Chapter # 6 Paragraph # 1 Study # 5
July 6, 2021
Moss Bluff, Louisiana
(240)
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. The Reaction Of The "Many" In The Synagogue To The Teaching Of Jesus.
- A. The immediate impact of Jesus' teaching was a form of mental panic.
- 1. According to Matthew 7:28, this reaction was rooted in the awareness of His "authority". The straightforward sense of this text is that the "crowds" went into this mental/emotional condition because they sensed, and knew, that His words were inescapable and far beyond any "reality" that the scribes were able to describe with their strong awareness that He was contradicting some of their most tightly held "beliefs".
- 2. In Matthew 13:54 we have Matthew's parallel record to Mark's and it likewise tells us that the people of His "patris" went into this mental state because they did not like His doctrines and wished in vain for a way to deny them so that they settled for "because we have known Him from his childhood, He cannot be the Mighty One To Come". This is totally irrational so that Mark is making his case stronger word by word, sentence by sentence.
- 3. Matthew 19:25 tells us that His own disciples went into this state of mind when He told them that "rich" people were particularly handicapped in respect to entering into The Kingdom of The Heavens. This was a powerful contradiction to one of the most favored teachings of the scribes; to wit, that "riches" indicated the strong favor of God and His acceptance of those to whom He gave such wealth. This "doctrine" was one of those by which the "rich, theological perverts" held sway over the populace, not having any real evidence of their right to be "instructors for God".
- 4. Matthew 22:33 rounds out Matthew's use of this term with it as the description of the mental state of those who heard Jesus' doctrine of "resurrection". It is a terrifying teaching IF those who are to be raised are not qualified to experience "Life" forever.
- 5. Mark is the majority user of this word in the New Testament with Matthew a close second. Mark 1:22 is a parallel to Matthew 7:28; Mark 6:2 is a parallel to Matthew 13:54; and Mark 10:26 is a parallel to Matthew 19:25.
- 6. Only Mark 7:37 and 11:18 have no parallel in Matthew's record, but they both follow the same idea of the hearers in that those hearers are aware that Jesus is irrefutable, like Him or not.
- a. In 7:37 they are reacting to Jesus' healing of a deaf man with an impediment of the tongue: this record is one of few which allows the notion of "panic" to be set aside (there is nothing to fear) with the statement, "He has done all things well".
- b. In 11:18 the "whole crowd" has this reaction so strongly that the chief priests and scribes are "afraid" of Him and seek a way to "destroy" Him.
- c. In both of these texts, the strong implication is that the initial "panic" is being resolved by accepting His teaching(s).
- 7. Luke 2:48 is Luke's use of the term in the situation that Mary and Joseph discover as they sought for him in the temple as a twelve-year-old.
- 8. Luke 4:32 is Luke's parallel to Mark 1:22 and Matthew 7:28.
- 9. Luke 9:43 is Luke's parallel to Mark's record of the exorcism after the transfiguration, but Mark's record does not use this word.
- 10. Acts 13:12 is Luke's record of the "believing" response of Sergius Paulus on Paphos in Paul's initial "missionary journey". This is the only time that this "mental state" is directly tied to the positive result of "faith" in the one put into it by Jesus' teaching.
- B. This mental panic in the people of the "patris" of Jesus results in certain "questions".
- 1. They ask "Whence to this one these things?"
- a. This is a question of "source" for His "doctrines".
- b. This question has already been given the "official" answer: the primary leader of the demons (3:22). This "answer" has, at least, a modicum of rationality in that it does not go from mind-boggling "teachings" to hopelessly irrational attempts to give a legitimate answer.
- 2. They ask "What the wisdom which was given to this one?"
- a. They acknowledge a certain legitimacy to His teachings in that they call it "wisdom".
- b. For the pragmatic, "wisdom" is the ability to get the results one seeks by application of knowledge [This pragmatism is fundamental to the blind man's argument in respect to the religious leaders' admission that they can not give an answer to the "Whence?" question in John 8:29]. It is a relatively strong argument for legitimacy [but be aware of that pragmatism at the end of the age when the Man of Sin has a "prophet" who can call down fire from heaven].
- 3. They ask "[How] do these powers come to be through his hands?"
- a. This is, actually, a second part of the second question.
- b. But it introduces the idea of "How?" do the "powers ... come to be" by which He does the miraculous works of His hands.
- c. Since Mark's record began with the prophecy of "the coming of One Who is mightier", this is a central aspect of the recognition of the people of Jesus' "patris". Jesus is, in their eyes, "the son of Joseph" whose namesake possessed the "birthright" rather than Judah (1 Chronicles 5:2). As "the son of", He is the image of His "father"; i.e., He possesses the "birthright of Joseph" even though He actually came through Judah and David: Matthew 1:3-6.
- 4. These questions are all legitimate in essence, though they are not asked with integrity.