NOTES ON THE GOSPEL OF MARK. I. 23-28. (The cure of the dæmoniac at Capernaum.) The 28th verse implies that this miracle took place at the commencement of our Saviour's public preaching at Capernaum, as it seems to have been the first event which drew attention upon him in that part of the country. By a comparison with Matthew iv. 23-25, I think it appears that the account of it here is misplaced, and that it was performed, not on the day on which Jesus cured the mother-in-law of Peter, but at an earlier period. Matthew is the better authority, not merely as an Apostle, but as a resident at Capernaum. It does not appear that either Mark or Luke was a Galilæan. 45. "Jesus could no more go openly into the town." By "the town" is meant Capernaum, the residence of Jesus when not engaged in his travels. So, in the next verse, "the house" is the house in which he usually dwelt in Caper naum. Mark and Luke could not here have translated from a com mon document; nor could Matthew, Mark, and Luke, in the succeeding narrative. II. 4. "And not being able to get near him on account of the crowd, they removed a part of the awning over where he was, and, breaking through, let down the bed on which the paralytic was lying." Compare Luke v. 19. "To understand the accounts of Mark and Luke, we must attend to the following considerations. "Jesus was in the house in which he usually resided when in Capernaum, and which was probably owned by Peter. This, doubtless, was a small house, the habitation of one who was not wealthy. "The more common notion has been, that Jesus was in a chamber of this house; and that the roof over the chamber in which he was, was broken through. But this, I think, is an error. "There are two objections to this conception of the circumstances of the case, either of which seems decisive. One is, that, when such a crowd was pressing to hear him, our Lord would not have retired to a chamber of a small house, that he might there address those only who could gain admission. The other is, that the breaking through of a roof over his head, with the inconvenience and disorder that it must have occasioned, would have been an act of such gross indecorum as is not to be imagined. "In essential conformity, then, with an explanation given by Dr. Shaw (in his Travels, pp. 273-280), we are, I suppose, to conceive of Jesus as in the inner court of the house, the place where, in the houses of Judæa and the neighboring countries, a large company was always received. The bearers of the paralytic, not being able to make their way to him through the crowd, ascended to the flat, terraced roof of the house, passing up stairs, which rose either from the porch or just by the entrance of the court, or perhaps passing over the roof of a neighboring house; and from the roof where they were, they lowered the sick man down into the court. "There is no difficulty in thus understanding the account of Luke. Mark's account requires a little further explanation. In this account, the word σréyn, rendered 'roof' in the Common Version, denotes, I conceive, conformably to common uses of it, the awning stretched over the court, as an awning often was. This the bearers of the sick man partially removed; but having done so, the parapet, which, according to the usual mode of building, ran along the roof over the court, probably about breast-high, as Shaw says it is at the present day, presented an obstacle to their purpose. Over the parapet they would not undertake to lift their burden; for this could not have been done with convenience or safety. They accordingly made an opening through it, which Mark expresses by the word égopúgavres, breaking through,' without mentioning what was broken through. "This is one instance, among many, of the imperfect style of narration found in the Evangelists. They did not advert to the fact, that what was clear to their own minds might not be equally clear to the minds of readers living many centuries after they wrote. They thought only of those who were familiar with the scenes and circumstances to which their narratives related."- Genuineness of the Gospels, Vol. I. pp. exiii, exiv, note. |