Exegetical and Hermeneutical Commentary of Mark 3:21
And when his friends heard [of it,] they went out to lay hold on him: for they said, He is beside himself.
21. when his friends ] not the Apostles, but His relatives, including “His brethren and His mother,” who are noticed here as going forth, and a few verses later on as having arrived at the house where our Lord was (Mar 3:31), or the place where the crowds were thronging Him.
He is beside himself ] They deemed the zeal and daily devotion to His labour of love a sort of ecstasy or religious enthusiasm, which made Him no longer master of Himself. St Paul uses the word in this sense in 2Co 5:13, “For whether we be beside ourselves, it is to God.” Comp. the words of Festus to St Paul (Act 26:24).
Fuente: The Cambridge Bible for Schools and Colleges
When his friends – Greek, they who were of him. Not the apostles, but his relatives, his friends, who were in the place of his nativity.
Heard of it – Heard of his conduct: his preaching; his appointing the apostles; his drawing such a multitude to his preaching. This shows that by his friends were not meant the apostles, but his neighbors and others who heard of his conduct.
They went out to lay hold on him – To take him away from the multitude, and to remove him to his home, that he might be treated as a maniac, so that, by absence from the causes of excitement, he might be restored to his right mind.
They said – That is, common report said; or his friends and relatives said, for they did not believe on him, Joh 7:5. Probably the enemies of Jesus raised the report, and his relatives were persuaded to believe it to be true.
He is beside himself – He is delirious or deranged. The reason why this report gained any belief was, probably, that he had lived among them as a carpenter; that he was poor and unknown; and that now, at 30 years of age, he broke off from his occupations, abandoned his common employment, spent much time in the deserts, denied himself the common comforts of life, and set up his claims to be the Messiah who was expected by all the people to come with great pomp and splendor. The charge of derangement on account of attention to religion has not been confined to the Saviour. Let a man be made deeply sensible of his sins, and spend much of his time in prayer, and have no relish for the ordinary amusements or business of life; or let a Christian be much impressed with his obligation to devote himself to God, and act as if he believed there was an eternity, and warn his neighbors of their danger; or let a minister show uncommon zeal and spend his strength in the service of his Master, and the world is not slow to call it derangement. And none will be more ready to originate or believe the charge than an ungodly and infidel parent or brother, a self-righteous Pharisee or professor in the church. At the same time, men may endanger themselves on the bosom of the deep or in the bowels of the earth for wealth; or may plunge into the vortex of fashion, folly, and vice, and break in upon the hours of repose, and neglect their duties to their family and the demands of business, and in the view of the world it is wisdom and proof of a sane mind! Such is the consistency of boasted reason; such the wisdom and prudence of worldly men!
Fuente: Albert Barnes’ Notes on the Bible
Mar 3:21
He Is beside Himself.
The sinner mad, not the saint
I find St. Paul in the same chapter confesses and denies madness in himself. Whilst he was mad indeed, then none did suspect or accuse him to be distracted; but when converted, and in his right mind, then Festus taxeth him of madness. (See Act 26:11.) (Thomas Fuller, D. D.)
Mad because exceptional.
There is a country in Africa wherein all the natives have pendulous lips, hanging down like a dogs ears, always raw and sore. Here only such as are handsome are pointed at for monsters. (Thomas Fuller, D. D.)
Troubled with a good son
When the son of Dr. Innes became a missionary, the good old man, who sorely grudged parting with his boy, said, Some people are troubled with a bad son, but I am troubled with a good one.
Fuente: Biblical Illustrator Edited by Joseph S. Exell
Verse 21. His friends] Or, relations. On this verse several MSS. differ considerably. I have followed the reading of the Syriac, because I think it the best: signify merely his relatives, his brethren, c., see Mr 3:31 and the phrase is used by the best writers to signify relatives, companions, and domestics. See Kypke in loc.
They said, He is beside himself.] It was the enemies of Christ that raised this report; and his relatives, probably thinking that it was true, went to confine him. Let a Christian but neglect the care of his body for a time, in striving to enter in at the strait gate; let a minister of Christ but impair his health by his pastoral labours; presently “he is distracted;” he has “not the least conduct nor discretion.” But let a man forget his soul, let him destroy his health by debaucheries, let him expose his life through ambition, and he may, notwithstanding, pass for a very prudent and sensible man!
Schoettgen contends that the multitude, and not Christ, is here intended. Christ was in the house: the multitude, , Mr 3:20, pressed upon him so that he could not eat bread. His disciples, or friends, went out, (scil. ,) to restrain it, viz. the multitude, to prevent them from rushing into the house and disturbing their Master, who was now taking some refreshment. This conjecture should not be lightly regarded.
Fuente: Adam Clarke’s Commentary and Critical Notes on the Bible
When his friends heard of it,…. Not his spiritual friends, his disciples and followers, that believed in him; but his kinsmen, as the Syriac and Ethiopic versions render the words, who were so according to the flesh; when they heard where he was, and what a crowd was about him, so that he could not so much as take the necessaries of life for his refreshment and support,
they went out to lay hold on him: either out of their houses at Capernaum, or they went forth from Nazareth, where they dwelt, to Capernaum, to take him from this house, where he was thronged and pressed, along with them; where he might have some refreshment without being incommoded, and take some rest, which seemed very necessary: so that this was done in kindness to him, and does not design any violent action upon him, in order to take him home with them, and to confine him as a madman; though the following words seem to incline to such a sense;
for they said, he is beside himself: some render it, “he is gone out”: that is, out of doors, to preach again to the people, which they might fear would be greatly detrimental to his health, since, he had had no sleep the night before; had been much fatigued all that morning, and for the throng of the people could take no food; so that for this reason they came to take him with them, to their own habitations, to prevent the ill consequences of such constant exercise without refreshment. Moreover, though this may not be the sense of the word, yet it is not to be understood of downright madness and distraction, but of some perturbation of mind, which they imagined, or heard, he was under; and answers to a phrase frequently used by the Jews, that such an one, , “his knowledge is snatched away”, or his mind is disturbed; which was sometimes occasioned by disorder of body: so it is said z,
“a deaf woman, or one that is foolish, or blind,
, or “whose mind is disturbed”; and if there are any wise women, they prepare themselves, and eat of the oblation.”
On that phrase, “whose mind is disturbed”, the note of Maimonides is,
“it means a sick person, whose understanding is disturbed through the force of the disease:”
and was sometimes the case of a person when near death a: and it was usual to give a person that was condemned to die, and going to be executed, a grain of frankincense in a cup of wine,
, “that so his knowledge may be snatched away”, or his mind disturbed b, and: be intoxicated; that so he might not be sensible of his pain, or feel his misery; in all which cases, there was nothing of proper madness: and so the kinsmen and friends of Christ, having heard of the situation that he was in, said one to another, he is in a transport and excess of mind; his zeal carries him beyond due bounds; he has certainly forgotten himself; his understanding is disturbed; he is unmindful of himself; takes no care of his health; he will certainly greatly impair it, if he goes on at this rate, praying all night, and preaching all day, without taking any rest or food: wherefore they came out, in order to dissuade him from such excessive labours, and engage him to go with them, where he might have rest and refreshment, and be composed, and retire.
z Misn. Nidda, c. 9. sect. 1. a T. Bab. Sanhedrin, fol. 63. 1. b Ib. fol. 43. 1. Bemidbar Rabba, sect. 10, fol. 198. 4.
Fuente: John Gill’s Exposition of the Entire Bible
His friends ( ‘ ). The phrase means literally “those from the side of him (Jesus).” It could mean another circle of disciples who had just arrived and who knew of the crowds and strain of the Galilean ministry who now come at this special juncture. But the idiom most likely means the kinspeople or family of Jesus as is common in the LXX. The fact that in verse 31 “his mother and his brothers” are expressly mentioned would indicate that they are “the friends” alluded to in verse 21. It is a mournful spectacle to think of the mother and brothers saying,
He is beside himself (). Second aorist active indicative intransitive. The same charge was brought against Paul (Acts 26:24; 2Cor 5:13). We say that one is out of his head. Certainly Mary did not believe that Jesus was in the power of Beelzebub as the rabbis said already. The scribes from Jerusalem are trying to discount the power and prestige of Jesus (3:22). See on Matt 9:32-34; Matt 10:25; Matt 12:24 for Beelzebub and Beelzebul. Mary probably felt that Jesus was overwrought and wished to take him home out of the excitement and strain that he might get rest and proper food. See my The Mother of Jesus: Her Problems and Her Glory. The brothers did not as yet believe the pretensions and claims of Jesus (Joh 7:5). Herod Antipas will later consider Jesus as John the Baptist redivivus, the scribes treat him as under demonic possession, even the family and friends fear a disordered mind as a result of overstrain. It was a crucial moment for Jesus. His family or friends came to take him home, to lay hold of him (), forcibly if need be.
Fuente: Robertson’s Word Pictures in the New Testament
His friends [ ] . Lit., they who were from beside him : i e., by origin or birth. His mother and brethren. Compare verses 31, 32. Wyc., kinsmen. Tynd., they that belonged unto him. Not his disciples, since they were in the house with him.
They said [] . Imperfect tense. Very graphic, they kept saying.
Fuente: Vincent’s Word Studies in the New Testament
1) “And when His friends heard of it,” (kai akousantes hoi par’ autou) “And His close associates hearing of it,” having received word of where He was, and those thronging about Him, because of what He was saying and doing.
2) “They went out to lay hold on Him:- (ekselthon kratesai auton) “They went out to seize Him,” to take hold of Him by force, if they felt it necessary, so determined were they to get Jesus away from the throngs who followed Him. Their good intentions likely sprang more from fear than faith.
3) “For they said, He is beside Himself.” (elegon gar hoti ekseste) “Because they said that He was beside Himself,” was exhausted, had gone out of His mind, was bordering on a nervous break-down, or insanity, in and under the excitement pressures, Mar 3:31, Joh 10:20. Of His healing ministry, there were many theories; 1) Herod had his, Mat 14:1; Mat 2:2) The friends and family of Jesus had theirs, Mar 3:31; Joh 7:5) The Pharisees had theirs.
Fuente: Garner-Howes Baptist Commentary
(21) And when his friends . . .Literally, those from Himi.e., from His home. As the mother and the brethren are mentioned later on in the chapter as coming to check His teaching, we must see in these some whom they had sent with the same object. To them the new course of action on which our Lord had entered seemed a sign of over-excitement, recklessly rushing into danger. We may, perhaps, see in the random word thus uttered that which gave occasion to the more malignant taunt of the scribes in the next verse. They were saying now, as they said afterwards (Joh. 10:20), He hath a devil, and is mad.
Fuente: Ellicott’s Commentary for English Readers (Old and New Testaments)
21. When his friends At Nazareth, where the reports of these miracles were in keeping with the depraved character of the place and the subject. Probably they had heard of the charge of his being a demoniac. Heard of it Heard that immense crowds were following his preaching the wonders he did. They went out From their homes, to rescue him from the danger that might result from the excitement he was producing. Beside himself They doubtless meant this as an excuse for what they held to be the dangerous course of our Lord. He does not know what he is about in thus exposing himself to the danger of being held the author of public commotion. For the people were, as we learn by Mat 12:23, beginning to call to mind that he was the Son of David, and there was just fear of an insurrection. Mar 3:22-30. Compare notes on Mat 12:24-32. Whitby, however, prefers to render the words, “He is fainty,” or exhausted; that is, by the presence of the multitudes.
Fuente: Whedon’s Commentary on the Old and New Testaments
‘And when His family and long time friends heard it they went out to lay hold on Him, for they said, “He is beside Himself”.’
This is omitted by Matthew and Luke. They probably did not feel it suitable out of respect for the ‘family’ who were by now believers. Possibly also they felt it slightly irreverent. It was not the kind of thing they liked said about the Lord.
‘His family and long time friends.’ The phrase is literally ‘those alongside Him.’ It can mean compatriots or friends or envoys or family depending on context. Here it must mainly represent those further described in Mar 3:31, His brothers and His mother, for they are the ones who come to lay hold on Him. Some have tried to apply the description to His disciples, but we should note firstly that they are usually rather called ‘the disciples’ or ‘the twelve’, secondly that they would not need to ‘go out’ to lay hold of Him, and thirdly that this would be a strange and rather vague description of them, coming as it does immediately after the appointment of the twelve. And besides they were themselves involved in the cause for complaint (they would not therefore ‘hear of it’). Its deliberate vagueness rather therefore suggests uncommitted family and friends who felt close to Him as a result of knowing Him from the past and were as such concerned for His welfare on a material level without really having any appreciation of what He was doing.
‘Heard it.’ The news reached them in Nazareth (or Capernaum), and, as news will, it probably arrived in distorted fashion. But what did they hear? That He was working Himself to death, with no time to eat properly? That local leaders were discussing the possibility of His being dealt with? That the Scribes, the great doctors of the Law, had come down from Jerusalem to pass judgment on Him as a blasphemer, probably at the specific request of the local Pharisees and the Herodians as part of their plot to kill Him, and had pronounced Him devil-possessed? They probably already felt quite deeply the fact that He had given up His safe career as a carpenter. They now believed that He needed their help and advice, and even more than that, drastic action in order to save Him from Himself, because His life had got out of control and He was having delusions of grandeur.
‘They went out to lay hold on Him.’ Their aim was to pressurise Him into coming home, and if necessary to bring Him home by force. But it would take a little time to reach Him, and meanwhile other events were taking place.
‘For they said, “He is beside Himself’. Or ‘He is out of His mind.’ As is often the case with brothers they were not too considered in what they said about Him, but it is clear that they were perturbed enough about the situation (which they were judging by hearsay) to want to do something pretty drastic. They felt that they knew better than He did what was good for Him (compare Joh 7:1-5 which is an advance from this). And as Mary came along with them we cannot fully exonerate her from involvement in their attitude. She was involved, at least to some extent, to add her weight to their arguments and to see what she saw as the right thing done. She too was worried for her son and was prepared to interfere with His ministry, and all no doubt thought (wrongly) that her authority as His mother would prove useful. But as Jesus had to make clear, she now had no more authority over Him than believers in general had, the authority of being in need of His saving mercy.
‘They said.’ This may alternately mean, ‘it was being said’ generally, ‘they’ being unspecific. But it was more likely that brothers would say this rather than people generally, for the latter were impressed by Him. Unless, of course, it means that the Pharisees and Herodians had paid men to spread false rumours about Him. But whoever said it his brothers believed it enough to want to take drastic action. They cannot be fully exonerated, however much we try. And nothing is said about Mary protesting. She was going along with them in their plans. (Had this not been so something would have been said in this context. By the time this was written she was highly respected in the company of believers).
Fuente: Commentary Series on the Bible by Peter Pett
Mar 3:21. For they said, He is beside himself. For they said, He fainted away. So the version of 1729. Dr. Macknight observes, that most translators render this verse as we do; but the meaning which they give is false, and such as suggests a very unbecoming idea of our Lord, who on no other occasion behaved so as to give his friends room to suspect that he was mad. The original runs thus; u922? , . u917? -g0-. u927? -g0-. They that were with him, namely, in the house, (Mar 3:19.) , hearing, viz. the noise which the mob made at the door, they went out, , to restrain, or quell,not Jesus, for he was in the house, (Mar 3:19.) But the multitude, or mob [, it, viz. ] the multitude, either by dispersing them, or keeping them out; for they said , (viz. ) the multitude or mob is mad. This sense the verb has without dispute, Rev 7:1 where we read, , holding, detaining, restraining the four winds of the earth. Dr. Doddridge renders the words, he is transported too far. One can hardly think, says he, that Christ’s friends would speak of him so contemptibly and impiously as our version represents; and if that sense must necessarily be retained, it would be much more decent to render the clause, “It (that is, the multitude, mentioned in the verse) is mad, thus unseasonably to break in upon him.” But 2Co 5:13 is the only passage in the New Testament where the word has this signification: it generally signifies to be greatly transported; or as we express it, in a word derived from this, to be thrown into an exstasy. See Ch. Mar 2:12 Mar 5:42 Mar 6:51. Luk 8:56. Act 2:7; Act 2:12; Act 12:16. And though the LXX sometimes use it for fainting away, as in Gen 45:26. Jos 2:11. Isa 7:2. I do not find that it ever signifies that faintness which arises from excess of labour, or want of food: but our Lord’s attendants here seem to have feared, lest his zeal and the present fervency of his spirit should have been injurious to his health.
Fuente: Commentary on the Holy Bible by Thomas Coke
21 And when his friends heard of it , they went out to lay hold on him: for they said, He is beside himself.
Ver. 21. They went out to lay hold on him ] Some read, to lay hold on the multitude, as mad, because so eager and earnest, that they left not our Lord liberty for his necessary repose and repast. But if it be meant of Christ, his mother also may seem to have been in the common error,Mar 3:31Mar 3:31 . She was not then without original sin (as the Franciscans would have it, and do therefore name Joachim and Anna kissing, by which kiss Anna conceived, say they, with the Virgin Mary), neither yet without actual sin, as here, Joh 2:4 . Sed si peccatrix, non deprecatrix: quae egebat, non agebat advocatum, saith an ancient.
Fuente: John Trapp’s Complete Commentary (Old and New Testaments)
21. ] Peculiar to Mark.
= his relations, beyond a doubt for the sense is resumed in Mar 3:31 : see reff.
. (perhaps from Nazareth , or, answering to Joh 2:12 , from Capernaum ), set out: see ch. Mar 5:14 . They heard of his being so beset by crowds: see Mar 3:7-11 .
] i.e. His relations not .
] He is mad: thus E. V.; and the sense requires it. They had doubtless heard of the accusation of his having a dmon : which we must suppose not to have first begun after this, but to have been going on throughout this course of miracles.
The understanding this that his disciples went out to repress the crowd , for they said, ‘ It is mad ,’ is as contrary to Greek as to sense. It would require at least and , or for , and would even then give no intelligible meaning.
Fuente: Henry Alford’s Greek Testament
Mar 3:21 . And the multitude cometh together again, etc.
: the crowd, partially dispersed, reassembles (implying lapse of an appreciable interval). Jesus had hoped they would go away to their homes in various parts of the country during His absence on the hill, but He was disappointed. They lingered on. , etc.: the crowding about the house and the demand for sight and succour of the Benefactor were so great that they (Jesus and His companions) could not find leisure, not even ( ) to take food , not to speak of rest, or giving instruction to disciples. Erasmus ( Adnot. ) thinks the reference is to the multitude, and the meaning that it was so large that there was not bread for all, not to speak of kitchen ( obsonia ).
Fuente: The Expositors Greek Testament by Robertson
Mar 3:21 introduces a new scene into the lively drama. The statement is obscure partly owing to its brevity (Fritzsche), and it is made obscurer by a piety which is not willing to accept the surface meaning (so Maldonatus “hunc locum difficiliorem pietas facit”), which is that the friends of Jesus, having heard of what was going on wonderful cures, great crowds, incessant activity set out from where they were ( ) with the purpose of taking Him under their care ( ), their impression, not concealed ( , they had begun to say), being that He was in an unhealthy state of excitement bordering on insanity ( ). Recent commentators, German and English, are in the main agreed that this is the true sense. means either specifically His relatives (“sui” Vulg [21] , . Theophy.), so Raphel, Wetstein, Kypke, Loesner, with citations from Greek authors, Meyer and Weiss, identifying the parties here spoken of with those referred to in Mar 3:31 ; or, more generally, persons well disposed towards Jesus, an outer circle of disciples (Schanz and Keil). : not to be restricted to what is mentioned in Mar 3:20 ; refers to the whole Galilean ministry with its cures and crowds, and constant strain. Therefore the friends might have come from a distance, Nazareth, e.g. , starting before Jesus descended from the hill. That their arrival happened just then was a coincidence. : for they were saying, might refer to others than those who came to lay hold of Jesus to messengers who brought them news of what was going on (Bengel), or it might refer quite impersonally to a report that had gone abroad (“rumor exierat,” Grotius), or it might even refer to the Pharisees. But the reference is almost certainly to the friends. Observe the parallelism between , , and , , . in Mar 3:22 (Fritzsche points this out in a long and thorough discussion of the whole passage). : various ways of evading the idea suggested by this word have been resorted to. It has been referred to the crowd = the crowd is mad, and won’t let Him alone. Viewed as referring to Jesus it has been taken = He is exhausted, or He has left the place = they came to detain Him, for they heard that He was going or had gone. Both these are suggested by Euthy. Zig. Doubtless the reference is to Jesus, and the meaning that in the opinion of His friends He was in a state of excitement bordering on insanity ( cf. Mar 2:12 , Mar 5:42 , Mar 6:51 ). (Theophy.) is too strong, though the Jews apparently identified insanity with possession. Festus said of St. Paul: “Much learning doth make thee mad”. The friends of Jesus thought that much benevolence had put Him into a state of enthusiasm dangerous to the health both of body and mind. Note: Christ’s healing ministry created a need for theories about it. Herod had his theory (Mat 14 ), the friends of Jesus had theirs, and the Pharisees theirs: John redivivus , disordered mind, Satanic possession. That which called forth so many theories must have been a great fact .
[21] Vulgate (Jerome’s revision of old Latin version).
Fuente: The Expositors Greek Testament by Robertson
Mark
‘HE IS BESIDE HIMSELF’
Mar 3:21
There had been great excitement in the little town of Capernaum in consequence of Christ’s teachings and miracles. It had been intensified by His infractions of the Rabbinical Sabbath law, and by His appointment of the twelve Apostles. The sacerdotal party in Capernaum apparently communicated with Jerusalem, with the result of bringing a deputation from the Sanhedrim to look into things, and see what this new rabbi was about. A plot for His assassination was secretly on foot. And at this juncture the incident of my text, which we owe to Mark alone of the Evangelists, occurs. Christ’s friends, apparently the members of His own family-sad to say, as would appear from the context, including His mother-came with a kindly design to rescue their misguided kinsman from danger, and laying hands upon Him, to carry Him off to some safe restraint in Nazareth, where He might indulge His delusions without doing any harm to Himself. They wish to excuse His eccentricities on the ground that He is not quite responsible-scarcely Himself; and so to blunt the point of the more hostile explanation of the Pharisees that He is in league with Beelzebub.
Conceive of that! The Incarnate Wisdom shielded by friends from the accusation that He is a demoniac by the apology that He is a lunatic! What do you think of popular judgment? But this half-pitying, half-contemptuous, and wholly benevolent excuse for Jesus, though it be the words of friends, is like the words of His enemies, in that it contains a distorted reflection of His true character. And if we will think about it, I fancy that we may gather from it some lessons not altogether unprofitable.
I. The first point, then, that I make, is just this-there was something in the character of Jesus Christ which could be plausibly explained to commonplace people as madness.
Now, if we try to throw ourselves back to the life of Jesus Christ, as it was unfolded day by day, and think nothing about either what preceded in the revelation of the Old Covenant, or what followed in the history of Christianity, we shall not be so much at a loss to account for such explanations of it as these of my text. Remember that charges like these, in all various keys of contempt or of pity, or of fierce hostility, have been cast against all innovators, against every man that has broken a new path; against all teachers that have cut themselves apart from tradition and encrusted formulas; against every man that has waged war with the conventionalisms of society; against all idealists who have dreamed dreams and seen visions; against every man that has been touched with a lofty enthusiasm of any sort; and, most of all, against all to whom God and their relations to Him, the spiritual world and their relations to it, the future life and their relations to that, have become dominant forces and motives in their lives.
The short and easy way with which the world excuses itself from the poignant lessons and rebukes which come from such lives is something like that of my text, ‘He is beside himself.’ And the proof that he is beside himself is that he does not act in the same fashion as these incomparably wise people that make up the majority in every age. There is nothing that commonplace men hate like anything fresh and original. There is nothing that men of low aims are so utterly bewildered to understand, and which so completely passes all the calculus of which they are masters, as lofty self-abnegation. And wherever you get men smitten with such, or with anything like it, you will find all the low-aimed people gathering round them like bats round a torch in a cavern, flapping their obscene wings and uttering their harsh croaks, and only desiring to quench the light.
One of our cynical authors says that it is the mark of a genius that all the dullards are against him. It is the mark of the man who dwells with God that all the people whose portion is in this life with one consent say, ‘He is beside himself.’
And so the Leader of them all was served in His day; and that purest, perfectest, noblest, loftiest, most utterly self-oblivious, and God-and-man-devoted life that ever was lived upon earth, was disposed of in this extremely simple method, so comforting to the complacency of the critics-either ‘He is beside Himself,’ or ‘He hath a devil.’
And yet, is not the saying a witness to the presence in that wondrous and gentle career of an element entirely unlike what exists in the most of mankind? Here was a new star in the heavens, and the law of its orbit was manifestly different from that of all the rest. That is what ‘eccentric’ means-that the life to which it applies does not move round the same centre as do the other satellites, but has a path of its own. Away out yonder somewhere, in the infinite depths, lay the hidden point which drew it to itself and determined its magnificent and overwhelmingly vast orbit. These men witness to Jesus Christ, even by their half excuse, half reproach, that His was a life unique and inexplicable by the ordinary motives which shape the little lives of the masses of mankind. They witness to His entire neglect of ordinary and low aims; to His complete absorption in lofty purposes, which to His purblind would-be critics seem to be delusions and fond imaginations that could never be realised. They witness to what His disciples remembered had been written of Him, ‘The zeal of Thy house hath eaten Me up’; to His perfect devotion to man and to God. They witness to His consciousness of a mission; and there is nothing that men are so ready to resent as that. To tell a world, engrossed in self and low aims, that one is sent from God to do His will, and to spread it among men, is the sure way to have all the heavy artillery and the lighter weapons of the world turned against one.
These characteristics of Jesus seem then to be plainly implied in that allegation of insanity-lofty aims, absolute originality, utter self-abnegation, the continual consciousness of communion with God, devotion to the service of man, and the sense of being sent by God for the salvation of the world. It was because of these that His friends said, ‘He is beside Himself.’
These men judged themselves by judging Jesus Christ. And all men do. There are as many different estimates of a great man as there are people to estimate, and hence the diversity of opinion about all the characters that fill history and the galleries of the past. The eye sees what it brings and no more. To discern the greatness of a great man, or the goodness of a good one, is to possess, in lower measure, some portion of that which we discern. Sympathy is the condition of insight into character. And so our Lord said once, ‘He that receiveth a prophet in the name of a prophet shall receive a prophet’s reward,’ because he is a dumb prophet himself, and has a lower power of the same gift in him, which is eloquent on the prophet’s lips.
In like manner, to discern what is in Christ is the test of whether there is any of it in myself. And thus it is no mere arbitrary appointment which suspends your salvation and mine on our answer to this question, ‘What think ye of Christ?’ The answer will be-I was going to say-the elixir of our whole moral and spiritual nature. It will be the outcome of our inmost selves. This ploughshare turns up the depths of the soil. That is eternally true which the grey-bearded Simeon, the representative of the Old, said when he took the Infant in his arms and looked down upon the unconscious, placid, smooth face. ‘This Child is set for the rise and fall of many in Israel, that the thoughts of many hearts may be revealed.’ Your answer to that question discloses your whole spiritual condition and capacities. And so to judge Christ is to be judged by Him; and what we think Him to be, that we make Him to ourselves. The question which tests us is not merely, ‘Whom do men say that I am?’ It is easy to answer that; but this is the all-important interrogation, ‘Whom do ye say that I am?’ I pray that we may each answer as he to whom it was first put answered it, ‘Rabbi, Thou art the Son of God, Thou art the King of Israel!’
II. Secondly, mark the similarity of the estimate which will be passed by the world on all Christ’s true followers.
The one thing, or at least the principal thing, which the Christianity of this generation wants is a little more of this madness. It would be a great deal better for us who call ourselves Christians if we had earned and deserved the world’s sneer, ‘He is beside himself.’ But our modern Christianity, like an epicure’s rare wines, is preferred iced. And the last thing that anybody would think of suggesting in connection with the demeanour-either the conduct or the words-of the average Christian man of this day is that his religion had touched his brain a little.
But, dear friends, go in Christ’s footsteps and you will have the same missiles flung at you. If a church or an individual has earned the praise of the outside ring of godless people because its or his religion is ‘reasonable and moderate; and kept in its proper place; and not allowed to interfere with social enjoyments, and political and municipal corruptions,’ and the like, then there is much reason to ask whether that church or man is Christian after Christ’s pattern. Oh, I pray that there may come down on the professing Church of this generation a baptism of the Spirit; and I am quite sure that when that comes, the people that admire moderation and approve of religion, but like it to be ‘kept in its own place,’ will be all ready to say, when they hear the ‘sons and the daughters prophesying, and the old men seeing visions, and the young men dreaming dreams,’ and the fiery tongues uttering their praises of God, ‘These men are full of new wine!’ Would we were full of the new wine of the Spirit! Do you think any one would say of your religion that you were ‘beside yourself,’ because you made so much of it? They said it about your Master, and if you were like Him it would be said, in one tone or another, about you. We are all desperately afraid of enthusiasm to-day. It seems to me that it is the want of the Christian Church, and that we are not enthusiastic because we don’t half believe the truths that we say are our creed.
One more word. Christian men and women have to make up their minds to go on in the path of devotion, conformity to Christ’s pattern, self-sacrificing surrender, without minding one bit what is said about them. Brethren, I do not think Christian people are in half as much danger of dropping the standard of the Christian life by reason of the sarcasms of the world, as they are by reason of the low tone of the Church. Don’t you take your ideas of what a reasonable Christian life is from the men round you, howsoever they may profess to be Christ’s followers. And let us keep so near the Master that we may be able to say, ‘With me it is a very small matter to be judged of you, or of man’s judgment. He that judgeth me is the Lord.’ Never mind, though they say, ‘Beside himself!’ Never mind, though they say, ‘Oh! utterly extravagant and impracticable.’ Better that than to be patted on the back by a world that likes nothing so well as a Church with its teeth drawn, and its claws cut; which may be made a plaything and an ornament by the world. And that is what much of our modern Christianity has come to be.
III. Lastly, notice the sanity of the insane.
Here is one. Suppose a man who, like the most of us, believes that there is a God, believes that he has something to do with Him, believes that he is going to die, believes that the future state is, in some way or other, and in some degree, one of retribution; and from Monday morning to Saturday night he ignores all these facts, and never allows them to influence one of his actions. May I venture to speak direct to this hypothetical person, whose originals are dotted about in my audience? It would be the very same to you if you said ‘No’ instead of ‘Yes’ to all these affirmations. The fact that there is a God does not make a bit of difference to what you do, or what you think, or what you feel. The fact that there is a future life makes just as little difference. You are going on a voyage next week, and you never dream of getting your outfit. You believe all these things, you are an intelligent man-you are very likely, in a great many ways, a very amiable and pleasant one; you do many things very well; you cultivate congenial virtues, and you abhor uncongenial vices; but you never think about God; and you have made absolutely no preparation whatever for stepping into the scene in which you know that you are to live.
Well, you may be a very wise man, a student with high aims, cultivated understanding, and all the rest of it. I want to know whether, taking into account all that you are, and your inevitable connection with God, and your certain death and certain life in a state of retribution-I want to know whether we should call your conduct sanity or insanity? Which? Take another picture. Here is a man that believes-really believes-the articles of the Christian creed, and in some measure has received them into his heart and life. He believes that Jesus Christ, the Son of God, died for him upon the Cross, and yet his heart has but the feeblest tick of pulsating love in answer. He believes that prayer will help a man in all circumstances, and yet he hardly ever prays. He believes that self-denial is the law of the Christian life, and yet he lives for himself. He believes that he is here as a ‘pilgrim’ and as a ‘sojourner,’ and yet his heart clings to the world, and his hand would fain cling to it, like that of a drowning man swept over Niagara, and catching at anything on the banks. He believes that he is sent into the world to be a ‘light’ of the world, and yet from out of his self-absorbed life there has hardly ever come one sparkle of light into any dark heart. And that is a picture, not exaggerated, of the enormous majority of professing Christians in so-called Christian lands. And I want to know whether we shall call that sanity or insanity? The last of my little miniatures is that of a man who keeps in close touch with Jesus Christ, and so, like Him, can say, ‘Lo! I come; I delight to do Thy will, O Lord. Thy law is within my heart.’ He yields to the strong motives and principles that flow from the Cross of Jesus Christ, and, drawn by the ‘mercies of God,’ gives himself a ‘living sacrifice’ to be used as God will. Aims as lofty as the Throne which Christ His Brother fills; sacrifice as entire as that on which his trembling hope relies; realisation of the unseen future as vivid and clear as His who could say that He was ‘ in Heaven’ whilst He walked the earth; subjugation of self as complete as that of the Lord’s, who pleased not Himself, and came not to do His own will-these are some of the characteristics which mark the true disciple of Jesus Christ. And I want to know whether the conduct of the man who believes in the love that God hath to him, as manifested in the Cross, and surrenders his whole self thereto, despising the world and living for God, for Christ, for man, for eternity-whether his conduct is insanity or sanity? ‘The fear of the Lord is the beginning of wisdom.’
Fuente: Expositions Of Holy Scripture by Alexander MacLaren
friends = kinsfolk. “His brethren, and His mother” (see Mar 3:31).
went out = set out.
they said = they were saying (Imperf. Tense): i.e. maintained (as we say).
beside Himself = out of His senses.
Fuente: Companion Bible Notes, Appendices and Graphics
21.] Peculiar to Mark.
= his relations, beyond a doubt-for the sense is resumed in Mar 3:31 : see reff.
. (perhaps from Nazareth,-or, answering to Joh 2:12, from Capernaum), set out: see ch. Mar 5:14. They heard of his being so beset by crowds: see Mar 3:7-11.
] i.e. His relations-not .
] He is mad: thus E. V.; and the sense requires it. They had doubtless heard of the accusation of his having a dmon: which we must suppose not to have first begun after this, but to have been going on throughout this course of miracles.
The understanding this that his disciples went out to repress the crowd, for they said, It is mad, is as contrary to Greek as to sense. It would require at least and , or for , and would even then give no intelligible meaning.
Fuente: The Greek Testament
Mar 3:21. , those belonging to Him) See App. Crit. Ed. ii., p. 150. The Gothic Version fram answers to and .[25] Who these were, who belonged to Him, is clear from Mar 3:31, where the particle ,[26] therefore, refers to this 21st verse, after the intervening parenthesis 22-30 has been as it were cleared out of they.-, they went out) Their coming in Mar 3:31 followed their going out here. A table seems to have been laid at the house; see end of Mar 3:20.-, to lay hold) to put a restraint on him.-, they were saying) the messengers [not the relatives] from whom his relatives heard of His earnestness.- , He is beside Himself) By this word they were attributing to Him excess of ardour, overwhelming His intellect, but it was falsely that they attributed this to Him, as Festus did to Paul; Act 26:24, Thou art mad. Comp. by all means 2Co 5:13; comp. , Heb. . Isa 28:7; so , Heb. ; Hos 9:7. The singular number does not admit of this being understood of the people; for although , a multitude, Mar 3:20 is singular, yet after an interval [between and the verb, if the latter were to be understood of the former], there always follow the pronoun and the verb in the plural.
[25] AB Vulg. Rec. Text read ; but Dabc read (c has Pharisi.)-ED.
[26] But the oldest authorities BCDG vulg. abc omit . A, however, supports it.-ED.
Fuente: Gnomon of the New Testament
when: Some render, “And they who were with him (in the house, Mar 3:19), hearing (the noise) went out to restrain (, i.e., [Strong’s G3793], the multitude), for they said, It (the mob) is mad.” This, however, is contrary to all the versions; and appears an unnatural construction.
friends: or, kinsmen, Mar 3:31, Joh 7:3-10
He is: 2Ki 9:11, Jer 29:26, Hos 9:7, Joh 10:20, Act 26:24, 2Co 5:13
Reciprocal: 1Sa 17:28 – Eliab’s anger 2Sa 6:20 – Michal 2Ch 15:16 – he removed Isa 59:15 – maketh himself a prey Eze 3:25 – General Mar 2:13 – and all Mar 3:33 – or Mar 6:36 – General Luk 8:19 – General Luk 10:40 – dost Joh 7:5 – General Joh 7:20 – Thou
Fuente: The Treasury of Scripture Knowledge
1
His friends is rendered “those belonging to him” by the “Englishman’s Greek New Testament,” and that agrees with the marginal reading that says “kinsmen.” When they said He is beside himself they meant they thought he was carried away with the intensity of the situation. But Jesus continued his teaching and good work in spite of the apparent protest of his relations.
Fuente: Combined Bible Commentary
And when his friends heard of it; they went out to lay hold on him: for they said, He is beside himself.
[He is beside himself.] In the Talmudists it is his judgment is gone; and his understanding is ceased. “If any becomes mute, and yet is of a sound mind; and they say to him, Shall we write a bill of divorce for thy wife? And he nods with his head, they try him thrice, etc. And it is necessary that they make trial of him more exactly, lest, perhaps, he might be deprived of his senses.” This is to be understood of a dumb person, made so by some paralytical or apoplectical stroke, which sometimes wounds the understanding.
“The Rabbins deliver: If any one is sick, and in the mean time any of his friends die, they do not make it known to him that such a one is dead, lest his understanding be disturbed.” “One thus lamented R. Simeon Ben Lachish; ‘Where art thou, O Bar Lachish? Where art thou, O Bar Lachish?’ And so cried out until his understanding perished.” For so the Gloss renders it.
How fitly this word beside himself expresseth these phrases is readily observed by him who understandeth both languages. And a Jew, reading these words in Mark, would presently have recourse to the sense of those phrases in his nation; which do not always signify madness; or being bereft of one’s wits, in the proper sense, but sometimes, and very frequently, some discomposure of the understanding for the present, from some too vehement passion. So say Christ’s friends, “His knowledge is snatched away; he hath forgotten himself, and his own health; he is so vehement and hot in discharging his office, and in preaching, that he is transported beyond himself, and his understanding is disturbed, that he neither takes care of his necessary food nor of his sleep.” Those his friends, indeed, have need of an apology, that they had no sounder, nor holier, nor wiser conceit of him; but it is scarcely credible that they thought him to be fallen into plain and absolute madness, and pure distraction. For he had conversed among the multitudes before, at all times in all places; and yet his friends to not say this of him. But now he was retired to his own house at Capernaum, where he might justly expect rest and repose; yet the multitudes rush upon him there, so that he could not enjoy his table and his bed at his own home. Therefore his friends and kinsfolk of Nazareth (among whom was his mother, Mar 3:31), hearing this, unanimously run to him to get him away from the multitude; for they said among themselves, He is too much transported beyond himself, and is forgetful of himself.
Fuente: Lightfoot Commentary Gospels
Mar 3:21. His friends, lit. those by him. The exact reference is doubtful. The nearer relatives, spoken of in Mar 3:31, may not be included, since they waited outside; but probably the whole circle was engaged in this effort with varying feelings, the immediate family persisting longer (see on Mat 12:46).
Heard it, i.e. what was going on; they may have heard that the scribes had come with a hostile purpose (Mar 3:22).
They went out, etc. Either from Nazareth, or from their house in Capernaum, since it is uncertain in which place they now lived.
For they said. The relatives just spoken of.
He is beside himself. This implies either actual insanity in a bad sense, or religious enthusiasm and ecstasy, even to derangement, in a good sense. While an accusation of madness on the part of His relatives is neither impossible nor improbable, so long as they were not true believers, it may have been a mere pretext. As His enemies had already, in all probability, said that He was possessed, His relatives, from motives of policy, may have adopted this modification of the charge to get Him away; with this, anxiety for His health may have entered as a motive. The context favors the thought that the motive was policy resulting from want of faith, though perhaps not from positive disbelief. This doubting, worldly policy, which could seek to shelter Him by meeting the accusations of His foes half way, is in keeping with the desire to thrust Him forward which was afterwards shown (Joh 7:3-5) Yet even among these relatives there was probably a great variety of opinions regarding Him.
Fuente: A Popular Commentary on the New Testament
Verse 21
To lay hold on him; to take him away from the danger which they supposed him to be in.–For they said; that is, the people said; and then, in Mark 3:22-30, there is a particular account of their charging him with being possessed with an evil spirit, (Mark 3:30,) or with being beside himself, as it is expressed in Mark 3:21, and his answer to the charge. It was the anxiety for his safety, produced by this increasing excitement against him, which led his mother an his other friends to come and endeavor to take him away, as mentioned Mark 3:21, and afterwards more particularly in Mark 3:31.
Fuente: Abbott’s Illustrated New Testament
3:21 {4} And when his {n} friends heard [of it], they went out to lay hold on him: for they said, He is beside himself.
(4) None are worse enemies of the gospel than they that should be enemies of it the least.
(n) Literally, “they that were of him”, that is, his relatives: for they that were mad were brought to their relatives.