Chapter # 1 Paragraph # 7 Study # 1
February 5, 2019
Moss Bluff, Louisiana
(046)
1901 ASV
21 And they go into Capernaum; and straightway on the sabbath day he entered into the synagogue and taught.
22 And they were astonished at his teaching: for he taught them as having authority, and not as the scribes.
23 And straightway there was in their synagogue a man with an unclean spirit; and he cried out,
24 saying, What have we to do with thee, Jesus thou Nazarene? art thou come to destroy us? I know thee who thou art, the Holy One of God.
25 And Jesus rebuked
him, saying, Hold thy peace, and come out of him.
26 And the unclean spirit, tearing him and crying with a loud voice, came out of him.
27 And they were all amazed, insomuch that they questioned among themselves, saying, What is this? a new teaching! with authority he commandeth even the unclean spirits, and they obey him.
28 And the report of him went out straightway everywhere into all the region of Galilee round about.
- I. "They Are Entering".
- A. This is a switch in Mark's narrative from the historical aorists and imperfects he used in 1:2-20. Only in 1:12 does Mark use a present tense verb in his introduction (not counting the two verbs in the quoted material from the Old Testament that are present tense); all the rest of the narrative is cast in terms of the past.
- B. The impact of the present is "vividness". Once the introductory issues are given, the narrative goes into a "present tense narrative": "And they are entering into Capernaum, and immediately...".
- II. Capernaum shows up both here and in 2:1 (with an "again") and not again until 9:33 (the last use by Mark) when Jesus quizzed them about their argument about who was the greatest.
- A. The "again" in 2:1 may be a literary signal by Mark. Did he use "Capernaum" early on to organize his material?
- B. At issue in this second entrance into Capernaum is Jesus' ability/authority to forgive sins (2:10). The issue in the first entrance is Jesus' teaching "with authority"; not as the scribes.
- III. "Straightway"; this word is used in 40 verses of Mark (out of a total of 51 in the entire New Testament) in the Nestle/Aland 26 Greek Text. The Textus Receptus has a preference in Mark for eutheo (the adverbial form of the word) while the Nestle/Aland 26 uses euthus (the adjectival form of the same word).
- IV. The "On the Sabbath Day" is Literally "On the Sabbath Days".
- A. The implication is strong that He was in Capernaum for multiple "Sabbaths" before the demoniac erupted.
- B. This implication is buttressed by the imperfect tense of "He was teaching". On more than one Sabbath Jesus took the opportunities to "teach".
- V. He Was Teaching.
- A. Having entered into the synagogue... .
- B. The focus upon Jesus' impact in the synagogues of Galilee is dominant from 1:21-6:6. After 6:1-6 there are no references to synagogues until 12:39 and 13:9.
- 1. The paragraph of 6:1-6 has many of the same terms as the paragraph before us. His disciples are "following"; the "sabbath" comes; He begins to "teach" in the "synagogue"; and many "are astonished" (ekplesso).
- 2. The paragraph of 6:1-6 is a record of the hearers "being offended" and "rejecting" Him because of their "unbelief".
- 3. This paragraph is the last unit of thought before the record of Jesus "sending the twelve forth" to exercise "authority" over the demons. This record (6:7-13) is a fulfillment of the record in 3:13-21 where Jesus "called" and "commissioned" the Twelve to be "with Him" and, later, to be "sent forth to preach".
- C. Mark's first reference to Jesus' public proclamation was in his introduction to Jesus in 1:14-15 in which there is a broad summary of Jesus' "message": "The Kingdom is at hand; repent and believe in the Gospel".
- D. This record of Jesus' "teaching" in the synagogue on successive Sabbaths introduces the issue of "authority" in His teaching; a directly necessary issue in relation to His overall "message". That message must needs have some basis in "authority" because of its absolutely crucial meaning and significance.
- 1. This issue of "authority" in Mark has to do with two related issues: how one obtains "authority" to take action in some way; and acting upon the authority possessed.
- a) In what is probably Mark's "key" text regarding this major thesis of his record (11:28-33), he recorded the chief priests, scribes, and elders of Jerusalem confronting Jesus over the "authority" that pressed forward His teachings and actions.
- 1) In this confrontation, those chief priests, scribes, and elders (who are assumed by everyone to have "authority" to make and enforce decisions about many things), challenge Jesus as to "How?" He goes about "doing these things" (a repeated phrase, and, thus, the "focus" of interest in 11:28). This "How?" question has two parts: "What is the authority possessed?"; and "Where did you get it?".
- 2) The answer to this "How?" issue is "beyond obvious" (Note Nicodemus' admission in John 3:2 that "we know that You are a teacher come from God: for no man can do these miracles [things] ... except God be with him"].
- 3) Jesus forces the issue by demanding that these "authority-figures" in Jerusalem tell Him aloud whether John was from God or not. "Heaven" is the proper answer, but it is "the God of Heaven" that is the real answer, so the "authority-figures" in Jerusalem refuse to answer. "We cannot tell".
- b) In 13:34 Mark gives a very informative illustration of "authority" (he answers the "what is it?" question). This context addresses the owner of a property leaving his house for a long journey and needing "others" to take care of "things". So, in this "need", he gives "authority to his servants, and to every man his work". Thus, the "authority" is the Master's delegation to the servants of everything necessary to do the particular "work" that He assigns each one. Thus, "authority" is the delegation of everything necessary to get the particular tasks accomplished. Though the issue of "authority" is "delegated ability" and not, technically, "power", everyone knows that the "power" that lies at the root of the "delegated ability" is that of the Delegator and no one opposes the delegatee unless they want to have a power-confrontation with the Authority Giver.
- 2. There is a deliberate contrast of Jesus' "teaching with authority" with the scribes' "teaching without authority".