Exegetical and Hermeneutical Commentary of Mark 6:12
And they went out, and preached that men should repent.
Preached that men should repent – See the nature of repentance explained in notes at Mat 3:2. They were now called upon to repent and reform their lives because sin was evil, because the Messiah had come to preach forgiveness to the penitent, and because at his presence it was fit that the nation should turn from its sins and prepare to receive him.
Fuente: Albert Barnes’ Notes on the Bible
They executed both the trusts which Christ had reposed in them, preaching the gospel, and by miraculous operations confirming the doctrine which they brought to be from heaven. John Baptist, and Christ, and the twelve all preached the same doctrine,
Repent; that is, turn from your former sinful courses, which if men do not, Christs coming will profit them nothing.
And anointed with oil many that were sick. James directed this anointing with oil also in the name of the Lord. It is disputed amongst learned men whether this anointing with oil was the using of oil as a medicine, having a natural virtue, (for it is certain in that country there were oils that were of great natural force for healing), or only as sacramental and symbolical, signifying what they did was from that unction of the Spirit of Christ which they had received, not by their own power or virtue, and representing by anointing with oil, that is an excellent lenitive, the refreshing and recovery of the diseased. But it is not probable, considering that our Lord sent the disciples to confirm the doctrine of the gospel which they preached, that he should direct them in these operations to use means of a natural force and efficacy, which had at least much abated of the miracle; besides, James bids them anoint the sick with oil in the name of the Lord. So as they doubtless used oil as symbolical, testifying that what they did was not by their own power and virtue. Nor did the apostles always use this rite in healing. Peter and John used it not in their healing the lame man, Act 3:6; In the name of Jesus Christ (say they) rise up and walk. He declareth the use of it, Act 3:16, only to show, that Christs name through faith in his name was that which made the lame man whole. So that it being both a free rite, which they sometimes used and sometimes not, and a rite annexed to miraculous operations, to declare the effect was from Christ, not from their power, in a miraculous and extraordinary, not in a natural and ordinary, way of operation, the necessity of the use of it still is very impertinently urged by some, and as impertinently quoted by others, to prove the lawfulness of ritual impositions.
Fuente: English Annotations on the Holy Bible by Matthew Poole
And they went out,…. From that part of the country where they then were, some one way, and some another, two by two, with these instructions, and according to these directions; in order to preach the word, and work miracles, in the several parts where they were sent:
and preached that men should repent; both of the evil practices which they were guilty of, and of the bad principles they had imbibed, and change both their sentiments and their conduct: this, they exhorted them to, as John the Baptist, and Christ, had done before, who set out in their ministry the same way; and these, as they did also, preached the Gospel, and the things appertaining to the kingdom of God, and Gospel dispensation, and called upon men to believe them. For faith and repentance went together in Christ’s ministry, Mr 1:15, and so they did in the ministry of John, the Baptist, Ac 19:4, and in the ministry of the apostles, Ac 20:21. When they preached that men should repent, it does not from hence follow, that they have a power to repent of themselves: for such is the condition of men by nature, that they neither see their need of repentance, and their hearts are so hard and obdurate, that they cannot work themselves up to it, or work it in them, and exercise it; this requires the powerful and efficacious grace of God to produce it, and it is a gift of his grace; and if he gives the means, and not the grace of repentance itself, it will never appear: but the apostles preaching that men should repent, shows that they were in such a state as to need it; and how necessary it was for them to have it, seeing without it they must all perish: and such a ministration is proper, to awaken the minds of men to a sense of the need of it, and to direct them to Christ the Saviour, who is exalted to give it, as well as the remission of sins.
Fuente: John Gill’s Exposition of the Entire Bible
Preached that men should repent ( ). Constative aorist (), summary description. This was the message of the Baptist (Mt 3:2) and of Jesus (Mr 1:15).
Fuente: Robertson’s Word Pictures in the New Testament
1) “And they went out,” (kai ekselthones) “And then going out and away,” the twelve, as directed, two by two, Mar 6:7, as He also did the seventy later, Luk 10:1.
2) “And preached that men should repent.” (ekerukson hina metanoosin) “They preached in order that men might repent,” the main thrust of their message, or that men should repent, even as John the Baptist and their Lord had taught them, of God, Mat 3:1-2; Mat 3:8; Mar 1:15; Luk 13:5.
Fuente: Garner-Howes Baptist Commentary
Mar 6:12
. And they departed, and preached. Matthew silently passes over what the Apostles did. Mark and Luke relate that they proceeded to execute the commission which they had received; and from their statements it appears more clearly, that the office which Christ at that time bestowed upon them, as I have formerly mentioned, was temporary, and indeed lasted but a few days. They tell us that the Apostles went through the cities and villages: and they unquestionably returned in a short time to their Master, as we shall find to be stated in another passage.
The only matter that requires exposition here is the fact related by Mark, that they anointed with oil many diseased persons Christ having conferred on them the power of healing, it is asked, why did they apply oil? Some learned persons suppose that it was a sort of medicine; and I acknowledge that in these countries the use of oil was very common. But nothing is more unreasonable than to imagine, that the Apostles employed ordinary and natural remedies, which would have the effect of obscuring the miracles of Christ. They were not instructed by our Lord in the art and science of healing, but, on the contrary, were enjoined to perform miracles which would arouse all Judea. I think, therefore, that this anointing was a visible token of spiritual grace, by which the healing that was administered by them was declared to proceed from the secret power of God; for under the Law oil was employed to represent the grace of the Spirit. The absurdity of an attempt to imitate the Apostles, by making the anointing of the sick a perpetual ordinance of the Church, appears from the fact, that Christ bestowed on the Apostles the gift of healing, not as an inheritance which they should hand down to posterity, but as a temporary seal of the doctrine of the Gospel. In our own day, the ignorance of the Papists is exceedingly ridiculous in maintaining that their nasty unction, (3) by which they hurry to the grave persons who are fast dying, is a Sacrament.
(3) The allusion is to extreme unction, (or last anointing,) which is one of the Seven Sacraments recognized by the Church of Rome. — Ed.
Fuente: Calvin’s Complete Commentary
(12) And preached that men should repent.The work of the Apostles appears from this to have been a continuation of that of the Baptist. They announced the nearness of the kingdom of God, and repentance as the one adequate preparation for it, and baptised as the outward token of that repentance and the new life in which it was to issue (Joh. 3:5; Joh. 4:2), but they did not as yet proclaim their Master as being Himself the Christ, and therefore the Head of that kingdom.
Fuente: Ellicott’s Commentary for English Readers (Old and New Testaments)
‘And they went out and preached that men should repent.’
As Jesus had commanded, the twelve Apostles went out, calling on men to ‘repent’. This meant to ‘have a change of heart and mind’, and to ‘turn from sin’ (see on Mar 1:4) and to recognise that the Kingly Rule of God was drawing near (Mat 10:7), indeed was there to be accepted or refused. The ‘primitive’ nature of the message (no mention of believing in Jesus or of the coming Judgment) demonstrates the authenticity of the passage. It was the initial message of Jesus, the foundation which had to be laid in preparation for what was to follow.
Fuente: Commentary Series on the Bible by Peter Pett
12 And they went out, and preached that men should repent.
Ver. 12. That they should repent ] This must be done; or men are utterly undone, Aut poenitendum aut pereundum. Hence repentance is so pressed and preached in both Testaments, Exo 23:20 ; cf. Exo 33:2-4 . Immediately after God had given the Law by the rules of threats whereof God the Father was to proceed (saith one), and after they had transgressed it, he could not go along with them, for he should destroy them: but his Angel, that is, Christ, he would send with them; who also would destroy them, if they turned not and repented according to the rules of his Law, the Gospel.
Fuente: John Trapp’s Complete Commentary (Old and New Testaments)
12. ] It is impossible to restrict the after entirely to the telic meaning, as Meyer, who is a purist on this point, attempts to do. There is certainly the mingling of the purport and the purpose, so often found in this particle after verbs implying declaration or request. See this treated of in note, 1Co 14:13 .
Fuente: Henry Alford’s Greek Testament
preached = proclaimed. See App-121.1.
repent. See App-111.
Fuente: Companion Bible Notes, Appendices and Graphics
12.] It is impossible to restrict the after entirely to the telic meaning, as Meyer, who is a purist on this point, attempts to do. There is certainly the mingling of the purport and the purpose, so often found in this particle after verbs implying declaration or request. See this treated of in note, 1Co 14:13.
Fuente: The Greek Testament
preached: Mar 1:3, Mar 1:15, Eze 18:30, Mat 3:2, Mat 3:8, Mat 4:17, Mat 9:13, Mat 11:20, Luk 11:32, Luk 13:3, Luk 13:5, Luk 15:7, Luk 15:10, Luk 24:47, Act 2:38, Act 3:19, Act 11:18, Act 20:21, Act 26:20, 2Co 7:9, 2Co 7:10, 2Ti 2:25, 2Ti 2:26
Reciprocal: Mat 10:7 – preach Luk 9:2 – General Luk 9:6 – General Act 17:30 – but Heb 6:1 – repentance
Fuente: The Treasury of Scripture Knowledge
2
They means the twelve apostles who went out under the commission as stated in verse 7. Mat 10:7 tells us also that they preached the news that the kingdom of heaven was at hand and that repentance therefore was necessary.
Fuente: Combined Bible Commentary
Mar 6:12. That men should repent. Not simply, preached repentance, but preached in order that men might be lead to repentance; the latter including the former.
Fuente: A Popular Commentary on the New Testament
Mar 6:12-13. They went, and preached that men should repent They went away and published everywhere the glad tidings of the approach of the Messiahs kingdom, and exhorted men on that consideration to turn to God in true repentance, forsaking all their sins in temper, word, and work, and in all respects bringing forth fruits worthy of repentance. They cast out many devils, &c. And did many other miracles. And anointed with oil many that were sick Which St. James gives as a general direction, (chap. Mar 5:11; Mar 5:15,) adding those peremptory words, And the Lord shall heal him. He shall be restored to health: not by the natural efficacy of the oil, but by the supernatural blessing of God. And it seems, this was the great standing means of healing desperate diseases in the Christian Church, long before extreme unction was used or heard of, which bears scarcely any resemblance to it; the former being used only as a means of health; the latter, only when life is despaired of. It is not said how long they were out on this their first expedition; but it is probable they spent a considerable time in it, for Luke says, Luk 9:6, they departed, and went through the towns, preaching the gospel, and healing everywhere.
Fuente: Joseph Bensons Commentary on the Old and New Testaments
CHAPTER 31
THE MINISTRY OF THE TWELVE
Mar 6:12-13. And having gone out, they continued to preach that they must repent; they continued to cast out many demons; they continued to anoint many sick people with oil, and heal them. Luk 9:6 : And going forth, they continued to go throughout the villages, everywhere preaching the gospel and healing (the sick). This is all we have on record appertaining to the ministry of the Twelve, while separate from Jesus, pursuant to the above commission; and this, you observe, is given by Mark and Luke, who were not apostles at that time. We hear nothing of Mark till Pauls first evangelistic tour, about nine years subsequently to this transaction, when he went out as a helper of Paul and Barnabas, doubtless quite young and inexperienced, as his heart failed him in Pamphylia, so that, much to the disgust of Paul and doubtless the grief of his uncle Barnabas, he left the work and returned to Jerusalem; Barnabas, loath to give up his nephew, endeavoring to restore him to the evangelistic work and take him out on their second tour; but Paul positively refusing, they separated, thus organizing two evangelistic forces, Barnabas taking Mark, and Paul taking Silas, Luke, and Timothy. If Mark was present at the time of this commission, he was quite a youth, not coming into history till about nine years later. As Luke was a citizen of Antioch, when we first hear of him as a convert under the ministry of Paul and Barnabas, about ten years subsequently, it is hardly probable that he was present; yet he might have been, as the Jews were coming from all Gentile countries, magnetized by the preaching and miracles of Jesus. Why do not Matthew and John give us an account of this ministry? In their histories they are simply writing up the life and ministry of Jesus. They were both members of the apostleship at that time, and went out under this commission to preach the gospel to the Jews. From the chronological data we can pick up, the presumption is that they were gone about three months. Six parties of them, moving with great expedition over a region of country about the size of New England, would make great progress in a dozen weeks.
Here is a vacuum in the history of our Lords life and ministry. Matthew and John were absent; Luke and Mark had not yet become disciples, so far as our knowledge extends; the latter yet in his home in Jerusalem, and the former, off in Antioch, studying medicine. Luke, about A.D. 42, became the evangelistic helper and amanuensis of Paul, writing for him to the end of his life. Though the Gospel of Luke was dictated by Paul, we must remember that he never came to Palestine during the ministry of Jesus; having been educated at Jerusalem, but returned to Tarsus before the ministry of John the Baptist. It is believed that Mark wrote his Gospel at Rome, about thirty years after the ascension of our Lord, as dictated by Peter, who speaks of him very kindly, calling him his son. (1Pe 5:13.) We find from the above Scriptures that the Twelve, during their absence from Jesus, were true and faithful, giving the trumpet no uncertain sound, but laying a constant, burning emphasis on repentance, which is fundamental in the gracious economy, not only laying the bottom rock of the experimental edifice, but gilding the topmost pinnacle; as metanoia, repentance, is from meta, change, and nous, the mind. Hence it means a change of minds; i.e., get rid of the carnal mind, and receive the whole mind of Christ, which really comprehends the entire plan of salvation. The trouble with dead Churches is the absence of evangelical repentance. We find these Twelve were constantly casting out demons i.e., getting people converted and healing the sick, not forgetting the anointing with olive-oil, which everywhere abounds in that country, and is a constant symbol of the Holy Ghost.
Mat 14:1-12; Mar 6:14-29; and Luk 9:7-9
MARTYRDOM OF JOHN THE BAPTIST
Mat 14:1-12; Mar 6:14-29; and Luk 9:7-9. While the biography of Jesus is intimated by these inspired historians during the period of their absence, we find three of them favoring us with the record of the melancholy and apparently premature death of John the Baptist. As the Jews had poured out in multitudes, and hung spell-bound upon his eloquent lips, the six months of his brilliant and wonderful ministry, his name was everywhere a household word. Hence his cruel and untimely martyrdom fell on the nation with the shock of an earthquake. Mark:
And King Herod said, John the Baptist is risen from the dead, and therefore mighty works are wrought through him. Others said, That he is Elijah. And others said, That he is one of the prophets. But Herod, hearing, said, This is John, whom I beheaded; he is risen from the dead. It being a high day when Herod, on his birthday, made a feast for his magnates, chiliarchs, and the first men of Galilee, and the daughter of Herodias having come in, and danced and pleased Herod, and those sitting along with him at the table, the king said to the damsel, Ask of me whatsoever you may wish, and I will give it to you. And he swore unto her, Whatsoever you may ask me, I will give you, even unto the half of my kingdom. And she, having gone out, said to her mother, What shall I ask? And she said, The head of John the Baptist. And having come in unto the king with haste, unhesitatingly she asked him, saying, I wish that you may give me here the head of John the Baptist in a charger. The king being much grieved, on account of his oaths and those who were sitting at the table with him, did not receive his consent to reject her. The king immediately sending forth an executioner, commanded that his head should be brought. He having departed, beheaded him in prison; and he brought his head in a charger, and gave it to the damsel; and the damsel gave it to her mother. His disciples, hearing, came and took his body and buried it in a tomb.
a. This was Herod Antipas, the son of Herod the Great, the last king of the Jews, who was on the throne when our Savior was born, and died at Jericho while He was in Egypt, a fugitive from the infantile slaughter at Bethlehem. He had married the daughter of Aretas, king of Arabia, whom he discarded in order to take Herodias, his niece, the wife of his half- brother Philip (not Philip the tetrarch, of Iturea and Trachonitis Luk 3:1), having employed a bondman in the home of his brother to seduce her away from her husband, and get her thus unlawfully to become his wife. His enraged father-in-law eventually invaded his country with an army, to avenge the maltreatment of his daughter. I saw the battle-field, off the southeast coast of the Galilean Sea, where Aretas met Herod, and signally defeated him, thus beginning his fatal downfall, which culminated in his ruin, the Roman emperor not only dethroning him, taking his kingdom from him and giving it to Herod Agrippa, but actually banishing him and Herodias to Lugdunum (Lyons), in the wilds of Gaul, and afterward exiling them in Spain, where they died in dreary solitude and misery, their temporal misfortunes the ominous prelude of the awful fate awaiting them.
b. We have in John the Baptist a beautiful and brilliant example of that stern and uncompromising ministerial fidelity which alone will qualify the Lords heralds for the judgment fires. John knew no fear. Bold as an archangel, he looked the king and queen in the face, and publicly exposed their sins, making the queen so awfully mad, as it was wholesale murder to her pride, that she would have slain him quickly through a hired assassin, if her husband had not defeated her purposes by shutting him up in prison. The implacable woman never relented, but studied every conceivable device to take his life. Eighteen months have whiled away since this greatest of prophets has become the inmate of a gloomy, subterranean dungeon in the Tower of Machierus, east of the Dead Sea, in the Land of Moab. During all this time, Herod frequently heard him preach, being powerfully wrought upon and deeply convicted, so that he actually obeyed the preacher in many respects. For Herod feared John, knowing him to be a righteous and holy man; and he continued to hold him in prison, and hearing him, he continued to do many things, and hear him delightfully. (Mar 6:20.) Herod was a member of the Jewish Church, loved to go to meeting, and as John was the best preacher he had ever heard, was delighted with him, making great reformation under his ministry, still retaining him in prison, to keep his enraged wife from killing him. Little did he anticipate his awful, impending fate. Now conceive the situation.
c. Pursuant to the custom of Oriental monarchs, he makes a great feast, to which he invites his official subordinates, and the rich and mighty men from all parts of his kingdom, to participate his bounty and contemplate his royal magnificence. In the midst of the festivities and jollifications, while all are merry with wine, pretty, little Salome comes in, and dances a pantomime for their edification, her wonderful agility literally capturing the princely audience thronging the royal palace. Amid a thousand compliments by the magnates, the king, now drunk enough to act the fool, obligates himself, by a solemn oath, in the presence of the royalty and nobility, to grant her petition, even though she ask the queenship of half his dominions a custom from time immemorial peculiar to Oriental monarchs.
d. The little girl darts away, and counsels her mother, whose constant study the last two years has been the destruction of that impudent preacher, who had the atidacity, in his public preaching, to assault her character and ruin her reputation. O how she seizes the auspicious moment, and sends the girl back, with the bloody petition dropping in livid horror from her lips, Give me here in this charger the head of John the Baptist!
e. The king expected her to ask some great present, perhaps a kingdom, that she might rule over it when she arrived at womanhood. Her demand strikes him like a thunderbolt from a cloudless sky. He is flooded with grief, and would give a world to rescind the whole matter. But what can he do? If he goes back on his oath, he will so unman himself in the estimation of the royalty and the nobility that they will rebel against him on the spot, take the crown from his head, and either take his head off, or banish him from his kingdom. Satan helps him. He rallies his courage; dispatches the bloody executioner at once to the prison, with the charger sent in by blood-thirsty Herodias to receive the gory head of the greatest prophet the world has seen. f. The sad fate of King Herod should be a profitable warning to all the people who have not settled the problem of personal salvation by entire sanctification; lest, like poor Herod, in an evil hour, the enemy slip in like a weasel and suck away your life-blood, blighting your hope, and sealing your doom in the gloom of rayless night.
g. In the present age of conjugal infidelity, illegal marriages, and all sorts of domestic entanglements, withering and blighting the beautiful flowers wont to bloom amid the gardens of holy wedlock, and disseminating social pestilence, like the withering sirocco that sweeps its pestilential gales over Lybias burning sands, thus turning home into a pandemonium, O how we need the lightning, steel, fire, thunder, and earthquake type of preaching which characterized the fearless prophet of the wilderness, when he publicly scandalized the king and queen in their own presence, heroically preaching the truth, though it cost him imprisonment and martyrdom!
h. Should not that great preacher have been more cautious, and thus perpetuated his liberties, and prolonged his life many years to preach the gospel? I trow not. God makes no mistakes. Though Johns active ministry in the open air lasted but about six months, till overtaken by the dark eclipse of imprisonment and death, doubtless he did more good than if he had preached a compromised gospel six hundred years.
Fuente: William Godbey’s Commentary on the New Testament
12 And they went out, and preached that men should repent. 13 And they cast out many devils and anointed with oil many that were sick, and healed them.”
Be sure to understand the context of this command to repent. It is in the context of the Old Testament economy, not the cross prepared New Testament economy. To the Jew, therepentance was obviously including turning to God the same as John’s (author of the gospel)
“belief” also included a turning from the old life to God. The Jew did not have to believe in God he already did that, he just needed to turn from his sin – repenting of his evil life.
We also see an addition to the healing that was going on, the apostles were anointing with oil along with the healing. This looks forward to the doctrine that James sets forth, the anointing of the sick by the church leadership, not some famous charismatic healer that roams the country looking to increase his/her bottom line. James mentions, Jam 5:14 ff “Is any sick among you? let him call for the elders of the church; and let them pray over him, anointing him with oil in the name of the Lord: 15 And the prayer of faith shall save the sick, and the Lord shall raise him up; and if he have committed sins, they shall be forgiven him. 16 Confess [your] faults one to another, and pray one for another, that ye may be healed. The effectual fervent prayer of a righteous man availeth much.”
At this point Matthew interjects a lengthy addition to the sending of the apostles. Mat 9:16-38 details a number of items including the thought that a city rejecting the message would be worse off in the judgment than Sodom and Gomorrah.
This maybe taken as the fact that those cities are more sinful than Sodom and Gomorrah, though this may not be the case. Sodom and Gomorrah were in the Old Testament economy and did not have the benefit of knowing of the miracles and of Christ, nor had they heard the message of John the Baptist. There is a clear excess of knowledge given to these New Testament cities and they will be held accountable for the knowledge that they were given.
Fuente: Mr. D’s Notes on Selected New Testament Books by Stanley Derickson
The Twelve were to do the same three things that Jesus did in His ministry (cf. Mar 1:4; Mar 1:14-15; Mar 1:32-34; Mar 1:39; Mar 3:10). Their mission was an extension of His mission (cf. Mar 16:15-20). Mark did not mention that Jesus sent them only to the Jews. Perhaps he wanted his readers to view themselves as carrying on Jesus’ ministry as the Twelve did then (cf. Mat 10:5-6). The Twelve learned that Jesus’ power extended beyond His personal presence and that God would work through them as He did through Jesus.
"Their coming to a village brought healing and salvation in the most comprehensive terms because they were his representatives. Jesus had commissioned them and they came in his name. What Jesus did in his own power as commissioned by God, the disciples did in his power." [Note: Lane, p. 209.]
Mark alone mentioned the Twelve anointing people with oil. People commonly applied oil for medicinal purposes in Jesus’ day (cf. Luk 10:34; Jas 5:14). [Note: Merrill F. Unger, "Divine Healing," Bibliotheca Sacra 128:511 (July-September 1971):236.] This ritual also symbolized God coming on the anointed person enabling that one to serve Him and setting the anointed person apart for God’s use. This, too, would have special significance for reader disciples who had experienced God’s anointing with the Holy Spirit at conversion and who had a similar ministry in their (our) day.
This pericope shows Jesus continuing to train His disciples for the ministry that lay before them and continuing to extend His own ministry of service through them. In their duties, the manner of their service, and their responses to the reactions to their ministry, they were to conduct themselves as the servants of the Servant.
"This participation of the Twelve in Jesus’ ministry and its apparent success contributes greatly to the irony in Mark’s portrait of the Twelve in this segment of the Gospel (Mar 6:7 to Mar 8:26). On the one hand, it opens with this special mission whose success reported in Mar 6:30 apparently reached to Herod’s court (Mar 6:14) and led to a relentless response by the crowds (Mar 6:31-33). On the other hand, the very Twelve who experienced a special calling and relationship with Jesus and now participate fully in this ministry are seen to lack understanding (Mar 6:52; Mar 7:18; Mar 8:14-21) and even reflect a ’hardened heart’ (Mar 6:52; Mar 8:17-18). This growing irony between the Twelve’s special privilege and lack of understanding has its seed in the previous section (e.g., Mar 4:11; cf. Mar 4:13; Mar 4:33-34; cf. Mar 4:41)." [Note: Guelich, p. 324.]