Exegetical and Hermeneutical Commentary of Mark 4:11
And he said unto them, Unto you it is given to know the mystery of the kingdom of God: but unto them that are without, all [these] things are done in parables:
11. the mystery ] The word Mystery denotes (1) a religious mystery like those of Eleusis, into which men were initiated; (2) a secret (as in 1Co 15:51); and is applied ( ) to the Gospel itself (as here and in 1Co 2:7; Rom 16:25; Eph 1:9); ( ) to the various parts and truths of the Gospel (Mat 13:11; Luk 8:10; 1Co 4:1); (3) to a symbolic representation or emblem (Rev 17:5; Rev 17:7).
them that are without ] Comp. 1Co 5:12-13; Col 4:5; 1Th 4:12.
Fuente: The Cambridge Bible for Schools and Colleges
Mar 4:11
Unto you it is given to know the mystery of the Kingdom of God.
Parables for two multitudes
As for the multitude, if you strain Christs language respecting them, you might say they were punished for their blindness by His making dark to them things which He made clear to others. This has been said. You have heard of judicial blindness-blindness, that is to say, inflicted by God as the punishment of unbelief or other sin. But if this was the case, why did He speak to them at all? Did He wish only a dozen men, or a few dozens, to understand what He said? If then it was not to hide His meaning from the multitude that Christ taught them in parables, how do you account for His choosing to teach them in that way? To answer this question we have to consider for a moment-
I. What a parable is. Now there is one thing certain as to these stories, that whatever might be His intention in using them, they do clear up things wonderfully. It would have taken a long discourse on true piety to show the distinction between it and false piety, which is shown in the Publican and the Pharisee; and what long discourse would have shown it so well? Remember this also, in regard to parables like Christs-they keep close to reality, they reproduce nature and life. Now if we take all this into consideration as to the nature of parables, it is possible, I think, to account for Christs speaking to the multitude in parables, and parables alone. In the first place, possibly there were what we may call considerations of prudence and policy in favour of this way of teaching. Look at the whole set of parables in this chapter; they all relate to the kingdom of God; and one thing they all more or less distinctly intimate, and it is that the establishment of that kingdom must be a work of time. It is like a sower who goes forth to sow; it is like the tares and the wheat which must grow up together until the harvest. As all these parables here suggest to us, time was needed for truth to prevail against error. Direct attack upon it was useless. Christ had tried that and found it unprofitable. And here the parables came in to serve the purpose. They did not assail error or assert truth controversially. Everyone could take from them and make of them what he pleased. But there was one thing certain with regard to them, and it was that they were certain to be remembered. They were sure to pass from mouth to mouth, and travel where doctrine however clear, or precept however just, would not reach. The meaning in them now open to the few would remain, and by and by might be perceived by the many. Time would ripen them for the purpose of instructing the multitude as well as the disciples. And this was their special virtue, that while they were thus fitted to preserve truth from being forgotten, they were above all fitted to preserve truth from being corrupted. Those whose minds were filled with the Pharisees ideas of religion could hardly help misunderstanding and misrepresenting the doctrinal sayings of Jesus. But it is impossible to corrupt, or sophisticate, or distort the story of the Prodigal Son or the Good Samaritan. A parable cannot be qualified like a saying or a body of doctrine. It is a bit of fact, and cannot be qualified by words. It keeps its meaning pure in spite of every effort to corrupt it. It is of kin with nature, which, whatever you may say of it or of any part of it, remains nature still, and is the truth. And thus it was for one thing Christ spoke to the multitude in parables. His purpose was to teach them truth, but their minds being filled with error, they had to unlearn that first. He spoke in parables, knowing that parables would last, and that while they lasted and were working their work, they would not, because they could not, be corrupted. But the great thing was that which distinguishes parables from other figures of speech-that they keep close to reality, to nature, and to life. It was the special vice of the religion of the multitude in Christs day, that it was wholly artificial, all sacrifice and no mercy. Their teachers taught them for doctrine the commandments of men, the thousand and one arbitrary rules about eating and drinking, about fasts and feasts, about offerings, about days, about intercourse with Gentiles, and touching the dead. The scope of Christs teaching was exactly the opposite of this. He was for mercy, and not sacrifice; for righteousness, and not mint and anise and cumin. It suited His doctrine, therefore, to be taught in parables. The world itself, if your doctrine is mercy, is one great parable ready for your use. Reality of any kind is truth, and all truth, from the lowest to the highest, is one; so that there are books in the running brooks, sermons in stones, and good in everything. The truth of things, begin with it where you will, if you follow it out will lead you up to God. You can make birds and beasts, and virtues and vices talk what you please; but you cannot, if you go to nature and human life find a parable to fit a lie. Christ chose that form of teaching which brought men face to face with nature and human life, because the men He had to teach, in the matter of their religion had departed as far as was possible from the truth of things, and had lost themselves in sayings and commandments and traditions, questions and strifes of words. He put truth into a form in which it could not perish or be corrupted; He turned his hearers minds in the direction in which they could soonest unlearn their errors and be prepared to receive His truth.
II. Now, consider the different effect of his parables upon the multitude and the disciples. As for the multitude, they had first to begin and unlearn everything they believed, before they could perceive the truth which His parables contained. Before anything in this particular set of parables here as to the kingdom of God could reach their minds, they had to unlearn all that they had learned from their teachers as to the kingdom of God being a Jewish commonwealth. The sower going forth to sow, the tares and the wheat growing up together until the harvest, the grain of mustard seed, the leaven hid in meal, the net dropped into the sea-what had these to tell them of their ideal Jewish commonwealth? They would find no meaning in these, as far as that kingdom of heaven was concerned. This, to be sure, was not to be the final effect of Christs parables, even upon the multitude. From being brought into this school of nature and life some of them at least would begin to feel its influence in turning them away from strifes of words about rites and ceremonies. Contact with reality could scarcely fail in many cases to engender suspicion, and then distrust, of all that was fictitious; and so in the decline of error truth would have its day. But, while, in course of time this might be the effect of the parables upon the multitude, the immediate effect, no doubt, was to confuse and darken their minds. Turn, on the ether hand, to the disciples. They had, at least in part, unlearned the false. They had begun to appreciate the true. To the minds of the disciples, alive already to the value of righteousness and the worthlessness of ceremonial sanctity, how rich in instruction and in comfort the story of the Prodigal Son!-how true and how glorious its representation of the great Father as one who is never so happy as when He has to welcome back to the home of eternal goodness and eternal blessedness the erring and miserable of His children! To their minds again how full of meaning and of comfort, the parable of the Lost Sheep!-the suggestion of the Eternal Righteousness engrossed, to the neglect of suns and solar systems, in the recovery of one soul which has strayed into the damnation of evil. Think that these disciples, like the multitude, were Jews, and held, till Christ began to teach, the religious notions of the multitude. Then consider all the certainty and breadth and fulness which these parables of their Master could not but give to their new faith,-faith in God as good, in goodness as mans true life, in the ultimate triumph of good over evil. Consider under what a different aspect the world now presented itself to their minds. He said to His disciples in reference to these parables, Blessed are your eyes, for they see, and your ears, for they hear; and also when he added, For verily I say unto you, that many prophets and righteous men have desired to see those things which ye see, and have not seen them, and to hear those things which ye hear, and have not heard them. I conclude with two remarks, the first of which is, that not one religion, but every religion, that of Christ included is apt, in the common mind, to degenerate into ceremonialism and strifes of words. And, in that case, what professes to be light becomes the grossest of darkness. It was not for an age, therefore, but for all time, that Christ spoke in parables to the multitude. These parables of His, bringing us into contact with nature and human life, furnish us with a resource of inestimable value against the prevalence of irreligion, error, infidelity, not only in the world, but in the church. Thus the parables are the salt of Christianity to preserve it from corruption and extinction; they recall us from all this barren or disgraceful war of words to the sterling virtue of the Good Samaritan, and the substantial goodness of the Prodigals Father. Again, I remark, the blessedness of Christian belief is that it is a vision of the universe as undivided. What did the disciples, who were blessed in their seeing, see? When it was given to them, as it was not given to the multitude, to understand these parables, what did they hear and comprehend? It was not that their own souls were to be saved; it was not that the Jews were to be converted, or the Gentiles to be visited by Christian missionaries. It was, that the kingdom of God, the Father and Saviour of all men, is eternal; that evil here and every where is temporary, and good alone is forever and ever. (J. Service, D. D.)
Fuente: Biblical Illustrator Edited by Joseph S. Exell
Verse 11. Unto you it is given to know] , to know, is omitted by ABKL, ten others, the Coptic, and one of the Itala. The omission of this word makes a material alteration in the sense; for without it the passage may be read thus: – To you the mystery of the kingdom of God is given; but all these things are transacted in parables to those without. Griesbach leaves it doubtful. And Professor White says, probabiliter delendum. I should be inclined to omit it, were it not found in the parallel passages in Matthew and Luke, in neither of whom it is omitted by any MS. or version. See the dissertation on parabolical writing at the end of Mt 13:58.
Fuente: Adam Clarke’s Commentary and Critical Notes on the Bible
11, 12. And he said unto them, Untoyou it is given to know the mystery of the kingdom of God: but untothem, &c.See on Mt 13:10-17.
Fuente: Jamieson, Fausset and Brown’s Commentary Critical and Explanatory on the Whole Bible
And he said unto them,…. His disciples;
unto you it is given to know the mystery of the kingdom of God; or the mysteries of the kingdom of heaven, the secrets of the Gospel dispensation, the mysterious doctrines of grace;
[See comments on Mt 13:11],
but unto them that are without; “to strangers”, as the Syriac and Arabic versions render it, who were not the disciples of Christ, nor admitted to any intimacy with him; who came only to amuse themselves with the sight of his person and miracles:
all [these] things are done in parables; are wrapped up in dark sayings, and figurative expressions, the sound of which they heard, and might be pleased with the pretty similes made use of, but understood not the spiritual meaning of them.
Fuente: John Gill’s Exposition of the Entire Bible
Unto you is given the mystery of the kingdom of God (H ). See on Mt 13:11 for word . Here (Mark 4:11; Matt 13:11; Luke 8:10) alone in the Gospels, but in Paul 21 times and in the Revelation 4 times. It is frequent in Daniel and O.T. Apocrypha. Matthew and Luke use it here in the plural. Matthew and Luke add the word
to know (), but Mark’s presentation covers a wider range than growing knowledge, the permanent possession of the mystery even before they understand it. The secret is no longer hidden from the initiated. Discipleship means initiation into the secret of God’s kingdom and it will come gradually to these men.
But unto them that are without ( ). Peculiar to Mark, those outside our circle, the uninitiated, the hostile group like the scribes and Pharisees, who were charging Jesus with being in league with Beelzebub. Lu 8:10 has “to the rest” ( ), Mt 13:11 simply “to them” (). Without the key the parables are hard to understand, for parables veil the truth of the kingdom being stated in terms of another realm. Without a spiritual truth and insight they are unintelligible and are often today perverted. The parables are thus a condemnation on the wilfully blind and hostile, while a guide and blessing to the enlightened.
That (). Mark has the construction of the Hebrew “lest” of Isa 6:9f. with the subjunctive and so Lu 8:10, while Mt 13:13 uses causal with the indicative following the LXX. See on Mt 13:13 for the so-called causal use of . Gould on Mr 4:12 has an intelligent discussion of the differences between Matthew and Mark and Luke. He argues that Mark here probably “preserves the original form of Jesus’ saying.” God ironically commands Isaiah to harden the hearts of the people. If the notion of purpose is preserved in the use of in Mark and Luke, there is probably some irony also in the sad words of Jesus. If is given the causative use of in Matthew, the difficulty disappears. What is certain is that the use of parables on this occasion was a penalty for judicial blindness on those who will not see.
Fuente: Robertson’s Word Pictures in the New Testament
Unto them that are without [ ] . The two latter words are peculiar to Mark. The phrase means those outside of our circle. Its sense is always determined by the contrast to it. Thus, 1Co 5:12, 13, it is non – Christians in contrast with me. Col 4:5, Christians, contrasted with people of the world. Compare 1Th 4:12; 1Ti 3:7. Matthew (xiii. 11), with less precision, uses simply ejkeinoiv (to them), the pronoun of remote reference. Luk 8:10, toiv loipoiv (to the rest).
Fuente: Vincent’s Word Studies in the New Testament
1) “And He said unto them,” (kai elegen autois) “And He responded to them,” to the inquiry of the disciples about the meaning of the Seed Sowing Parable. This parable is to be in harmony with the Mat 13:11 account, referring more restrictedly to the “kingdom of heaven” that is in the Kingdom of God.
2) “Unto you it is given to know the mystery of the kingdom of God:” (humin to musterion dedotai tes basileias tou theou) “To you all (my church, my followers, my bride) the mystery of the kingdom of God has been given,” given over, or delivered to understand the hidden meaning of the figures of the parable, as expressed Mat 11:25; Luk 10:21; 1Co 2:10.
3) “But unto them that are without,” (ekeinos de tois ekso) “But to those who are outside,” without your company or fellowship, without the church,” which was now committed the work, worship, and earthly service of God, – to the Christ rejecting religious Jews and the masses, Joh 1:11-12. The term “without” is here used in the same sense of “without” the Corinth church, 1Co 5:12, and “without” the church at Colosse, Col 4:5, meaning outside.
4) “All these things are done in parables:” (en parabolais ta panta ginetai) “All things are (exist) in parables,” and they who reject the Christ can not understand them, as expressed Dan 12:10; 1Co 2:14.
The term ”kingdom of heaven” seems to refer, restrictedly and always, as used by Matthew only, to the church that Jesus built, in its past, present, or future state, never to the sum total of the saved, or all the redeemed.
Fuente: Garner-Howes Baptist Commentary
(11) Unto them that are without.The form of the phrase is peculiar to St. Mark; St. Matthew giving, to them, and St. Luke, to the rest.
Fuente: Ellicott’s Commentary for English Readers (Old and New Testaments)
11. Them that are without The division between the within and the without was a very customary one with ancient philosophers. Those within were the people who listened and received their philosophy and became learned; those without were the common mass of men, who remained in unphilosophical ignorance. From the Greek words which designate this difference were derived the English words exoteric and esoteric. The exoteric, or those without, in Christianity, are not those who are incapable of learning for the Gospel is not, like a philosophy, abstruse and difficult but they are those who refuse to be wise when the Gospel, simple enough for a child, proposes to make them wiser than philosophy can make them.
Fuente: Whedon’s Commentary on the Old and New Testaments
‘And he said to them, “To you is given the mystery of the Kingly Rule of God, but to those who are without all things are done in parables, in order that seeing they may see, and not perceive, and hearing they may hear and not understand, lest it should happen that they turn again and it should be forgiven them”.’
‘To you is given.’ This is a way of saying ‘God has given you’ without using the name of God (compare His use of the passive tense in such a way in Mat 5:3-9 and often). ‘To you is given’ compares with Jesus’ words in Joh 6:65, ‘no man can come to me except it were given to him of my Father’. It is saying that by nature man is blinded to spiritual truth, and that it is only as God’s undeserved love acts on a man that he comprehends and responds to the truth (compare Mat 11:25).
‘The mystery of the Kingly Rule of God.’ In the New Testament a ‘mystery’ was something previously hidden but now revealed. It was an ‘opened secret’, and because these disciples sought, it was to be opened to them. For this idea of the secret things of God compare Deu 29:9; Amo 3:7; Psa 25:14; Pro 3:32; Job 15:8. The LXX uses the word ‘musterion’ of the secret God reveals to Daniel (e.g. Dan 2:19). Thus God’s secret was now being revealed, the secret that the Kingly Rule of God was now present and spreading. Compare Mat 13:35.
‘To those who are outside.’ Compare Mar 3:31. All who hear His words, but do not seek their deeper meaning, are spiritually ‘outside’, just as His mother and brothers were ‘outside’ earlier, so that they were not welcomed as His ‘brother, sister and mother’ (Mar 3:31).
Jesus is aware of how easily men could become like the hard ground on which seed could not grow. If they were told the significance of the parable before their hearts were opened they would just become hardened. They would see and not perceive, they would hear and not understand, and His fear was that they may then prematurely ‘turn again’ and receive a transient ‘forgiveness’ (see Mar 4:16) which was not real and lasting, a spurious experience. That has been the lot of many a man. It was the lot of Judas. But Jesus wanted true seekers, not those with a mere casual interest. Thus it was necessary to preach a partly hidden message which would lead those who wanted to know the truth to seek further, while leaving the remainder untouched but unhardened.
‘Done in parables.’ That is as hidden sayings, riddles (compare Psa 49:4; Psa 78:2; Pro 1:6; Eze 17:2), something to entice thought without being too openly apparent.
‘In order that (hina) seeing they may see, and not perceive, and hearing they may hear and not understand, lest (mepote) it should happen that they turn again and it should be forgiven them” The quotation is taken from Isa 6:9-10. Its being quoted in the third person instead of the second, and the use of ‘forgive’ instead of ‘heal’, is paralleled in the Targum (Jewish commentary) of Isaiah (Mat 13:14 onwards reproduces the LXX). The New Testament writers used different sources for their quotations in Greek (just as we may quote Scripture from different versions).
At face value this appears to be declaring that God’s purpose is that they might not see or hear in case they should turn again and thus find forgiveness, that is, that God is specifically acting in them and blinding their minds and their thoughts in order to prevent them from finding forgiveness.
Taken in this way it must be seen as being an example of God being seen as the final cause of all that happens. We can compare how in 2Sa 24:1 ‘the Lord’ (YHWH) causes David to number Israel, whereas in 1Ch 21:1 it is Satan who does so. The idea behind the first statement is that God is the great First Cause and that it is God Who is in the end sovereign over all that happens so that He is even seen as responsible for allowing Satan to do what he does. And who can deny that that is true? If this is accepted it can thus be argued that in the same way God is here taking the responsibility for what men do, even though it is not directly His doing. In other words it is then saying that if men and women close their eyes and their ears lest they be converted, then in the end it is God Who has done it, for He made man as he is.
However, other suggestions have also been made. These mainly depend on taking hina (in order that’) and mepote (‘lest’) and not accepting them at face value. For example it has been suggested that ‘mepote’ may possibly translate an Aramaic word used by Jesus (dilema) which means ‘unless’. This would then mean that turning again and being forgiven was to be seen as a possible alternative to not hearing and not perceiving. But it is not what mepote usually means.
In the Hebrew of Isaiah the word certainly means ‘lest’ and may thus be seen as signifying that in God’s purposes only the few are chosen (Mat 22:14), and the same applies to mepote in the Greek.
An alternative is to see Jesus as speaking ironically. He may be saying that if God did not prevent it they might superficially ‘turn again and be forgiven’, but that it would be in a way that was transient and passing, and not real. That is then to be seen as the ‘turning again’ that He is trying to prevent. It is saying that He does not want superficial repentance. It would have in mind, for example, what happened with Israel at Sinai. There too there was a turning again and a receiving of a kind of forgiveness, but in many it was not genuine so that they soon turned back to their own ways and in the end perished in the wilderness. And the same happened again and again throughout their history (consider Isa 58:1-8). The point here then is that He did not want that to happen again. If there was to be repentance He wanted it to be genuine and true, and thus He acted to prevent them coming to a position of false repentance. This way of looking at it actually fits well with the idea of Jesus’ use of parables in order to prevent men becoming case hardened.
For the truth is that men have an infinite capacity for discovering methods by which they can be put in the right with God without the actual need of a true submission to Jesus Christ, through, for example, making gifts of money to the church, by means of a stereotyped confessional, or by signing a decision card. In Jesus’ day it may well have been through offering the appropriate sacrifices without considering the need for genuine repentance, giving money to the Temple or the observance of certain feasts (see Isa 1:11-15).
Another alternative is again to see it as ironic and as suggesting that the emphasis must be put on the last phrase each time, thus ‘in order that seeing they may see and not perceive’, and hearing they may hear and not understand, with the words in italics indicating the position that they deliberately take up. Then the subsequent ‘lest’ is put at their door. They have deliberately not perceived and not understood because the last thing that they want is to have to turn again and be forgiven.
Fuente: Commentary Series on the Bible by Peter Pett
Mar 4:11-12. Unto them that were without , the people out of the vessel,the multitude on the shore. See , used in a similar sense in the history of Peter’s denial of his Master, Mat 26:69. The following words at first sight seem to import, that Jesus spoke to the people obscurely, in parables, on purpose that they might not understand what he said, for fear they should have been converted and pardoned. Nevertheless it is evident from St. Mark himself, that this was not our Lord’s meaning; for at the conclusion of the whole he says expressly, with many such parables spake he the word unto them, as they were able to hear it; but if Jesus spake to the people in parables as they were able to hear, his answer to the disciples, here recorded by St. Mark, who makes this observation on his preaching, cannot reasonably be understood in any sense inconsistent therewith. The true interpretation of the passage depends on a just view of St. Mark’s scope, which our translators seem to have missed; for, remembering that in the parallel passage, Mat 13:14 the words of Isa 6:9-10 are quoted, and finding some of the phrases of that prophesy in St. Mark, they never doubted but Isaiah was cited there likewise, and interpreted the passage accordingly; for they gave the Greek the signification of the Hebrew pen, in the prophesy, supposing it to be the corresponding word; and by that means made St. Mark contradict what he himself has told us in Mar 4:33. Nevertheless, if it shall be found that there is no citation here, properly speaking, but only an allusion to a citation which our Lord made in the beginning of his discourse, and which a preceding historian had recorded, we may allow, that though pen in the prophesy signifies lest, yet , in our Lord’s answer recorded by St. Mark, may have a different, but equally natural, signification; viz. If it be so,if peradventure, agreeably to its use in other passages. (See Luk 3:15. 2Ti 2:25.) That Isaiah is not cited in the branch of Christ’s answer recorded by St. Mark, is evident, because there is not the least hint of any citation. Besides, the slightest comparison of the passages themselves will shew them to bedifferent. In the prophesy, God orders Isaiah to declare concerning the Jews in after-times, that they would hear the Messiah preach, but not understand him; and see his miracles, but not conceive a just idea of the power whereby they were performed; and to prophesy of them, that they would harden their hearts, and deafen their ears, and close their eyes, lest they should see with their eyes, and hear with their ears,and understand with their hearts, and be converted and healed. In St. Matthew, our Lord assigns the completion of that prophesy as the reason why he spake to the people in parables. They were become so stupid and wicked, that they could not endure to hear the doctrines of the Gospel plainly preached to them. In St. Mark he added, that because this was the state of their minds, he wrapped up his doctrine in parables, with an intention that they might see as much of it as they were able to receive, but not perceive the offensive particulars, which would have made them reject both him and his doctrines; and that they might hear as much as they were able to hear, but not understand any thing to irritate them against him; and all with a design to promote their conversion and salvation. From our Lord’s using two or three of the prophet’s phrases in these verses, we cannot conclude that he cited him, or even that he used those phrases in the prophet’s sense of them. He had cited him in the beginning of his discourse, and therefore, though he affixed a different sense to his words, he might use them by way of allusion, to insinuate that it was the wickedness of the Jews, predicted by Isaiah, which had rendered this kind of teaching the only probable method of converting them. Upon the whole, the expressions ascribed to Jesus in St. Mark’s Gospel are by no means the same with those found in St. Matthew; but they contain an additional sentiment on the same subject, by way of further illustration. It is true, Christ’s teaching the Gospel by parables, placed in this light, appears to have been a favour, rather than a judicial stroke; notwithstanding it appears from our Lord’s own words, that it was of the latter kind; but the answer is, that this manner of teaching, withoutdoubt,impliedthehighestblameintheJews, whose wickedness had rendered it necessary, and conveyed an idea of punishment on the part of Christ, who for their wickedness deprived them of better means of instruction; so that it was really a punishment: at the same time it was a favour likewise, as it was a less punishment than theydeserved, and a punishment in order to reclaim them. I acknowledge, that if our Lord had not spoken in answer to the disciples, who desired to know the reason of his conduct, what he said on this occasion might have been compared with other texts; in which, according to the genius of the Hebrew language, the words lead us to think of the intention of the agent, while in the mean time nothing but the effect of his action is described. See Mat 10:34-35. Nevertheless, the circumstances of the passage under consideration forbid this method of interpretation. To conclude, this sense appears to me for another reason much the most probable, because when our Lord taught men, he never did it but with a view to instruct them, and to promote their salvation; so far was he from forming his discourses darkly, on purpose to keep them in ignorance, and hinder their conversion. For it is beyond the power of the most captious disputant to deny, that the great end of all Christ’s labours was the illumination, conversion, and salvation of mankind. Instead of done in parables, we may read, delivered in parables.
Fuente: Commentary on the Holy Bible by Thomas Coke
11 And he said unto them, Unto you it is given to know the mystery of the kingdom of God: but unto them that are without, all these things are done in parables:
Ver. 11. Unto them that are without ] That are those who are in the Church, but not of the Church. She hath her hangers on, that are as wens or botches to the body.
Fuente: John Trapp’s Complete Commentary (Old and New Testaments)
11. ] = Matt. and Luke.
added here (= , Luke) means the multitudes those out of the circle of his followers. In the Epistles, all who are not Christians , the corresponding meaning for those days, are designated by it.
] the whole matter is transacted. Herod. ix. 46, .
Fuente: Henry Alford’s Greek Testament
Mar 4:11 . , to you has been given, so as to be a permanent possession, the mystery of the Kingdom of God. They have been initiated into the secret, so that for them it is a secret no longer, not by explanation of the parable (Weiss), but independently. This true of them so far as disciples; discipleship means initiation into the mystery. In reality, it was only partially, and by comparison with the people, true of the disciples. in T. R. is superfluous. refers to the common crowd. : all things take place as set forth in parables. This implies that the use of parables had been a standing feature of Christ’s popular kerygma , in synagogue and street.
Fuente: The Expositors Greek Testament by Robertson
is = hath been.
know = got to know. Greek. ginosko, App-132. Compare 1Co 2:14. All the texts omit “to know” and read “has been given the secret” of the Kingdom, &c.
mystery = secret. Not before made known: i.e. its proclamation would be received only by a few.
the kingdom of God. See App-114.
that are without = outside (that circle). Occurs only in Mark. Compare 1Co 5:12, 1Co 5:13. 1Th 4:12. In Matthew “to them”, In Luke “to others”.
done = come to be (spoken).
Fuente: Companion Bible Notes, Appendices and Graphics
11.] = Matt. and Luke.
added here (= , Luke) means the multitudes-those out of the circle of his followers. In the Epistles, all who are not Christians,-the corresponding meaning for those days,-are designated by it.
] the whole matter is transacted. Herod. ix. 46, .
Fuente: The Greek Testament
Mar 4:11. , He said) With hearty good-will [with real pleasure].-, without) outside of the circle of genuine discipleship. [In antithesis to Mar 4:10 (They that were about Him with the twelve).-V. g.]-) Fall to [are done as concerns] them as parables.
Fuente: Gnomon of the New Testament
mystery
(See Scofield “Mat 13:11”)
Fuente: Scofield Reference Bible Notes
Unto you: Mat 11:25, Mat 13:11, Mat 13:12, Mat 13:16, Mat 16:17, Luk 8:10, Luk 10:21-24, 1Co 4:7, 2Co 4:6, Eph 1:9, Eph 2:4-10, Tit 3:3-7, Jam 1:16-18, 1Jo 5:20
them: 1Co 5:12, 1Co 5:13, Col 4:5, 1Th 4:12, 1Ti 3:7
all these: Mat 13:13
Reciprocal: 2Ch 9:2 – all Pro 1:6 – a proverb Pro 18:1 – seeketh Isa 8:16 – among Dan 12:10 – but the wise Mar 4:2 – by parables Mar 8:29 – But Mar 12:1 – he began Rom 11:8 – eyes 1Co 4:1 – mysteries 1Co 14:2 – howbeit Col 1:26 – now
Fuente: The Treasury of Scripture Knowledge
1
Them that are without refers to the people who were not disciples. This also is explained in the comments referred to in the preceding verse.
Fuente: Combined Bible Commentary
And he said unto them, Unto you it is given to know the mystery of the kingdom of God: but unto them that are without, all these things are done in parables:
[Unto them that are without.] Those without; in Jewish speech, were the Gentiles; a phrase taken hence, that they called all lands and countries besides their own without the land. Would you have an exact instance of this distinction? “A tree, half of which grows within the land of Israel, and half without the land, the fruits of it which are to be tithed, and the common fruits are confounded: they are the words of Rabba. But Rabban Simeon Ben Gamaliel saith, ‘That part which grows within the place, that is bound to tithing” [that is, within the land of Israel], “is to be tithed: that which grows in the place free from tithing” (that is, without the land) “is free.’ ” The Gloss is, “For if the roots of the tree are without the land, it is free, although the tree itself extends itself sixteen cubits within the land.”
Hence books that are without; are heathen books: extraneous books of Greek wisdom.
This is the common signification of the phrase. And, certainly it foretells dreadful things, when our blessed Saviour stigmatizeth the Jewish nation with that very name that they were wont to call the heathens by.
The word those without; occurs also in the Talmudists, when it signifies the Jews themselves; that is, some of the Jewish nation. Here the Karaites; who rejected traditions, there those without; are opposed to the wise men; “He that puts his phylacteries on his forehead, or in the palm of his hand, behold! he follows the custom of the Karaites. And he that overlays one of them with gold, and puts it upon his garment which is at his hand, behold! he follows the custom of those that are without.” Where the Gloss, “those without are men who follow their own will, and not the judgment of the wise men.” They are supposed to wear phylacteries, and to be Jews; but when they do according to their pleasure, and despise the rules of the wise men, they are esteemed as those that are without; or heathens. So was the whole Jewish nation according to Christ’s censure, which despised the evangelical wisdom.
[All things are done in parables.] I. How much is the Jewish nation deceived concerning the times of the Messias! They think his forerunner Elias will explain all difficulties, resolve scruples, and will render all things plain; so that when the Messias shall come after him, there shall be nothing obscure or dark in the law and in religion. Hence these expressions, and the like to them: “One found a bill of contracts in his keeping, and knew not what it meant, Let it be laid up till Elias shall come.” And more in the same tract, concerning things found, when it is not known to whom they are to be restored, “Let them be laid up till Elias come.” “That passage; (Eze 14:18;19 where a burnt offering is called a sacrifice for sin) Elias will unfold.” Infinite examples of that sort occur.
II. How those words have wracked interpreters, “Is a candle put under a bushel,” etc.; and, “There is nothing hidden,” etc.: you may see also without a candle. A very easy sense of them is gathered from the context. When Christ speaks in parables, “A light is put under a bushel”: but “the light (saith he) is not come for this end,” that it should be so hidden; nor, indeed, were it fit so to hide it, but that the divine justice would have it so, that they who will not see the light should not enjoy the light. But “there is nothing hid” which shall not be made manifest by the brightness of the doctrine of the gospel, so there be eyes that do not refuse the light, nor voluntarily become purblind. Therefore, take you heed how you hear, lest ye be like them, and divine justice mete to you by the same measure as is measured to them; namely, that they shall never hear, because they will not hear.
Fuente: Lightfoot Commentary Gospels
Mar 4:11. The mystery. Matthew and Luke: the mysteries. All the mysteries of the gospel form but one mystery, namely, the mystery of Christ for and in His people. And to them is given the mystery of the kingdom of God. The omission of to know renders the declaration even more forcible. These parables are to reveal, not good moral advice, but truth otherwise unknown, the peculiar doctrines of the gospel, which can be fully received only by those to whom spiritual discernment is given. Christ did not come merely to teach the Golden Rule or the Sermon on the Mount.
Unto them that are without. Matthew: to them. Luke: to others. A separation between the disciples and others had begun. (Afterwards, those without meant those not Christians; 1Co 5:12.) Those without did not receive this gift of God necessary for the understanding of these truths, were without its influences. But their position was according to their own choice; Christ forbade none, and the disciples in this case were not merely the Twelve chosen by Him, but all who would come.
Fuente: A Popular Commentary on the New Testament
Verse 11
Them that are without; those who had assembled, from various motives, to listen to what the Savior said, but who did not join themselves cordially to him, so as to be admitted to his confidence.
Fuente: Abbott’s Illustrated New Testament
4:11 And he said unto them, Unto you it is given to know the mystery of the kingdom of God: but unto them that are {e} without, all [these] things are done in parables:
(e) That is to say, to strangers, and such ones as are not of us.
Fuente: Geneva Bible Notes
Jesus drew a distinction between those who accepted His teaching, such as the Twelve, and those who rejected it, such as the scribes and Pharisees. Those "outside" were those outside the circle of discipleship. God was giving those who welcomed Jesus’ teaching new revelation about the coming messianic kingdom. He was withholding that revelation from those who rejected Him. The parables were the vehicle of that revelation. The Holy Spirit enabled the receptive to understand this enigmatic revelation, but He made it incomprehensible to the unbelieving. The parabolic method acted as a filter to separate those two types of people. The religious teachers of Jesus’ day used parables extensively, so Jesus’ hearers were familiar with them. By the rabbis used them only to illustrate and clarify, not to conceal. [Note: Edersheim, 1:580-81.]
". . . the three seed parables illustrate various aspects of the Kingdom of God by depicting God’s sovereign rule at work in the present but in a way unexpected in Judaism (cf. Jeremias, Parables, 146-53)." [Note: Guelich, p. 206.]
God was doing through Jesus what He had done through Isaiah centuries earlier. Jesus’ quotation of Isa 6:9-10 drew this comparison. One writer believed Jesus meant that most of the Jews were still in exile spiritually. [Note: Douglas S. McComiskey, "Exile and the Purpose of Jesus’ Parables (Mark 4:10-12; Matthew 13:10-17; Luke 8:9-10)," Journal of the Evangelical Theological Society 51:1 (March 2008):59-85.] We might add that this is always the double effect of revelation (cf. 1Co 2:6-16). God uses it to enlighten the receptive, but He also uses it to befuddle the unreceptive. Their inability to comprehend is a divine judgment for their unbelief (cf. Rom 11:25-32). Further enlightenment requires positive reception of present revelation. This knowledge is very helpful for Jesus’ disciples. It would have been an encouragement to Mark’s original readers as they shared the gospel with others and noted the two responses, as it is to modern readers.
"The judgment is a merciful one. The parable which the cold-hearted multitudes hear without understanding they remember, because of its penetrating and impressive form; and when their hearts become able to receive its meaning, the meaning will become clear to them. Meanwhile they are saved from the guilt of rejecting plain truth." [Note: Alfred Plummer, "The Gospel According to St. Mark," in The Cambridge Greek Testament, p. 124.]