The Fallible Study Bible

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Mark3:1–6

Jesus Heals on the Sabbath

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Mark 3:1–6 — Jesus Heals on the Sabbath. Each verse below carries the full apparatus: the Berean Standard Bible, the vocalized original (tap any word), and a parsed breakdown of every term transcribed from the interlinear. Synthesized commentary, canonical threads, and the reading of Christ gather at the end, over the whole unit.

1

Once again Jesus entered the synagogue, and a man with a withered hand was there.

Berean Standard Bible · CC0

Greek — tap a word ↓

Kai palin eisēlthen eis tēn synagōgēn kai anthrōpos echōn tēn exērammenēn cheira ēn ekei

Word by word14 · parsed
ΚαὶKaivvvG2532
√ καί — and, also, even, so then, too, etcConjunction
πάλινpalinOnce againG3825
√ πάλιν — (adverbially) anew, iAdverb
palin: anew, again The second Sabbath controversy in a row; the adverb marks a pattern rather than an incident.
εἰσῆλθενeisēlthen[Jesus] enteredG1525
√ εἰσέρχομαι — to enter (literally or figuratively)VerbAorist Indicative Active3rd Person Singular
εἰςeis. . .G1519
√ εἰς — to or into (indicating the point reached or entered), of place, time, or (figuratively) purpose (result, etcPreposition
τὴνtēntheG3588
√ ὁ — the (sometimes to be supplied, at others omitted, in English idiom)ArticleAccusative Feminine Singular
συναγωγήνsynagōgēnsynagogueG4864
√ συναγωγή — an assemblage of personsNounAccusative Feminine Singular
synagōgē: an assemblage of persons The word names the gathering before the building, which sharpens the offence: the healing and the murder plot both happen inside the assembled people of God on God's own day. Pulpit notes Matthew's harder form, "their synagogue." On location the sources genuinely differ: Gill, Cambridge and Pulpit place it at Capernaum on the following Sabbath, Benson somewhere else in Galilee; Mark does not say.
καὶkaiandG2532
√ καί — and, also, even, so then, too, etcConjunction
ἄνθρωποςanthrōposa manG444
√ ἄνθρωπος — from G3700 (ὀπτάνομαι))NounNominative Masculine Singular
ἔχωνechōnwithG2192
√ ἔχω — to hold (used in very various applications, literally or figuratively, direct or remoteVerbPresent Participle ActiveNominative Masculine Singular
τὴνtēnaG3588
√ ὁ — the (sometimes to be supplied, at others omitted, in English idiom)ArticleAccusative Feminine Singular
ἐξηραμμένηνexērammenēnwitheredG3583
√ ξηραίνω — to desiccateVerbPerfect Participle Middle or PassiveAccusative Feminine Singular
xērainō: to desiccate (perfect participle passive) The perfect presents a finished drying whose result stands, which is why both Cambridge and Pulpit reach for the language of the incurable: Cambridge calls it partial atrophy beyond any human art and Pulpit a gradual drying up of the limb beyond the reach of mere human skill. Benson adds that the hand was not only withered but contracted, and Pulpit infers from this very participle that the cause was disease or accident and not congenital, since a hand that has been dried up was once sound. Contrast Mark's plainer adjective ξηράν in v3.
χεῖραcheirahandG5495
√ χείρ — the hand (literally or figuratively (power)NounAccusative Feminine Singular
ἦνēnwasG1510
√ εἰμί — I exist (used only when emphatic)VerbImperfect Indicative Active3rd Person Singular
eimi: to be (imperfect) The imperfect sets the man in the synagogue before the entrance of Jesus, so the encounter reads as prepared rather than stumbled upon. Gill allows both motives for his being there: a cure, or simply worship.
ἐκεῖekeithereG1563
√ ἐκεῖ — thereAdverb
2

In order to accuse Jesus, they were watching to see if He would heal on the Sabbath.

Berean Standard Bible · CC0

Greek — tap a word ↓

kai hina katēgorēsōsin autou paretēroun auton ei therapeusei auton tois sabbasin

Word by word11 · parsed
καὶkaiG2532
√ καί — and, also, even, so then, too, etcConjunction
ἵναhinaIn order toG2443
√ ἵνα — compare G3588 (ὁ))Conjunction
κατηγορήσωσινkatēgorēsōsinaccuseG2723
√ κατηγορέω — to be a plaintiff, iVerbAorist Subjunctive Active3rd Person Plural
katēgoreō: to be a plaintiff, to accuse A legal verb in an aorist subjunctive purpose clause: the aim is an indictment, not an argument. Pulpit supplies the stake, that work on the Sabbath was prohibited under pain of death (Exodus 31:14), and Gill notes they had already tried to bring this charge against the disciples.
αὐτοῦautou[Jesus]G846
√ αὐτός — the reflexive pronoun self, used (alone or in the comparative G1438 (ἑαυτοῦ)) of the third person , and (with the proper personal pronoun) of the other personsPersonal / Possessive PronounGenitive Masculine 3rd Person Singular
παρετήρουνparetērounthey were watchingG3906
√ παρατηρέω — to inspect alongside, iVerbImperfect Indicative Active3rd Person Plural
paratēreō: to inspect alongside The Verifier finds the lexeme in only six verses, among them Luke 6:7 in the parallel account, Luke 14:1 at another Sabbath meal, and Acts 9:24, where men watch the gates day and night to kill. Cambridge is blunt that the word itself carries stratagem; the imperfect keeps the eyes on him throughout.
αὐτὸνautonG846
√ αὐτός — the reflexive pronoun self, used (alone or in the comparative G1438 (ἑαυτοῦ)) of the third person , and (with the proper personal pronoun) of the other personsPersonal / Possessive PronounAccusative Masculine 3rd Person Singular
εἰei{to see} ifG1487
√ εἰ — if, whether, that, etcConjunction
θεραπεύσειtherapeuseiHe would healG2323
√ θεραπεύω — to wait upon menially, iVerbFuture Indicative Active3rd Person Singular
therapeuō: to wait upon, to heal A future indicative: they expect the healing. Maclaren draws the whole tragedy from this expectation, that they had learned enough of his tenderness and power to predict the miracle and still had no eye for it.
αὐτόνautonG846
√ αὐτός — the reflexive pronoun self, used (alone or in the comparative G1438 (ἑαυτοῦ)) of the third person , and (with the proper personal pronoun) of the other personsPersonal / Possessive PronounAccusative Masculine 3rd Person Singular
τοῖςtoison theG3588
√ ὁ — the (sometimes to be supplied, at others omitted, in English idiom)ArticleDative Neuter Plural
σάββασινsabbasinSabbathG4521
√ σάββατον — the Sabbath (iNounDative Neuter Plural
sabbaton: the Sabbath Dative plural, the ordinary Greek form for the single day. The day given for rest and mercy becomes, in this verse, the instrument of prosecution.
3

Then Jesus said to the man with the withered hand, “Stand up among us.”

Berean Standard Bible · CC0

Greek — tap a word ↓

Kai legei tō anthrōpō tō echonti tēn xēran cheira Egeire eis to meson

Word by word13 · parsed
ΚαὶKaiThenG2532
√ καί — and, also, even, so then, too, etcConjunction
λέγειlegei[Jesus] saidG3004
√ λέγω — properly, to "lay" forth, iVerbPresent Indicative Active3rd Person Singular
legō: to say (historic present) Mark's present tense puts the reader in the room.
τῷtōto theG3588
√ ὁ — the (sometimes to be supplied, at others omitted, in English idiom)ArticleDative Masculine Singular
ἀνθρώπῳanthrōpōmanG444
√ ἄνθρωπος — from G3700 (ὀπτάνομαι))NounDative Masculine Singular
τῷtōG3588
√ ὁ — the (sometimes to be supplied, at others omitted, in English idiom)ArticleDative Masculine Singular
ἔχοντιechontiwithG2192
√ ἔχω — to hold (used in very various applications, literally or figuratively, direct or remoteVerbPresent Participle ActiveDative Masculine Singular
τὴνtēntheG3588
√ ὁ — the (sometimes to be supplied, at others omitted, in English idiom)ArticleAccusative Feminine Singular
ξηράνxēranwitheredG3584
√ ξηρός — aridAdjectiveAccusative Feminine Singular
xēros: arid, dry The simple adjective, in place of v1's perfect participle, reduces the man to his infirmity in the very sentence where Jesus is about to undo it.
χεῖραcheirahandG5495
√ χείρ — the hand (literally or figuratively (power)NounAccusative Feminine Singular
ἜγειρεEgeireStand upG1453
√ ἐγείρω — to waken (transitively or intransitively), iVerbPresent Imperative Active2nd Person Singular
egeirō: to waken, to rouse (present imperative) The first command of the scene, and the one verb the man can actually obey. Benson reads the summons pastorally: he was to stand forth so the congregation would see his distress and feel the miracle when the wasted hand was restored in an instant; Gill adds the forensic reason, so that all could see the hand was genuinely withered and no fraud was in the cure.
εἰςeisvvvG1519
√ εἰς — to or into (indicating the point reached or entered), of place, time, or (figuratively) purpose (result, etcPreposition
τὸtovvvG3588
√ ὁ — the (sometimes to be supplied, at others omitted, in English idiom)ArticleAccusative Neuter Singular
μέσονmesonamong [us]G3319
√ μέσος — middle (as an adjective or (neuter) noun)AdjectiveAccusative Neuter Singular
mesos: middle Jesus refuses a quiet cure. Placing the man at the center makes the healing a public act performed in the presence of the men who intend to prosecute it, which is what turns a miracle of mercy into a deliberate test of what the Sabbath is for.
4

And He asked them, “Which is lawful on the Sabbath: to do good or to do evil, to save life or to destroy it?” But they were silent.

Berean Standard Bible · CC0

Greek — tap a word ↓

kai legei autois Exestin tois sabbasin agathon¦poiēsai ē kakopoiēsai sōsai psychēn ē apokteinai de Hoi esiōpōn

Word by word16 · parsed
καὶkaiAndG2532
√ καί — and, also, even, so then, too, etcConjunction
λέγειlegeiHe askedG3004
√ λέγω — properly, to "lay" forth, iVerbPresent Indicative Active3rd Person Singular
αὐτοῖςautoisthemG846
√ αὐτός — the reflexive pronoun self, used (alone or in the comparative G1438 (ἑαυτοῦ)) of the third person , and (with the proper personal pronoun) of the other personsPersonal / Possessive PronounDative Masculine 3rd Person Plural
ἜξεστινExestinWhich is lawfulG1832
√ ἔξεστι — so also neuter present participle of the same (with or without some form of G1510 (εἰμί) expressed)VerbPresent Indicative Active3rd Person Singular
exesti: it is permitted, it is lawful Jesus does not here dispute the rabbinic expansion of the commandment. Maclaren makes the point sharply for the preceding scene, that our Lord does not avail himself of the distinction between God's commandment and men's exposition of it, and the same restraint holds here: he accepts the legal frame and asks instead what the day is for.
τοῖςtoison theG3588
√ ὁ — the (sometimes to be supplied, at others omitted, in English idiom)ArticleDative Neuter Plural
σάββασινsabbasinSabbathG4521
√ σάββατον — the Sabbath (iNounDative Neuter Plural
ἀγαθὸν¦ποιῆσαιagathon¦poiēsaito do goodG15
√ ἀγαθοποιέω — to be a well-doer (as a favor or a duty)VerbAorist Infinitive Active
agathopoieō: to be a well-doer (as a favor or a duty) The lexicon's own gloss carries the whole argument, that doing good is not optional kindness but obligation. The aorist infinitive points at one concrete act, this hand, this Sabbath.
ἢēorG2228
√ ἤ — disjunctive, orConjunction
κακοποιῆσαιkakopoiēsaito do evilG2554
√ κακοποιέω — to be a bad-doer, iVerbAorist Infinitive Active
kakopoieō: to be a bad-doer A rare verb (four verses) set against its rare opposite, so that the two exhaust the field: on this day, with this man before you, there is no third option of doing nothing. Benson marshals Campbell and Whitby for the Scripture idiom by which the mere negation of good is stated as its contrary, and Barnes reduces it to a maxim, that ability to do good imposes the obligation to do it.
σῶσαιsōsaito saveG4982
√ σώζω — to save, iVerbAorist Infinitive Active
ψυχὴνpsychēnlifeG5590
√ ψυχή — breath, iNounAccusative Feminine Singular
psychē: breath, soul, life The escalation is the argument. A withered hand is not a life-threatening case, so by naming psychē Jesus moves the question from what may be permitted to what is owed, and Gill hears the second half aimed straight at men who were at that moment plotting a death.
ἢēorG2228
√ ἤ — disjunctive, orConjunction
ἀποκτεῖναιapokteinaito destroy [it]G615
√ ἀποκτείνω — to kill outrightVerbAorist Infinitive Active
apokteinō: to kill outright The question ends where the chapter ends. Placed beside v6 the verse becomes an unanswered summons: he names saving and killing as the only two options for the day, they keep silence, and then they go out to kill.
δὲdeButG1161
√ δέ — but, and, etcConjunction
ΟἱHoiG3588
√ ὁ — the (sometimes to be supplied, at others omitted, in English idiom)ArticleNominative Masculine Plural
ἐσιώπωνesiōpōnthey were silentG4623
√ σιωπάω — properly, muteness, iVerbImperfect Indicative Active3rd Person Plural
siōpaō: to be mute, to keep silence (imperfect) Pulpit reads the silence as obstinacy rather than defeat, that they are obstinate indeed who, when they can say nothing against the truth, refuse to say anything for it; Gill notes that any honest answer would have gone in Jesus' favor, so silence was the only safe reply.
5

Jesus looked around at them with anger and sorrow at their hardness of heart. Then He said to the man, “Stretch out your hand.” So he stretched it out, and it was restored.

Berean Standard Bible · CC0

Greek — tap a word ↓

Kai periblepsamenos autous met’ orgēs syllypoumenos epi tē pōrōsei tēs autōn kardias kai legei tō anthrōpō Ekteinon tēn sou cheira exeteinen kai autou hē cheir apekatestathē

Word by word26 · parsed
ΚαὶKaiG2532
√ καί — and, also, even, so then, too, etcConjunction
περιβλεψάμενοςperiblepsamenos[Jesus] looked around atG4017
√ περιβλέπω — to look all aroundVerbAorist Participle MiddleNominative Masculine Singular
periblepō: to look all around (aorist middle participle) Mark alone preserves this look, and both Pulpit and Cambridge treat it as the mark of eyewitness testimony. The middle voice turns the gaze back on the one looking: this is a look that costs him something.
αὐτοὺςautousthemG846
√ αὐτός — the reflexive pronoun self, used (alone or in the comparative G1438 (ἑαυτοῦ)) of the third person , and (with the proper personal pronoun) of the other personsPersonal / Possessive PronounAccusative Masculine 3rd Person Plural
μετ’met’withG3326
√ μετά — properly, denoting accompanimentPreposition
ὀργῆςorgēsangerG3709
√ ὀργή — properly, desire (as a reaching forth or excitement of the mind), iNounGenitive Feminine Singular
orgē: reaching forth of the mind, wrath Maclaren claims this is the only occasion on which the emotion is attributed to Jesus, once only a flash out of a clear sky. Geneva and Barnes both guard it: anger without sin, aimed at the wickedness and not at the wronging of himself, which Pulpit grounds in the difference between anger that springs from self-love and anger that springs from the love of God.
συλλυπούμενοςsyllypoumenos[and] sorrowG4818
√ συλλυπέω — to afflict jointly, iVerbPresent Participle Middle or PassiveNominative Masculine Singular
syllypeō: to afflict jointly, to be grieved with A New Testament hapax by Cambridge's reckoning, and the one word in the verse that keeps the anger from curdling. Barnes turns it into a rule for readers, that anger is never lawful except when tempered with grief or compassion for the offender.
ἐπὶepiatG1909
√ ἐπί — properly, meaning superimposition (of time, place, order, etcPreposition
τῇtē[their]G3588
√ ὁ — the (sometimes to be supplied, at others omitted, in English idiom)ArticleDative Feminine Singular
πωρώσειpōrōseihardnessG4457
√ πώρωσις — stupidity or callousnessNounDative Feminine Singular
pōrōsis: callousness, petrifaction Three verses in the Verifier's count, and Cambridge names the other two: Romans 11:25 of Israel in part, Ephesians 4:18 of a darkened understanding. The image is a callus over a break, which is why Geneva can gloss it as a heart closed up and grown together so that sound doctrine makes no impression. The transmitted JFB entry weighs blindness against hardness and settles on hardness.
τῆςtēsofG3588
√ ὁ — the (sometimes to be supplied, at others omitted, in English idiom)ArticleGenitive Feminine Singular
αὐτῶνautōnG846
√ αὐτός — the reflexive pronoun self, used (alone or in the comparative G1438 (ἑαυτοῦ)) of the third person , and (with the proper personal pronoun) of the other personsPersonal / Possessive PronounGenitive Masculine 3rd Person Plural
καρδίαςkardiasheartG2588
√ καρδία — the heart, iNounGenitive Feminine Singular
καὶkaiThenG2532
√ καί — and, also, even, so then, too, etcConjunction
λέγειlegeiHe saidG3004
√ λέγω — properly, to "lay" forth, iVerbPresent Indicative Active3rd Person Singular
τῷtōto theG3588
√ ὁ — the (sometimes to be supplied, at others omitted, in English idiom)ArticleDative Masculine Singular
ἀνθρώπῳanthrōpōmanG444
√ ἄνθρωπος — from G3700 (ὀπτάνομαι))NounDative Masculine Singular
ἜκτεινονEkteinonStretch outG1614
√ ἐκτείνω — to extendVerbAorist Imperative Active2nd Person Singular
ekteinō: to extend, to stretch out (aorist imperative) The only thing required of the man, and it is the one thing a withered hand cannot do. Henry turns the command into the shape of the gospel itself: though our hands are withered, if we will not stretch them out it is our own fault that we are not healed; Pulpit has the divine power working concurrently with the act of obedient faith.
τὴνtēnG3588
√ ὁ — the (sometimes to be supplied, at others omitted, in English idiom)ArticleAccusative Feminine Singular
σουsouyourG4771
√ σύ — thouPersonal / Possessive PronounGenitive 2nd Person Singular
χεῖραcheirahandG5495
√ χείρ — the hand (literally or figuratively (power)NounAccusative Feminine Singular
ἐξέτεινενexeteinenSo he stretched [it] outG1614
√ ἐκτείνω — to extendVerbAorist Indicative Active3rd Person Singular
καὶkaiandG2532
√ καί — and, also, even, so then, too, etcConjunction
αὐτοῦautouvvvG846
√ αὐτός — the reflexive pronoun self, used (alone or in the comparative G1438 (ἑαυτοῦ)) of the third person , and (with the proper personal pronoun) of the other personsPersonal / Possessive PronounGenitive Masculine 3rd Person Singular
ἡhēvvvG3588
√ ὁ — the (sometimes to be supplied, at others omitted, in English idiom)ArticleNominative Feminine Singular
χεὶρcheir[it]G5495
√ χείρ — the hand (literally or figuratively (power)NounNominative Feminine Singular
ἀπεκατεστάθηapekatestathēwas restoredG600
√ ἀποκαθίστημι — to reconstitute (in health, home or organization)VerbAorist Indicative Passive3rd Person Singular
apokathistēmi: to reconstitute (aorist passive) The Verifier finds the lexeme in only eight verses, and two of them are the parallel accounts of this same moment (Matthew 12:13, Luke 6:10). A passive with no named agent, set immediately after a hardening no one will heal: the hand is put back, the heart is not. Both Gill and Pulpit observe that the clause "whole as the other" is absent from the best copies and was likely drawn in from Matthew.
6

At this, the Pharisees went out and began plotting with the Herodians how they might kill Jesus.

Berean Standard Bible · CC0

Greek — tap a word ↓

Kai euthys hoi Pharisaioi exelthontes edidoun symboulion meta tōn Hērōdianōn kat’ autou hopōs apolesōsin auton

Word by word15 · parsed
ΚαὶKaiAt thisG2532
√ καί — and, also, even, so then, too, etcConjunction
εὐθὺςeuthys. . .G2112
√ εὐθέως — directly, iAdverb
eutheōs: directly, immediately Mark's characteristic adverb; here it times the plot to the Sabbath itself.
οἱhoitheG3588
√ ὁ — the (sometimes to be supplied, at others omitted, in English idiom)ArticleNominative Masculine Plural
ΦαρισαῖοιPharisaioiPhariseesG5330
√ Φαρισαῖος — a separatist, iNounNominative Masculine Plural
Pharisaios: a separatist The men who came to see whether he would break the day leave it to break the sixth commandment.
ἐξελθόντεςexelthonteswent outG1831
√ ἐξέρχομαι — to issue (literally or figuratively)VerbAorist Participle ActiveNominative Masculine Plural
ἐδίδουνedidoun[and] began plottingG1325
√ δίδωμι — to give (used in a very wide application, properly, or by implication, literally or figurativelyVerbImperfect Indicative Active3rd Person Plural
didōmi: to give An imperfect of process: the consultation is entered into and kept up. Cambridge reports the effect of the miracle on them, that they had not merely seen their traditions broken but had been put to silence before all the people, which is the injury the plot answers.
συμβούλιονsymboulion. . .G4824
√ συμβούλιον — advisementNounAccusative Neuter Singular
symboulion: advisement, counsel The Verifier finds the noun in eight verses, among them Matthew 12:14, the parallel to this same verse, where the Verifier also records the shared G3704 ὅπως of the purpose clause. Benson infers from Matthew's word for a council that the Pharisees present were members of the sanhedrim, which would make this not private malice but the opening of an official proceeding; the inference is his, since Mark names no body.
μετὰmetawithG3326
√ μετά — properly, denoting accompanimentPreposition
τῶνtōntheG3588
√ ὁ — the (sometimes to be supplied, at others omitted, in English idiom)ArticleGenitive Masculine Plural
ἩρῳδιανῶνHērōdianōnHerodiansG2265
√ Ἡρωδιανοί — Herodians, iNounGenitive Masculine Plural
Hērōdianoi: Herodians A rare name, three verses in the Verifier's count. Poole takes them for a civil faction stiff for Herod's interest and the Roman emperor's; Cambridge calls the sect political rather than religious, Sadducean in opinion and looking to the Herods as a bulwark against Rome, and the natural opponents of the Pharisees. Maclaren's image is the plainest reading of the alliance: hawks and kites joining to assail a dove.
κατ’kat’G2596
√ κατά — (prepositionally) down (in place or time), in varied relations (according to the case (genitive, dative or accusative) with which it is joined)Preposition
αὐτοῦautouG846
√ αὐτός — the reflexive pronoun self, used (alone or in the comparative G1438 (ἑαυτοῦ)) of the third person , and (with the proper personal pronoun) of the other personsPersonal / Possessive PronounGenitive Masculine 3rd Person Singular
ὅπωςhopōshowG3704
√ ὅπως — what(-ever) how, iConjunction
ἀπολέσωσινapolesōsinthey might killG622
√ ἀπόλλυμι — to destroy fully (reflexively, to perish, or lose), literally or figurativelyVerbAorist Subjunctive Active3rd Person Plural
apollymi: to destroy fully (aorist subjunctive) Mark closes the unit on the verb of ruin. The question of v4 was whether the Sabbath is for saving life or killing; the silence of v4 is broken here, and it is broken by a decision to destroy. Barnes reads the motive without flinching, that sinners would often rather put to death the man who reproves them than forsake the sin.
αὐτὸνauton[Jesus]G846
√ αὐτός — the reflexive pronoun self, used (alone or in the comparative G1438 (ἑαυτοῦ)) of the third person , and (with the proper personal pronoun) of the other personsPersonal / Possessive PronounAccusative Masculine 3rd Person Singular

The verse-by-verse work is done. What follows gathers the whole unit. All three layers below are machine-generated (⚙). Weigh them; they have no authority.

⚙

Grand Commentary — the unit, read whole

synthesis · verify

AI synthesis — woven from the public-domain voices above and the original text; generated and fallible.

i. The room already set — 3:1-2

Mark stages this before anyone speaks. The man ἦν ἐκεῖ, imperfect, already in place; the watchers are already watching, παρετήρουν, imperfect again, and Cambridge will not let the verb pass as neutral, saying it signifies stratagem and hostility. ⚙ Two continuous actions face each other across the assembly, and the only new thing in the room is the one who walks in. Maclaren locates the horror exactly where the Greek locates it, in men who expected the miracle and had no eye for it because they expected a broken Sabbath; and he names the two vices of that expectation, that there is nothing so blind and nothing so cruel as formal religionism. Sources differ on where this happened: Gill, Cambridge and Pulpit say Capernaum on the following Sabbath, Benson says some other Galilean town, and Mark says neither. Pulpit adds, from Jerome, an apocryphal report that the man was a mason who begged not to be reduced to begging; that is not Scripture, and it is recorded here only as Pulpit records it, as evidence that the hand was ruined by accident or disease rather than born so.

ii. The question handed back — 3:3-4

Cambridge reconstructs the exchange from the parallel: they asked first, "Is it lawful to heal on the Sabbath day?", and he answered as was his wont, with a counter-question. ⚙ Notice what he does not do. Maclaren observes that our Lord does not avail himself of the distinction between God's commandment and men's exposition of it, refusing two controversies at once; so the reply concedes their legal frame and attacks their premise instead. Ἔξεστιν asks simply whether a thing is permitted, and then sets two rare and matched verbs against each other, ἀγαθοποιέω (nine verses) and κακοποιέω (four), so that no third option of inaction survives. Benson brings Campbell and Whitby to that point, that in Scripture idiom not to do good when we can is to do evil, and not to save is to kill; Barnes states it as a maxim, that the ability to do good imposes the obligation to do it. Then the stake rises from a hand to a ψυχή, which Geneva reads as synecdoche for the man himself. Gill hears the second half of the question aimed at the hearers: for it was his life they were meeting about. They hold their peace, ἐσιώπων, imperfect, a silence Mark alone reports (Cambridge) and which Pulpit reads as obstinacy rather than defeat.

iii. Anger, grief, and a hand reconstituted — 3:5

The verse is Mark's alone. Pulpit treats it as eyewitness testimony, saying the account is evidently from one who saw the look or had it from one who did; Cambridge presses the compound verb, that he did not merely look upon them but looked round, surveying each face. Two emotions, in two different tenses. The anger is an aorist glance, περιβλεψάμενος with ὀργῆς; the grief is a present participle running underneath, συλλυπούμενος, a word Cambridge says appears nowhere else in the New Testament, and which Ellicott says implies compassion as well as sorrow. Maclaren, who believes this is the only occasion on which anger is attributed to Jesus, will not separate them: mark the combination, and mark the reason for both. Geneva guards the anger dogmatically, angry without sin, grieved not for the injury to himself but for their wickedness; Barnes draws the pastoral rule, that anger is lawful only when tempered by grief for the offender. And the object of both is πώρωσις, which Cambridge traces to the callus that knits a fractured bone. ⚙ That is the surgical irony of the verse: the room contains two hardened, dried, useless things, and only one of them will be made new. The hand is ἀπεκατεστάθη, reconstituted, by a word and without a touch (Cambridge); the heart is only looked at.

iv. What they did with the rest of the Sabbath — 3:6

Maclaren reads the coalition for what it is, a common object of hatred cementing antagonists into strange alliance, hawks and kites assailing a dove; Poole, admitting that Scripture does not tell us plainly who the Herodians were, reconstructs them as a civil faction stiff for Herod's interest and Rome's; Cambridge calls the sect political rather than religious and notes that this is the first time they appear. Gill supplies the moral the Greek is already making: men who thought it unlawful to heal a lame hand on the Sabbath made no scruple of meeting on that day, with profane men, to destroy an innocent life. ⚙ Read with v4 the structure closes hard. He asked whether the day is for saving a soul or for killing; they answered nothing; then εὐθύς, immediately, they went out and answered with ἀπολέσωσιν, that they might destroy him. Benson notes they had reached the pitch where nothing but his life would satisfy, and Barnes that sinners would rather put to death the man who reproves them than forsake the sin.

Read under Sola Scriptura — this tool’s own fallible reading (⚙)

⚙ This is the tool's own fallible reading, offered to be tested by Scripture and not in place of it. The unit is built on one word and its double: a hand that has been dried up, ἐξηραμμένην, and a heart that is being hardened, πωρώσει, the callus over the break. Both are conditions past human repair; Cambridge says as much of the hand, that such a malady once established is incurable by any human art. Jesus heals the one that is asked of him and grieves over the one that is not. That is why the command is Ἔκτεινον, stretch out, addressed to the very member that cannot: the man is asked for nothing but the movement he has no power to make, and in making it he is healed, which Henry turns into the plain gospel word that if we will not stretch out our withered hands it is our own fault we are not healed, while Pulpit is careful to add that the divine power wrought the miracle concurrently with the obedience. The men watching are asked for the same thing, an answer, one word out of a silent mouth, and they keep the silence; nothing is done to them, and nothing is what happens to them. So the Sabbath question of v4 is not finally about medicine. It asks what a day belonging to God is for, and it admits only two answers, and everyone in the room answers it. He saves a life. They spend the day arranging a death. The line that follows is this tool's own, not Scripture.

The hand that could not stretch out was made new; the heart that would not speak was only looked at.

⚙

Canonical Threads — out to the whole of Scripture

cross-refs · verify

AI-generated connections. Each carries a verification badge with a recorded basis; contested links are flagged.

The same rare verb of reconstitution in all three accounts verbal / quotation: confirmed

Matthew, Mark and Luke all report this healing, and all three close it with the same uncommon verb: ἀποκαθίστημι (G600), to reconstitute in health, home or organization. The Verifier finds the lexeme in only eight verses, two of which are these parallels, and pairs it here with χείρ (G5495). ⚙ The agreement is more than incidental. Each evangelist could have written that the hand was healed, using the ordinary θεραπεύω of v2; all three chose the word for putting a thing back as it was constituted to be. Cambridge records that this also stands among the healings performed without a word and without external means.

Luke 6:10 · Matthew 12:13

basis: Verifier: shared Greek lexeme G600 ἀποκαθίστημι (in 8 vv, rare) plus G5495 χείρ (in 168 vv); Greek to Greek within the New Testament, the three synoptic accounts of one event, so a genuine verbal link rather than a citation

Watched, in the hostile sense of the word verbal / quotation: confirmed

παρατηρέω (G3906) is not common: the Verifier finds it in six verses. Cambridge, glossing v2, says the word itself signifies stratagem and hostility and sends the reader to the passages where watching means lying in wait. Luke 6:7 is the parallel to this scene; Luke 14:1 sets the same verb at another Sabbath table; Acts 9:24 uses it of men watching the gates day and night to kill Saul. ⚙ Mark's imperfect therefore does not describe attentive listeners in a synagogue. It describes surveillance with a charge already drafted, which is why Pulpit can suspect scribes sent from Jerusalem for the purpose.

Luke 6:7 · Luke 14:1 · Acts 9:24

basis: Verifier: shared Greek lexeme G3906 παρατηρέω (in 6 vv, rare), with G4521 σάββατον at Luke 6:7 and Luke 14:1 and G3704 ὅπως at Acts 9:24; all New Testament, Greek to Greek, so a verbal link with no quotation claimed

Doing good and doing evil: a matched pair of rare verbs verbal / quotation: confirmed

The two verbs of v4, ἀγαθοποιέω (G15, nine verses) and κακοποιέω (G2554, four verses), recur as a pair in the apostolic writings: 1 Peter 3:17 weighs suffering for doing good against doing evil, and 3 John 1:11 sets the one who does good over against the one who does evil as a test of whose child a man is. ⚙ The pairing is what carries the argument. Because the field is exhausted by two rare and opposite verbs, the option of standing still is removed, which is exactly the deduction Benson draws from Campbell and Whitby and Barnes states as a rule of Christian ethics.

1 Peter 3:17 · 3 John 1:11

basis: Verifier: shared Greek lexemes G15 ἀγαθοποιέω (in 9 vv) and G2554 κακοποιέω (in 4 vv), both rare and both shared with each listed verse; Greek to Greek within the New Testament, a lexical pairing and not a quotation

Petrified: the callus over Israel's heart verbal / quotation: confirmed

πώρωσις (G4457) occurs in three verses by the Verifier's count, and Cambridge names the other two as it glosses this one: Romans 11:25, where a hardening in part has happened to Israel, and Ephesians 4:18, where the understanding is darkened because of the hardening of the heart. ⚙ That is a narrow and pointed family of texts. Mark's word for what Jesus saw in a synagogue is the same word Paul uses for a national condition and for pagan blindness, and the medical root, the callus by which broken bone knits hard, is why Geneva can describe a heart closed up and grown together so that sound doctrine leaves no impression. Maclaren's preference for the process word, hardening, fits Paul's "in part" better than the static English "hardness."

Romans 11:25 · Ephesians 4:18

basis: Verifier: shared Greek lexeme G4457 πώρωσις (in 3 vv, rare) with G2588 καρδία at Ephesians 4:18 and G1525 εἰσέρχομαι at Romans 11:25; Cambridge independently names both references; New Testament to New Testament, so verbal without any quotation claim

The Pharisees and the Herodians, twice verbal / quotation: confirmed

Ἡρῳδιανοί (G2265) appears in only three verses, and this is the first. The other two are the deputation of Mark 12:13 and its parallel Matthew 22:16, where Pharisees and Herodians are sent together to trap him in his speech over tribute. ⚙ The same improbable alliance, formed here on a Sabbath in Galilee, reappears in Jerusalem in the last week; Cambridge notes the recurrence on the day of questions. Maclaren's reading of the coalition, that a common object of hatred cements antagonists, is therefore not a one-off observation about this verse but a description of a standing arrangement.

Mark 12:13 · Matthew 22:16

basis: Verifier: shared Greek lexeme G2265 Ἡρωδιανοί (in 3 vv, rare), with G5330 Φαρισαῖος also shared at Mark 12:13; all three occurrences are New Testament, so a verbal link between the two scenes of the same alliance

The commandment actually in dispute structural / thematic: confirmed

Neither party in this synagogue quotes the Sabbath commandment, but both are arguing about it: Exodus 20:8-11 grounds the day in creation, Deuteronomy 5:12-15 in the deliverance from Egypt, and Exodus 31:14 attaches death to its profanation, which Pulpit cites as the reason the stakes here are capital and as the reason work was understood to include every act not absolutely necessary. ⚙ Two things follow. First, the accusation in v2 is not a complaint about etiquette; it is the groundwork of a capital charge. Second, Deuteronomy's reason for the day, that you were a slave and the Lord brought you out, is the reason Jesus' question presses: a day commemorating release is a strange day on which to leave a man bound. Maclaren notes that Jesus declines to distinguish here between God's commandment and the doctors' exposition of it, so the argument is conducted entirely inside their frame.

Exodus 20:8-11 · Deuteronomy 5:12-15 · Exodus 31:14

basis: The Sabbath legislation is the law under dispute in the scene, and Pulpit cites Exodus 31:14 by name for the death penalty; cross-Testament (Hebrew to Greek), so no shared Strong's number is possible and nothing verbal is claimed. Mark records no formal quotation of the commandment

Mercy, not sacrifice: the priority Hosea already stated structural / thematic: confirmed

Hosea 6:6 sets steadfast love above sacrifice and the knowledge of God above burnt offerings, which is the priority Jesus' question in v4 assumes rather than argues. ⚙ It should be said plainly that Mark's account contains no citation of Hosea; Mark gives the counter-question and nothing else. The link is a motif link made by this synthesis, and it is offered at the lower tier for that reason. What supports it from the sources is the shape of the reasoning they find in v4: Benson and Barnes both take Jesus to be appealing to a principle his hearers already held, that ability to do good imposes obligation, and Geneva's note on the ceremonial law adds the prophetic frame, that they preferred an addition to the moral law over the moral law itself and should have learned from this the true use of the ceremonial.

Hosea 6:6

basis: Shared pattern only: mercy outranking cultic observance. No quotation appears in Mark's account, and cross-Testament (Hebrew to Greek) links cannot rest on shared Strong's numbers; the pairing is this synthesis's reading and is deliberately not tiered verbal

The vocabulary of hardening, from Pharaoh to Meribah structural / thematic: confirmed

Hardening as the settled condition of a heart set against God has a long Hebrew history before Mark reaches for a Greek medical term: Exodus 7:3, where the Lord says he will harden Pharaoh's heart; Psalm 95:8, the warning not to harden the heart as at Meribah, spoken about worship and about a day; Isaiah 6:9-10, the commission to a people whose heart is made fat so that they see and do not perceive. ⚙ What Mark adds is the onlooker. In Exodus and Isaiah hardening is announced; here it is watched, and Maclaren's reading of the participle is that Jesus saw the process going on before him as he looked. Cambridge and Paul carry the same condition forward into Romans 11:25. The link to these Hebrew texts is thematic: the motif is unmistakable, the vocabulary is not shared, and Mark makes no citation.

Exodus 7:3 · Psalm 95:8 · Isaiah 6:9-10

basis: Shared motif of a hardened heart before God, stated in the unit's own vocabulary by G4457 πώρωσις; cross-Testament (Hebrew to Greek), so no shared Strong's lexeme exists and no verbal tier is claimed. Mark's text quotes none of these verses

A hand that dried up, and a hand that was restored typological

Cambridge, glossing the withered hand, sends the reader to 1 Kings 13:4 for the parallel case of Jeroboam, whose hand dried up when he stretched it out to seize the man of God at the altar, and was restored when the prophet prayed. ⚙ Read figurally the two scenes are near mirrors: a king's hand stretched out against God's messenger and withered in the act, a poor man's hand stretched out at God's word and made whole in the act, and in both the drying and the restoring lie outside human art. The comparison is Cambridge's; the figural reading of it is this tool's and is offered as such, not as a reading the source makes.

1 Kings 13:4

basis: Cambridge explicitly compares 1 Kings 13:4 as a parallel case of a withered hand; the figural pairing of the two hands is novel to this synthesis. Cross-Testament (Hebrew to Greek), so no shared Strong's lexeme is available and nothing verbal is claimed

⚙Christ in the Unittypology · verify

AI-generated reading; weigh it against the text.

The Lord of the Sabbath, hallowing it by working on it ancient/widely-held

This scene follows immediately on the claim that the Son of Man is Lord of the Sabbath, and Maclaren reads the two together as a climax: having brushed aside rabbinical rules about eating and fasting, here he goes much further, claiming power over the divine ordinance of the Sabbath itself. ⚙ The claim is made not by argument but by a cure. He bases his vindication, as Maclaren puts it, on the two principles that mercy and help hallow any day and that not to save life is to kill; and the healing then demonstrates whose day it is. Geneva sharpens the indictment behind the scene, that they preferred an addition to the moral law over the moral law and should have learned instead the true use of the ceremonial. Cambridge counts seven Sabbath miracles in the Gospels, six of them named alongside this one, which makes the pattern deliberate: the day of rest is the day he most often works.

Mark 2:27-28 · Luke 6:9 · Hebrews 4:9-10

Stretch out your hand: the command that carries its own power ancient/widely-held

Nothing is asked of the man but the one motion he cannot make. Henry states the gospel analogy without embarrassment: though our hands are withered, if we will not stretch them out it is our own fault that we are not healed, and if we are healed, Christ and his power and grace must have all the glory. Pulpit adds the mechanism, that the divine power wrought the miracle concurrently with the act of faith in obeying the command, and Cambridge notes that no word of healing and no external means were used at all: only the summons, the obedience, and the reconstituted hand. ⚙ This is the ordinary shape of the call of Christ, and it is why the verse has always been preached to the unconverted. The imperative is the gift. Obedience is not the payment for healing, it is the form healing takes in the one healed, which is also why the men who were asked only for an answer and gave silence went away exactly as they came.

Mark 3:5 · John 5:8-9

Anger without sin, and the day of his wrath ancient/widely-held

The sources treat v5 as the clearest window in the Gospels onto the emotions of the incarnate Son. Cambridge sets the grief and anger beside his weeping at the grave of Lazarus, his sleeping in the boat, his hunger, his sorrow unto death, as evidence of one who was very God and very Man; Pulpit insists the passions were real but subordinated to reason, and marks the difference from fallen anger, which springs from self-love, whereas his sprang from the love of God; Geneva says he is angry without sin and grieved for their wickedness rather than for the wrong done to him; Barnes makes the grief the test of lawful anger. ⚙ Henry then draws the line forward that the others leave implicit: let hard-hearted sinners tremble to think of the anger with which he will look upon them shortly, when the day of his wrath comes. The look of Mark 3:5 is the same face, and the only difference is that in the synagogue it is joined to a grief that is still pleading.

Mark 3:5 · Ephesians 4:26 · John 11:35

He asked about saving a life, and they took his novel

⚙ The unit is framed by one question and its answer. In v4 he names the only two possibilities for the day, to save a soul or to kill; in v6 the men who would not answer go out and give counsel how they might destroy him. Gill states the irony as fact, that those who thought it unlawful to heal a lame man on the Sabbath made no scruple of consulting on that day, with profane men, how to destroy an innocent life; Barnes reads the motive, that sinners would rather put the man who reproves them to death than forsake their sin; Benson says their anger had ripened to the point where nothing but his life would satisfy. What the sources do not say, and what is offered here as this tool's own reading, is that the exchange is the passion in miniature: he saves a life on the Sabbath and loses his own to the saving, and the verb they choose for him, ἀπολέσωσιν, to destroy fully, is the thing he came to undo.

Mark 3:4 · Mark 3:6 · Mark 12:13

Apparatus & Provenance

The biblical text is the Berean Standard Bible (BSB), public domain (CC0). Hebrew/Greek text, transliteration, morphology and Strong’s are transcribed from the Berean interlinear (CC0) + Strong’s lexicons (PD); the literal renderings, divergence notes, word notes and all synthesis are this tool’s own work (⚙) — fallible; verify them.

Named voices, quoted verbatim from public-domain works:

  • Albert Barnes, Notes on the Bible (1834)
  • Alexander Maclaren, Expositions of Holy Scripture (c. 1905)
  • Cambridge Bible for Schools and Colleges, — (1880s)
  • Charles Ellicott, Commentary for English Readers (1878)
  • Geneva Study Bible, Marginal Notes (1599)
  • Jamieson, Fausset & Brown, Commentary Critical and Explanatory (1871)
  • John Gill, Exposition of the Entire Bible (1746–63)
  • Joseph Benson, Commentary on the Old and New Testaments (1810s)
  • Matthew Henry, Concise Commentary on the Whole Bible (1706)
  • Matthew Poole, Annotations upon the Holy Bible (1685)
  • The Pulpit Commentary, Spence & Exell, eds. (1880s)

Text and sources for this unit, honestly stated. (1) At the end of v5 the clause "whole as the other" is absent from the best copies: Pulpit says it is not found in the best uncials and was probably inserted from Matthew, and Gill reports it missing from the Vulgate, Syriac, Arabic, Persic and Ethiopic, and from the Alexandrian and Beza's most ancient copy. Nothing in the reading of this unit depends on it. (2) At v3 Pulpit's Greek text reads the middle imperative Egeirai where the interlinear of this edition has Ἔγειρε; the sense is unaffected. (3) Several of the strongest commentators on this passage do not comment here at all but refer the reader to Matthew 12:9-13: Barnes does so at vv. 1-3, JFB throughout, and Poole at vv. 2, 3 and 5. The voices in this unit therefore lean on the Mark-specific expositors (Mark alone records the look, the anger, the grief and the silence, as Cambridge and Pulpit both note). (4) The transmitted [JFB] entry for v1 carries a chapter outline together with annotations, including the lexical note on πώρωσις quoted above; the excerpt is given as it stands in the source, with that irregularity flagged rather than tidied. (5) Location is uncertain: Gill, Cambridge and Pulpit place the scene at Capernaum on the next Sabbath, Benson elsewhere in Galilee; Mark names no town and no date, and Luke 6:6 only says another Sabbath. (6) The mason's request quoted by Pulpit comes from an apocryphal Gospel reported by Jerome and is not Scripture; it is cited only for the inference Pulpit draws from it. (7) Poole states openly that Scripture does not tell us plainly who the Herodians were, so his account of them and Cambridge's fuller reconstruction are historical inference. (8) Mark's account contains no formal quotation of the Old Testament, so every thread pairing this unit with a Hebrew text is tiered structural or typological, never verbal, and the reason is stated in each basis; the Hosea 6:6 and 1 Kings 13:4 pairings in particular are this synthesis's readings, marked as such. (9) The sola-reading and its pull-quote are the tool's own fallible commentary and are not Scripture.

✦ = human, public-domain source, quoted and named. ⚙ = machine synthesis, to be verified. Flagged cross-references are left visible on purpose — the verifier working in the open. “Search the Scriptures daily, whether those things were so.” (Acts 17:11)