Mark 10 - In Depth Bible Commentaries

1591 1592 1593 1594accustomed, again he was teaching them. 10.2 And Separatists, approaching,1589(...continued)uses the singular "crowd" (some 37 times). Perhaps Mark wants to emphasize that theperiod of Jesus' avoidance of crowds, and intimate communication with his disciples, wasover, and that now Jesus returned to his normal "habit" of teaching the larger groups ofpeople. See the next footnote.1590Compare footnote 1580; here again the present tense is used by Mark,sumporeu,ontai, sumporeuontai, “they come together...”1591The phrase w`j eivw,qei, hos eiothei means "as he had been accustomed" (it is thepluperfect active). On numerous occasions prior to this, Mark has mentioned how Jesustaught the crowds--see 2:2, 13; 4:1; 6:34; 7:14; 8:34; 10:1 (here); and then later, 11:18 and12:37. Jesus, quite differently from the ordinary Rabbi, welcomed the large crowds ofpeople--who would have been considered "unclean" by the Rabbis.1592The use of the imperfect tense evdi,dasken, edidasken, “he was teaching,”emphasizes the continual nature of Jesus' teaching of the crowds of people; the use of theword "again" shows that this was a "return" to his normal practice.1593This is the only place in Mark where this noun "Separatists" (“Pharisees”) occurswithout the definite article. It denotes a party of Jewish religious leaders who consideredthemselves and their party as "the Separated Ones" in distinction from the ordinary,common people of Israel. See footnote 1028 on Mark 7:1. They were the organizeddisciples of the Religious Experts (or, "Scribes"). They sought to take the teachings andtraditions of the Religious Experts, and embody them in practical everyday life in Israel.There are textual variants in the Greek manuscripts at this point--the majority readas we have translated here; others add the definite article before "Separatists"; still othersslightly change the order of the words. See the next footnote for the textual evidence.1594The phrase Kai. proselqo,ntej Farisai/oi, Kai proselthontes Pharisaioi, “andcoming, Separatists,” is read by Alexandrinus, Vaticanus, K, L, Gamma, Delta, Psi, Family13 of Minuscules, Minuscules 28, 700, 892, 2427, many other Greek manuscripts and theBohairic Coptic.It is changed to read oi` de. Parisai/oi proselqo,ntej, hoi de Pharisaioiproselthontes, “Then the Separatists coming,” by W, Theta, Minuscules 565, 2542, a fewother Greek manuscripts and a few manuscripts of the Sahidic Coptic (a supplementaryreading).The phrase is changed to read simply Kai, Kai, “and,” by Bezae, a majority of theOld Latin witnesses, the Sinaitic Syriac and some manuscripts of the Sahidic Coptic,(continued...)885