Chapter # 6 Paragraph # 1 Study # 4
June 29, 2021
Moss Bluff, Louisiana
(238)
1901 ASV
6:2 And when the sabbath was come, he began to teach in the synagogue: and many hearing him were astonished, saying, Whence hath this man these things? and, What is the wisdom that is given unto this man, and [what mean] such mighty works wrought by his hands?
6:3 Is not this the carpenter, the son of Mary, and brother of James, and Joses, and Judas, and Simon? and are not his sisters here with us? And they were offended in him.
6:4 And Jesus said unto them, A prophet is not without honor, save in his own country, and among his own kin, and in his own house.
6:5 And he could there do no mighty work, save that he laid his hands upon a few sick folk, and healed them.
6:6 And he marvelled because of their unbelief. And he went round about the villages teaching.
- I. Jesus' Deliberate "Sabbath" Activity.
- A. Mark focuses upon the coming of "Sabbath" with a Genitive noun and participle. It is possible that he meant "[the things] of 'sabbath' having come". The point is that there were 'sabbath' patterns (greatly flawed traditions) that were followed rather consistently.
- 1. Thus far in Mark there have been seven previous references to "sabbath", with this particular text (6:2) being an eighth.
- a. In those prior seven...
- 1) The first (1:21) begins Mark's presentation of Jesus (beyond his introduction) as both a teacher of "a new doctrine" and an exerciser of "authority". This is the beginning of the spread of Jesus' reputation with the critical issues being the identification of Jesus as "The Holy One of The God" (by an unclean spirit) and the human responses of panicked amazement by reason of His authority and great astonishment with the question "What is this?" (contrasted in 4:41 to "Who is this?").
- 2) The second, third, fourth, and fifth (2:23-28) center around the conflict with the Pharisees over "a thing of the Sabbath" (picking heads of grain to eat while making their way along on a sabbath) that Jesus turns into an occasion to declare Himself to be "Lord of the Sabbath" as "The Son of Man". Using four references in this one record makes it a major emphasis upon "things of 'Sabbath'" as a reason for the Pharisees to reject Him.
- 3) The sixth and seventh follow hard on the heels of the second through fifth uses and they plainly declare that Jesus' "word-only" (He didn't touch, or take any action except speech) healing of a withered hand was the basis of the Pharisee/Herodian conspiracy to destroy Him (3:2-4 and 6).
- 4) Then, our current text (6:1-6), again raises the "rejection" thesis by those in Nazareth along with the question, "Where did this man [get] these things, and what is [this] wisdom given to Him, and such miracles as these performed by His hands?"
- b. The argument is made that the rejectors used Jesus' "Sabbath" behaviors and teachings as the excuse to reject Him.
- 2. After these eight, there are only two more uses by Mark (16:1-2) as Mark presents Jesus' victorious resurrection to establish the fact that it was not "Sabbath" issues that actually created the rejection of Him by the religious establishment.
- B. Mark presents Jesus as beginning "to teach in the synagogue" (with no significant 'miracle' in the mix).
- 1. Mark follows the theme of Jesus teaching in the synagogues of Galilee with this record.
- 2. The synagogues were the "teaching" centers of Judaism and it is significant that it was what Jesus "taught" that was at the crux of His rejection by the glory-hounds of Judaism (12:39 compared with 15:10).
- 3. Mark does not tell us the particulars of "what" Jesus taught. Having covered that issue in chapter four (being introduced in 4:1-2), he simply says that His teaching was creating a serious contradiction to the theology of Judaism that many refused. At issue is the large issue of the sub-section: "faith" is God's non-negotiable (magnified by His eternal rejection of everyone who does not "believe").
- C. Mark presents the reaction of those in the synagogue who "are hearing".
- 1. He says "many" were there.
- 2. He says "hearing" (Present Participle), using the word that normally means "hearing with understanding", but fully 10 of the 41 uses by Mark are in chapter four where the issues of "hearing" are drawn out.
- a. In this particular setting, the "hearers" did understand what Jesus was saying in the sense that it sent them into a kind of mental panic.
- 1) This "mental panic" word is first used by Mark in 1:22 in his first paragraph in Jesus' first "teaching in the synagogue" and there it is clear that the people did recognize that what Jesus was saying was "new doctrine" and it was "authoritative" and it put them "on edge" because it was extremely contradictory to their "synagogue theology".
- 2) The use in 6:2 is Mark's second use to describe how the people responded (and it was not a good response). The people used a ridiculous argument to reject Him.
- 3) Mark's third use (in 7:37) is even more clear as to meaning: Jesus healed a man who was both deaf and had difficulty forming his words and the people were "exceedingly" panicked.
- 4) In 10:26 Mark used the word a fourth time to describe the disciples' absolute amazement because Jesus contradicted one of their most deeply held beliefs.
- 5) Mark's final use is in 11:18 in a setting where the chief priests and scribes became fully determined to destroy Him because the "whole crowd" was hearing with understanding and, being severely confronted by the contradictions of Jesus' "new doctrine" with their "received theology", were extremely liable to being convinced by Him.
- 6) On the whole, the issue is the kind of mental strain that arises when one's foundations are being contradicted with powerful refutations. Truly, Jesus set His hearers on edge because His teachings carried Eternal Life/Eternal Death, final experience consequences.
- b. In this particular case, these "many" decided to reject Him and His doctrines on the most flimsy of reasons..."saying" the most non-sensible thing.