The Pulpit Commentary — Mark — Volume 1 — Section 316

the good life, are all serviceable. The life now becomes an active power for good Ea.oh, when he has " turned again," is ablo to strengthen bis brethren. The first effect of the eviction of evil from the life is that the eyes are opened, tha.t a.11 that surrounds may enter to enrich the life, The second effect is, the lips are opened, the life becomes e. centre of useful influence. It is a new acquisition to the world, a new joy. So from without flows into the redeemed life all that is calculated to minister to it, to nourish to purify, to exalt, to gladden and perfect it; while back again from the nourished; purified, and gladdened life, new sentiments, new emotions, new aims, and new efforts proceed. The effect of which reciprocal influence is that each becomes a point of light, e. form of loveliness; each a stream of holy, nseful influence, refreshing this weary desert and ma.king it glad. Truly,of him who" maketh even the deaf to hear, and the dumb to speak," it ma.y be said, "He bath done all things well." It is no less well Aid, "And they glorified the God of lsraeL"-G. Vere. 1-23. Parallel passage: Matt. xv. 1-20.-.Exposure of Pharisaiam: its errors and evils. I. DooTRINE OF DEFILEMENT, 1. Contents of this chapter. Thi>3 chapter contains three principal sections. The first section treats of defilement ; the second gives an account of e. demon being expelled from the daughter of a Syro- phcenicia.n woman; and the third narrates the cure of a deaf mute. The first section, again, contains the following :-The charge of defilement which the Pharisees pre- ferred against the disciples; the evangelist's digression for the purpose of explaining to his Gentile readers the Jewish notions and usages in this matter; Christ's apply- ing to the Jews of his day a description of their fathers by Isaiah; the reason of this application in the displacement by them of God's Law to make room for the tradi- tionary teachings of man; a much graver delinquency in nullifying the Law of God not merely with respect to ceremonial washings, but in regard to moral duties; a specific example of this in a glaring and most culpable neglect of filial obligation; our Lord's exposition, publicly in the presence of the assembled people and privately to the disciples, of the true nature of real, that is, moral defilement ; and a reference to the distinction of clean and unclean in the matter of meats, which formed a main par- -tition between Jews and Gentiles. The way was thus prepared for, and an easy transition made to, the subject of the second section, which narrates our Lord's only cecorded visit to the Gentile world, and the miracle there wrought in the case of the Gentile maiden who was dispossessed under singularly interesting circumstances. The third section records a miracle which is only mentioned by St. Mark, and so peculiar to his Gospel. Our Lord, having just returned from the cities of Phmnicia, was making his way through the midst of the region of the Ten Cities, when he cured the deaf mute or dumb man of Decapolis in a very remarkable manner, and by a method of -external application not employed hitherto in the miracles wrought by our Lord. 2. Linguistic peculiarities in the first section. (1) The first peculiarity of the kind ,indicated is the use of the Greek word Triryµ.ji, which is a hapaz legomenon, and qualifies the verb" wash." In our English version it is translated (a) oft, and in the margin (b) -diligMtly, which is adopted in the Revised Version. The former is supported by the Vulgate, which has crebro, and depends on the analogy of similar but not really -related words, such as Tr111t11ji or Tr111t11cils; while the marginal rendering has the support of :the Peshito Syriac b'tiloith. Some of the older interpreters understand it as (c) e. measure of length, and so Euthymius has µ.EXP' -roil a.-y1tci,11os, " as far as the elbow;" and Theophylact similarly, adding that it is the space from the elbow to the .knuckles ; the water poured out into the hollow of the hand would thus, by the elevation of the same, •flow down to the elbow. The more natural explanation seems to be that which takes ,it ( d) in the primary signification of the word, which is clenched hand or fist; not in the sense of the closed hand being raised so as to allow the water to flow down to the -elbow; nor yet in the sense of rubbing the closed hand or fist with the hollow of the other hand, which, as Fritzsche suggests, would require the words to be -rji TrtJAaµ.fi vc,i,,.,Jl'l"iu ,..¾., 1111-yµ./iv; but in the sense of \Nllhing the hand with the fist, that is, by -rubbing one hand with the other closed or clenched or with the fist,·in the sense of vigorously. This explanation, which corresponds with that of Beza, amounts to the ·idea of diligence conveyed by the Syriac. This verb ,,i..--ro,, it may be observed in paesing, -generally refers to "washing the hands or feet," as ..-1'.61101 signifies to "wash clothes," and 3H THE GOSPEL ACCORDING TO s·r. ~ARK. [CB. VII, 1-37.