Exegetical and Hermeneutical Commentary of Mark 5:31
And his disciples said unto him, Thou seest the multitude thronging thee, and sayest thou, Who touched me?
Verse 31. Thou seest the multitude thronging then, &c.] Many touch Jesus who are not healed by him: the reason is, they do it not by faith, through a sense of their wants, and a conviction of his ability and willingness to save them. Faith conveys the virtue of Christ into the soul, and spiritual health is the immediate consequence of this received virtue.
Fuente: Adam Clarke’s Commentary and Critical Notes on the Bible
31. And his disciples said untohimLuke says (Lu 8:45),”When all denied, Peter and they that were with Him said,Master.”
Thou seest the multitudethronging thee, and sayest thou, Who touched me?“Askestthou, Lord, who touched Thee? Rather ask who touched Thee not in sucha throng.” “And Jesus said, Somebody hath touched Me””acertain person has touched Me””for I perceive thatvirtue is gone out of Me” (Lu8:46). Yes, the multitude “thronged and pressedHim”they jostled against Him, but all involuntarily;they were merely carried along; but one, one only”acertain personTOUCHEDHIM,” with theconscious, voluntary, dependent touch of faith, reaching forth itshand expressly to have contact with Him. This and this only Jesusacknowledges and seeks out. Even so, as AUGUSTINElong ago said, multitudes still come similarly close to Christ inthe means of grace, but all to no purpose, being only sucked into thecrowd. The voluntary, living contact of faith is that electricconductor which alone draws virtue out of Him.
Fuente: Jamieson, Fausset and Brown’s Commentary Critical and Explanatory on the Whole Bible
And his disciples said unto him,…. Peter, and they that were with him; after the crowd that were about him denied that any of them had touched him; see Lu 8:45,
thou seest the multitude thronging thee, and sayest thou who touched me? They seem astonished at his question, and answer with some degree of warmth, and almost ready to charge it as weak: and impertinent; since, as there was such a crowd about him, pressing him on every side, he could not but be touched by many; and therefore to ask who touched him, when this was the case, they thought was a very strange and unnecessary question.
Fuente: John Gill’s Exposition of the Entire Bible
Thronging thee ( ). See verse 24. The disciples were amazed at the sensitiveness of Jesus to the touch of the crowd. They little understood the drain on Jesus from all this healing that pulled at his heart-strings and exhausted his nervous energy even though the Son of God. He had the utmost human sympathy.
Fuente: Robertson’s Word Pictures in the New Testament
1) “And His disciples said unto Him,” (kai elegon autou hoi mathetai autou) “And His disciples replied to Him,” as if irritated or aggravated by His question.
2) “Thou seest the multitude thronging thee,” (blepeis ton ochlon sunthlibonta es) “You see in a glance that the crowd is pressing upon you,” can’t you? As also described Mar 5:24. The compound (Gk. term throng) is stronger than the term “crowd” Mar 3:9.
3) “And sayest thou, Who touched my clothes?” (kai legeis tis mou hepsato) “And then you say, Who touched me?” as if they thought Jesus was “up-tight,” in the pressure of the popularity of an excited, fatiguing rude throng.
Fuente: Garner-Howes Baptist Commentary
31. Who touched me? The judge who asks the prisoner whether he is guilty or not guilty, really knows, perhaps, but he will none the less put him to the answer. The Lord knew who, but he must make her reveal herself.
Fuente: Whedon’s Commentary on the Old and New Testaments
‘And his disciples said to him, “You see the crowd pressing in on you. Do you ask, ‘who touched me?’ ”
The disciples wondered what He was talking about. The crowds were constantly touching them, and pressing in on them. He had been touched a hundred times and more. The whole world was touching Him. What on earth was He getting at? Instead of waiting expectantly to see what He meant they dismissed His words casually. They themselves were not sensitive and they had not yet realised His sensitivity towards a cry for help. In the other Gospels this comment is softened or omitted as a sign of respect for the Apostles, but Peter is not too proud to be honest.
Fuente: Commentary Series on the Bible by Peter Pett
Mar 5:31 . . f1 , the crowd squeezing Thee, as in Mar 5:24 . The simple verb in Mar 3:9 . The compound implies a greater crowd, or a more eager pressure around Jesus. How exciting and fatiguing that rude popularity for Him!
Fuente: The Expositors Greek Testament by Robertson
said = kept saying.
seest. Greek. blepo. App-133.,
multitude = crowd.
Fuente: Companion Bible Notes, Appendices and Graphics
Thou seest: Luk 8:45, Luk 9:12
Reciprocal: Mar 5:24 – and thronged Mar 6:36 – General
Fuente: The Treasury of Scripture Knowledge
1
Thou seest the multitude means that the whole crowd was touching him (see the comment on verse 24), and it seemed strange to them to ask such a question.
Fuente: Combined Bible Commentary
Mar 5:31. His disciples. Luke: Peter and they that were with Him. The denial of all is mentioned by the same Evangelist. This natural answer of the disciples, according to Luke, called forth an express declaration from our Lord, that He perceived power had gone out from Him.
Fuente: A Popular Commentary on the New Testament
CHAPTER 4:39, 5:15, 5:31, 5:41 (Mar 4:39; Mar 5:15; Mar 5:31; Mar 5:41)
FOUR MIRACLES
“And there was a great calm.” Mar 4:39 (R.V.)
“Behold, him that was possessed with devils, sitting, clothed and in his right mind, even him that had the legion.” Mar 5:15 (R.V.)
“Who touched Me?” Mar 5:31 (R.V.)
“Talitha cumi.” Mar 5:41 (R.V.)
THERE are two ways, equally useful, of studying Scripture, as there are of regarding the other book of God, the face of Nature. We may bend over a wild flower, or gaze across a landscape; and it will happen that a naturalist, pursuing a moth, loses sight of a mountain range. It is a well-known proverb, that one may fail to see the wood for the trees, losing in details the general effect. And so the careful student of isolated texts may never perceive the force and cohesion of a connected passage.
The reader of a Gospel narrative thinks, that by pondering it as a whole, he secures himself against any such misfortune. But a narrative dislocated, often loses as much as a detached verse. The actions of our Lord are often exquisitely grouped, as becometh Him Who hath made everything not beautiful only, but especially beautiful in its season. And we should not be content without combining the two ways of reading Scripture, the detailed and the rapid, — lingering at times to apprehend the marvelous force of a solitary verse, and again sweeping over a broad expanse, like a surveyor, who, to map a country, stretches his triangle from mountain peak to peak.
We have reached a point at which St. Mark records a special outshining of miraculous power. Four striking works follow each other without a break, and it must not for a moment be supposed that the narrative is thus constructed, certain intermediate discourses and events being sacrificed for the purpose, without a deliberate and a truthful intention. That intention is to represent the effect, intense and exalting, produced by such a cycle of wonders on the minds of His disciples. They saw them come close upon each other: we should lose the impression as we read, if other incidents were allowed to interpose themselves. It is one more example of St. Mark’s desire to throw light, above all things, upon the energy and power of the sacred life.
We have to observe therefore the bearing of these four miracles on each other, and upon what precedes, before studying them one by one.
It was a time of trial. The Pharisees had decided that He had a devil. His relatives had said He was beside Himself. His manner of teaching had changed, because the people should see without perceiving, and hear without understanding. They who understood His parables heard much of seed that failed, of success a great way off, of a kingdom which would indeed be great at last, but for the present weak and small. And it is certain that there must have been heavy hearts among those who left, with Him, the populous side of the lake, to cross over into remote and semi-pagan retirement. To encourage them, and as if in protest against His rejection by the authorities, Jesus enters upon this great cycle of miracles.
They find themselves, as the Church has often since been placed, and as every human soul has had to feel itself, far from shore, and tempest-beaten. The rage of human foes is not so deaf, so implacable, as that of wind and wave. It is the stress of adverse circumstances in the direst form. But Jesus proves Himself to be Master of the forces of nature which would overwhelm them.
Nay, they learn that His seeming indifference is no proof that they are neglected, by the rebuke He speaks to their over-importunate appeals, Why are ye so fearful? have ye not yet faith? And they, who might have been shaken by the infidelity of other men, fear exceedingly as they behold the obedience of the wind and the sea, and ask, Who then is this?
But in their mission as His disciples, a worse danger than the enmity of man or convulsions of nature awaits them. On landing, they are at once confronted by one whom an evil spirit has made exceeding fierce, so that no man could pass by that way. It is their way nevertheless, and they must tread it. And the demoniac adores, and the evil spirits themselves are abject in supplication, and at the word of Jesus are expelled. Even the inhabitants, who will not receive Him, are awe-struck and deprecatory, and if at their bidding Jesus turns away again, His followers may judge whether the habitual meekness of such a one is due to feebleness or to a noble self-command.
Landing once more, they are soon accosted by a ruler of the synagogue, whom sorrow has purified from the prejudices of his class. And Jesus is about to heal the daughter of Jairus, when another form of need is brought to light. A slow and secret decline, wasting the vital powers, a silent woe, speechless, stealthily approaching the Healer–over this grief also He is Lord. And it is seen that neither the visible actions of Jesus nor the audible praises of His petitioners can measure the power that goes out of Him, the physical benefits which encompass the Teacher as a halo envelopes flame.
Circumstances, and the fiends of the pit, and the woes that waste the lives of men, over these He has been seen to triumph. But behind all that we strive with here, there lurks the last enemy, and he also shall be subdued. And now first an example is recorded of what we know to have already taken place, the conquest of death by his predicted Spoiler. Youth and gentle maidenhood, high hope and prosperous circumstances have been wasted, but the call of Jesus is heard by the ear that was stopped with dust, and the spirit obeys Him in the far off realm of the departed, and they who have just seen such other marvels, are nevertheless amazed with a great amazement.
No cycle of miracles could be more rounded, symmetrical and exhaustive; none could better vindicate to His disciples his impugned authority, or brace their endangered faith, or fit them for what almost immediately followed, their own commission, and the first journey upon which they too cast out many devils, and anointed with oil many that were sick, and healed them.