and have been given to the poor. And they murmured against her. 6 And Jesus said, Let her alone; why trouble ye her she hath wrought a good work on me. 7 For ye have the poor with you always, and whensoever ye will ye may do them good: but me ye have not always. 8 She hath done what she could: she is come aforehand to anoint my And given to the poor. True; and it was also true that the individual who might be supposed to buy it could, instead of buying it, give his money to the poor. Must he not buy it then? Must no one buy it? And must the poor cease to cull the plant, and prepare the perfume, that it may be sold to the rich? Must there be nothing used in life but the barest and most absolute necessaries? Must all fine arts and elegancies be abolished? It is evident that the grumblers were taking extremely narrow views of what is good for human society in general, and for the poor in particular. And they murmured against her. It is a most expressive word in the original (éveßρiμoûvтo), and suggests something stronger than murmuring. There was a kind of rumble-grumble muttering bursting out. The word recalls the hoarse dissonant sounds emitted by fretted beasts. VER. 6. But Jesus said, Let her alone; why trouble ye her? Or, as the Rheims admirably renders it, Why do ye molest her? Our Lord's spirit rose up against their rasping censoriousness. Literally, she wrought. She hath wrought a good work on Me. Namely, in the act that is past. A good work: very literally, a beautiful work. There was beautiful propriety in it. On Me; literally, in Me: such is the reading of all the uncial manuscripts without exception, and hence of all the modern editors. The reading in the Received Text must have been simply borrowed from Matt. xxvi. 10. The expression in Me represents the Saviour's person as the sphere in which the beautiful work was performed. VER. 7. For ye have the poor with you always, and whensoever ye will ye may do them good. Literally, ye are able to do good to them. You will have plenty of opportunities for your charities. But Me ye have not always. The Saviour was looking steadfastly to the crisis that was imminent, and wished to direct, in an indefinite way, the minds of His disciples and other auditors to the same coming event.' Any trifle of expenditure therefore that might be lavished on Him, during the few remaining hours of His career, would abstract but little indeed from the sum total of the resources that might be available for the poor. VER. 8. She hath done what she could. Literally, she did what she had, that is, she did what she had to do, what she had it in her power to do. A noble eulogium; the noblest possible. We are not responsible for not doing what we have it not in our power to do; but to do up to the measure of our power, that is Christian perfection. She anticipated to anoint. That is, she anticipatively anointed, or embalmed as it were, though not in the Egyptian way. See John xix. 40. The custom of embalming rested on a principle of hope for the future, and indicated emphatic. body to the burying. 9 Verily I say unto you, Wheresoever this gospel shall be preached throughout the whole world, this also that she hath done shall be spoken of for a memorial of her. ally that endearment did not cease with life. (See the fine dissertation of Faselt De Unctura Christi Sepulchrali.) My body. The Saviour's thoughts have gone forward beyond His decease. He is thinking of His lifeless body. To the burying. Or for the entombment (eis ròv évтapiaoμóv), ' the' entombment that is to take place. The Saviour knew that He was to die according to the Scriptures, and to be buried, and to rise again the third day according to the Scriptures. In His mind therefore the action of the loving woman was connected with His death and consequent burial. And in her mind too when, under the folds of her explicit faith, gratitude, and devotedness, we reach the substrate of what was implicit. We come to a point where her anointing connected itself, in a spirit at once of holy hope and true devotedness, with all that was essential for human salvation. It connected itself therefore with the entombment.' VER. 9. And verily I say to you. That is, I solemnly assure you. Wheresoever this gospel shall be preached. This gospel, of which we have been speaking at this table this evening, and which has to do with My death, burial, and resurrection. It is noteworthy however that in the Sinaitic, Vatican, and Cambridge manuscripts (N B D), as also in L and 69, the expression is simply the gospel. And this is the reading given by Tischendorf, Tregelles, Alford. With reason apparently, the Received' reading being borrowed from Matt. xxvi. 13, where it is genuine. Throughout the whole world. Literally, into the whole world. The phraseology is abrupt and condensed. The idea is, wheresoever the gospel shall be proclaimed by My heralds, as they go‘into' the whole world. See chap. xvi. 15; and compare, for the mode of expression, chap. xiii. 16. Principal Campbell's translation is free, but not remarkably elegant, in whatsoever corner of the world the gospel shall be preached. That also which this (woman) has done shall be spoken of. Other doings indeed shall be prominent, the doings of Another. But the deed of this woman shall not be overlooked. It shall be rehearsed, as Tyndale has it; or told, as it is in Wycliffe, Coverdale, and the Rheims; or mentioned, as Mace and Principal Campbell give it. For a memorial of her. That is, to preserve the memory of her among men. Comp. Acts x. 4. The word used (uvnμóovvov) is connected with Mnemosyné, the mother of the Muses, and so called because, before the invention of writing, a capacious and tenacious memory was a prime prerequisite in every effort of literary genius. VER. 10 and 11 form a little paragraph concerning Judas, the betrayer, corresponding to Matt. xxvi. 14-16 and Luke xxii. 3-6. VER. 10. And. This conjunction indicates that what follows is a thread of things that should be taken up in connection with what goes before. There 10 And Judas Iscariot, one of the twelve, went unto the chief priests, to betray him unto them. 11 And when they heard it, they were glad, and promised to give him money. And he sought how he might conveniently betray him. 12 And the first day of unleavened bread, when they killed was even a closer connection than is apparent on the surface of Mark's narrative. Comp. John xii. 3-7. Judas Iscariot. See chap. iii. 19. The great drawbacks to every good cause on earth are: (1) the imperfections of the good workers; and (2) the ultroneous presence and poisonous influence of workers who are not good. He that was one of the twelve. This expression would possibly get attached to the traitor's name in society at large. When man told to man the sensational news regarding the arrest and execution of the great Galilean Rabbi, who, with His twelve humble disciples, was turning' the Jewish world' upside down,' it would be said that He was sold and betrayed to the chief priests by Judas Iscariot, one of the twelve.' Why did our Lord, it may be asked, admit him into the number? The man, we imagine, would be honest when admitted. And though he might not be noble, yet our Lord had to accept, not the best that were conceivable, but the best that were available. Went to the chief priests. Went off privately from Bethany, that very night apparently on which he had been checked by our Lord for his petty and illiberal grumbling in reference to the perfume. In order that he might deliver Him over to them. His temper was 'up.' And, as his Master was now habitually speaking of imminent and ignominious death, he perhaps began to think that it was not prudent to be attached to a 'losing concern.' Should he not therefore get out of it without delay, and if possible with something in his pocket? VER. 11. And they, when they heard it, were glad, and promised to give him money. Probably a large sum. The thirty pieces of silver, spoken of in Matt. xxvi. 15 as then and there paid to him (see Comm. in loc.), were probably only a sum in hand to whet his cupidity, and spur him on to go through with his treason. And he sought. From that time he set about seeking (éshтei), he applied his mind to mature a plan. How he might conveniently deliver Him up. The word rendered conveniently means opportunely (evкaiрws). He began to plot how he might improve the first good opportunity that occurred, to deliver up his Lord. VER. 12-16. The evangelist leaves the traitor to work out his dark plot, and here take up another thread of events, our Lord's personal preparation for celebrating the paschal supper. See, as corresponding paragraphs, Matt. xxvi. 17-19, and especially Luke xxii. 7-13. That is, of the unleavened VER. 12. And on the first day of the Unleavened. cakes, or, in the singular, of the unleavened bread. 14th of the month Abib or Nisan (Exod. xii. 6), was only in a loose and popular sense the first day of the festival. It was strictly the preparation day, when all сс the passover, his disciples said unto him, Where wilt thou that we go and prepare that thou mayest eat the passover? 13 And he sendeth forth two of his disciples, and saith unto them, Go ye into the city, and there shall meet you a man bearing a pitcher. arrangements had to be completed for the commencement of the festivities, immediately after sunset. As however these arrangements were, so to speak, the inception of the festivities, the day was sometimes, as here, spoken of as the first day of the festival. Hence in Josephus's Antiquities, ii. 15: 1, we read, 'we keep a feast for eight days, which is called the feast of the unleavened,' while in the same Antiquities, iii. 10: 5, he says, 'the feast of the unleavened falls on the fifteenth day of the month, and continues seven days.' In the one case the historian freely attached the preparation day to the sacred days, and thus made eight days. In the other he spoke strictly of the sacred days, and hence numbered them seven. If our Lord's decease be reckoned as having happened in the 29th year of the Christian era as now calculated, then the day referred to here, the 14th of the month Nisan, would fall on the 16th of March, A.D. 29. (See Patrizi, De Evangeliis, lib. ii., p. 423.) When they sacrificed the passover. For it was needful that the paschal lamb, which was to be eaten on the 15th, immediately after the setting of the sun on the 14th, should be killed on the 14th, between the two evenings,' that is after the ninth hour of the solar day, but before the conclusion of the twelfth, or between three and six o'clock in the afternoon. See Exod. xii. 6; Lev. xxiii. 5, 6; Num. xxviii. 16, 17, xxxiii. 3. When they sacrificed: the verb is in the imperfect tense, and here means when they were wont to sacrifice. To sacrifice: that is, to kill in a sacred way, or sacrificially. Hence the appropriate translation of the word in 1 Cor. v. 7, Christ our Passover is sacrificed for us.' In the passage before us too it is rendered sacrificed in the Geneva, and the Rheims, and by Calvin too in his French version, and Wakefield and Principal Campbell. The Vulgate has immolated; Luther, offered. The lambs were killed in the temple, either by the owners or by the Levites (2 Chron. xxx. 17). The blood would be received by the Levites, and then handed to the priests to be sprinkled (2 Chron. xxxv. 11). The passover: that is, the lamb which was the memorial of the historic passover. The thing commemorating gets the name of the thing commemorated. His disciples say to Him, Where wilt Thou that we go, and prepare, in order that Thou mayest eat the passover? Note the reverential feeling that dominated the disciples. They did not say, in order that 'we' may eat the passover. They hid themselves behind their Lord. VER. 13. And He sendeth off two of His disciples. They were Peter and John. See Luke xxii. 8. And saith to them, Go into the city, and there shall meet you a man bearing a pitcher of water. Showing, by that servile act, that the day was not strictly a holy day. There is a kind of emphasis on the word man. It was women in general who carried home, poised on their heads, the earthenware pitchers, pots, or 'cans' of water, which needed to be replenished for domestic use. There might be many of these veiled females wending their respective way! of water follow him. 14 And wheresoever he shall go in, say ye to the goodman of the house, The Master saith, Where is the guestchamber, where I shall eat the passover with my dis through the streets, at the time that the two disciples would be entering the city; a considerable supply of water would be requisite for the holidays. But the disciples were to look out for a man thus engaged, no doubt a serving-man in some hostelry' or 'hospice.' ་ Follow him. Our Lord's instructions rested on His infallible prevision. VER. 14. And wheresoever he shall enter in. Into whatsoever house he shall enter, enter ye too, and then act as I tell you. Say to the goodman of the house. Literally, to the master of the house, or, as Wycliffe has it, to the lord of the hous. The expression goodman, as used by Tyndale and preserved in our English version, is a relic of an olden time, when the heads of a household establishment expressed to one another, in their habitual intercourse, their mutual esteem. In some parts of the country the custom still lingers, and husbands and wives address each other as goodman, goodwife. The goodness was sometimes regarded as transferred to the house. Over the door of some of the houses of the ancient Egyptians the inscription was occasionally put, 'the good house.' (Wilkinson's Ancient Egypt, vol. i., p. 6.) The Master saith. Literally, the Teacher, that is, the Rabbi. We may reasonably suppose that the goodman of the house would know the Saviour, and would have such a knowledge of the disciples too that the expression the Rabbi would be enough to determine for him who was meant. Where is My guestchamber, where I may eat the passover with My disciples? My' guestchamber, or apartment, for which I made arrangements with thee. The word (karáλvua) freely translated guestchamber by Tyndale, and condemned altogether by Thomas Magister (under karayŵylov), properly means, when spoken by a Jew or other Oriental, a khan or caravanserai where travellers untied their travelling 'traps' or equipages, and got rest for their beasts of burden and themselves. It is translated inn in Luke ii. 7. "Caravanserais are "generally built of the most solid and durable materials; have commonly only one storey above the ground floor, the lower of which is arched, and serves for "warehouses to store goods, and for stables, while the upper is appropriated to "lodgings. A fountain is commonly in the centre of the open quadrangle, and "itinerant cookshops are found nigh at hand to supply the wants of travellers. "The lodging chambers are often little better than cells, where the visitor "finds nothing else than bare walls, dust, and sometimes scorpions. The "traveller must bring with him his bed, and not unfrequently his cooking " utensils and provender." (Rays from the East, p. 39.) The establishment in Jerusalem, to which the disciples were directed, would be conducted on more accommodating principles, especially at passover time, when there would be much demand for accommodation. See next verse. The word used by the evangelist was applicable, it would appear, either to the entire establishment or to a particular apartment within it, which would be indeed but a miniature of the whole. Each was a resting place or lodging place. The Rheims translates |