From the Pen of John A Broadus
Historical Guest Blogger
The Twenty Fourth Day of the October
“Introduction”
The Gospel of Mark is a record of our Lord’s actions rather than of his words. For example, Mark gives nearly as many miracles as Matthew or Luke, but give only four parables, while they have so many. He presents no extended discourse save the great discourse on the Mount of Olives (chap. 13), and even of that he does not report half so much as Matthew.
Moreover, Mark’s style and general manner of narration are singularly animated and pictorial. When narrating the same event Matthew of Luke, he almost invariably adds touches of detail, and these never fail to brighten the picture. We can give only a few of the many examples. In the very brief account of our Lord’s temptation, Mark adds (1: 13), “and he was with the wild beasts,” which vividly shows how unfrequented and desolate the place was and suggests an affecting thought of the Saviour [sic] moving gentle and unharmed among the fierce wild creatures. When Jesus and the Twelve are crossing the stormy lake, Mark mentions (4: 37) that “the waves were bearing into the boat,” and that Jesus himself “was in the stern, asleep on the pillow.” How much would be wanting in our mental picture of the scene if these had not been given. And presently when the demoniac meets them beyond the lake, Mark states (5: 5) that “he was crying out, and cutting himself with stones.”
On Herod’s birthday, Mark tells us (6: 21f) that he made a supper “for his lords, and the high captains, and the chief men of Galilee”; that the young dancer please Herod “and them that sat at meat with him”; that “she went out, and said unto her mother, What [sic] shall I ask? And she said, The head of John the Baptist. And she came in straightway with haste unto the king,” and made the startling request. Surely no small addition is thus made to the interest of this scene for all. In the account of our Lord’s feeding the five thousand, Mark five (6: 40) an exquisite touch to the picture which our translations cannot well bring out. “And they lay down, garden beds, garden beds, by hundreds and fifties.” Counted off as if for military service and reclining in ranks so that each group formed a parallelogram, the successive groups in their bright-hued garments looked like beds in a flower-garden. Here is indicated a close observer, and apparently an eye-witness [sic]. So, in the story of Bartimaeus Mark says (10: 50), “And he, casting away his garment, sprang up” and came to Jesus. In 12: 41 Jesus sat down “over against the treasury” and observed the giving, and the poor widow; and in 14: 3, Mary “brake the cruse (crushing the box) and poured it over his head. And most remarkable of all are the vivid details as the to the demoniac boy of chap. 9 too extensive to quote here, including besides other touches the whole of ver. 21-25 and ver. 26, 27.
Matthew wrote especially for Jews, Mark for Gentiles. This is proved, among other things, by the pains taken to explain Jewish customs and local allusions. Thus (in 7: 3. 4) he tells how scrupulous the Jews were about ceremonially purifying their persons and the vessels from which they ate—a regard for the tradition of the elders making them as careful to cleanse everything thoroughly as would be done among us after a case of some contagious disease. This was a very remarkable scrupulosity, and people not well acquainted with Jewish feeling and practice have sometimes been slow to believe that they can have actually immersed themselves on returning from the market-place [sic], so that our two oldest extant Greek manuscripts (of the fourth century) have it changed to “sprinkle themselves.” And yet Herodotus tells us (II., 47) that among the Egyptians if any one of them in passing touched a swine, he went to the river and dipped himself (bapto), clothes and all. Again, in 13: 8, Mark speaks of Jesus as sitting on the Mount of Olives “over against the temple,” which every Jew would have understood without the statement. So likewise, 14: 1, the Passover “and the unleavened bread”; 14: 12, on the first day of unleavened bread, “when they sacrificed the Passover,” 15: 42, the Preparation, “that is, the day before the Sabbath,” are all explanation quite unnecessary for a Jew, but needed by Gentile readers.
[1] John A. Broadus, Commentary on the Gospel of Mark (Philadelphia: American Baptist Publications Society, 1905; reprint, Forgotten Books), vii-xii (page citations are to the reprint edition).
[2] It should be noted that this work was published posthumously.
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