Chapter # 3 Paragraph # 3 Study # 2
October 15, 2019
Moss Bluff, Louisiana
(114)
1901 ASV
13 And he goeth up into a mountain, and calleth [
unto him] whom he would: and they came unto him.
14 And he ordained twelve, that they should be with him, and that he might send them forth to preach,
15 And to have power to heal sicknesses, and to cast out devils:
16 And Simon he surnamed Peter;
17 And James the [
son] of Zebedee, and John the brother of James; and he surnamed them Boanerges, which is, The sons of thunder:
18 And Andrew, and Philip, and Bartholomew, and Matthew, and Thomas, and James the [
son] of Alphaeus, and Thaddaeus, and Simon the Canaanite,
19 And Judas Iscariot, which also betrayed him: and they went into an house.
- I. He Is Calling For Himself... .
- A. Another historical present tense for emphasis.
- 1. John 15:16 makes this a significant issue [Note also John 6:70 (with Judas included); John 13:18 (with Judas excluded); and John 15:19 (with Judas excluded).
- 2. Mark uses this terminology nine times, with the present text the first of the nine.
- a. Of the nine uses, only two are in this particular form (present tense, middle voice, indicative mood, third person, singular number): 3:13 and 6:7.
- b. These two are significantly linked: in 3:13 He called them so that He might "send them forth to preach" and in 6:7 He sent them forth to preach. These two uses form a kind of "book-ends" that define a boundary within Mark's structure so that we might see the material from 3:13 to 6:7 as the record of the main issues in the "that they might be with Him" section in which He is "schooling" them so that they might be able to go forth to preach with accuracy and understanding.
- 1) The physical location of His summons "on the mountain" indicates that He is preparing them to go forth to preach the key issues of the "Kingdom" of which He is King [see notes of the immediately previous study (111)].
- 2) The "summons" is His own; it is not a call for "volunteers".
- B. At issue is a "summons" from Jesus that arises out of His own purposes because the verb is "middle voice".
- 1. The word is "intensive" in that it has a prefix attached that is the same preposition that is used in the same sentence just six words further into it ("...He called to Himself ... and they came to Him").
- 2. This "summons", in Mark, always means that the one doing the "summoning" wants to "say something significant to the summoned", and Jesus is that "One" in all of Mark's references except the last one (15:44), where it is Pilate.
- 3. The term is used in specific reference to the "disciples" on some of the occasions of its use, but is also used respecting the crowds that followed Jesus.
- 4. To grasp the main point, review A.1. above.
- II. Those Whom He Was Wanting... .
- A. The term used is (thelo) and it has the sense of "wanting", not "determining". It is the expression of a "desire" rather than an "intention", but, given sufficient support from the resources of the one "desiring", it can be an "intention". There is a specific word for "determined intention". For this cause, the focus is upon what Jesus "wanted", not what He "determined".
- B. The tense is "imperfect", revealing a historical narrative that has a past tense, on-going, impact ("He was wanting" rather than "He wanted"). It keeps the focus on "what is going on in the focal issues of the story". "He is calling for Himself those He was wanting".
- III. And They Came To Him.
- A. This "result" is always the case in Mark's use of the word "calling/summoning", but it is not always actually stated except in "assumption" ("He called and said" assumes the "called" came).
- B. That Mark records this "assumed response" is significant in that Mark wished to indicate the potency of the "summons": Jesus did not leave the outcome up to the "choices" of the summoned, but they did "come" (John 15:16 is not a denial that they "chose" Him; it is simply a declaration of which came first and carried the day; "I have chosen you").
- C. Mark's first use of this verb is found in 1:20 to record the response of James and John when Jesus "called" them (the root idea of our current word without the prefix). They immediately dropped what they were doing and "came", leaving their father and the boat. There seems to be a principle here in respect to how quickly the "summoned" "come": if the "summons" has to be extended more than once, there is always a negative consequence built into the reality that such "summonses" are not ignored except by "an evil heart of unbelief" and even if "Grace" continues the pursuit, the outcomes seem somewhat diminished; it is always best to "come" when "called".
