression it seems to be meant that he put down in writing, what he had heard orally from St. Peter, the things relating to the life of our Lord. It seems also plain that he must have had access to St. Matthew's Gospel. But he was not a mere copyist. He was an independent witness. He often supplies a sentence, detailing some little incident which he oould only have received from an eye-witness, and which forms an additional link to the narrative, explaining something which had been left obscure, and filling up the picture. If we imagine St. Mark with St. Matthew's Gospel at hand, and with oopiolis memoranda of the observations and graphic descriptions of St. Peter, together with his own peculiar gifts as a writer, and the unerring guidance of the Holy Spirit, we seem to see at one& the sources of St. Mark's Gospel. St. Mark's Gospel is the shortest of all the four Gospels; and yet there is a unity about it which, as has been well said, "quite excludes the notion that it is either a mere compendium of some richer, or an expansion of some briefer, Gospel" (' Speaker's Commentary'). The writer avails himself of all the information that he can procure; at the same time, h& is an independent witness, giving, as all the sacred writers are permitted to do, the colouring of his own mind, his own "setting," so to speak, to those great truths and facts which the Holy Ghost moved him to com- municate. His frequent use of the present for the aorist; his constant repetition of the word ru0lw,;;, "straightway" (carefully marked in the new Revision by the employment of the same English synonym," straightway," throughout); his employment of diminutives, and his introduction of little details, imparting freshness and light to the whole narrative ;-all these and many other circmnstances give to St. Mark's Gospel a character of its own, distinct from, and yet in harmony with, the rest. It is a compendium of our blessed Lord's life upon earth; but it is a compendium with a. peculiar richness and originality which differences it off from the other Gospels, making us feel that if we were called upon to part with any one of the four, we certainly could not spare that of St. Mark. Another thought which is impressed upon us by the study of this Gospel is the shortness of the time within which the amazing mystery of our redemption wu actually wrought out, and the marvellous activity of the earthly life of the Son of God. St. Mark's narrative, giving for the most part the salient facts and events, without the discourses and parables which enrich the other Gospels, presents us with a comprehensive conspectus, which is of special use in its relation to the other Gospels, in which we a.re led rather to dwell upon the details, and to linger over the Divine words, wtructive a.s they a.re, until we almost lose sight of the grand outline- THE GOSPEL ACCORDING TO ST. MARK. iii