Mark 6
DOYLYChap. VII. ver. 1. Then came together &c.] Respecting the matters contained in this chapter, see notes at Matt. xv.
Mark 6:3
- For the Pharisees, &c.] St. Matthew (chap. xv. 1, 2.) recorded this cavil of the Pharisees against the disciples of Jesus for eating with unclean hands; but he does not detail the customs of the Jews which gave the foundation for it, as St. Mark here does. St. Matthew was not only a Jew himself, but it appears from the whole structure of his Gospel, that he wrote for Jews. This explanation therefore, if given by him, would have been unnatural, as not being required by the readers whom he addressed. But in St. Mark, who intended his narrative for general circulation, and who himself travelled to distant countries in the service of Christianity, the explanation here given was most properly added. Archdeacon Paley.
— wash their hands oft.] The word in the original here translated “oft,” is rendered in the margin, “with
ship me, teaching for doctrines the commandments of men.
Mark 6:4
- — from the market.] Or publick place where people assemble themselves; they imagined that they might in such places have contracted a defilement. Bp. Pearce.
— and of tables.] More properly “couches,” on which they reclined at their meals, Lev. xv. 4. These it was their custom to wash, lest any unclean person might have sat on them. Le Clerc.
Mark 6:9
- — Full well ye reject &c.] Ye do not only prefer these impositions of men before the commandments of God, to the great neglect and omission of your duty; but ye even directly transgress, and act plainly in contradiction to the commandments of God, when some tradition happens to be contrary to them. Dr. S. Clarke.
Mark 6:12
- — ye suffer him no more &c.] Ye pronounce that he is no more bound to do any thing for his father and mother. Bp. Pearce.
Anno DOMINI 22. 22. c Matt. 15. 3. d Matt. 15. 10. Christ health the Syrophenician woman’s daughter. Anno DOMINI 23.
Do ye not perceive, that whatsoever thing from without entereth into the man, it cannot defile him;
Mark 6:22
- — an evil eye, &c.] Denoting envy. Drs. Hammond and Whitby. See note at Matt. vi. 22.
—foolishness:] Put for all foolish and ungoverned passions. Bp. Mann.
Mark 6:26
- — a Greek.] According to the Jewish mode of speaking, all the civilized part of mankind except themselves were Greeks. See Acts xix. 10; xx. 21; Rom. i. 16; ii. 9, 10; iii. 9.
This word describes not her country but her religion. She was an idolatress; bred in the principles of that gross idolatry which consisted in the worship of the images of dead men: and because idolatry in this worst form obtained more among the Greeks than the nations of the East, such idolaters, of whatever country they might be, were, by the Jews of this age, called Greeks. Bp. Horsley.
— a Syrophenician] A native of that part of Phenicia, which was called Syrian Phenicia. Bp. Pearce. See note at Matt. xv. 22.
Mark 6:27
- — it is not meet &c.] Our Lord, stifling the emotions of His pity, and dissembling His merciful intentions, answers the wretched suppliant at His feet, as if He were, upon principle, disinclined to grant her request; lest a miracle, wrought in her favour, should be inconsistent with the distinction due to the chosen family. His words, perhaps, in the sense in which He spake them, were rather descriptive of the different situation of the Jews and the Gentiles, at that time, with respect to the degree of religious knowledge they had for many ages severally enjoyed, than of the different rank they held in God’s favour. The family of Israel, which, for the general good, was chosen to be the immediate object of His miraculous discipline, enjoyed the high privilege of possessing the light of revelation, while, among the Gentiles, the light of nature itself, in what regards morals and religion, bright as it may shine in the writings of their philosophers, was, to the general mass of mankind, almost extinguished. It was for this advantage which the one enjoyed, and the others were allowed to want, that they might feel at length the dismal consequences of their defection from the worship
heard of him, and came and fell at his feet:
Mark 6:28
- — Yes, Lord: yet the dogs &c.] How great was that faith, which, when the great mystery was not yet disclosed, when God’s secret purpose of a general redemption was not yet opened, was not startled at the sound of this dreadful distinction! — the Israelites, children; the Gentiles, dogs: how great was the faith which was displayed in the humiliation and the firmness of the woman’s reply! First, let us observe her humility, her submission to the arrangements of unerring wisdom and justice. She not only admits the reality of the distinction, so unfavourable as it might seem to her own expectations, so mortifying, as it unquestionably was, to her pride, but she also admits the propriety of it. She does not presume to question the equity and justice of it. She reposes in a general persuasion of God’s wisdom and goodness; she takes it for granted that a distinction which proceeded from Him must be founded in wisdom, justice, and benevolence; that, however concealed the end of it might be, it must be in some way conducive to the universal good; that it ought therefore to be submitted to with cheerfulness, even by those on whose side the disadvantage for the present lay. Let us next consider her firmness. Hitherto, she had prayed; her prayers met with no encouragement: she ventures now to argue. The principles and frame of her argument are very extraordinary. She argues, from God’s general care of the world, against the inference of neglect in particular instances: such was the confidence of her faith in His goodness, that she argues from that general principle of her belief against the shew of severity in her own case. Nor were the grounds of her argument less extraordinary than the drift of it: she avails herself of the distinction which our Lord had Himself alleged, as it should seem, in bar of her petition, to establish a claim upon His mercy. How rare was this example, in a heathen, of resignation to the will of God, of complacency and satisfaction in the general arrangements of His providence, which he is the best Christian who best imitates. The faithful Canaanite thankfully
Anno DOMINI 22. Or, Gentile.