Lit., having sealed the stone with the watch. Rev., Sealing the stone, the guard being with them. This is rather awkward, but the rendering rightly corrects the A. V. The idea is that they sealed the stone in the presence of the guard, and then left them to keep watch. It would be important that the guard should witness the sealing. The sealing was performed by stretching a cord across the stone and fastening it to the rock at either end by means of sealing clay. Or, if the stone at the door happened to be fastened with a cross beam, this latter was sealed to the rock.

Rev., more correctly, appearance. The word occurs nowhere else in the New Testament. It does not refer to the face alone, but to the general aspect. Wyc., looking.

As lightning

In effulgence. Each evangelist's account of the resurrection emphasizes different particulars. Matthew alone notes the outward glory, the earthquake, the agency of the angel, and the impotence of the military and priestly power to crush the new faith. He only notices the adoration of the risen Lord before his ascension, and traces to its origin the calumny current among the Jews to this day.

He is in the act of going. See on Matthew 26:32.

The ordinary Greek form of situation.

Lit., sufficient money. Enough to bribe them to invent a lie.

i.e., satisfy or appease. Compare Galatians 1:10. "Do I conciliate men or God?"

Secure you (ὑμᾶς ἀμερίμνους ποιήσομεν)

Lit., make you without care. The word secure, however, is, etymologically, a correct rendering. It is from the Latin se equals sine, without, and cura, care. It has passed into the popular meaning to make safe. Compare 1 Corinthians 7:32. "I would have you to be free from cares" (Rev.).

As in Matthew 28:9. Prostrated themselves. The first time that the disciples are described as doing so.

Matthew 28:17 evidently describes the impression made by seeing him at a distance. Possibly from feelings of modesty they had not ventured close to him. Jesus now approaches and addresses them.

Spake - saying (ἐλάλησεν - λέγων)

Two different words are here used to express speech, with a nice distinction which can hardly be conveyed without paraphrase. The verb λαλεῖν is used of speaking, in contrast with or as a breaking of silence, voluntary or imposed. Thus the dumb man; after he was healed, spake (ἐλάλησεν); and Zacharias, when his tongue was loosed, began to speak (ἐλάλει). In the use of the word the writer contemplates the fact rather than the substance of speech. Hence it is used of God (Hebrews 1:1), the point being, not what God said, but the fact that he spake to men. On the contrary, λέγειν, refers to the matter of speech. The verb originally means to pick out, and hence to use words selected as appropriate expressions of thought, and to put such words together in orderly discourse. Here, then, we have Jesus first breaking silence (ελάλησεν), and then discoursing (λέγων).

Power (ἐξουσία)

Better, authority, as Rev.

Is given (ἐδόθη)

Lit., was given, by the divine decree.

Rev., rightly, make disciples of.

In the name (εἰς τὸ ὄνομα)

Rev., correctly, "into the name." Baptizing into the name has a twofold meaning. 1. Unto, denoting object or purpose, as εἰς μετάνοιαν, unto repentance (Matthew 3:11); εἰς ἄφεσιν ἁμαρτιῶν, for the remission of sins (Acts 2:38). 2. Into, denoting union or communion with, as Romans 6:3, "baptized into Christ Jesus; into his death;" i.e., we are brought by baptism into fellowship with his death. Baptizing into the name of the Holy Trinity implies a spiritual and mystical union with him. Eἰς, into, is the preposition commonly used with baptize. See Acts 8:16; Acts 19:3, Acts 19:5; 1 Corinthians 1:13, 1 Corinthians 1:15; 1 Corinthians 10:2; Galatians 3:27. In Acts 2:38, however, Peter says, "Be baptized upon (ἐπὶ) the name of Jesus Christ; and in Acts 10:48, he commands Cornelius and his friends to be baptized in (ἐν) the name of the Lord. To be baptized upon the name is to be baptized on the confession of that which the name implies: on the ground of the name; so that the name Jesus, as the contents of the faith and confession, is the ground upon which the becoming baptized rests. In the name (ἐν) has reference to the sphere within which alone true baptism is accomplished. The name is not the mere designation, a sense which would give to the baptismal formula merely the force of a charm. The name, as in the Lord's Prayer ("Hallowed be thy name"), is the expression of the sum total of the divine Being: not his designation as God or Lord, but the formula in which all his attributes and characteristics are summed up. It is equivalent to his person. The finite mind can deal with him only through his name; but his name is of no avail detached from his nature. When one is baptized into the name of the Trinity, he professes to acknowledge and appropriate God in all that he is and in all that he does for man. He recognizes and depends upon God the Father as his Creator and Preserver; receives Jesus Christ as his only Mediator and Redeemer, and his pattern of life; and confesses the Holy Spirit as his Sanctifier and Comforter.

Alway (πάσας τὰς ἡμέρας)

Lit., all the days. Wyc., in all days.

Rev., in margin, and lit., consummation of the age. The current age is meant; and the consummation is coincident with the second coming of Christ, after the Gospel shall have been proclaimed throughout the world. "The Saviour's mind goes no farther; for after that, evangelizing work will cease. No man, after that, will need to teach his neighbor, saying, 'Know the Lord'" (Jeremiah 31:34) (Morison "On Matthew").

without the article, showing that the expression is a kind of title. It is 'the beginning, not of his book, but of the facts of the Gospel. He shows from the prophets that the Gospel was to begin by the sending forth of a forerunner.

No article as A. V. and Rev., "the voice." It has a sort of exclamatory force. Listening, the prophet exclaims, Lo! a voice.

Lit., John came to pass or arose who baptized. Rev., John came who baptized.

Baptism of repentance (βάπτισμα μετανοίας)

A baptism the characteristic of which was repentance; which involved an obligation to repent. We should rather expect Mark to put this in the more dramatic form used by Matthew: Saying, Repent ye!

The imperfect tense signifies, there kept going out.

The river

Peculiar to Mark.

Confessing

See on Matthew 3:6.

Lit., hairs. Not with a camel's skin, but with a vesture woven of camels' hair. Compare 2 Kings 1, 8.

Wild honey

"The innumerable fissures and clefts of the limestone rocks, which everywhere flank the valleys, afford in their recesses secure shelter for any number of swarms of wild bees; and many of the Bedouin, particularly about the wilderness of Judaea, obtain their subsistence by bee-hunting, bringing into Jerusalem jars of that wild honey on which John the Baptist fed in the wilderness" (Tristram, "Land of Israel"). Wyc., honey of the wood.

A detail peculiar to Mark.

And unloose

Compare to bear; Matthew 3:11.

A favorite word with Mark. See Introduction.

Opened (σχιζομένους)

Lit., as Rev., rent asunder: much stronger than Matthew's and Luke's ἀνεῴχθησαν, were opened.

The three synoptists give the saying in the same form: Thou art my son, the beloved.

Stronger than Matthew's ἀνήχθη, was led up, and Luke's ἤγετο, was led. See on Matthew 9:38. It is the word used of our Lord's expulsion of demons, Mark 1:34, Mark 1:39.

The Wilderness

The place is unknown. Tradition fixes it near Jericho, in the neighborhood of the Quarantania, the precipitous face of which is pierced with ancient cells and chapels, and a ruined church is on its topmost peak. Dr. Tristram says that every spring a few devout Abyssinian Christians are in the habit of coming and remaining here for forty days, to keep their Lent on the spot where they suppose that our Lord fasted and was tempted.

Peculiar to Mark. The region just alluded to abounds in boars, jackals, wolves, foxes, leopards, hyenas, etc.

That is, the period completed by the setting up of Messiah's kingdom. Compare the fulness of the time, Galatians 4:4.

Repent

See on Matthew 3:2; and Matthew 21:29. Mark adds, and believe in the Gospel.

See on Matthew 4:18. Mark here uses, more graphically, only the verb, without adding net. Lit., throwing about in the sea. Probably a fisher man's phrase, like a east, a haul.

An addition of Mark.

Added by Mark.

Mending

See on Matthew 4:21.

Peculiar to Mark. It may imply that Zebedee carried on his business on a larger scale than ordinary fishermen.

The finite verb with the participle denoting something continuous: was teaching.

At the conclusion of his teaching.

With an unclean spirit (ἐν πνεύματι ἀκαθάρτῳ)

Lit., "in an unclean spirit." Ἐν (in) has the force of in the power of. Dr. Morison compares the phrases in drink, in love.

Me and those like me. "The demons," says Bengel, "make common cause."

The Holy One of God

The demon names him as giving to the destruction the impress of hopeless certainty.

Lit., be muzzled or gagged See on Matthew 22:12.

Rev., tearing, convulsions in margin. Luke has had thrown him down in the midst. Mark adds the crying out with a loud voice.

Stronger than Luke, who has they spake together. Tynd., They demanded one of another among themselves.