{"collection":"Bible & Christianity","html_url":"https://unchartedknowledge.5gfusion.net/browse/bib/cmt/vws/mar001.htm","path":"bib/cmt/vws/mar001.htm","source_url":"https://sacred-texts.com/bib/cmt/vws/mar001.htm","text":"Vincent's Word Studies, by Marvin R. Vincent, [1886]\nBeginning (\u1f00\u03c1\u03c7\u1f74)\nwithout the article, showing that the expression is a kind of title. It is 'the beginning, not of his book, but of the facts of the Gospel. He shows from the prophets that the Gospel was to begin by the sending forth of a forerunner.\nA voice (\u03c6\u03c9\u03bd\u1f74)\nNo article as A. V. and Rev., \"the voice.\" It has a sort of exclamatory force. Listening, the prophet exclaims, Lo! a voice.\nJohn did baptize (\u1f10\u03b3\u03ad\u03bd\u03b5\u03c4\u03bf \u1f38\u03c9\u03ac\u03bd\u03bd\u03b7\u03c2 \u1f41 \u03b2\u03b1\u03c0\u03c4\u03af\u03b6\u03c9\u03bd)\nLit., John came to pass or arose who baptized. Rev., John came who baptized.\nBaptism of repentance (\u03b2\u03ac\u03c0\u03c4\u03b9\u03c3\u03bc\u03b1 \u03bc\u03b5\u03c4\u03b1\u03bd\u03bf\u03af\u03b1\u03c2)\nA baptism the characteristic of which was repentance; which involved an obligation to repent. We should rather expect Mark to put this in the more dramatic form used by Matthew: Saying, Repent ye!\nThere went out (\u1f10\u03be\u03b5\u03c0\u03bf\u03c1\u03b5\u03cd\u03b5\u03c4\u03bf)\nThe imperfect tense signifies, there kept going out.\nThe river\nPeculiar to Mark.\nConfessing\nSee on Mat 3:6.\nWith camels' hair (\u03c4\u03c1\u03af\u03c7\u03b1\u03c2 \u03ba\u03b1\u03bc\u03ae\u03bb\u03bf\u03c5)\nLit., hairs. Not with a camel's skin, but with a vesture woven of camels' hair. Compare 2 Kings 1, 8.\nWild honey\n\"The innumerable fissures and clefts of the limestone rocks, which everywhere flank the valleys, afford in their recesses secure shelter for any number of swarms of wild bees; and many of the Bedouin, particularly about the wilderness of Judaea, obtain their subsistence by bee-hunting, bringing into Jerusalem jars of that wild honey on which John the Baptist fed in the wilderness\" (Tristram, \"Land of Israel\"). Wyc., honey of the wood.\nTo stoop down\nA detail peculiar to Mark.\nAnd unloose\nCompare to bear; Mat 3:11.\nStraightway\nA favorite word with Mark. See Introduction.\nOpened (\u03c3\u03c7\u03b9\u03b6\u03bf\u03bc\u03ad\u03bd\u03bf\u03c5\u03c2)\nLit., as Rev., rent asunder: much stronger than Matthew's and Luke's \u1f00\u03bd\u03b5\u1ff4\u03c7\u03b8\u03b7\u03c3\u03b1\u03bd, were opened.\nThou art my beloved son\nThe three synoptists give the saying in the same form: Thou art my son, the beloved.\nDriveth him (\u1f10\u03ba\u03b2\u03ac\u03bb\u03bb\u03b5\u03b9)\nStronger than Matthew's \u1f00\u03bd\u03ae\u03c7\u03b8\u03b7, was led up, and Luke's \u1f24\u03b3\u03b5\u03c4\u03bf, was led. See on Mat 9:38. It is the word used of our Lord's expulsion of demons, Mar 1:34, Mar 1:39.\nThe Wilderness\nThe place is unknown. Tradition fixes it near Jericho, in the neighborhood of the Quarantania, the precipitous face of which is pierced with ancient cells and chapels, and a ruined church is on its topmost peak. Dr. Tristram says that every spring a few devout Abyssinian Christians are in the habit of coming and remaining here for forty days, to keep their Lent on the spot where they suppose that our Lord fasted and was tempted.\nWith the wild beasts\nPeculiar to Mark. The region just alluded to abounds in boars, jackals, wolves, foxes, leopards, hyenas, etc.\nThe time (\u1f41 \u03ba\u03b1\u03b9\u03c1\u1f78\u03c2)\nThat is, the period completed by the setting up of Messiah's kingdom. Compare the fulness of the time, Gal 4:4.\nRepent\nSee on Mat 3:2; and Mat 21:29. Mark adds, and believe in the Gospel.\nCasting a net (\u1f00\u03bc\u03c6\u03b9\u03b2\u03ac\u03bb\u03bb\u03bf\u03bd\u03c4\u03b1\u03c2)\nSee on Mat 4:18. Mark here uses, more graphically, only the verb, without adding net. Lit., throwing about in the sea. Probably a fisher man's phrase, like a east, a haul.\nTo become (\u03b3\u03b5\u03bd\u03ad\u03c3\u03b8\u03b1\u03b9)\nAn addition of Mark.\nA little farther\nAdded by Mark.\nMending\nSee on Mat 4:21.\nWith the hired servants\nPeculiar to Mark. It may imply that Zebedee carried on his business on a larger scale than ordinary fishermen.\nHe taught (\u1f26\u03bd \u03b4\u03b9\u03b4\u03ac\u03c3\u03ba\u03c9\u03bd)\nThe finite verb with the participle denoting something continuous: was teaching.\nAt the conclusion of his teaching.\nWith an unclean spirit (\u1f10\u03bd \u03c0\u03bd\u03b5\u03cd\u03bc\u03b1\u03c4\u03b9 \u1f00\u03ba\u03b1\u03b8\u03ac\u03c1\u03c4\u1ff3)\nLit., \"in an unclean spirit.\" \u1f18\u03bd (in) has the force of in the power of. Dr. Morison compares the phrases in drink, in love.\nUs\nMe and those like me. \"The demons,\" says Bengel, \"make common cause.\"\nThe Holy One of God\nThe demon names him as giving to the destruction the impress of hopeless certainty.\nHold thy peace (\u03c6\u03b9\u03bc\u03ce\u03b8\u03b7\u03c4\u03b9)\nLit., be muzzled or gagged See on Mat 22:12.\nHad torn (\u03c3\u03c0\u03b1\u03c1\u03ac\u03be\u03b1\u03bd)\nRev., tearing, convulsions in margin. Luke has had thrown him down in the midst. Mark adds the crying out with a loud voice.\nThey questioned among themselves (\u03c3\u03c5\u03bd\u03b6\u03b7\u03c4\u03b5\u1fd6\u03bd \u03c0\u03c1\u1f78\u03c2 \u1f11\u03b1\u03c5\u03c4\u03bf\u1f7a\u03c2)\nStronger than Luke, who has they spake together. Tynd., They demanded one of another among themselves.\nLay sick of a fever (\u03ba\u03b1\u03c4\u03ad\u03ba\u03b5\u03b9\u03c4\u03bf \u03c0\u03c5\u03c1\u03ad\u03c3\u03c3\u03bf\u03c5\u03c3\u03b1)\n\u039a\u03b1\u03c4\u03ac, prostrate. Mark adds, they tell him of her. Luke, they besought him for her. Mark, he came to her. Luke, he stood over her. Mark only, he took her by the hand and raised her up.\nAt even, when the sun did set\nAn instance of Mark's habit of coupling similar words or phrases.\nThat were sick\nAll the city was gathered together at the door\nDevils (\u03b4\u03b1\u03b9\u03bc\u03cc\u03bd\u03b9\u03b1)\nThe Rev., unfortunately, and against the protest of the American committee, retains devils instead of rendering demons. See on Mat 4:1. The New Testament uses two kindred words to denote the evil spirits which possessed men, and which were so often east out by Christ: \u03b4\u03b9\u03ac\u03bc\u03c9\u03bd, of which demon is a transcript, and which occurs, according to the best texts, only at Mat 8:31; and \u03b4\u03b1\u03b9\u03bc\u03cc\u03bd\u03b9\u03bf\u03bd, which is not a diminutive, but the neuter of the adjective \u03b4\u03b1\u03b9\u03bc\u03cc\u03bd\u03b9\u03bf\u03c2, of, or belonging to a demon. The cognate verb is \u03b4\u03b1\u03b9\u03bc\u03bf\u03bd\u03af\u03b6\u03bf\u03bc\u03b1\u03b9 to be possessed with a demon, as in Mar 1:32.\nThe derivation of the word is uncertain. Perhaps \u03b4\u03b1\u03af\u03c9, to distribute, since the deities allot the fates of men. Plato derives it from \u03b4\u03b1\u03ae\u03bc\u03c9\u03bd, knowing or wise. In Hesiod, as in Pythagoras, Thales, and Plutarch, the word \u03b4\u03b1\u03af\u03bc\u03c9\u03bd is used of men of the golden age, acting as tutelary deities, and forming the link between gods and men. Socrates, in Plato's \"Cratylus,\" quotes Hesiod as follows: \"Socrates: You know how Hesiod uses the word? Hermogenes: Indeed I do not. Soc.: Do you not remember that he speaks of a golden race of men who came first? Her.: Yes, I know that. Soc.: He says of them,\nBut now that fate has closed over this race,\nThey are holy demons upon earth,\nBeneficent, averters of ills, guardians of mortal men.'\"\nAfter some further conversation, Socrates goes on: \"And therefore I have the most entire conviction that he called them demons, because they were \u03b4\u03b1\u03ae\u03bc\u03bf\u03bd\u03b5\u03c2 (knowing or wise). Now, he and other poets say truly that, when a good man dies, he has honor and a mighty portion among the dead, and becomes a demon, which is a name given to him signifying wisdom. And I say, too, that every wise man who happens to be a good man is more than human (\u03b4\u03b1\u03b9\u03bc\u03cc\u03bd\u03b9\u03bf\u03bd) both in life and death, and is rightly called a demon.\" Mr. Grote (\"History of Greece\") observes that in Hesiod demons are \"invisible tenants of the earth, remnants of the once happy golden race whom the Olympic gods first made - the unseen police of the gods, for the purpose of repressing wicked behavior in the world.\" In later Greek the word came to be used of any departed soul.\nIn Homer \u03b4\u03b1\u03af\u03bc\u03c9\u03bd is used synonymously with \u03b8\u03b5\u03cc\u03c2 and \u03b8\u03b5\u03ac, god and goddess, and the moral quality of the divinity is determined by the context: but most commonly of the divine power or agency, like the Latin numen, the deity considered as a power rather than as a person. Homer does not use \u03b4\u03b1\u03b9\u03bc\u03cc\u03bd\u03b9\u03bf\u03bd substantively, but as an adjective, always in the vocative case, and with a sorrowful or reproachful sense, indicating that the person addressed is in some astonishing or strange condition. Therefore, as a term of reproach - wretch! sirrah! madman! (\"Iliad,\" 2:190, 200; 4:31; ix., 40). Occasionally in an admiring or respectful sense (\"Odyssey,\" xiv., 443; xxiii., 174); Excellent stranger! noble sir! Homer also uses \u03b4\u03b1\u03af\u03bc\u03c9\u03bd of one's genius or attendant spirit, and thence of one's lot or fortune. So in the beautiful simile of the sick father (\"Odyssey,\" 5:396), \"Some malignant genius has assailed him.\" Compare \"Odyssey,\" x., 64; xi., 61. Hence, later, the phrase \u03ba\u03b1\u03c4\u1f70 \u03b4\u03b1\u03af\u03bc\u03bf\u03bd\u03b1 is nearly equivalent to by chance.\nWe have seen that, in Homer, the bad sense of \u03b4\u03b1\u03b9\u03bc\u03cc\u03bd\u03bf\u03b9\u03c2 is the prevailing one. In the tragedians, also, \u03b4\u03b1\u03af\u03bc\u03c9\u03bd, though used both of good and bad fortune, occurs more frequently in the latter sense, and toward this sense the word gravitates more and more. The undertone of Greek thought, which tended to regard no man happy until he had escaped from life (see on Mat 5:3, blessed), naturally imparted a gloomy and forbidding character to those who were supposed to allot the destinies of life.\nIn classical Greek it is noticeable that the abstract \u03c4\u1f78 \u03b4\u03b1\u03b9\u03bc\u03cc\u03bd\u03b9\u03bf\u03bd fell into the background behind \u03b4\u03b1\u03af\u03bc\u03c9\u03bd, with the development in the latter of the notion of a fate or genius connected with each individual, as the demon of Socrates; while in biblical Greek the process is the reverse, this doctrine being rejected for that of an overruling personal providence, and the strange gods, \"obscure to human knowledge and alien to human life,\" taking the abstract term uniformly in an evil sense.\nEmpedocles, a Greek philosopher, of Sicily, developed Hesiod's distinction; making the demons of a mixed nature between gods and men, not only the link between the two, but having an agency and disposition of their own; not immortal, but long-lived, and subject to the passions and propensities of men. While in Hesiod the demons are all good, according to Empedocles they are both bad and good. This conception relieved the gods of the responsibility for proceedings unbecoming the divine nature. The enormities which the older myths ascribed directly to the gods - thefts, rapes, abductions - were the doings of bad demons. It also saved the credit of the old legends, obviating the necessity of pronouncing either that the gods were unworthy or the legends untrue. \"Yet, though devised for the purpose of satisfying a more scrupulous religious sensibility, it was found inconvenient afterward when assailants arose against paganism generally. For while it abandoned as indefensible a large portion of what had once been genuine faith, it still retained the same word demons with an entirely altered signification. The Christian writers in their controversies found ample warrant among the earlier pagan authors for treating all the gods as demons; and not less ample warrant among the later pagans for denouncing the demons generally as evil beings\" (Grote, \"History of Greece\").\nThis evil sense the words always bear in the New Testament as well as in the Septuagint. Demons are synonymous with unclean spirits (Mar 5:12, Mar 5:15; Mar 3:22, Mar 3:30; Luk 4:33). They appear in connection with Satan (Luk 10:17, Luk 10:18; Luk 11:18, Luk 11:19); they are put in opposition to the Lord (Co1 10:20, Co1 10:21); to the faith (Ti1 4:1). They are connected with idolatry (Rev 9:20; Rev 16:13, Rev 16:14). They are special powers of evil, influencing and disturbing the physical, mental, and moral being (Luk 13:11, Luk 13:16; Mar 5:2-5; Mar 7:25; Mat 12:45).\nA great while before day (\u1f14\u03bd\u03bd\u03c5\u03c7\u03b1)\nLit., while it was in the night. The word is peculiar to Mark.\nFollowed after (\u03ba\u03b1\u03c4\u03b5\u03b4\u03af\u03c9\u03be\u03b1\u03bd)\nThe word found only in Mark. Simon and his companions, as well as the people of the city, seem to have been afraid lest he should have permanently left them. Hence the compound verb indicates that they followed him eagerly; pursued him as if he were fleeing from them. Simon, true to his nature, was foremost in the pursuit: Simon, and they that were with him.\nAll\nAll the people of Capernaum, all are seeking thee. The continuous present tense. So Rev., better than A. V. The all is peculiar to Mark.\nTowns (\u03ba\u03c9\u03bc\u03bf\u03c0\u03cc\u03bb\u03b5\u03b9\u03c2)\nLit., village-towns, suburban towns.\nMoved with compassion\nOnly Mark.\nStrictly charged (\u1f10\u03bc\u03b2\u03c1\u03b9\u03bc\u03b7\u03c3\u03ac\u03bc\u03b5\u03bd\u03bf\u03c2)\nRev., sternly, in margin. The word is originally to snort, as of mettlesome horses. Hence, to fret, or chafe, or be otherwise strongly moved; and then, as a result of this feeling, to admonish or rebuke urgently. The Lord evidently spoke to him peremptorily. Compare sent him out (\u1f10\u03be\u03ad\u03b2\u03b1\u03bb\u03b5\u03bd); lit., drove or cast him out. The reason for this charge and dismissal lay in the desire of Jesus not to thwart his ministry by awaking the premature violence of his enemies; who, if they should see the leper and hear his story before he had been officially pronounced clean by the priest, might deny either that he had been a leper or had been truly cleansed.\nThe city\nProperly, as Rev., a city; any city.","title":"Vincent's Word Studies: Mark: Mark Chapter 1","type":"page"}