A PLAIN COMMENTARY ON THE NINTH CHAPTER OF St. Mark's Gospel. 2 JESUS is transfigured. 11 He instructeth His Disciples concerning the coming of Elias: 14 casteth forth a dumb and deaf Spirit: 30 foretelleth His Death and Resurrection: 33 exhorteth His Disciples to Humility: 38 bidding them not to prohibit such as be not against them, nor to give offence to any of the faithful. IX. AND He said unto them, Verily I say unto you, That there be some of them that stand here, which shall not taste of death, till they have seen the Kingdom of GOD come with Power. This will be thought an abrupt way of beginning a Chapter. Indeed, as already observed, it is an unfortunate division of the subject,-leaving the sense of the former Chapter incomplete; and perplexing the Reader who opens the Gospel at the present place. Let it be observed however, in passing, that he who desires to profit to the utmost by the study of any part of God's Word should, as a general rule,) notice the part which a See the note on St. Mark viii. 38. has gone before; and especially he should attend to the words which have immediately preceded. The end of one chapter often contains a clue to the meaning of the next. Sometimes it is even necessary for completing the sense of it. Some references to a single Book of the Bible, illustrative of this remark, are added at the foot of the page; which the curious Reader will perhaps think it worth his while to examine". On the whole, however, the manner in which the Bible has been divided into chapters must be allowed to be both happy and judicious; which any one may convince himself of, by trying to contrive a better Division. Requesting the Reader therefore to refer not only to the concluding verses of the foregoing chapter, but also to the remarks which have been offered at the beginning of St. Matthew xvii., and on St. Luke ix. 27,-it shall only be repeated that the Transfiguration of the Son of Man which fol b The "two Angels" spoken of in Gen. xix. 1, are of course the two "men" noticed in ver. 22 of the former chapter.-The first words of Gen. xxvi. offer an explanation of the incident which concludes chap. xxv. (29 to 34.)—The first words of Gen. xxviii. are explained by the last verse of Gen. xxvii.-The end of Gen. xxxiii. (ver. 18 to 20) introduces the incident with which chap. xxxiv. (see ver. 2.) commences.-Compare the first words of Gen. xxxv. 3 with the last words of Gen. xxxiv. 30.-Gen. xlv. begins " Then Joseph." But when was that? See the last words of Gen. xliv.Observe how closely the beginning of Gen. 1. coheres with the end of Gen. xlix...... Such examples in the New Testament as Acts xxi. 40, (where the sense is incomplete without Acts xxii. ;) and 1 Cor. xiii. 1,-(which depends on the last words of 1 Cor. xii. 31,) -will at once present themselves. Consider the affecting contrast which is lost by disjoining St. John vii. 53, and viii. 1. lows, was the fulfilment of the prophecy contained in the preceding verse. And after six days JESUS taketh with Him 2 Peter, and James, and John, and leadeth them up into an high mountain apart by themselves : "James, Cephas, and John, who seemed" to St. Paul "to be pillars," and who were the chosen witnesses of this great transaction, enjoyed a like special privilege on two other occasions: they had already beheld the raising of Jaïrus' daughterd,and they were destined hereafter to witness the Agony in the Garden". The only two of them who have left any writings, are found to make special allusion to this their high privilege; and delightful it is, a matter of even awful interest it may be thought, to recal their words. well St. John, in the very first chapter of his Gospel, alludes to the Transfiguration of CHRIST 'We beheld His Glory!" (he says; breaking off suddenly to make that solemn declaration :) "the Glory as of the Only-Begotten of the FATHER.” But no where else does the beloved Disciple even allude to the circumstance.-St. Peter is far more express. He had doubtless dwelt, many a time, on the glories of the final Advent; and discoursed to the people, (as only two other men in the World could have presumed to do), on the terrific splen c Galat. ii. 9. e St. Matth. xxvi. 37 to 40. d St. Mark v. 37. f St. John i. 14. |