Mark 6
WesleyMark 6:3
My name is Legion! for we are many - But all these seem to have been under one commander, who accordingly speaks all along, both for them and himself.
Mark 6:9
And they were afraid - It is not improbable they might otherwise have offered some rudeness, if not violence.
Mark 6:12
Mark 6:13
Tell them how great things the Lord hath done for thee - This was peculiarly needful there, where Christ did not go in person.
Mark 6:14
He published in Decapolis - Not only at home, but in all that country where Jesus himself did not come.
Mark 6:15
Mark 6:16
One of the rulers of the synagogue - To regulate the affairs of every synagogue, there was a council of grave men. Over these was a president, who was termed the ruler of the synagogue. Sometimes there was no more than one ruler in a synagogue. Matthew 9:18; Lu 8:41.
Mark 6:19
Mark 6:31
John, the brother of James - When St. Mark wrote, not long after our Lord’s ascension, the memory of St. James, lately beheaded, was so fresh, that his name was more known than that of John himself.
Mark 6:34
Them that were with him - Peter, James, and John.
Mark 6:37
He charged them that no man should know it - That he might avoid every appearance of vain glory, might prevent too great a concourse of people, and might not farther enrage the scribes and Pharisees against him; the time for his death, and for the full manifestation of his glory, being not yet come. He commanded something should be given her to eat - So that when either natural or spiritual life is restored, even by immediate miracle, all proper means are to be used in order to preserve it.
Mark 6:39
Mark 6:41
Is not this the carpenter? - There can be no doubt, but in his youth he wrought with his supposed father Joseph.
Mark 6:43
He could do no miracle there - Not consistently with his wisdom and goodness. It being inconsistent with his wisdom to work them there, where it could not promote his great end; and with his goodness, seeing he well knew his countrymen would reject whatever evidence could be given them. And therefore to have given them more evidence, would only have increased their damnation.
Mark 6:44
He marvelled - As man. As he was God, nothing was strange to him.
Mark 6:45
Mark 6:46
He commanded them to take nothing for their journey - That they might be always unincumbered, free, ready for motion. Save a staff only - He that had one might take it; but he that had not was not to provide one, Matthew 10:9. Lu 9:3.
Mark 6:47
Be shod with sandals - As you usually are. Sandals were pieces of strong leather or wood, tied under the sole of the foot by thongs, something resembling modern clogs. The shoes which they are in St. Matthew forbidden to take, were a kind of short boots, reaching a little above the mid - leg, which were then commonly used in journeys. Our Lord intended by this mission to initiate them into their apostolic work. And it was doubtless an encouragement to them all their life after, to recollect the care which God took of them, when they had left all they had, and went out quite unfurnished for such an expedition. In this view our Lord himself leads them to consider it, Luke 22:35: When I sent you forth without purse or scrip, lacked ye any thing?
Mark 6:48
Mark 6:50
Mark 6:51
They anointed with oil many that were sick - Which St. James gives as a general direction, James 5:14,15, 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 scarce any resemblance to it; the former being used only as a means of health; the latter only when life is despaired of.
Mark 6:52
Mark 6:53
A prophet, as one of the prophets - Not inferior to one of the ancient prophets.
Mark 6:54
But Herod hearing thereof - Of their various judgments concerning him, still said, It is John.