--- title: "Commentary Critical and Explanatory on the Whole Bible" author: "Robert Jamieson, A. R. Fausset and David Brown" languages: [en] shelf: "Commentaries" section: 612 of 927 url: https://scriptura.si/works/jamieson-fausset-brown-commentary-critical-and-explanatory-on-the-whole-bible/612/ cite: "Robert Jamieson, A. R. Fausset and David Brown, Commentary Critical and Explanatory on the Whole Bible, section 612. Scriptura (scriptura.si), https://scriptura.si/works/jamieson-fausset-brown-commentary-critical-and-explanatory-on-the-whole-bible/612/" --- # Commentary Critical and Explanatory on the Whole Bible *Robert Jamieson, A. R. Fausset and David Brown* The Victorian standard commentary, critical and practical, from Genesis to Revelation. ## 612. Mark · 10 of 21 Source: https://scriptura.si/works/jamieson-fausset-brown-commentary-critical-and-explanatory-on-the-whole-bible/612/ · cite a paragraph as https://scriptura.si/works/jamieson-fausset-brown-commentary-critical-and-explanatory-on-the-whole-bible/612/#p-N [¶0] [Mt 15:25]: [¶1] Then came she and worshipped Him, saying, Lord, help me!--This appeal, so artless, wrung from the depths of a believing heart, and reminding us of the publican's "God be merciful to me a sinner," moved the Redeemer at last to break silence--but in what style? Here we return to our own Evangelist. [¶2] 27. But Jesus said unto her, Let the children first be filled--"Is there hope for me here?" "Filled FIRST?" "Then my turn, it seems, is coming!--but then, 'The CHILDREN first?' Ah! when, on that rule, shall my turn ever come!" But ere she has time for these ponderings of His word, another word comes to supplement it. [¶3] for it is not meet to take the children's bread, and to cast it unto the dogs--Is this the death of her hopes? Nay, rather it is life from the dead. Out of the eater shall come forth meat ([Jud 14:14]). "At evening-time, it shall be light" ([Zec 14:7]). "Ah! I have it now. Had He kept silence, what could I have done but go unblest? but He hath spoken, and the victory is mine." [¶4] 28. And she answered and said unto him, Yes, Lord--or, as the same word is rendered in [Mt 15:27]. "Truth, Lord." [¶5] yet the dogs eat of the children's crumbs--"which fall from their master's table" ([Mt 15:27]). "I thank Thee, O blessed One, for that word! That's my whole case. Not of the children? True. A dog? True also: Yet the dogs under the table are allowed to eat of the children's crumbs--the droppings from their master's full table: Give me that, and I am content: One crumb of power and grace from Thy table shall cast the devil out of my daughter." Oh, what lightning quickness, what reach of instinctive ingenuity, do we behold in this heathen woman! [¶6] 29. And he said unto her--"O woman, great is thy faith" ([Mt 15:28]). As Bengel beautifully remarks, Jesus "marvelled" only at two things--faith and unbelief (see [Lu 7:9]). [¶7] For this saying go thy way; the devil is gone out of thy daughter--That moment the deed was done. [¶8] 30. And when she was come to her house, she found the devil gone out, and her daughter laid upon the bed--But Matthew ([Mt 15:28]) is more specific; "And her daughter was made whole from that very hour." The wonderfulness of this case in all its features has been felt in every age of the Church, and the balm it has administered, and will yet administer, to millions will be known only in that day that shall reveal the secrets of all hearts. [¶9] Deaf and Dumb Man Healed ([Mr 7:31-37]). [¶10] 31. And again, departing from the coasts of Tyre and Sidon, he came unto the Sea of Galilee--or, according to what has very strong claims to be regarded as the true text here, "And again, departing from the coasts of Tyre, He came through Sidon to the Sea of Galilee." The manuscripts in favor of this reading, though not the most numerous, are weighty, while the versions agreeing with it are among the most ancient; and all the best critical editors and commentators adopt it. In this case we must understand that our Lord, having once gone out of the Holy Land the length of Tyre, proceeded as far north as Sidon, though without ministering, so far as appears, in those parts, and then bent His steps in a southeasterly direction. There is certainly a difficulty in the supposition of so long a detour without any missionary object: and some may think this sufficient to cast the balance in favor of the received reading. Be this as it may, on returning from these coasts of Tyre, He passed [¶11] through the midst of the coasts--frontiers. [¶12] of Decapolis--crossing the Jordan, therefore, and approaching the lake on its east side. Here Matthew, who omits the details of the cure of this deaf and dumb man, introduces some particulars, from which we learn that it was only one of a great number. "And Jesus," says that Evangelist ([Mt 15:29-31]), "departed from thence, and came nigh unto the Sea of Galilee, and went up into a mountain"--the mountain range bounding the lake on the northeast, in Decapolis: "And great multitudes came unto Him, having with them lame, blind, dumb, maimed"--not "mutilated," which is but a secondary sense of the word, but "deformed"--"and many others, and cast them down at Jesus' feet; and He healed them: insomuch that the multitude [multitudes] wondered, when they saw the dumb to speak, the maimed to be whole, the lame to walk, and the blind to see; and they glorified the God of Israel"--who after so long and dreary an absence of visible manifestation, had returned to bless His people as of old (compare [Lu 7:16]). Beyond this it is not clear from the Evangelist's language that the people saw into the claims of Jesus. Well, of these cases Mark here singles out one, whose cure had something peculiar in it. [¶13] 32. And they bring unto him one that was deaf ... and they beseech him to put his hand upon him--In their eagerness they appear to have been somewhat too officious. Though usually doing as here suggested, He will deal with this case in His own way. [¶14] 33. And he took him aside from the multitude--As in another case He "took the blind man by the hand and led him out of the town" ([Mr 8:23]), probably to fix his undistracted attention on Himself, and, by means of certain actions He was about to do, to awaken and direct his attention to the proper source of relief. [¶15] and put his fingers into his ears--As his indistinct articulation arose from his deafness, our Lord addresses Himself to this first. To the impotent man He said, "Wilt thou be made whole?" to the blind men, "What will ye that I shall do unto you?" and "Believe ye that I am able to do this?" ([Joh 5:6]; [Mt 20:32]; ). But as this patient could hear nothing, our Lord substitutes symbolical actions upon each of the organs affected. [¶16] and he spit and touched his tongue--moistening the man's parched tongue with saliva from His own mouth, as if to lubricate the organ or facilitate its free motion; thus indicating the source of the healing virtue to be His own person. (For similar actions, see [Mr 8:23]; [Joh 9:6]). [¶17] 34. And looking up to heaven--ever acknowledging His Father, even while the healing was seen to flow from Himself (see on [Joh 5:19]). [¶18] he sighed--"over the wreck," says Trench, "which sin had brought about, and the malice of the devil in deforming the fair features of God's original creation." But, we take it, there was a yet more painful impression of that "evil thing and bitter" whence all our ills have sprung, and which, when "Himself took our infirmities and bare our sicknesses" ([Mt 8:17]), became mysteriously His own. [¶19] "In thought of these his brows benign, [¶20] Not even in healing, cloudless shine." [¶21] Keble [¶22] and saith unto him, Ephphatha, that is, Be opened--Our Evangelist, as remarked on [Mr 5:41], loves to give such wonderful words just as they were spoken. [¶23] 35. And straightway his ears were opened--This is mentioned first as the source of the other derangement. [¶24] and the string of his tongue was loosed, and he spake plain--The cure was thus alike instantaneous and perfect. [¶25] 36. And he charged them that they should tell no man--Into this very region He had sent the man out of whom had been cast the legion of devils, to proclaim "what the Lord had done for him" ([Mr 5:19]). Now He will have them "tell no man." But in the former case there was no danger of obstructing His ministry by "blazing the matter" ([Mr 1:45]), as He Himself had left the region; whereas now He was sojourning in it. [¶26] but the more he charged them, so much the more a great deal they published it--They could not be restrained; nay, the prohibition seemed only to whet their determination to publish His fame. [¶27] 37. And were beyond measure astonished, saying, He hath done all things well--reminding us, says Trench, of the words of the first creation ([Ge 1:31], Septuagint), upon which we are thus not unsuitably thrown back, for Christ's work is in the truest sense "a new creation," [¶28] he maketh both the deaf to hear and the dumb to speak--"and they glorified the God of Israel" ([Mt 15:31]). See on [Mr 7:31]. ### Chapter 8 ### Mr 8:1-26. Four Thousand Miraculously Fed--A Sign from Heaven Sought and Refused--The Leaven of the Pharisees and Sadducees--A Blind Man at Bethsaida Restored to Sight. ( = Mt 15:32-16:12) [¶31] This section of miscellaneous matter evidently follows the preceding one in point of time, as will be seen by observing how it is introduced by Matthew. [¶32] Feeding of the Four Thousand ([Mr 8:1-9]). [¶33] 1. In those days the multitude being very great, &c. [¶34] 2. I have compassion on the multitude--an expression of that deep emotion in the Redeemer's heart which always preceded some remarkable interposition for relief. (See [Mt 14:14]; ; [Mr 1:41]; [Lu 7:13]; also [Mt 9:36], before the mission of the Twelve; compare [Jud 2:18]; ). [¶35] because they have now been with me--in constant attendance. [¶36] three days, and have nothing to eat: [¶37] 3. And if I send them away fasting to their own houses, they will faint by the way--In their eagerness they seem not to have thought of the need of provisions for such a length of time; but the Lord thought of it. In Matthew ([Mt 15:32]) it is, "I will not send them away fasting"--or rather, "To send them away fasting I am unwilling." [¶38] 4. From whence can a man satisfy these men with bread here in the wilderness?--Though the question here is the same as when He fed the five thousand, they evidently now meant no more by it than that they had not the means of feeding the multitude; modestly leaving the Lord to decide what was to be done. And this will the more appear from His not now trying them, as before, by saying, "They need not depart, give ye them to eat"; but simply asking what they had, and then giving His directions. [¶39] 5. And he asked them, How many loaves have ye? And they said, Seven--It was important in this case, as in the former, that the precise number of the loaves should be brought out. Thus also does the distinctness of the two miracles appear. [¶40] 9. And they that had eaten were about four thousand: and he sent them away--Had not our Lord distinctly referred, in this very chapter and in two successive sentences, to the feeding of the five thousand and of the four thousand as two distinct miracles, many critics would have insisted that they were but two different representations of one and the same miracle, as they do of the two expulsions of the buyers and sellers from the temple, at the beginning and end of our Lord's ministry. But even in spite of what our Lord says, it is painful to find such men as Neander endeavoring to identify the two miracles. The localities, though both on the eastern side of the lake, were different; the time was different; the preceding and following circumstances were different; the period during which the people continued fasting was different--in the one case not even one entire day, in the other three days; the number fed was different--five thousand in the one case, in the other four thousand; the number of the loaves was different--five in the one case, in the other seven; the number of the fishes in the one case is definitely stated by all the four Evangelists--two; in the other case both give them indefinitely--"a few small fishes"; in the one case the multitude were commanded to sit down "upon the green grass"; in the other "on the ground"; in the one case the number of the baskets taken up filled with the fragments was twelve, in the other seven; but more than all, perhaps, because apparently quite incidental, in the one case the name given to the kind of baskets used is the same in all the four narratives--the cophinus (see on [Mr 6:43]); in the other case the name given to the kind of baskets used, while it is the same in both the narratives, is quite different--the spuris, a basket large enough to hold a man's body, for Paul was let down in one of these from the wall of Damascus ([Ac 9:25]). It might be added, that in the one case the people, in a frenzy of enthusiasm, would have taken Him by force to make Him a king; in the other case no such excitement is recorded. In view of these things, who could have believed that these were one and the same miracle, even if the Lord Himself had not expressly distinguished them? [¶41] Sign from Heaven Sought ([Mr 8:10-13]). [¶42] 10. And straightway he entered into a ship--"into the ship," or "embarked." [¶43] with his disciples, and came into the parts of Dalmanutha--In Matthew ([Mt 15:39]) it is "the coasts of Magdala." Magdala and Dalmanutha were both on the western shore of the lake, and probably not far apart. From the former the surname "Magdalene" was probably taken, to denote the residence of Mary Magdalene. Dalmanutha may have been a village, but it cannot now be identified with certainty. [¶44] 11. seeking of him a sign from heaven, tempting him--not in the least desiring evidence for their conviction, but hoping to entrap Him. The first part of the answer is given in Matthew alone ([Mt 16:2], ): "He answered and said unto them, When it is evening, ye say, It will be fair weather; for the sky is red. And in the morning, It will be foul weather to-day: for the sky is red and lowering [sullen, gloomy]. Hypocrites! ye can discern the face of the sky; but can ye not discern the signs of the times?" The same simplicity of purpose and careful observation of the symptoms of approaching events which they showed in common things would enable them to "discern the signs of the times"--or rather "seasons," to which the prophets pointed for the manifestation of the Messiah. The scepter had departed from Judah; Daniel's seventy weeks were expiring, &c.; and many other significant indications of the close of the old economy, and preparations for a freer and more comprehensive one, might have been discerned. But all was lost upon them.