Chapter # 5 Paragraph # 2 Study # 13
May 18, 2021
Moss Bluff, Louisiana
(228)
1901 ASV
37 And he suffered no man to follow with him, save Peter, and James, and John the brother of James.
38 And they come to the house of the ruler of the synagogue; and he beholdeth a tumult, and [many] weeping and wailing greatly.
39 And when he was entered in, he saith unto them, Why make ye a tumult, and weep? the child is not dead, but sleepeth.
40 And they laughed him to scorn. But he, having put them all forth, taketh the father of the child and her mother and them that were with him, and goeth in where the child was.
41 And taking the child by the hand, he saith unto her, Talitha cumi; which is, being interpreted, Damsel, I say unto thee, Arise.
42 And straightway the damsel rose up, and walked; for she was twelve years old. And they were amazed straightway with a great amazement.
43 And he charged them much that no man should know this: and he commanded that [something] should be given her to eat.
- I. Mark's Record Of Jesus In The House Of The Ruler Of The Synagogue.
- A. He switches to present tense verbs for this record to present it as "on-going".
- 1. Initially, "they are coming into the house".
- a. The "they" are Jesus, the "Ruler", Peter, James, and John (the brother of James). This is a group of three of the four who were initially "called to follow" in Mark's introduction with Andrew not included. The "brother of James" characterization of John is interesting for its inclusion and omission at various places in Mark's record. He was the only one named "John" among The Twelve, so there is no obvious reason on that point to identify him as "the brother of James". In a kind of reversal, "James" is called "the brother of John" when, in Acts 12:2, he was murdered by Herod, but this is understandable because just a few verses later "James", the half-brother of Jesus, is identified (though he is not identified in that way; only his own name is given). Interesting, but why?
- 1) It is entirely possible that the "connection" here is theological: Jacob was given his name because he had a firm grasp of his twin's heel when the two were born and Esau complains that "Jacob" was well named in Genesis 27:36 because he "took away my birthright and ... my blessing ... ". The name change was made in Genesis 32:28 because "...you have striven with God and with men and have prevailed". At root, then, is the developed historical reality that "James/Jacob" was "the father of Israel" as the progenitor of "Israel" and called the place of his name-change Peniel because "I have seen God face to face, yet my life has been preserved". James/Jacob is the theological forerunner of the "system" that represented "God as Righteous Judge" (James 4:12 and 5:9) and John represented God as "God as Gracious Redeemer". Jacob valued the right things (the birthright and blessing) so that he had "a zeal for God" (Romans 9:31-10:1), but approached the acquisition of them by a false methodology, and Esau despised his birthright (Genesis 25:34) and put all his energies into fleshly pursuits (Hebrews 12:16). Thus, "John" (Gracious is Yahweh) is the rightful "brother" to "James" (Yahweh is the righteous Judge). Thus, also, Acts 12:2 is a kind of metaphor of history wherein the ascendant thesis of God's Righteousness/Judgment is "put to death" and the ascendant thesis becomes God's Grace/Redemption. These two are "sons of thunder" and "Zebedee" is that "thunder" (from Zebadiah, "Yahweh has bestowed"). The theme of "thunder" is raised in John 12:29 where God speaks from heaven about "having glorified His name" (the principle issues of which are Justice and Grace), and further raised in The Revelation where (Revelation 6:1) it was a "voice of thunder" that follows the breaking of the first seal of the book.
- 2) The terminology of James and John his brother is given in Mark 1:9; 3:17; and 5:37. In addition, "Peter, James, and John" are first deliberately linked in our current text (5:37) as a threesome whose next link is in 9:2 where the three are with Jesus at His transfiguration and in 14:33 where they are with Jesus in the Garden. It is probably instructive that "James and John" wished for Jesus to make them the right and left hand men in the Kingdom (10:35) as representatives of the most crucial theological themes of the glory of God.
- b. This group are being viewed as they are entering into the house of the ruler of the synagogue.
- 2. "He (Jesus) is beholding...".
- a. The concept of "beholding" is "looking on a given setting in order to discern a given 'fact' or 'set of facts'.
- b. What Jesus "is beholding".
- 1) Mark first characterizes what Jesus is beholding as a kind of "riot" (14:2) as behavior that indicates a disorganized, but intense, negative reaction to the present event(s); in this case the arrival of the group with the death of the beloved daughter as the preeminent focus of all of the minds and hearts of the people there. There is a great deal of agitated, disorganized, behavior.
- 2) He then characterized what Jesus is beholding as "weeping", a term used in 14:72 to describe Peter's emotional outburst when he remembered Jesus' prediction that he would deny Him three times that night in the face of his proud, intense, boast that he was "loyal" to the death.
- 3) And finally he characterized what Jesus is beholding as "much wailing", a participle found only in 1 Corinthians 13:1 outside of Mark's use. Paul's use indicates a particularly grating, noisy, sound that rather dominates the setting in which it is heard.
- 4) This is, in summary, a tumult of loud, irritating noise and action.
- 3. "And having entered, He is saying to them...".
- a. We are watching Jesus entering into the house; we are seeing Him looking around at the tumult; and now we are hearing His words.
- b. Why are you throwing such a fit and weeping? The child has not died BUT is sleeping.
- 4. "And they were 'deriding' of Him...".
- a. This verb is only used of this event as it is recorded in Matthew, Mark, and Luke.
- b. The strong implication is that they were "laughing" because they clearly considered Him "an ignorant nut-job". The veil of their general respect slips here, and their real attitude is revealed. There is, and always has been, a deep, underlying hatefulness toward Jesus that is kept hidden most of the time. There is no question that His teaching has deeply offended a great number of people because it rests upon the presupposition of seriously depraved people who have no real interest in being confronted with their real attitudes.
- 5. His response to them is, basically, "Get out of here!" The verb used is found in 17 of Mark's texts with most of them recording Jesus "casting out" demons. It has overtones of violence in it (9:47 and 11:15), and is presented as "irresistible".