Chapter # 6 Paragraph # 6 Study # 1
March 22, 2022
Moss Bluff, Louisiana
(292)
1901 ASV
6:53 And when they had crossed over, they came to the land unto Gennesaret, and moored to the shore.
6:54 And when they were come out of the boat, straightway [the people] knew him,
6:55 and ran round about that whole region, and began to carry about on their beds those that were sick, where they heard he was.
6:56 And wheresoever he entered, into villages, or into cities, or into the country, they laid the sick in the marketplaces, and besought him that they might touch if it were but the border of his garment: and as many as touched him were made whole.
- I. This Record Is A Gloss Regarding Jesus' Authority Over Illness [No Individual Details].
- A. There Is A Deliberate Description Of Details Regarding The Boat.
- 1. Having crossed over, they came upon the earth/land unto Gennesaret.
- a. The verb translated "crossed over" is only used in the New Testament in six places.
- 1) Matthew uses it twice: first (9:1), to described Jesus' "crossing over" the sea after leaving the man possessed of a "legion" of demons and coming to the healing of the man upon the bed by "forgiving his sins" and getting into the debate over His abilities to "forgive sins (a parallel to Mark's record of the same event, but tied to different issues); and second (14:34), to record the same event Mark is here recording with the same connection to Gennesaret.
- 2) Luke uses it once in his gospel (16:26) in connection with the record of the rich man/poor man who died and found themselves separated with a "great fixed gulf" that made it impossible for anyone to "cross over", and once in his record of the Acts of the Apostles (21:2) in regard to Paul's determined trip to Jerusalem even though he was informed more than once that bad things would happen to him if he went there.
- 3) And Mark uses it twice: first (3:21) in conjunction with Jesus' "crossing over" after casting the legion of demons out of the man and destroying 2000 pigs to come to the raising of Jairus' daughter from death; and second (6:53) in our current study where the "crossing over" is from the feeding of the 5000 to the indiscriminate healings in Gennesaret (as Matthew also records).
- 4) These uses (only six in the entire historical narratives of the New Testament) have it in common that very significant issues are on either side of the "crossing over". In Mark, the "crossing over" texts both balance the "issues" of Jesus' identity as presented by His absolute authority over the physical and the spiritual creation.
- b. That there is a reason for Mark's reference to Gennesaret is a given; what that reason was is not immediately obvious to us who live 2000 years later.
- 1) The original destination was Bethsaida (referred to in 7 texts of the New Testament; two of which are in Mark's record as significant because of the issue of "blindness" to which Mark commits a significant part of his narrative).
- 2) The references to Gennesaret in the New Testament are restricted to three (Matthew 14:34; Mark 6:53; and Luke 5:1).
- a) The Matthean reference is a direct parallel to this passage in Mark's record.
- b) The Lukan reference is to Jesus' "collection" of His first four disciples in a rough parallel to Mark's introductory presentation of that same event.
- 3) The name derives from the Hebrews "harp" which was noted for its soothing tones (David/Saul) and the place has the outline of a harp as a raised part of the area.
- a) Strong's Concordance says that "Gennesaret" is "of Hebrews origin" from the word "Chinnereth". Our pronunciation misleads us because it is not obvious to us that the word "Gennesaret" is a relatively loose transliteration of Chinnereth with the Hebrew letters being transliterated into Greek letters with, as I said, a rather loose equivalency.
- b) The word itself comes from the Hebrews word for "harp" which has, perhaps, its greatest significance in the record of David's soothing of Saul when he was tormented by an evil spirit (1 Samuel 16:16).
- c) The point is that the land that "pictured" a "harp" in its topography was also the most fertile and productive "earth" in all of Judea and Galilee. This points to the promise of God that that earth/land will "flow with milk and honey" and indicates that Jesus did this particular series of "healings" because the Kingdom was to be a land in which those who lived by the covenant that brought them to this land were to be "healthy" with none of the diseases of the nations put upon them. Thus, Jesus' indiscriminate healings was, along with the staging area (the "harp"), a declaration of His identity as the King of the "present" Kingdom of God. In this, there is a clear parallel to the feeding of 5000 men: Jesus is the King Who is capable of bringing about kingdom conditions upon the earth: all who hunger are filled, and all who are diseased are healed.
- 4) The link between Bethsaida and Gennesaret in Mark's record very likely signals the soothing comfort of health which Jesus provided to all who touched His garments and became the basis for Jesus' scathing denunciation in both Matthew 11:21 and Luke 10:13.
- 2. They were brought to anchor upon the land/earth into Gennesaret.
- a. This statement includes the verb "brought to anchor" (a passive voice verb that coincides exactly with John 6:21; "...and immediately the boat was at the land to which they were going").
- 1) This verb is unique to Mark's text in all of the New Testament and, at first blush, seems to be extraneous to the record.
- a) However, in keeping with Jesus' "jot and tittle" theology of the written words of God, there can be no "extraneous" words.
- b) There is an extreme paucity of references to this verb even in secular records. There is a possible connection of this verb to the noun "mountain", and, if legitimate, it would indicate an "anchorage to a mountain", the likes of which only have any parallel to the Ark coming to rest upon a mountain because of the decrease of the waters of the flood. This is a stretch, but it brings the imagery of the anchorage of the Ark upon the mountain of Ararat for the "new beginnings" of human history after the flood, which has its own parallel to the future destruction by fire. The significance of this "possible" parallel is Jesus' presentation of the Kingdom that, if believed, would have by-passed the judgment of fire that will be necessary to bring such a Kingdom into reality.
- i. The larger imagery of The Flood is the resemblance of the earth after God separated the "earth" from the "waters" in the original creation account.
- ii. The post-Flood world was a "new beginning" for the human race; the "problem" being that neither Noah, nor his sons, could escape the corruption that was in the world through Adam's transgression. Thus, the "new world" was shackled to the evil of the "old world" because the human inhabitants were not "new".
- 2) The destination described as "earth/land" is also reminiscent of the waters of the flood being negated in impact upon air breathers by the appearance of the "earth/land".
- 3. And having gotten of them out of the boat...
- B. There Is A Record Of Widespread Efforts To Get The Sick Healed.
- 1. "Having known Him...".
- 2. ["The people"] (i.e., "they") ran round about that whole region to carry the sick to where Jesus was.
- 3. This was, simultaneously, a recognition of "legal" failure in that the Law promised no sick among you if you walk in the Law (Deuteronomy 7:15), and of "grace available" in that Jesus was "known" to be a healer.
- C. There Is A Summary Of Indiscriminate Healings.
- 1. Wheresoever He entered ... they laid the sick so that they could "touch" Him.
- 2. Those who "touched" were made whole.