The Pulpit Commentary — Mark — Volume 1 — Section 365

duceeism, may here, by way of eminence, represent that eect. Leaven, with the single exception of the parable of the leaven, is always used for evil of some sort, especially evil secretly working and silently diffusing itself; and hence, in preparation for the Passover, leaven was to be purged out of all the households of the Hebrews. Accordingly the leaven of the Pharisee8, if used here in a specific and not in a generic sense, may be taken to denote hypocrisy, while the leaven of the Sadducees may signify misbelief, and that of Herod worldliness; and as the Sadducean creed allows full scope to worldly pleasures and pursnits, and because of their many points of contact, the two latter may coincide or change places; while the whole three are animated by one and the same spirit of opposition to God and true religion. Our Lord here warned his disciples against all doctrine, practice, or teaching of like character under the name of leaven. His disciples, in their low, grovelling notions, and through their slowness of spiritual apprehension, understood him to speak of bread in the literal sense, and of bread baked with leaven got from the Pharisees on landing. They supposed that the Saviour was warning them against anything of that kind that might corrupt them. How different the Master and the disciples I The latter allowed their thoughts to be too much engrossed with the bread that perisheth; the former had his mind occupied with the bread that endureth unto eternal life, and warned them against any teaching or any practice that might interfere with their possessing it. No wonder our Lord was some- what sharp in his rebuke of their spiritual dulness, for, having eyes for the physical part of the miracles, they failed to see their spiritual import. They had eyesight only for the outward shell, but did not perceive the kernel. Hence it is that he in3uires, "Having ears, hear ye not?" and again, "How is it that ye do not understand?' V. EXEGETICAL NOTE ON CERTAIN WORDS .U."D PBR.\SES IN THE PRECEDING SECTIONS. 1. The clause," They have now been with me three days," is literally, There are no'III three days to them remaining with me. To the original expression thus exactly rendered has been cited the following parallel from the ' Philocletes' of Sophocles:- •Hv B' {i,u,p fi5'i 'ti,6TEpo• r'A.lovrl p,o,: "It was now the second day to me sailing." 2. Instead of '• ,,,,,,,Ja. of St. Matthew, we have here in St. Mark lw' ,,,.,,,.cu.s, which is slightly different in sense, meaning," In circumstances consequent on or connected with being in a desert." 3. In ver. 12 the received text reads ir,(.,,..-,i, which yields a very suitable sense, namely, seeks a sign in addition to those already given. The critical editors, Lachmann, Tischendorf, and Tregelles, however, read the simpler verb ,.,,,,.,i. 4. In this same verse there is a Hebraistic form of strong abjuration. The clause in our English Version is, "There shall no sign be given;" so also the Syriac has simply "not;" but the strict rendering is, "If a sign shall be given," which, resolved according to the idiom of the original, is," May I not live if a sign shall be given," or "God do so to me and more if a sign shall be given." 5. So also in the same verse, "he brake," that is, at once, becal1ll8 the verb is the aorist tense; and "kept giving," as the verb is imperfect. 6. The two participles meaning respectively "having given thanks" and "blessed" amount to nearly the same thing, and set us an example suitable, seemly, and seasonable of thanking God and asking his blessing when we partake of our daily food; in other words, of conforming to the time-honoured practice of saying "grace," as it is called, before meals, by which we thankfully acknowledge the Giver, and ask his blessing on and with the gift.--J. J. G. Vers. 22-26.-The hR.aling of a blind man at Bethsaida. L SEVERAL MIBACLEB OF 1,. sllULAB KIND. The miracle here recorded was performed at BeLhsaida Julias, or the northern Bethsaida, on the route from the north-east shore of the lake to Cmsarea Philippi. It is related by St. Mark alone. The peculiarity of this miracle of restoring sight to the blind is the circumstance of its being wrought at twice; that is to say, the cure was progressive or gradual. In the ninth chapter of St. John's Gospel we have the acc<?unt of a like miracle of ?pen_ing the eyes of a blind man; but one peculiarity of the miracle there recorded consists m the fact that the man on whom the miracle was performed had been born blind. 'l'here is again the opening of the eyes of two blind men near Jericho, recorded in St. Matthew (n.), one of whom only is mentioned by St. Mark (L) and by St. Luke (xviii.), and called by the patronymic Bartilllleus, or the son of Timmue. There is also the record of another similar miracle in the ninth chapter of St. Matthew, when our Lord, after 1iutting their faith to the cu. vm.1-38.] THE GOSPEL AOCORDING TO ST. MARK. 363