Mark 14

Mark 14:1

When the passover, which is the preparation to the seven days feast of unleavened bread, (or in the evening of which began the abstinence from all leavened bread,) was now but two days off, that is, about Wednesday in the passion week, the sanhedrin took counsel how they might apprehend him secretly without any great noise, (Luke xxii. 6.) and put—

Mark 14:2

And they resolved on it in council (see Matt. xxvi. 5.) that it were best to defer it till after the passover, lest the multitudes being then there they should rescue him tumultuously.

Mark 14:3

[a] spikenard] What is meant by ἀλάβαστρον hath been explained note [b] Matt. xxvi. Besides that, there are some other difficulties in that passage of the story, as it is set down with some variation in this Gospel. As, 1, for the sort of ointment, it is here said to be nard, which was not any such διάπασμα, or dry ointment, as should make it needful to be put in a box, or that box to be broken for the taking it out, but fit to be poured in and out of a cruise, being moist and fluid, whence “Nonnus calls it ἐίρσην, a dew or watery substance. This nard is reckoned among the στακτά, the ointments that do distil out of reeds, either of their own accord, or when they are cut and bruised, and with which nothing is wont to be mixed, that so it may remain a pure simple liquid and noble juice. Hence it is called spicata nardus, spikenard, because it thus distils ex spicis vel ex aristis, “out of canes or reeds;” and it is very possible that that may be the importance of the word πιστική here, lightly varied from the Latin spicata. Some have thought it to come from the name of a place Bist or Pist, whether that be the metropolis of Carimania or of the region of Cabul in India. Others, that πιστικός like πιστός may signify sincere, unmixed, as the Latin sincerus, “sincere,” is said to be made of sine cera, without mixture of wax, (contrary to the ceroma, oil and wax together, used by the athletæ,) and so it is generally called pure nard,

Pura distillant tempora nardo,

in Tibullus, “pure nard distilling on his temples;” and such is commonly the more chargeable,

καὶ στακτοῖσι μύροις ἀγαθοῖσι,

in Archestratus, as this here is πολυτελής and πολύτιμος in St. John, costly or precious, thus Marcellus in his book De Medicament.; and Theophil. calls it ἄδολον καὶ μετὰ πίστεως κατασκευασθεῖσαν, unmixed, faithfully prepared; and the old Glosses, balsamum sine impostura, that is, mixtura, “without any deceit.” So saith Vadianus, Epit. de Insulis Mar. Mediterr. Dignum cognitu, quod Plinius tradit l. 13. scilicet novem herbarum species esse, quæ nardum imitentur, et adulterent; unde intelligimus in tanta fraudis materia usum loquendi obtinuisse ut pistica nardus diceretur quæ sincera et absque vitio est, et plane ἄδολος, germana, et nulla arte vitiata. “It is worth knowing, what Pliny affirms, that there are nine species of herbs, which imitate and adulterate nard, whence it is,

m Ἡμεῖς δὲ λέγομεν ὅτι οὐ δεῖ πάνυ ἀκριβολογεῖν περὶ τούτων τοιγαροῦν οὐ δὲ ᾖ σύνοδος τοιοῦτο ἐπολυπραγμόνησε δόγμα. p 531 B. n Βεβυσμένον ἄγγος ἑέροπς.

Mark 14:4

Judas was very angry at it, (Matt. xxvi. 8,) and said— a singular work of charity upon me. b had in her power, was able; she hath done this prophetically unto me, using this funeral rite as a prefiguration of my death, which is now approaching. c to agree with them upon a price, whereupon he would betray him—

Mark 14:11

Matt. xxvi. 2. the cruise, she poured out of it upon.

Mark 14:12

[c] first day of unleavened bread] Some difficulty there is in the Old Testament about the beginning of the feast of unleavened bread, arising from the comparing of Exodus xii. 6. 8, and Lev. xxiii. 5. Numb. xxviii. 16. In Exodus, on the fourteenth day of the month Nisan at even the passover is to be killed, ver. 6, and the flesh eat that night, ver. 8; and vv. 17, 18, their eating of unleavened bread is to begin at the fourteenth day of that month at even, and to last till the twenty-first day of that month at even; whereas in Leviticus and in Numbers it is distinctly said, In the fourteenth day of the first month at even is the Lord’s passover, and on the fifteenth day of the same month is the feast of unleavened bread, and agreeably, Josephus Antiq. l. 3. πέμπτη καὶ δεκάτη διαδέχεται τὴν τοῦ Πάσχα ἡ τῶν ἀζύμων ἑορτὴ ἑπτὰ ἡμέρας οὖσα, “on the fifteenth day of the feast of unleavened bread follows the passover, and lasts seven days.” These will soon be reconciled, if first we suppose that the Jews’ fourteenth day begins at the sunset of the thirteenth according to the first calculation, Gen. i. The evening and the morning were the first day, and the importance of the word νυχθήμερον, night and day, for the natural day. And then, secondly, that betwixt that time and the next evening, being the full time that belonged to the fourteenth day, all that belonged to the passover was to be done, the place of eating it prepared, the lamb killed and dressed, and eaten about the conclusion of that twenty-four hours, according to that of Moses, Exod. xii. 8, They shall eat the flesh in that night (not the night with which the fourteenth day began, but the night or evening concluding, or shutting up the fourteenth day), that is, not defer the eating it any longer than that night, leave none of it till the morning, ver. 10. And then, thirdly, that this day of the passover being the eve or preparation of the seven days feast of unleavened bread, they were that day before sunset (that is, before the fifteenth day began) to purge out or remove all remainders of leavened bread out of their houses, and to eat the passover with unleavened, (which seems to be referred to by St. Paul, 1 Cor. v.) and then the feast of unleavened bread was to begin, and last seven days, that is, from the evening that concluded the fourteenth and began the fifteenth day, Lev. xxiii. 5, Numb. xxi. 16, to the evening, the conclusion of the

P. Laus. Hist. c. 29. p. 947 C.

Mark 14:17

And in the night (see note [d] on Matt. xiv.) he comes with the rest of the twelve.

Mark 14:21

I am to go out of this world to be put to death, according to prophecies; God hath determined that I should come, and like the good shepherd, incur any hazard, lay down my life for the sheep, and foreseeing the malice of the Jews, and their bloody designs, and the falseness of Judas, &c., hath determined to permit me to be slain by them, and accordingly hath foretold it by the prophets, that I should be led as a sheep to the slaughter, &c. But that will contribute little to his advantage that is the actor in it. It is a most unhappy thing to have any hand in putting the Messias or any other person to death, though their dying may be determined by God to most glorious ends, which the wicked actor or contriver knows nothing of, nor at all designs, but directly the contrary. And therefore any such is a most wretched creature. 22, 23. And at the conclusion of that supper, Luke xxii. 20, 1 Cor. xi. 25, Jesus instituted the eucharist.

i in which a covenant of infinite mercy is sealed with mankind, to assure unto them pardon of sin, Matt. xxvi. 28, upon their repentance and new life.

k that this is the last passover I shall keep with you; the next feast I shall keep with you will be in heaven: (see note [f] on Matt. xxvi. 29.)

l See note [g] on Matt. xxvi.

m discouraged and fall off from me by reason of that which you shall see befall me this night: for as this is the time wherein that prophecy of smiting the shepherd, the man that is my fellow, saith the Lord of hosts, Zech. xiii. 7, is to be fulfilled; so shall that other part of that prophecy be fulfilled, that the sheep my followers shall be much dismayed and dispersed by the fright of it.

Mark 14:28

But I shall not long continue under the power of death; I shall soon rise again; and when I do so, I will appear to you in Judæa first, John xx. 19, and afterward, John xxi. 1, I will go into Galilee, and thither you may resort to me, and I will give confirmations of your faith, John xx. 20, and settle the whole business of the church, ver. 21, &c., before I ascend to heaven.

Mark 14:29

But Peter, being of a warmer spirit and greater confidence and assurance of his own steadiness than the rest, said unto him—

this night, which is the first part of the Jewish day, before the second cockcrowing, (see note [c] on ch. xiii. 35.) thou shalt—

the more Christ forewarned him of his fall, the more confidently he affirmed the contrary, That though adhering to thee should certainly cost me my life, yet would I not, to save that life, do any thing contrary to the owning and acknowledging thee that thou art my Lord, and I a disciple that retain or belong to thee. Likewise—

while I go a little way off and pray.

the portion of affliction now present upon him and approaching might pass—

not what seemeth most desirable to my flesh, but to thy divine will and wisdom.

Thou that didst even now express so much kindness and constancy to me, ver. 31, art thou so unable to do so much less? In this state of agony, which I expressed to you that I was in, ver. 34, couldest thou be so little concerned as to fall asleep when I stayed so little while from you?

Mark 14:32

But of the point of time when this shall be, no created understanding knows, no, not Christ himself according to his human nature.

Mark 14:33

And this on purpose thus concealed to lay the greater obligation on all to be perpetually watchful and diligent to behave themselves like Christians.

“at nine at night, or at twelve, or at three, or at six in the morning.

Mark 14:35

cockcrowing] The gallicinium or cockcrowing is here set to note the middle time betwixt midnight and morning. For there were two cockcrowings in the night, as appears ch. xiv. 30, and the second is here spoken of, and called simply ἀλεκτοροφωνία, as also Matt. xxvi. 75, and Luke xxii. 34, and John xiii. 39, there is only φωνήσει ἀλέκτωρ, the cock shall crow, where yet the meaning is clearly this, δις φωνῆσαι, the second crowing, as appears by this evangelist, ch. xiv. 30. See Censorinus.

Mark 14:36

Lest he come at a time when ye least expect him, and find you in a posture uncapable of mercy from him, unqualified to receive benefit by his coming.

CHAP. XIV.

Mark 14:38

Believe it, as confident and secure and unconcerned as you are, the danger now approaching me is so near to you also, and the temptation from thence to deny and forswear me so great, that it were fitter for you to be watchful and importunate with God in prayer that you be not overcome by temptation: (see Matt. xxvi. 41). The spirit—

Mark 14:40

See Matt. xxvi. 44. ¹ Fare you well; your watching will now be no farther useful to me, the fatal minute foretold you is now present; behold, I shall presently be apprehended and delivered to the Romans, by them to be put to death (because the Jews could not put to death). ᵃ the sanhedrim of the Jews. ᵇ carry him to safe custody, take care he escape not. ¹⁵ forward, πρόθυμον. P 2

Mark 14:41

[d] it is enough] What the word ἀπίχει here signifies may best be learned from Hesychius, though in the place which orderly belongs to it the word be not to be found in the printed copies. After the word ἀπόχασον, ἀπίχει follows, Ἀπίχει, ἀπόχρη, ἑξαρκεί; and after again, ἀπίχει ἑξαρκεί; by which it appears to be an impersonal, and to signify sufficit, actum est, and here to import, It is to no purpose to speak any more of not sleeping, it is now too late; and this preparative to what follows, the hour is come, &c. Thus is ἔχει used also; as Num. xvi. 3, Ἐχίτω ὑμῖν, Let it suffice you; where Symmachus and Theodotion out of the Hebrew literally read, Πολὺ ὑμῖν, It is much for you: so in Anacreon, Ἀπίχει βλέπω γὰρ αὐτὴν, “It is sufficient, for I see her.” In order to this interpretation of the word, it is observable, that ἀπίχω, Phil. iv. 18, seems to have a peculiar forensic notion for satis habeo, “giving a discharge,” subscribing of an acquittance, (which is therefore called ἀποχή,) πάντα ἀπίχω, I give you my acquittance (ὡς ἐπὶ ὀφειλῆς, “as upon receiving of a debt,” saith Theophylact) for all that which now ye sent me, having, as it follows, received by Epaphroditus, &c. Now this notion of it being impersonally applied to this place, signifies Christ’s giving them an ἀποχή, or acquittance, a requiring no further attendance from them, (they may sleep on now,) and so, according to our vulgar phrase, giving them a quictus est. So Matt. vi. 2. and 6, ἀπίχουσι τὸν μισθὸν αὐτῶν, they receive all that is due to them, by the receiving the praise of men they acquit God of any further payment. So Gen. xliii. 23, τὸ ὀργύριον ὑμῶν τὸ εὐδοκιμοῦν ἀπίχω, I received your money, good and lawful money, and acquit you of it; and accordingly Suidas interprets ἀπίχω in the present tense by ἀπέλαβον in the aorist, I received; and so doth Theophylact, ἐπαινούμενοι γὰρ τὸ πᾶν ἀπέλαβον παρὰ τῶν ἀνθρώπων, “they that are praised have received all from men,” that is, have acquitted God. Another way hath been thought of to interpret this place, by adhering to the nature of the verb ἀπίχω, as that notes distance or absence, but that not far removed, approach, or drawing nigh. So the Syriac seems to have understood it here; for in the printed copy of that, instead of ἀπίχει they read מטות חרתא, appropinquavit finis, “the end approacheth;” and in manuscript copies, קרב שולמא, appropinquavit consummatio, “the consummation approacheth;” where מטא and קרב have the same importance, both signifying to draw nigh. According to this way ἀπίχει must be taken personally, and having no substantive annexed to it, the word ὥρα, hour, which follows, must belong

Mark 14:48

And Jesus having reprehended that act of hasty unjustifiable zeal in Peter, and cured the wound, restored the ear to him that had lost it, Matt. xxvi.

52, &c., turns him to the company that comes to apprehend him, and said, Are ye come—

this dealing of yours is necessary to the fulfilling of that decree of God’s, expressed by the prophecies of Isaiah, &c. all his disciples forsook him—

Mark 14:51

And there was a young man who had been (as it is probable) raised from bed by the noise, and so had no more but his inner garment, and that through haste not put on but cast about him, and he

followed after to see the event, and the soldiers seeing him were about to apprehend him: and he left—

Caiaphas the high priest, Matt. xxvi. 57, where the whole sanhedrim was come together. ¹⁴ were with him, superquadrum. ¹⁷ testimonies were not sufficient.

[e] young men] Νεανίσκοι, young men, is a title here of the Roman soldiers, as in Polybius, νεανίσκων καταγραφή, the mustering of soldiers. So Josh. vi. 22, the Septuagint have δύο νεανίσκοι κατασκοπεύσαντες, two soldiers went to spy; and Josh. ii. 1, and Isa. xiii. 18, τοξεύματα νεανίσκων, the bows of the young men, or soldiers: see Casaubon against Baron, p. 113. So juvenes in Latin do usually signify: see Lipsius Epist. quæst. l. 1. Ep. 1.

Mark 14:54

[f] fire] The word φῶς, light, is here and Luke xxii. 56 clearly taken for a fire; for to that θερμαινόμενος, warming himself, refers; and it is observable how it comes to do so. The writer of this book, and all of the New Testament, and so the Greek translators of the Old, were Jews by nation, and had learned Greek; hence it is, that though they write in Greek, yet they not only retain the Hebrew idiom in phrases and forms of speeches, but further in many other things imitate the Hebrew manner, especially in two things: 1. In the conjugations of verbs, they having in Hebrew more than there are in Greek, do yet express the sense of all their conjugations by Greek words of other conjugations, being not able to do otherwise; as when hiphil, one of their conjugations, is to make do a thing, they finding no conjugation in Greek answerable to this, make use of the active for it. Thus have we θριαμβεύειν, 2 Cor. ii. 14, to make triumph; ἀνατέλλειν, Matt. v. 45, to make arise; σπεύδειν, 2 Peter iii. 12, to make to hasten; καθίζειν, 1 Cor. vi. 4, to make to sit; and ἀποστοματίζειν, to make recite, Luke xi. 53; and περισσεύειν, to make abound, 2 Cor. ix. 8. Thus when we read, Matt. v. 25, ἴσθι εὐνοῶν, that is, literally, think thou well, or be friends with thine adversary, it clearly signifies, make, or get him to be friends with thee: see note [m] Matt. v. 24. The other thing is, that when an Hebrew word (according to the paucity of themes in that language) signifies several things; and those severals expressed in Greek by several words of several significations; one of these Greek is often by them (according as it was the usual dialect or manner of speaking among them) taken for the other. This might be observed in other writings of translators, which have turned books out of their own native language into a language which they have learned by study; as when a Grecian rendered the Novels out of Greek into Latin, meeting with these words, τῆς ὀρθῆς ἀποπεπλάνηνται δόξης, “they erred from the right opinion,” δόξα in Greek signifying gloria as well as opinio, he renders it, a vera aberrant gloria. So the translator of Irenæus, who, in a discourse how all things were created by God himself, and not by the angels, hath these words, Ea omnia non per angelos, neque per virtutes aliquas ablatas ab ejus sententia, “All these were created not by angels, nor by any virtues pulled off from his sentence,” where the Greek being questionless ἀπὸ δόξης αὐτοῦ should have been rendered ab ejus gloria, “from his glory,” according to the opinion of those who, supposing the angels to be made

Διετ. ρμε. P 2

Mark 14:56

[g] agreed not together] ἴσαι μαρτυρίαι here belongs not to the agreement or disagreement of their testimonies, but to the weight of them, or sufficiency to the matter in hand, of putting him to death, either in respect to the number of the witnesses, but especially of the crimes charged on him. The testimonies that were looked for were εἰς τὸ θανατῶσαι, ver. 35, such as would be sufficient to put him to death, and that must not be but under two or three witnesses, and for a crime which is by law capital. Now, though there were many knights of the post brought in to witness against him, ver. 56, yet it is probable that their witnesses were of several matters, not two or more of them to one matter; and so it is there said, that they were not ἴσαι, sufficient in the first sense, in respect of the number of the witnesses. Afterward, ver. 57, the wit-

b In voce τιμὴ.

Mark 14:59

But that, if sufficiently testified, was yet no capital crime.

Mark 14:60

And therefore to get some charge against him out of his own mouth the high priest stood up and said to him, Answerest thou nothing? what sayest thou to these things which these—

Mark 14:61

[h] the Blessed] The Jews when they name God generally add, blessed for ever; and thereupon ὁ εὐλογητὸς is here the title of God the Father: see note [d] Rom. ix.

Mark 14:62

See ch. xiii. 26. the whole sanhedrim, ver. 53. Tell us by divine skill who strikes thee.

¹⁸ And neither thus was their testimony sufficient: see note [R]. ¹⁹ sergeants, officers, apparitors, of ὑπηρίται. ²⁰ beat him with blows of a rod, or cudgel, βαπίσμασιν αὐτὸν ἰβαλλον: see note [A] on Matt. xxvii.

Mark 14:72

[i] thought thereon] Many conjectures there are about the importance of ἐπιβαλῶν, as that it might be for ἐννοῶν, thinking on it; or that ἐπιβαλῶν ἔκλαι were all one with ἐπίβαλε κλαίειν, and that to be rendered, he proceeded, or added to weep, that is, he wept, as προσθεῖς εἶπε, Luke xix. 11, a kind of expletive; or as ἐπιβάλλειν signifies περιττότητα, and πρόσθεσιν, abundance, say grammarians, and then would be all one with his weeping bitterly in the other evangelist; but the two latter will be less probable, if it be marked that there is a comma betwixt ἐπιβαλῶν and ἔκλαι; whereas either of those senses requires the connecting of these together, and the advantage that the last hath by agreeing with πικρῶς in St. Matthew, is again lost by that which is observed of this evangelist, that being St. Peter’s scribe, he doth as a true penitent would do, set out his sin of denying Christ with more aggravations than any of the evangelists, and only mentions the repentance, but more slightly than the rest. As for the first, that ἐπιβάλλειν should signify ἐννοεῖν, it is but affirmed by Casaubon, but not proved by any grammarian or glossary, and therefore, though proper enough to the place, will be of less authority; and besides, this thinking on it seems to have been contained before in the ἀνεμνήσθη ὁ Πέτρος, Peter’s remembering Christ’s saying. Less probable than any of these I conceive that of Claudius Salmasius to be, that it should signify ἐγκαλυψάμενον, operto capite, “putting on his hat, covering his head.” To these I might add another conjecture, that the Hebrew יָמַךְ being sometimes rendered ἐπιβάλλω, and that ordinarily signifying to fall down, to prostrate himself; and that as an argument and expression of sorrow, ἐπιβαλῶν may possibly signify casting himself down, prostrating himself. But that which seems to me less forced, and most proper to the passages set down by the other evangelists, and backed by the judgment of learned ancient grammarians, is this, that it should signify looking on Christ, casting his eyes upon him, he wept. In St. Luke, ch. xxii. 61, it is said, (in this point of time here set down by St. Mark,) that Jesus turned, καὶ ἐνέβλεψε τῷ Πέτρῳ, and looked upon Peter; and his doing any thing upon that look of Christ’s, (as it follows there, he remembered &c.) is an infallible argument that St. Peter looked upon him also, seeing him look;