Chapter # 4 Paragraph # 2 Study # 2
February 18, 2020
Moss Bluff, Louisiana
(144)
1901 ASV
12 that seeing they may see, and not perceive; and hearing they may hear, and not understand; lest haply they should turn again, and it should be forgiven them.
- I. Jesus' "Hidden" Truth: Its Reason For Being "Hidden".
- A. The parables were spoken by Him to deliberately keep "those without" (identified by 3:31-32 as those who "went public" with their evaluation of Jesus as "beside Himself" -- 3:21) from being able to "see" or "understand" the "mystery" of the Kingdom of The God.
- 1. The verb translated from the Textus Receptus "to know" in Jesus' "Unto you it is given to know..." has a contested existence in the text: the textual evidence for its inclusion is so weak that it doesn't even get any comment by the textual commentary of the Greek New Testament. The text with the greater textual support simply says, "Unto you the mystery has been given...".
- 2. The issue in the "to see" and "to hear" is generally the same (not "getting it"), but is specifically just a bit different.
- a. In respect to "seeing".
- 1) This word is used by Mark in more than one "sense". It is used in 14 texts of Mark.
- a) In six cases, he used it to signify physical sight by means of eyes.
- b) In the other eight cases (as in 4:24; 8:15; 12:14; 12:38; 13:5, 9, 23, and 33) he used it in a "cautionary" sense -- as in "Take heed", or "Beware" -- which means "let the input of your eyes lead you to legitimate reasoning and conclusions".
- c) In our current text, it means "to visibly see" with one's eyes.
- 2) Jesus is saying that His teaching in parables is, most fundamentally, Him teaching.
- a) This "Him" is all about what they had "seen" as He healed and cast demons out of people. They "saw" Him as He exercised "heavenly authority" over "earthly problems".
- b) This "seeing", normally, would lead to the drawing of conclusions about "Him" that were in harmony with the reality of His identity [given by John as "The Mightier One", "The Worthier One" and "The More Effective One" in 1:7-8].
- c) But, in the case of "those without", there was a breakdown between what they "saw" and what they, then, concluded and, subsequently, with which they "went public".
- i. "Seeing" is the most preliminary part of an inescapable process. "Seeing" is never to be understood as only light carrying an image to the retina. The retina is directly connected to the optic nerve which transfers the image into the brain where the "mind" evaluates it and presses it into its "family" of "thought concepts" so that it can be a piece of "data" to be used to give "connections" to other "families of thought concepts" so that some level of usefulness develops for the person to draw conclusions and, then, take actions.
- ii. "Critical" here is the third step of the whole process: taking action. Until this step is taken, it cannot be said that a person "sees". In our text, there are two words that are often translated "to see": blepo and eido. The former is used in 5:31 et. al. to refer to the use of the eyes to "see". The latter is used in 1:10 et. al. to refer to the very same thing. But, the "sense" is not the same: seeing with the eyes may be "panoramic" (blepo) so that there is no discernible reaction, but it may also be "specifically focused" (eido) with an actual intention of grasping specific details so that actions may be taken.
- iii. In the case of our current text/context, the action involved is "going public". The "family" was unwilling to "go public" with anything remotely in harmony with His visible abilities (it was like cutting the connection between the retina and the optic nerve) but they had to "go public" with something because they were forced by the developing realities to say something. The scribes from Jerusalem also had to "go public", so they did -- with the "official decision" that He was in league with Satan. This addressed what was seen of His "visible abilities" and gave a kind of answer that, on the face of it, was to address what was "seen", but without giving in to the claim that His "visible abilities" were rooted in God.
- b. In respect to "hearing", Jesus is saying that His verbal teaching in parables is a response to the unwillingness to draw legitimate conclusions from the "seeing"; thus, His "teaching" unto "hearing" was "over their heads".
- 1) They "heard" what He said, but, being unwilling to let the actions lead them to understanding (John 10:38), they found themselves blocked out of the ability to grasp, by hearing, the "mystery" by Jesus Himself: He couched His verbal/heard revelations regarding the Kingdom in the difficulty of understanding "parables".
- 2) Mark used the verb translated "understand" (Authorized Version) in 4:12 in a precise way: it literally means "to put things together in such a way as to enable comprehension to occur" (suniemi). Because they would not allow themselves to go where their "sight" was intended to take them, they could not, then, make the linkages between "families of thought" that would take them there.
- B. This "hiding" was for a more profound reason than keeping them from "perceiving" and "understanding".
- 1. There is a "lest" (mepote) in the text.
- a. The word is used only twice by Mark and, in both cases (4:12 and 14:2), it signals a very real "potential" result from some action in the context.
- 1) In 14:2 it signals the anticipation, by the plotters of Jesus' arrest, that there could be a "riot" if that arrest was made during the festival that was on-going.
- 2) Similarly in this current text, there is an anticipation that if "seeing" and "hearing" had their typical impact, certain ones would, perhaps, "turn" and "it would be forgiven to them".
- b. In our text, there is a contextual focus for the word translated "...be forgiven...".
- 1) In 2:5-10, one of the most significant issues is set forth: "the forgiveness of sins by Jesus.
- 2) In 3:28-30, one of the most significant issues regarding "forgiveness" is set forth: the refusal by both God, the Father, and Jesus, the Son, to ever "forgive" whoever is guilty of "blasphemy" directed toward God, the Spirit.
- c. The spectre of "seeing" and "hearing" unto "perception" and "understanding" leading to "forgiveness" is "anticipated" by Jesus so that He definitively "blocks" that normal process so that "forgiveness" is never granted.
- 2. This "difficult" verse is, when 3:28-30 is considered a significant part of the immediate text, no longer "difficult".
- a. Jesus had told those who had set forth the "official" decision of Judaism that they would never be forgiven.
- b. Then, after a brief return to the theme of "those without" as it applied to His "family", our current text is set forth.
- c. Jesus was simply making sure that His declaration to those "officials" would stand.
