The Pulpit Commentary — Mark — Volume 1 — Section 82

unin_fluenced by_ pop1:1Iar!ty, disabuses t?eir minds _of their narro_wness in selfishly seckmg to localize him lil Capernaum, city though 1t was, calmly informing them of his purpose to itinerate throughout the villages or country towns of that then populous distr_ict.. A_t once he puts his plan into execution, assuring them that the great object of his m1ss10n was not merely to plant the gospel in one spot or one solitary district but to propagate it in all places, far off as well as near-" for therefore came I forth.'; This last expression is r~stricted by some to his coming out of the city of Capernaum, or (lUt of the house, or out mto the desert place, on the ground that, if the reference was to the general object of his mission, the verb would be simply •"-fl"-u8a,, not the compound which occurs here, or rather that ,ra.pa, or cl,rl>, or t1< "Toii 0,oii, would be employed as in ~everal passages ?f ~t. John's Gospel ( e.g. v~ii. 42 ;_ xiii. 3; xvii. 8), to convey that :Oean- mg. The expression 1s, no doubt, somewhat mdefin1te, perhaps purposely indefinite, and so susceptible of either a more general or more specific sense; but by comparing the 6or- responding passage in St. Luke (i.e. "because unto this have I been sent") we are shut up to the larger and higher and inclusive sense. The whole of the sentence is .more fully expressed by St. Luke, and is to the effect, "because to the rest of the cities also I must declare the glad tidings of the kingdom of God." Accordingly, in pursuance of his great ?bject, he went forth "and came preaching into their synagogues, into the whole of Galilee, and casting out the demons," as the words (in the critical editions) are literally rendered. The number of such synagogues and the extent of the enterprise may be estimated from the statement of Josephus in relation to the great number of towns and _villages with which Galilee was studded, and the exceeding populousness of the Gaillean provinces in the days of our Lord. He writes (' Bel. Jud.,' iii. 3, 2), " Moreover, the cities lie here very thick; and the very many villages there are here a.re everywhere so full of people, by the richness of their soil, that the very least of them contain about fifteen thousand inhabitants." 2. .An important variant. We may not, however, dismiss this part of the subject without drawing attention to a very interesting and important various reading which, on the authority of codices ~. B, C, L, Q, R, and of the Syriac and Coptic versions, substitutes 'Iou3a.las for ra.J\.1J\.a.Cas, as the Juwean ministry of our Lord, which is, no doubt, assumed and implied by the synoptists, is nowhere else e:r;press1y mentioned by them.-J. J. G. Vers. 40-45. Parallel passages: Matt. viii. 2-4; Luke v. 12-16.-.The cure of a leper. L 'l'IIE DISEASE OF LEPROSY BEPBESENTB THE DISEASE OF BIN. Of all the diseases that have found their way into this world in consequence of sin, and which have afflicted the human race, there is, perhaps, none more dreadful than that of leprosy. It was peculiar to Egypt, and native in that country, but passed into Palestine, and prevailed over Syria and Arabia also. It was common among the Jews, as we learn from several passages of Scripture, thus, in the Gospel according to St. Luke we read, "Many lepers were in Israel in the time of Eliseus the prophet.n The Hebrew name tsaraath is from a root which means to strike, smite, also to roughen; and thus it may mean either a stroke or a rough swelling; while the English name of leprosy, coming from the Greek J\.&pa., and that from Abru, a scale, signifies "the scaly disease." The two sure signs of leprosy were the whitening (where it reached) of the usually dark hair of the Oriental, and the deepenin" of the disease below the skin. It was usually deno- minated nega, stroke, or hannega, the stroke or wound; this implied that it was directly inflicted by and immediately proceeded from the hand of God; it was also always considered as a punishment for sin. It need scarcely be added that it was a disease of the mo..-t virulent kind, and was a striking emblem of sin. 1. It was hereditary ; so with sin. That leprosy was hereditary, we may infer from the punishment of Gehazi, concerning which it is written," 'l'he leprosy therefore of Naaman shall cleave unto thee and unto thy seed, for ever." So also we read of David's imprecation of leprosy on the descendants of Joab, on account of his murdering Abner, saying, "Let there not fail from the house of Joab one that bath an issue or is a leper." In like manner, the leprosy of sin has been inherited from the first parents of our race, and has con- tinued hereditary throughout every succeeding generation. This remains true, whether we hold the doctrine of immediate and antecedent or mediate and consequent imputation in reference to the guilt of Adam's first sin; that is to say, whether we hold with the generality of the Reformed Churches thnt, in consequence of Adam having been the OJI, I, 1-46.] THE GOSPEL .ACCORDING TO ST. MARK. 79