Mark 12

Mr 12:1-12.

PARABLE OF THE

WICKED

HUSBANDMEN.

Mt 21:33-46;

Lu 20:9-18).

See on

Mt 21:33-46.

Mr 12:13-40.

ENTANGLING

QUESTIONS ABOUT

TRIBUTE THE

RESURRECTION, AND THE

GREAT

COMMANDMENT, WITH THE

REPLIES--CHRIST

BAFFLES THE

PHARISEES BY A

QUESTION ABOUT

DAVID, AND

DENOUNCES THE

SCRIBES.

Mt 22:15-46;

Lu 20:20-47).

The time of this section appears to be still the third day (Tuesday) of

Christ's last week. Matthew introduces the subject by saying

(Mt 22:15),

"Then went the Pharisees and took counsel how they might entangle Him

in His talk."

13. And they send unto him certain of the Pharisees--"their disciples,"

says Matthew

(Mt 22:16);

probably young and zealous scholars in that hardening school.

and of the Herodians--(See on

Mt 12:14).

In

Lu 20:20

these willing tools are called "spies, which should feign themselves

just [righteous] men, that they might take hold of His words, that so

they might deliver Him unto the power and authority of the governor."

Their plan, then, was to entrap Him into some expression which might be

construed into disaffection to the Roman government; the Pharisees

themselves being notoriously discontented with the Roman yoke.

Tribute to Cæsar

(Mr 12:14-17).

14. And when they were come, they say unto him, Master--Teacher.

we know that thou art true, and carest for no man; for thou regardest

not the person of men, but teachest the way of God in truth--By such

flattery--though they said only the truth--they hoped to throw Him off

His guard.

Is it lawful to give tribute to Cæsar, or not?--It was the

civil poll tax paid by all enrolled in the "census." See on

Mt 17:25.

15. Shall we give, or shall we not give? But he, knowing their

hypocrisy--"their wickedness"

(Mt 22:18);

"their craftiness"

(Lu 20:23).

The malignity of their hearts took the form of craft, pretending what

they did not feel--an anxious desire to be guided aright in a matter

which to a scrupulous few might seem a question of some difficulty.

Seeing perfectly through this,

He said unto them, Why tempt ye me?--"hypocrites!"

bring me a penny that I may see it--"the tribute money"

(Mt 22:19).

16. And they brought it. And he saith unto them, Whose is this

image--stamped upon the coin.

and superscription?--the words encircling it on the obverse side.

And they said unto him, Cæsar's.

17. And Jesus answering said unto them, Render to Cæsar the things

that are Cæsar's--Putting it in this general form, it was impossible

for sedition itself to dispute it, and yet it dissolved the snare.

and to God the things that are God's--How much is there in this

profound but to them startling addition to the maxim, and how

incomparable is the whole for fulness, brevity, clearness, weight!

and they marvelled at him--"at His answer, and held their peace"

(Lu 20:26),

"and left Him, and went their way"

(Mt 22:22).

The Resurrection

(Mr 12:18-27).

18. Then come unto him the Sadducees, which say there is no

resurrection--"neither angel nor spirit"

(Ac 23:7).

They were the materialists of the day. See on

Ac 23:6.

and they asked him, saying--as follows:

19-22. Master, Moses wrote unto us--

(De 25:5).

If a man's brother die, and leave his wife behind him

. . . And the seven had her, and left no seed: last of all

the woman died also.

23. In the resurrection therefore when they shall rise, &c.

24. Do ye not therefore err, because ye know not the scriptures--regarding the future state.

neither the power of God?--before which a thousand such difficulties

vanish.

25. For when they shall rise from the dead, they neither marry, nor

are given in marriage--"neither can they die any more"

(Lu 20:36).

Marriage is ordained to perpetuate the human family; but as there will

be no breaches by death in the future state, this ordinance will cease.

but are as the angels which are in heaven--In Luke

(Lu 20:36)

it is "equal unto the angels." But as the subject is death and

resurrection, we are not warranted to extend the equality here taught

beyond the one point--the immortality of their nature. A

beautiful clause is added in Luke

(Lu 20:36)

--"and are the children of God"--not in respect of character,

which is not here spoken of, but of nature--"being the children

of the resurrection," as rising to an undecaying existence

(Ro 8:21, 23),

and so being the children of their Father's immortality

(1Ti 6:16).

26. And as touching the dead, that they rise: have ye not read in the

book of Moses--"even Moses"

(Lu 20:37),

whom they had just quoted for the purpose of entangling Him.

how in the bush God spake unto him--either "at the bush," as the same

expression is rendered in

Lu 20:37,

that is, when he was there; or "in the [section of his history

regarding the] bush." The structure of our verse suggests the latter

sense, which is not unusual.

saying, I am the God of Abraham, and the God of Isaac, and the God of

Jacob?--

(Ex 3:6).

27. He is not the God of the dead, but the God of the living--not

"the God of dead but [the God] of living persons." The word in brackets

is almost certainly an addition to the genuine text, and critical

editors exclude it. "For all live unto Him"

(Lu 20:38)

--"in His view," or "in His estimation." This last statement--found

only in Luke--though adding nothing to the argument, is an important

additional illustration. It is true, indeed, that to God no human being

is dead or ever will be, but all mankind sustain an abiding conscious

relation to Him; but the "all" here means "those who shall be accounted

worthy to obtain that world." These sustain a gracious covenant

relation to God which cannot be dissolved. (Compare

Ro 6:10, 11).

In this sense our Lord affirms that for Moses to call the Lord the

"GOD" of His patriarchal servants, if at that

moment they had no existence, would be unworthy of Him. He "would be

ashamed to be called their God, if He had not prepared for them

a city"

(Heb 11:16).

It was concluded by some of the early Fathers, from our Lord's resting

His proof of the Resurrection on such a passage as this, instead of

quoting some much clearer testimonies of the Old Testament, that the

Sadducees, to whom this was addressed, acknowledged the authority of no

part of the Old Testament but the Pentateuch; and this opinion has held

its ground even till now. But as there is no ground for it in the New

Testament, so JOSEPHUS is silent upon it; merely

saying that they rejected the Pharisaic traditions. It was because the

Pentateuch was regarded by all classes as the fundamental source of the

Hebrew religion, and all the succeeding books of the Old Testament but

as developments of it, that our Lord would show that even there the

doctrine of the Resurrection was taught. And all the rather does He

select this passage, as being not a bare annunciation of the doctrine

in question, but as expressive of that glorious truth out of which

the Resurrection springs. "And when the multitude heard this" (says

Mt 22:23),

"they were astonished at His doctrine." "Then," adds

Lu 20:39, 40,

"certain of the scribes answering said, Master, thou hast well

said"--enjoying His victory over the Sadducees. "And after that they

durst not ask Him any [question at all]"--neither party could; both

being for the time utterly foiled.

The Great Commandment

(Mr 12:28-34).

"But when the Pharisees had heard that He had put the Sadducees to silence,

they were gathered together"

(Mt 22:34).

28. And one of the scribes--"a lawyer," says Matthew

(Mt 22:35);

that is, teacher of the law.

came, and having heard them reasoning together, and perceiving that he

had answered them well, asked him--manifestly in no bad spirit. When

Matthew

(Mt 22:35)

therefore says he came "tempting," or "trying him," as one of the

Pharisaic party who seemed to enjoy the defeat He had given to the

Sadducees, we may suppose that though somewhat priding himself upon his

insight into the law, and not indisposed to measure his knowledge with

One in whom he had not yet learned to believe, he was nevertheless an

honest-hearted, fair disputant.

Which is the first commandment of all?--first in importance; the

primary, leading commandment, the most fundamental one. This was a

question which, with some others, divided the Jewish teachers into rival

schools. Our Lord's answer is in a strain of respect very different from

what He showed to cavillers--ever observing His own direction, "Give not

that which is holy to the dogs, neither cast ye your pearls before

swine; lest they trample them under their feet, and turn again and rend

you"

(Mt 7:6).

29. And Jesus answered him, The first of all the commandments

is--The readings here vary considerably. TISCHENDORF and TREGELLES read

simply, "the first is"; and they are followed by MEYER and ALFORD. But though the

authority for the precise form of the received text is slender, a form

almost identical with it seems to have most weight of authority. Our

Lord here gives His explicit sanction to the distinction between

commandments of a more fundamental and primary character,

and commandments of a more dependent and subordinate

nature; a distinction of which it is confidently asserted by a certain

class of critics that the Jews knew nothing, that our Lord and His

apostles nowhere lay down, and which has been invented by Christian

divines. (Compare

Mt 23:23).

Hear, O Israel; the Lord our God is one Lord--This every devout Jew

recited twice every day, and the Jews do it to this day; thus keeping up

the great ancient national protest against the polytheisms and

pantheisms of the heathen world: it is the great utterance of the

national faith in One Living and Personal God--"ONE

JEHOVAH!"

30. And thou shalt--We have here the language of law,

expressive of God's claims. What then are we here bound down to

do? One word is made to express it. And what a word! Had the essence of

the divine law consisted in deeds, it could not possibly have

been expressed in a single word; for no one deed is comprehensive of

all others embraced in the law. But as it consists in an affection

of the soul, one word suffices to express it--but only one.

Fear, though due to God and enjoined by Him, is limited

in its sphere and distant in character. Trust, hope, and

the like, though essential features of a right state of heart towards

God, are called into action only by personal necessity, and so

are--in a good sense, it is true, but still are

properly--selfish affections; that is to say, they have respect

to our own well-being. But LOVE is an

all-inclusive affection, embracing not only every other

affection proper to its object, but all that is proper to be

done to its object; for as love spontaneously seeks to please

its object, so, in the case of men to God, it is the native well spring

of a voluntary obedience. It is, besides, the most personal of

all affections. One may fear an event, one may hope for an

event, one may rejoice in an event; but one can love only

a Person. It is the tenderest, the most unselfish,

the most divine of all affections. Such, then, is the affection

in which the essence of the divine law is declared to consist.

Thou shalt love--We now come to the glorious Object of that demanded

affection.

Thou shalt love the Lord, thy God--that is, Jehovah, the

Self-Existent One, who has revealed Himself as the "I

AM," and there is none else; who, though by

His name JEHOVAH apparently at an unapproachable

distance from His finite creatures, yet bears to Thee a real and

definite relationship, out of which arises His claim and Thy

duty--of LOVE. But with what are we to love

Him? Four things are here specified. First, "Thou shalt love the Lord

thy God"

with thy heart--This sometimes means "the whole inner man" (as

Pr 4:23);

but that cannot be meant here; for then the other three particulars

would be superfluous. Very often it means "our emotional nature"--the

seat of feeling as distinguished from our intellectual nature or

the seat of thought, commonly called the "mind" (as in

Php 4:7).

But neither can this be the sense of it here; for here the heart is

distinguished both from the "mind" and the "soul." The "heart," then,

must here mean the sincerity of both the thoughts and the

feelings; in other words, uprightness or

true-heartedness, as opposed to a hypocritical or

divided affection. But next, "Thou shalt love the Lord thy God"

with thy soul. This is designed to command our emotional nature: Thou

shalt put feeling or warmth into thine affection.

Further, "Thou shalt love the Lord thy God"

with thy mind--This commands our intellectual nature: Thou shalt put

intelligence into thine affection--in opposition to a blind

devotion, or mere devoteeism. Lastly, "Thou shalt love the Lord thy

God"

with thy strength--This commands our energies: Thou shalt put

intensity into thine affection--"Do it with thy might"

(Ec 9:10).

Taking these four things together, the command of the Law is, "Thou

shalt love the Lord thy God with all thy powers--with a

sincere, a fervid, an intelligent, an

energetic love." But this is not all that the Law demands. God

will have all these qualities in their most perfect exercise. "Thou

shalt love the Lord thy God," says the Law, "with all thy

heart," or, with perfect sincerity; "Thou shalt love the Lord thy God

with all thy soul," or, with the utmost fervor; "Thou shalt love

the Lord thy God with all thy mind," or, in the fullest exercise

of an enlightened reason; and "Thou shalt love the Lord thy God with

all thy strength," or, with the whole energy of our being! So

much for the First Commandment.

31. And the second is like--"unto it"

(Mt 22:39);

as demanding the same affection, and only the extension of it, in its

proper measure, to the creatures of Him whom we thus love--our

brethren in the participation of the same nature, and

neighbors, as connected with us by ties that render each

dependent upon and necessary to the other.

Thou shall love thy neighbour as thyself--Now, as we are not to love

ourselves supremely, this is virtually a command, in the first place,

not to love our neighbor with all our heart and soul and mind and

strength. And thus it is a condemnation of the idolatry of the

creature. Our supreme and uttermost affection is to be reserved for God.

But as sincerely as ourselves we are to love all mankind, and with

the same readiness to do and suffer for them as we should reasonably

desire them to show to us. The golden rule

(Mt 7:12)

is here our best interpreter of the nature and extent of these claims.

There is none other commandment greater than these--or, as in

Mt 22:40,

"On these two commandments hang all the Law and the Prophets" (see on

Mt 5:17).

It is as if He had said, "This is all Scripture in a nutshell; the

whole law of human duty in a portable, pocket form." Indeed, it is so

simple that a child may understand it, so brief that all

may remember it, so comprehensive as to embrace all possible

cases. And from its very nature it is unchangeable. It is

inconceivable that God should require from his rational creatures

anything less, or in substance anything else, under any

dispensation, in any world, at any period

throughout eternal duration. He cannot but claim this--all this--alike

in heaven, in earth, and in hell! And this

incomparable summary of the divine law belonged to the Jewish

religion! As it shines in its own self-evidencing splendor, so it

reveals its own true source. The religion from which the world has

received it could be none other than a God-given religion!

32. And the scribe said unto him, Well, Master--Teacher.

thou hast said the truth: for there is one God; and there is none other

but he--The genuine text here seems clearly to have been, "There is

one," without the word "God"; and so nearly all critical editors and

expositors read.

33. And to love him with all the heart . . . and to love his neighbour

as himself, is more than all whole burnt offerings and sacrifices--more, that is, than all positive institutions; thereby showing insight

into the essential difference between what is moral and in its own

nature unchangeable, and what is obligatory only because enjoined, and only so long as enjoined.

34. And when Jesus saw that he answered discreetly--rather,

"intelligently," or "sensibly"; not only in a good spirit, but with a

promising measure of insight into spiritual things.

he said unto him, Thou art not far from the kingdom of God--for he

had but to follow out a little further what he seemed sincerely to

own, to find his way into the kingdom. He needed only the experience of

another eminent scribe who at a later period said, "We know that

the law is spiritual, but I am carnal, sold under sin": who

exclaimed, "O wretched man that I am! Who shall deliver me?" but who

added, "I thank God through Jesus Christ!"

(Ro 7:14, 24, 25).

Perhaps among the "great company of the priests" and other Jewish

ecclesiastics who "were obedient to the faith," almost immediately

after the day of Pentecost

(Ac 6:7),

this upright lawyer was one. But for all his nearness to the Kingdom

of God, it may be he never entered it.

And no man after that durst ask any question--all feeling that they

were no match for Him, and that it was vain to enter the lists with Him.

Christ Baffles the Pharisees Regarding David

(Mr 12:35-37).

35. And Jesus answered and said, while he taught in the temple--and

"while the Pharisees were gathered together"

(Mt 22:41).

How say the scribes that Christ is the son of David?--How come they

to give it out that Messiah is to be the son of David? In Matthew

(Mt 22:42),

Jesus asks them, "What think ye of Christ?" or of the promised and

expected Messiah? "Whose son is He [to be]? They say unto Him, The son

of David." The sense is the same. "He saith unto them, How then doth

David in spirit call Him Lord?"

(Mt 22:42, 43).

36. For David himself said by the Holy Ghost, The Lord said to my

Lord, Sit thou on my right hand, till I make thine enemies thy

footstool--

(Ps 110:1).

37. David therefore himself calleth him Lord; and whence is he then

his son?--There is but one solution of this difficulty. Messiah is at

once inferior to David as his son according to the flesh, and superior

to him as the Lord of a kingdom of which David is himself a subject, not

the sovereign. The human and divine natures of Christ, and the

spirituality of His kingdom--of which the highest earthly sovereigns are

honored if they be counted worthy to be its subjects--furnish the only

key to this puzzle.

And the common people--the immense crowd.

heard him gladly--"And no man was able to answer Him a word; neither

durst any man from that day forth ask Him any more questions"

(Mt 22:46).

The Scribes Denounced

(Mr 12:38-40).

38. And he said unto them in his doctrine--rather, "in His teaching";

implying that this was but a specimen of an extended discourse, which

Matthew gives in full

(Mt 23:1-39).

Luke says

(Lu 20:45)

this was "in the audience of all the people said unto His disciples."

Beware of the scribes, which love--or like.

to go in long clothing--(see on

Mt 23:5).

and love salutations in the market-places,

39. And the chief seats in the synagogues, and the uppermost rooms--or

positions.

at feasts--On this love of distinction, see on

Lu 14:7;

Mt 6:5.

40. Which devour widows' houses, and for a pretence make long prayers:

these shall receive greater damnation--They took advantage of their

helpless condition and confiding character to obtain possession of their

property, while by their "long prayers" they made them believe they were

raised far above "filthy lucre." So much the "greater damnation" awaited

them. (Compare

Mt 23:33).

A lifelike description this of the Romish clergy, the true successors

of "the scribes."

Mr 12:41-44.

THE

WIDOW'S

TWO

MITES.

Lu 21:1-4).

See on

Lu 21:1-4.