Mark 3:20-21 - Exposition

The last clause of Mark 3:19 , And they went into an house , should form the opening sentence of a new paragraph, and should therefore become the first clause of Mark 3:20 , as in the Revised Version. According to the most approved reading, the words are ( ἐξῆλθον ), He cometh into an house , or, He cometh home. There is here a considerable gap in St. Mark's narrative. The sermon on the mount followed upon the call of the apostles, at all events so far as it affected them and their mission. Moreover, St. Matthew interposes hero two miracles wrought by our Lord after his descent from the mount, and before his return to his own house at Capernaum. St. Mark seems anxious here to hasten on to describe the treatment of our Lord by his own near relatives at this important crisis in his ministry. So that they — i.e ., our Lord and his disciples— could not so much as eat bread ; such was the pressure of the crowd upon them. St. Mark evidently records this, in order to show the contrast between the zeal of the multitude and the very different feelings of our Lord's own connections. They, his friends, when they heard how he was thronged, went out to lay hold on him; for they said, He is beside himself . This little incident is mentioned only by St. Mark. When his friends saw him so bent upon his great mission as to neglect his bodily necessities, they considered that he was bereft of his reason, that too much zeal and piety had deranged his mind. His friends went out ( ἐξῆλθον ) to lay hold on him. They may probably have come from Nazareth. St. John ( John 7:5 ) says that "even his brethren did not believe on him;" that is, they did not believe in him with that fuiness of trust which is of the essence of true faith. Their impression was that he was in a condition requiring that he should be put under some restraint.