Mar 3:1-5 | Clarke | STEP | The man with the withered hand healed, . The Pharisees plot our Lord's destruction, . Christ withdraws, and is followed by a great multitude, . He heals many, and goes to a mountain to pray, . He ordains twelve disciples, and, gives them power to preach and work miracles, , . Their names, . The multitudes throng him, and the scribes attribute his miracles to Beelzebub, . He vindicates himself by a parable, . Of the blasphemy against the Holy Ghost, . His mother and brethren send for him, , . And he takes occasion from this to show, that they who do the will of God are to him as his brother, sister, and mother, . Verse 1 A man there which had a withered hand - See this explained on (note), etc., and on , (note).

Mark 3:1-5

Introduction

The man with the withered hand healed, Mar 3:1-5. The Pharisees plot our Lord's destruction, Mar 3:6. Christ withdraws, and is followed by a great multitude, Mar 3:7-9. He heals many, and goes to a mountain to pray, Mar 3:10-13. He ordains twelve disciples, and, gives them power to preach and work miracles, Mar 3:14, Mar 3:15. Their names, Mar 3:16-19. The multitudes throng him, and the scribes attribute his miracles to Beelzebub, Mar 3:20-22. He vindicates himself by a parable, Mar 3:23-27. Of the blasphemy against the Holy Ghost, Mar 3:28-30. His mother and brethren send for him, Mar 3:31, Mar 3:32. And he takes occasion from this to show, that they who do the will of God are to him as his brother, sister, and mother, Mar 3:33-35.

Verse 1

A man there which had a withered hand - See this explained on Mat 12:10 (note), etc., and on Luk 6:6, Luk 6:10 (note). Verse 2

They watched him - Παρετηρουν αυτον, they maliciously watched him. See on Luk 14:1 (note). Verse 4

To do good - or - evil? to save life, or to kill? - It was a maxim with the Jews, as it should be with all men, that he who neglected to preserve life when it was in his power, was to be reputed a murderer. Every principle of sound justice requires that he should be considered in this light. But, if this be the case, how many murderers are there against whom there is no law but the law of God!

To kill - but instead of αποκτειναι, several MSS. and versions have απολεσαι to destroy. Wetstein and Griesbach quote Theophylact for this reading; but it is not in my copy. Paris edit. 1635. Verse 5

With anger, being grieved for the hardness of their hearts - These words are not found in any of the other evangelists. For πωρωσει hardness, or rather callousness, the Codex Bezae, and four of the Itala, read νεκρωσει, deadness; the Vulgate and some of the Itala, caecitate, blindness. Join all these together, and they will scarcely express the fullness of this people's wretchedness. By a long resistance to the grace and Spirit of God, their hearts had become callous; they were past feeling. By a long opposition to the light of God, they became dark in their understanding, were blinded by the deceitfulness of sin, and thus were past seeing. By a long continuance in the practice of every evil work, they were cut off from all union with God, the fountain of spiritual life; and, becoming dead in trespasses and sins, they were incapable of any resurrection but through a miraculous power of God.

With anger. What was the anger which our Lord felt? That which proceeded from excessive grief, which was occasioned by their obstinate stupidity and blindness: therefore it was no uneasy passion, but an excess of generous grief.

Whole as the other - This is omitted by the best MSS. and versions.

Grotius, Mill, and Bengel approve of the omission, and Griesbach leaves it out of the text.