The Pulpit Commentary — Mark — Volume 1 — Section 151

"the messengers ofNician." But the expression cannot mean (1) his apostles, who though eent out by him and selected for this purpose, as we read in ver. 14, were now with him in the house; nor can it mean (2) his disciples, or those about him, for this would confound the expression with al •r<pl 11b.-&11, It must, it appears, be taken to signify his kinsmen-the sense assigned to it by most commentators, ancient and modern. And, though this is a rare use of the expression, it is not quite without parallels, as for example in Susanna, ver. 33, f,c}l.awv a~ al "'"P' ab.-,ir," but her friends wept;" and in this Gospel, eh. v. 26, ..~ "'"P' 11lrr,jr .,,J.,,.,,. is "all the things from with her," that is, all her resources-" all her living," as we read in the parallel passage of St. Luke. 4. Their course of action. We have now to consider their course of action or mode of pro- cedure, and the object which they had in view. They went out to lay hold of him, and so (1) to put him under salutary restraint, if the literal meaning of supposecl derangement be adhered to. It may indeed mean (2) to hold him back from such superhuman efforts, in conseqlfence of their believing him to be in an unnatural and abnormal state of mind or body, or both. But, though the word rendered "he is beside himself" is often used in that sense, sometimes elliptically as here and in 2 Cor. v. 13, but mostly in conjunction with vav, or.,,.,.,,,;;,, or ,Ppevwv, and so equivalent to .,,apa,Ppov••"• still it may be employed figuratively, and merely import that he wa.s transported too far. What with the watchings of the preceding night, and the fastings of that morning, and his unceasing labours in addressing his newly chosen apostles, preaching to the people, and working miracles, all of which we learn, by a comparison with the sixth chapter of St. Luke, both mind and body must have been taxed to the utmost, the strain was excessive, they thought, and far too great to be long borne; and so an earnest but friendly interference was deemed by them to be necessary. There is, however, (3) another view of the matter, which some prefer. They understand the word /~/er.-.,, as equivalent to 1Aenra86µ.,,cre or /}l.•1.,,a,j,~x.,,cre, and to denote fainting from bodily exhaustion/ and consequently the object of his kinsfolk was to support and sustain him (Kpa.-,j11cu). But some resort to the still more questionable expedient of changing ~he object of the verb just mentioned, and so understanding (4) that his disciples went out to repress the crowd, for they (i.e. the discip1es) said," It [the crowd] is mad." This last (4) view is untenable; the preceding one (3) is not well supported; the one going before it (2) is plausible, but rather specious than sound; while the first (1) alone, notwithstanding the difficulty it presents in connection with our Lord's relatives, is the plain and natural meaning of the expression. 5. Their confined notions of religion. It is painfully manifest that the kinsfolk of our Lord entertained very contracted and very commonplace, or rather indeed low, ideas of religion. They were very imperfectly acquainted with the great object of Jesus' mission; their notions of his work were of the crudest kind; their faith, if at this period it existed at all, must have been in a very incipient state. Their anxiety at the same time for his safety, and their alarm at the public agitation and the probable upshot of that agitation, all combined to force on them the conclusion that he was on the bo!der between fonaticism and frenzy, or that he had actually made the transition into the region of the latter. 6. .A common experience. We find in this mistake no new or very strange experience, The Rev. Rowland Hill, on one occasion, strained his voice, raising it to the highest pitch, in order to warn some persons of impending danger, and so rescued them from peril. For this he was warmly applauded, as he deserved. But when he elevated his voice to a similar pitch in warning sinners of lhe error and evil of their ways, and in order to save their souls from a still greater peril, the same friends who before had praised him now pronounced him fool and fanatic. II. MALIGNANT FOES, 1, The charge of the scribes. The evangelist never sup- presses truth; he keeps nothing back, however harsh or unnatural it may at first sight appear. Having shown the effect of the Saviour's ministry on his friends, he proceedil to exhibit the impression it made on his foes. A notable miracle had been performed, as we learn from St. Matthew's Gospel, eh. xii. 22, a blind and dumb demoniac-sad complication-had been cured. Now, there are two ways in which men diminish the merit of a good quality, and destroy the credit of o. noble action-denial is the one, and deprecio.tion is the other. The scribes, or theologians, of the Pharisaic sect, had come down as emissaries from the metropolis, to dog our Saviour's steps and destroy, if they could, his influence. H:\d denial of the miracle bceu possible, it is plain they BT. M1\~K. L  146 THE GOSPEL ACCORDING 'l'O ST. MARK. [os. m 1-36.