Chapter # 6 Paragraph # 6 Study # 2
March 29, 2022
Moss Bluff, Louisiana
(294)
1901 ASV
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. Two Qualifying Participles Laying The Foundation For The Activity Of One Main Verb.
- A. The Participles. 1. exelthovton (Aorist Active Masculine Plural Genetive) from exercomai, meaning to exit/come out/go out.
- a. Mark uses this word in 37 texts of his record (thus, probably indicating that there is no special literary design involved, though in this Word of The Infinite there may well be one that none of us see, or will see until all of our blindnesses are resolved).
- b. Whether we should see this verbal idea as "coming out" or "going out" is context-dependent as in 1:25 where, because Jesus is external to the demoniac, it means "come out" and 1:28 where, because Jesus is in one place and the news moves from Him to the "everywhere", it means "go out". From the people's perspective, the disciples and Jesus "came out of the boat"; from the perspective of Jesus and the disciples, they "went out".
- c. In every case, the ex prefix ("out") fixes the "direction" ("out from within") of the verbal idea of "coming/going" and intensifies the meaning of the main verb to which it is attached.
- d. In Mark, the "boat" has a two-fold significance: one, it provides a kind of "haven" from the extreme selfishness of the crowd (4:1); and, two, it is a "setting" for Jesus' special dealings with the disciples as He deals with their particular issues of fearful lovelessness and crippling unbelief.
- 1) In particular the storm that threatened to drown them, the strong wind that kept them from being able to go to Bethsaida, and the extremely critical confrontation of their susceptibility to the "leavens". This last being the last time a "boat" enters into the record.
- 2) And, specifically, because the disciples had too much to do when "out of the boat" to be able to assimilate the "lessons" of the events on the land.
- a) First, as seen in the lack of insight after the feeding of the 5,000 men (6:52).
- b) Then, as seen in the lack of insight when warned of the "leavens" (8:17).
- c) Note the references to "hardness of heart" in both cases.
- 2. epignontes (Aorist Active Masculine Plural Nominative) from epiginosko, meaning to know with knowledge beyond superficiality.
- a. Mark only uses this intensified form of the main verb (having the prefix epi attached to it) in four texts in his record.
- 1) The first use is in 2:8 where Jesus "knows in His spirit that they were reasoning that way" so that He addresses their thoughts. To know someone's thoughts obviously requires a deeper "knowing" than mere superficiality and to act/speak on the basis of the thing "known" testifies to the reality of the accuracy of the knowledge.
- 2) The second use is in 5:30 where Jesus "knows" "in Himself that power from Him had gone forth" (both the word "know" and the word "went forth" that are used in our current text ((6:54)) are found here) to heal the woman of her constant bleeding. This particular record in its unique setting in Mark's words brings the issue of "faith" into play, as well as Jesus' response to it when He "knows in Himself" what has happened.
- 3) The third use is in 6:33, which has a distinct parallel to our current text, where many "knew" where Jesus and His disciples were going for a "rest". This passage is the lead into the record of the feeding of the 5,000 men. How they "knew" that detail is not given, but the "knowing" was sufficient to allow them to run ahead and get to the place of which they "knew" before Jesus and The Twelve got there. This is, again, obvious "knowing" beyond superficiality.
- 4) And Mark's last use is our current text where the "knowing" is sufficient to get the people motivated to run all around the region to get the sick and bring them to where they "were hearing" that Jesus happened to be.
- b. Mark's use of this participle contrasts the "knowing" of the people in the daylight with the "unknowing" of the disciples in the darkness of night when they thought they were seeing a phantom. A little light makes "knowing" more likely.
- 1) Also, Mark's use of this word for "knowing" strongly implies that when a person "knows" in this manner (beyond superficiality), he/she takes action according to the impact that the "knowing" makes. This "knowing" does not inevitably produce "godliness" (Hebrews 10:26 and 2 Peter 2:20) as many mistakenly say, nor is it required for "salvation" (John 8:32; 10:14; 17:3; Galatians 4:9 -- all of which tie "salvation" to the lesser "knowing" of "gnosis").
- 2) Significant, in this context, is another fact: "knowing", rooted in hardness of heart, gives direction to the action to be taken in faulty forms that cannot result in the actual intention of the revelation that led to the knowledge, but "knowing" rooted in love of the truth will give an altogether different direction that will result in what the good intention of the revelation/illumination was when God gave it. The people, caught up in their fixation upon the health of the outer man, scurried around gathering up all the sick and afflicted of their regions so that this "fixation" might be satisfied, but the later excoriation of them for their unbelief (Luke 10:13 correlated to Mark 8:22) indicates that their carnal "knowing" pushed them in the wrong directions.
- 3) When we take this "knowing" of the meaning of "knowing" with us into the New Testament we can "know" with even more understanding why the New Testament uses this word to root the development of our relationship to God in "knowledge" (see Colossians 1:6, Ephesians 1:17, 3:19 and 4:13) and why Paul said that our "transformation" into mature saints is rooted in the "renewal of the mind" (Romans 12:2) and why John says that anyone who claims this type of knowledge of God without the attendant pursuit of the goals of knowledge is a liar (1 John 2:4, which uses only the unemphasized form of the word, thus indicating that even the barest form of true knowledge of God will move a person in the right direction if the heart is not hardened).
- a) At issue here is this: even "developed knowledge", cut loose from the "agape" of God, does not produce the proper activities that such knowledge, bound up in that "agape" produces.
- b) When the "heart" is "hardened", the "knowing" is cut loose from God's "agape" so that the "agape" of the person who "knows" generates illegitimate behavior.
