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Mark3:7–12

Jesus Heals the Multitudes

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Mark 3:7–12 — Jesus Heals the Multitudes. 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.

7

So Jesus withdrew with His disciples to the sea, accompanied by a large crowd from Galilee, Judea,

Berean Standard Bible · CC0

Greek — tap a word ↓

Kai ho Iēsous anechōrēsen meta autou tōn mathētōn pros tēn thalassan kai ēkolouthēsen poly plēthos apo tēs Galilaias kai apo tēs Ioudaias

Word by word22 · parsed
ΚαὶKai[So]G2532
√ καί — and, also, even, so then, too, etcConjunction
ὁhoG3588
√ ὁ — the (sometimes to be supplied, at others omitted, in English idiom)ArticleNominative Masculine Singular
ἸησοῦςIēsousJesusG2424
√ Ἰησοῦς — Jesus (iNounNominative Masculine Singular
ἀνεχώρησενanechōrēsenwithdrewG402
√ ἀναχωρέω — to retireVerbAorist Indicative Active3rd Person Singular
anachōreō: to retire, to withdraw The verb of giving ground. Mark places it immediately after the Pharisees and Herodians take counsel to destroy him (v. 6), so the withdrawal is a response to a death plot, not a change of itinerary. Gill insists the motive is not fear but timing: the hour is fixed and the work unfinished. The same verb reappears at Matthew 15:21 when he withdraws toward Tyre and Sidon, the very region named here in v. 8.
μετὰmetawithG3326
√ μετά — properly, denoting accompanimentPreposition
αὐτοῦautouHisG846
√ 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
τῶνtōnG3588
√ ὁ — the (sometimes to be supplied, at others omitted, in English idiom)ArticleGenitive Masculine Plural
μαθητῶνmathētōndisciplesG3101
√ μαθητής — a learner, iNounGenitive Masculine Plural
mathētēs: a learner, disciple Genitive plural; the twelve are not yet named (that comes at 3:13-19), so "his disciples" here is the wider circle already attached to him.
πρὸςprostoG4314
√ πρός — a preposition of directionPreposition
τὴνtēntheG3588
√ ὁ — the (sometimes to be supplied, at others omitted, in English idiom)ArticleAccusative Feminine Singular
θάλασσανthalassanseaG2281
√ θάλασσα — the sea (genitive case or specially)NounAccusative Feminine Singular
thalassa: the sea The Sea of Galilee. Cambridge marks this as the hinge where the lake replaces the synagogue as the place of teaching, and Barnes notes the lonely country around it as the natural refuge. Mark's Gospel will now do much of its teaching from water and shore rather than from inside a building.
καὶkaiG2532
√ καί — and, also, even, so then, too, etcConjunction
ἠκολούθησενēkolouthēsenaccompanied byG190
√ ἀκολουθέω — properly, to be in the same way with, iVerbAorist Indicative Active3rd Person Singular
akoloutheō: to follow, to be in the same way with Aorist active with plēthos as subject. Strong's root sense is to be on the same road, and Mark uses it for the crowd here and, at 1:18 and 2:14, for called disciples. The word will not by itself tell you whether following is discipleship or pursuit; the rest of the unit shows this crowd wants healing more than instruction.
πολὺpolya largeG4183
√ πολύς — (singular) much (in any respect) or (plural) manyAdjectiveNominative Neuter Singular
πλῆθοςplēthoscrowdG4128
√ πλῆθος — a fulness, iNounNominative Neuter Singular
plēthos: a fulness, a multitude A comparatively infrequent noun in the Gospels (31 verses in the whole New Testament by the Verifier's count), and Mark doubles it, here and again at v. 8, as if the sentence itself cannot hold the number. Luke, at the parallel gathering of Luke 6:17, reaches for the same word.
ἀπὸapofromG575
√ ἀπό — "off," iPreposition
τῆςtēsG3588
√ ὁ — the (sometimes to be supplied, at others omitted, in English idiom)ArticleGenitive Feminine Singular
ΓαλιλαίαςGalilaiasGalileeG1056
√ Γαλιλαία — Galilæa (iNounGenitive Feminine Singular
Galilaia: Galilee The region he has just been working through; Gill notes the crowd comes "from the several parts of it." It heads a list that will run to the far south and the pagan north.
καὶkaiG2532
√ καί — and, also, even, so then, too, etcConjunction
ἀπὸapoG575
√ ἀπό — "off," iPreposition
τῆςtēsG3588
√ ὁ — the (sometimes to be supplied, at others omitted, in English idiom)ArticleGenitive Feminine Singular
ἸουδαίαςIoudaiasJudeaG2449
√ Ἰουδαία — the Judæan land (iNounGenitive Feminine Singular
8

Jerusalem, Idumea, the region beyond the Jordan, and the vicinity of Tyre and Sidon. The large crowd came to Him when they heard what great things He was doing.

Berean Standard Bible · CC0

Greek — tap a word ↓

kai apo Hierosolymōn kai apo tēs Idoumaias kai peran tou Iordanou kai peri Tyron kai Sidōna poly plēthos ēlthon pros auton akouontes hosa epoiei

Word by word24 · parsed
καὶkaiG2532
√ καί — and, also, even, so then, too, etcConjunction
ἀπὸapoG575
√ ἀπό — "off," iPreposition
ἹεροσολύμωνHierosolymōnJerusalemG2414
√ Ἱεροσόλυμα — Hierosolyma (iNounGenitive Neuter Plural
καὶkaiG2532
√ καί — and, also, even, so then, too, etcConjunction
ἀπὸapoG575
√ ἀπό — "off," iPreposition
τῆςtēsG3588
√ ὁ — the (sometimes to be supplied, at others omitted, in English idiom)ArticleGenitive Feminine Singular
ἸδουμαίαςIdoumaiasIdumeaG2401
√ Ἰδουμαία — Idumæa (iNounGenitive Feminine Singular
Idoumaia: Idumea, the land of Edom A hapax in the New Testament (Ellicott and Cambridge both say so). Cambridge points to the Old Testament occurrences of the name under judgment (Isaiah 34:5-6; Ezekiel 35:15; Ezekiel 36:5); Barnes traces the population back to Esau and forward to Herod the Great, whose house is on the other side of the plot in v. 6. The catalogue therefore includes the descendants of the brother who sold his birthright.
καὶkaiG2532
√ καί — and, also, even, so then, too, etcConjunction
πέρανperanthe region beyondG4008
√ πέραν — through (as adverb or preposition), iPreposition
peran: across, on the far side Marks the east bank of the Jordan, Peraea, as Gill and Barnes both read it.
τοῦtoutheG3588
√ ὁ — the (sometimes to be supplied, at others omitted, in English idiom)ArticleGenitive Masculine Singular
ἸορδάνουIordanouJordanG2446
√ Ἰορδάνης — the Jordanes (iNounGenitive Masculine Singular
καὶkaiandG2532
√ καί — and, also, even, so then, too, etcConjunction
περὶperithe vicinity ofG4012
√ περί — properly, through (all over), iPreposition
ΤύρονTyronTyreG5184
√ Τύρος — TyreNounAccusative Feminine Singular
Tyros: Tyre With Sidon (G4605) this names Phoenician, that is Gentile, territory; neither name occurs often (11 and 9 verses respectively). Ellicott draws the line forward to the Syro-Phoenician woman of Mark 7:24, where Jesus goes to that region and is met by someone whose hope his fame had already prepared. The crowd's geography is running ahead of his own itinerary.
καὶkaiandG2532
√ καί — and, also, even, so then, too, etcConjunction
ΣιδῶναSidōnaSidonG4605
√ Σιδών — Sidon (iNounAccusative Feminine Singular
πολύpoly[The] largeG4183
√ πολύς — (singular) much (in any respect) or (plural) manyAdjectiveNominative Neuter Singular
πλῆθοςplēthoscrowdG4128
√ πλῆθος — a fulness, iNounNominative Neuter Singular
ἦλθονēlthoncameG2064
√ ἔρχομαι — to come or go (in a great variety of applications, literally and figuratively)VerbAorist Indicative Active3rd Person Plural
πρὸςprostoG4314
√ πρός — a preposition of directionPreposition
αὐτόνautonHimG846
√ 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
ἀκούοντεςakouonteswhen they heardG191
√ ἀκούω — to hear (in various senses)VerbPresent Participle ActiveNominative Masculine Plural
akouō: to hear Present participle: they come hearing, and keep hearing. Gill puts it plainly, that his fame went through all the countries because of the miracles. Mark's Gospel repeatedly makes report, not preaching, the thing that moves these crowds.
ὅσαhosawhat great thingsG3745
√ ὅσος — as (much, great, long, etcPersonal / Relative PronounAccusative Neuter Plural
ἐποίειepoieiHe was doingG4160
√ ποιέω — to make or do (in a very wide application, more or less direct)VerbImperfect Indicative Active3rd Person Singular
poieō: to make, to do Imperfect, of continuing action. The verb returns in v. 12 in the aorist subjunctive, where the crowd's word about what he was doing is answered by his charge that the spirits not make him manifest.
9

Jesus asked His disciples to have a boat ready for Him so that the crowd would not crush Him.

Berean Standard Bible · CC0

Greek — tap a word ↓

Kai eipen tois autou mathētais hina ploiarion proskarterē autō hina dia ton ochlon mē thlibōsin auton

Word by word16 · parsed
ΚαὶKaiG2532
√ καί — and, also, even, so then, too, etcConjunction
εἶπενeipen[Jesus] askedG2036
√ ἔπω — to speak or say (by word or writing)VerbAorist Indicative Active3rd Person Singular
epō: to speak, to say Aorist. Gill hears an order rather than a request, "in an authoritative way."
τοῖςtoisG3588
√ ὁ — the (sometimes to be supplied, at others omitted, in English idiom)ArticleDative Masculine Plural
αὐτοῦautouHisG846
√ 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
μαθηταῖςmathētaisdisciplesG3101
√ μαθητής — a learner, iNounDative Masculine Plural
ἵναhinatoG2443
√ ἵνα — compare G3588 (ὁ))Conjunction
πλοιάριονploiarion{have} a boatG4142
√ πλοιάριον — a boatNounNominative Neuter Singular
ploiarion: a little boat A rare diminutive (5 verses in the New Testament), and every other occurrence is in John (6:22-24; 21:8). Cambridge sees in it the start of a new pattern: the boat becomes his chief place of instruction in place of the synagogue he has just left. Ellicott notes that the practice is already settled by the time of Matthew 13:2, and the Pulpit adds Luke 5:3, where the boat is in effect his pulpit.
προσκαρτερῇproskarterēreadyG4342
√ προσκαρτερέω — to be earnest towards, iVerbPresent Subjunctive Active3rd Person Singular
proskartereō: to be earnest towards, to attend constantly The word later used of the Jerusalem church devoting itself to prayer and teaching. Here it describes a boat kept permanently at his elbow. The present subjunctive makes the attendance continuous: not fetched when needed but never allowed to drift away.
αὐτῷautōfor HimG846
√ 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 Singular
ἵναhinaso thatG2443
√ ἵνα — compare G3588 (ὁ))Conjunction
διὰdiaG1223
√ διά — through (in very wide applications, local, causal, or occasional)Preposition
τὸνtontheG3588
√ ὁ — the (sometimes to be supplied, at others omitted, in English idiom)ArticleAccusative Masculine Singular
ὄχλονochloncrowdG3793
√ ὄχλος — a throng (as borne along)NounAccusative Masculine Singular
ochlos: a throng, as borne along Mark switches from plēthos (vv. 7, 8) to ochlos here. Strong's root picture is of a mass carried along by its own motion, which is exactly the danger the boat is meant to answer.
μὴmēvvvG3361
√ μή — (adverb) not, (conjunction) lestAdverb
θλίβωσινthlibōsinwould not crushG2346
√ θλίβω — to crowd (literally or figuratively)VerbPresent Subjunctive Active3rd Person Plural
thlibō: to crowd, to press hard The physical verb behind the noun thlipsis, affliction. Barnes reads the situation soberly: he had healed many, and those still diseased pressed so hard that his work was interrupted. The Son of God is not threatened here by enemies but hemmed in by the people he came to heal.
αὐτόνautonHimG846
√ 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
10

For He had healed so many that all who had diseases were pressing forward to touch Him.

Berean Standard Bible · CC0

Greek — tap a word ↓

gar etherapeusen pollous hōste hosoi eichon mastigas epipiptein autō hina hapsōntai autou

Word by word12 · parsed
γὰρgarForG1063
√ γάρ — properly, assigning a reason (used in argument, explanation or intensificationConjunction
ἐθεράπευσενetherapeusenHe had healedG2323
√ θεραπεύω — to wait upon menially, iVerbAorist Indicative Active3rd Person Singular
therapeuō: to wait upon, to heal Aorist indicative, stating the whole preceding ministry of healing as one fact and making it the cause (γάρ) of the crush that needed a boat. Mark's logic is worth noting: the pressure in v. 9 exists because the mercy in v. 10 is real.
πολλοὺςpollousso manyG4183
√ πολύς — (singular) much (in any respect) or (plural) manyAdjectiveAccusative Masculine Plural
ὥστεhōstethatG5620
√ ὥστε — so too, iConjunction
ὅσοιhosoiallG3745
√ ὅσος — as (much, great, long, etcPersonal / Relative PronounNominative Masculine Plural
hosos: as many as The same quantity word as v. 8, and the effect is to leave the number open on both sides: as many things as he did, as many people as had scourges.
εἶχονeichonwho hadG2192
√ ἔχω — to hold (used in very various applications, literally or figuratively, direct or remoteVerbImperfect Indicative Active3rd Person Plural
μάστιγαςmastigasdiseasesG3148
√ μάστιξ — a whip (literally, the Roman flagellum for criminalsNounAccusative Feminine Plural
mastix: a whip, the Roman flagellum Rare (6 verses in the New Testament, so the lexeme is a genuine verbal marker). Cambridge sets out the two uses, literal scourging (Acts 22:24; Hebrews 11:36) and bodily affliction (Mark 5:29, 5:34; Luke 7:21). The Pulpit and Geneva both draw the moral that sickness is chastisement; Matthew Henry states it most strongly, that all our sicknesses spring from God's anger against sin. That inference is the commentators', not Mark's wording, and Mark himself simply uses the word for a lash.
ἐπιπίπτεινepipipteinwere pressing forwardG1968
√ ἐπιπίπτω — to embrace (with affection) or seize (with more or less violenceVerbPresent Infinitive Active
epipiptō: to fall upon Present infinitive of continuing result. Mark will use a compound of the same verb, prospiptō, of the demons in v. 11. The Pulpit makes the contrast the key to the passage: the sick fall on him, the unclean spirits fall before him. One is need, the other dread.
αὐτῷautōG846
√ 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 Singular
ἵναhinatoG2443
√ ἵνα — compare G3588 (ὁ))Conjunction
ἅψωνταιhapsōntaitouchG680
√ ἅπτομαι — properly, to attach oneself to, iVerbAorist Subjunctive Middle3rd Person Plural
haptomai: to attach oneself to, to fasten on Aorist subjunctive middle, the purpose of the falling. In Mark contact with Jesus is repeatedly the thing the desperate reach for (5:28; 6:56), and he does not rebuke it.
αὐτοῦautouHimG846
√ 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
11

And when the unclean spirits saw Him, they fell down before Him and cried out, “You are the Son of God!”

Berean Standard Bible · CC0

Greek — tap a word ↓

kai ta ta akatharta pneumata hotan etheōroun auton prosepipton autō kai ekrazon legonta hoti Sy ei ho Huios tou Theou

Word by word20 · parsed
καὶkaiAnd whenG2532
√ καί — and, also, even, so then, too, etcConjunction
τὰtatheG3588
√ ὁ — the (sometimes to be supplied, at others omitted, in English idiom)ArticleNominative Neuter Plural
τὰtaG3588
√ ὁ — the (sometimes to be supplied, at others omitted, in English idiom)ArticleNominative Neuter Plural
ἀκάθαρταakathartauncleanG169
√ ἀκάθαρτος — impure (ceremonially, morally (lewd) or specially, (demonic))AdjectiveNominative Neuter Plural
akathartos: impure, unclean Strong's notes the word covers ceremonial, moral and specifically demonic impurity, and Mark's usual name for these beings is drawn from the first of those spheres. The cleanness vocabulary of the Law is thereby transferred to persons: what the Law kept outside the camp now falls at the feet of the one who heals by touch.
πνεύματαpneumataspiritsG4151
√ πνεῦμα — a current of air, iNounNominative Neuter Plural
ὅτανhotanG3752
√ ὅταν — whenever (implying hypothesis or more or less uncertainty)Conjunction
hotan: whenever With the imperfect it marks repeated occasions, not one.
ἐθεώρουνetheōrounsawG2334
√ θεωρέω — to be a spectator of, iVerbImperfect Indicative Active3rd Person Plural
theōreō: to be a spectator of, to behold Not a glance but sustained looking; Strong's root sense is to be a spectator, the word behind "theatre." Governed by hotan and set in the imperfect, it says that every time these beings got a sight of him the same thing happened. Mark thereby gives the spirits a kind of perception the human crowd does not have: the multitude comes because it has heard reports (v. 8), while the spirits see and know at once. The recognition runs ahead of the evidence, which is exactly why Ellicott says the resulting testimony could not be received.
αὐτὸνautonHimG846
√ 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
προσέπιπτονprosepiptonthey fell down beforeG4363
√ προσπίπτω — to fall towards, iVerbImperfect Indicative Active3rd Person Plural
prospiptō: to fall towards, to prostrate before Imperfect, iterative. This is the posture of worship used by a will that does not worship. The Pulpit even raises the possibility that the homage was a ruse, calculated to make the crowd think Jesus in league with them; that is the commentator's conjecture, offered as a possibility, and Mark says nothing of motive.
αὐτῷautōHimG846
√ 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 Singular
καὶkaiandG2532
√ καί — and, also, even, so then, too, etcConjunction
ἔκραζονekrazoncried outG2896
√ κράζω — properly, to "croak" (as a raven) or scream, iVerbImperfect Indicative Active3rd Person Plural
krazō: to croak as a raven, to scream Strong's root is a harsh animal cry. Mark does not give the spirits speech so much as noise that happens to be true. Ellicott is exact about why this testimony is refused: it came in a form our Lord could not receive.
λέγονταlegontaG3004
√ λέγω — properly, to "lay" forth, iVerbPresent Participle ActiveNominative Neuter Plural
ὅτιhotiG3754
√ ὅτι — demonstrative, that (sometimes redundant)Conjunction
ΣὺSyYouG4771
√ σύ — thouPersonal / Possessive PronounNominative 2nd Person Singular
εἶeiareG1510
√ εἰμί — I exist (used only when emphatic)VerbPresent Indicative Active2nd Person Singular
ὁhotheG3588
√ ὁ — the (sometimes to be supplied, at others omitted, in English idiom)ArticleNominative Masculine Singular
ΥἱὸςHuiosSonG5207
√ υἱός — a "son" (sometimes of animals), used very widely of immediate, remote or figuratively, kinshipNounNominative Masculine Singular
huios: son Barnes reads "the Son of God" here as equivalent, in Jewish usage, to the Messiah, and that is why the charge of silence follows in v. 12. Cambridge traces the escalation within Mark: at Capernaum they said "the Holy One of God" (1:24), now they say "the Son of God." Pulpit argues they knew it from the voice at the baptism and from the miracles, while remaining ignorant of what the cross would do to their kingdom; that last point is inference, not text.
τοῦtouG3588
√ ὁ — the (sometimes to be supplied, at others omitted, in English idiom)ArticleGenitive Masculine Singular
ΘεοῦTheouof GodG2316
√ θεός — figuratively, a magistrateNounGenitive Masculine Singular
12

But He warned them sternly not to make Him known.

Berean Standard Bible · CC0

Greek — tap a word ↓

kai epetima autois polla mē hina poiēsōsin auton phaneron

Word by word9 · parsed
καὶkaiButG2532
√ καί — and, also, even, so then, too, etcConjunction
ἐπετίμαepetimaHe warnedG2008
√ ἐπιτιμάω — to tax upon, iVerbImperfect Indicative Active3rd Person Singular
epitimaō: to tax upon, to rebuke sharply Imperfect of repeated action. Mark uses this verb both for silencing demons (1:25; 3:12) and for stilling the storm (4:39), and later for Jesus rebuking Peter (8:33). The confession of a true fact by an unwilling and hostile witness is treated exactly like wind and sea: something to be commanded quiet.
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
πολλὰpollasternlyG4183
√ πολύς — (singular) much (in any respect) or (plural) manyAdjectiveAccusative Neuter Plural
polys: much, many Adverbial accusative, so "much" or "repeatedly" rather than "sternly."
μὴmēnotG3361
√ μή — (adverb) not, (conjunction) lestAdverb
ἵναhinatoG2443
√ ἵνα — compare G3588 (ὁ))Conjunction
ποιήσωσινpoiēsōsinmakeG4160
√ ποιέω — to make or do (in a very wide application, more or less direct)VerbAorist Subjunctive Active3rd Person Plural
poieō: to make, to do Aorist subjunctive, answering the imperfect epoiei of v. 8: the works he kept doing are not to be turned into a reputation by these mouths.
αὐτὸνautonHimG846
√ 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
φανερὸνphaneronknownG5318
√ φανερός — shining, iAdjectiveAccusative Masculine Singular
phaneros: shining, manifest From the root of light and appearing. What is forbidden is display, not truth. Gill puts the reason in terms of the source: he sought no popular applause and least of all wanted the testimony of devils, in case his enemies used it to accuse him of familiarity with them, which in the next paragraph of Mark (3:22) is precisely what they do.

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 retreat that becomes a gathering — 3:7-8

⚙ The paragraph opens with a verb of surrender of ground. ἀνεχώρησεν (anachōreō, G402) means, in Strong's root sense, "to retire," and it follows directly on the counsel to destroy him in v. 6. Barnes reads it as deliberate self-preservation: he "prudently took care of his life, thus showing that we are not needlessly to throw ourselves into danger." Gill adds the reason from the other side, that it was "not out of fear, but because his time was not yet come." The Pulpit Commentary draws a geographical inference from the same word, that the sabbath miracle must therefore have happened inland rather than at lakeside Capernaum, and offers it as a probability rather than a fact.

⚙ What happens next reverses the motion. The withdrawal produces the largest crowd Mark has yet described, and he says so twice, with the uncommon noun πλῆθος (plēthos, G4128, a "fulness") at both v. 7 and v. 8. Note the grammar BSB smooths away: ἠκολούθησεν is active with the multitude as its subject. They followed. Cambridge catalogues the compass of it, telling the reader to "Observe the wide area from which the multitude were now gathered together," from Tyre and Sidon in the north to Idumaea "in the extreme South." Ellicott notices that Idumaea is named nowhere else in the New Testament, and Barnes that its people descend from Esau. So the list reaches past Israel on two sides at once: Edom below, Phoenicia above. Ellicott also makes the forward connection: the presence of people from around Tyre and Sidon explains why, at Mark 7:24, our Lord's arrival in that region is met by someone whose hope his fame had already prepared.

ii. The boat, the scourges, and the pressure of mercy — 3:9-10

⚙ The danger in these two verses is not the Pharisees. It is the crowd. προσκαρτερῇ (proskartereō, G4342) is much stronger than "be ready": Strong's root is "to be earnest towards," and the Pulpit translates "should be in close attendance upon him," Geneva "should always be ready for him." A little boat, the diminutive πλοιάριον (G4142, a rare word found otherwise only in John), is to be kept permanently at his elbow so that the throng μὴ θλίβωσιν αὐτόν, may not crush him. Cambridge sees a turning point here: "The life on the sea, in the ship which was now His chief place of instruction in opposition to the synagogue, henceforth had its commencement." Ellicott observes that by Matthew 13:2 the arrangement is already an established habit.

⚙ Then Mark gives the cause with γάρ: he healed many, and so the people with μάστιγας fell on him. Ellicott is blunt about the word: "Literally, scourges." Cambridge sets out its two senses, the literal whip of Acts 22:24 and Hebrews 11:36 and the bodily plague of Mark 5:29 and Luke 7:21. The Pulpit and Geneva both press the metaphor into doctrine, Geneva glossing "Diseases with which God scourges men as it were with whips"; Matthew Henry goes furthest, that "All our sicknesses and calamities spring from the anger of God against our sins." ⚙ That is their inference, and worth marking as such: Mark writes only the noun for a lash and does not name the hand. What Mark does show is the shape of the pressing. ἐπιπίπτειν is "to fall upon." The Pulpit renders "fell upon him, clung to him, hoping that the very contact with him might heal them," and Gill honestly weighs the alternative, that the phrase may signify "no more, than that they fell down before him at his feet, in a submissive and petitionary way," citing the Syriac, Arabic, Persic and Ethiopic versions on both sides.

iii. True words from the wrong mouths — 3:11-12

⚙ Mark now lays two falls side by side, and the difference is a prefix. The sick epipiptein, fall upon him; the unclean spirits prosepipton, fall down before him. The Pulpit makes this the interpretive key, that the second is "not out of love or devotion, but out of abject fear, dreading lest he should drive them out." Both verbs in v. 11 are imperfect, and Cambridge insists the tense is doing real work: "The force of the imperfect tense in the original here is very striking, 'whenever the demons saw Him, they kept falling down before Him and saying.'" This is a habit of the ministry, not an incident. The neuter participle λέγοντα agrees with the neuter πνεύματα, so it is the spirits who speak; Geneva flags the figure by which what the possessed men did is credited to the spirits in them, and Gill says the same.

⚙ The content of the cry is orthodox. Σὺ εἶ ὁ Υἱὸς τοῦ Θεοῦ, with the emphatic pronoun in front, is exactly what the voice from heaven said at the baptism, and Cambridge marks the escalation inside Mark from "the Holy One of God" at 1:24 to "the Son of God" here. Barnes takes the title in its Jewish sense, as "equivalent to the Messiah," and that is why silence follows. Yet Jesus does not receive the confession; he ἐπετίμα, kept rebuking, using the same verb he will use on the storm at 4:39. Ellicott states the principle with precision: the testimony "came in a form which our Lord could not receive. The wild cry of the frenzied demoniac had no place in the evidence to which He appealed." Gill adds the tactical danger, that he "especially did not choose" such witnesses "lest his enemies should traduce him, as having familiarity with them, as they did" (and Mark 3:22 is that charge, a dozen verses later). And note the word: φανερὸν is "manifest, shining," not "known." He forbids display, not truth.

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

⚙ This is the tool's own fallible reading, offered to be tested against the text and not as an article of faith. Mark 3:7-12 sets three ways of coming to Jesus in one frame, and grades them by what each one wants. The multitude comes because it has heard as many things as he kept doing; its verb is akoloutheō, following, and its motion is a flood that has to be held off with a boat. The afflicted come with scourges on them and fall on his body, wanting only contact; he never once rebukes them for it. The unclean spirits come with the correct doctrine on their lips and the posture of worship in their bodies, and they are the only ones silenced. Put in that order, the paragraph says something uncomfortable about accuracy. The most theologically precise sentence in the passage is spoken by an enemy, and is shut down; the least articulate approach, a hand reaching for a garment, is honoured. ⚙ If that reading holds, then the messianic silence in v. 12 is not secrecy for its own sake but a refusal to let his identity be established by any witness that does not also love him. Ellicott's phrase is the load-bearing one: the testimony was true, but it "came in a form which our Lord could not receive." God's Son declines to be proved. He would rather be touched.

The demons had the sentence right and were told to be quiet; the sick had nothing but a reaching hand, and were healed.

⚙

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 gathering, told by Luke and by Matthew structural / thematic: confirmed

⚙ Luke 6:17 and Matthew 4:25 describe the same phenomenon Mark describes here, a mass drawn from named regions to a healing Jesus, and the Verifier records real shared vocabulary rather than mere similarity of subject. With Luke 6:17 Mark shares πλῆθος (G4128), Ἰουδαία (G2449) and πολύς (G4183); with Matthew 4:25, πολύς, Ἰουδαία and ἀκολουθέω (G190). None of these is rare, and none of the three writers is citing another, so the link is a shared pattern in the tradition and no more. JFB names Luke 6:6-11 and Matthew 12:9-21 as the parallel context for Mark 3:1-12.

Luke 6:17 · Matthew 4:25

basis: Verifier: with Luke 6:17, shared Greek lexemes G4128 πλῆθος (in 31 vv), G2449 Ἰουδαία (in 44 vv), G4183 πολύς (in 322 vv); with Matthew 4:25, G4183 πολύς, G2449 Ἰουδαία, G190 ἀκολουθέω (in 86 vv). All are common lexemes, so this is a shared narrative pattern, not a quotation or a distinctive verbal link.

Tyre and Sidon: a crowd that arrives before he does verbal / quotation: confirmed

⚙ The two rarest place-names in v. 8 are the hinge of a real verbal link inside the Gospels. Τύρος (G5184) occurs in only 11 verses and Σιδών (G4605) in only 9, and Matthew 15:21 pairs them with the same verb of withdrawal Mark used in v. 7, ἀναχωρέω (G402, 14 verses): Jesus "withdrew into the parts of Tyre and Sidon." Ellicott makes the connection explicitly, that the presence of these people here shows "how it was that our Lord's appearance in that region was welcomed as that of one whose fame had travelled thither before Him." Mark's own later narrative confirms it: at 7:25 a woman there with a daughter having an ἀκάθαρτον πνεῦμα (G169, the adjective of v. 11) hears of him and comes, and at 7:31 he returns from the borders of Tyre to the sea of Galilee.

Matthew 15:21 · Mark 7:25 · Mark 7:31

basis: Verifier: with Matthew 15:21, shared rare Greek lexemes G402 ἀναχωρέω (in 14 vv), G5184 Τύρος (in 11 vv), G4605 Σιδών (in 9 vv); with Mark 7:31, G5184 Τύρος (in 11 vv), G1056 Γαλιλαία, G2281 θάλασσα; with Mark 7:25, G169 ἀκάθαρτος (in 30 vv), G191 ἀκούω, G4012 περί. The rarity of Τύρος, Σιδών and ἀναχωρέω makes this a distinctive verbal link within the Greek New Testament. It is a link of vocabulary and narrative sequence, not a quotation of one text by another.

The little boat: a five-verse word verbal / quotation: confirmed

⚙ πλοιάριον (ploiarion, G4142) is the diminutive of the ordinary word for a boat, and it appears in only five verses in the whole New Testament. Apart from Mark 3:9 every one of them is in John: 6:22-24, where the crowd notices that only one little boat had been there, and 21:8, where the disciples drag the net to shore in it. Cambridge sees the beginning of a settled practice here, the boat becoming "His chief place of instruction in opposition to the synagogue"; Ellicott points to Matthew 13:2 and the Pulpit to Luke 5:3, "making the boat, so to speak, his pulpit." ⚙ The Johannine occurrences are not literary borrowings from Mark; the shared lexeme simply shows how narrow the vocabulary is, and how physically small the vessel was.

John 6:23 · John 6:24 · John 21:8

basis: Verifier: shared rare Greek lexeme G4142 πλοιάριον (in 5 vv) with John 6:23, John 6:24 (also G3101 μαθητής, G3793 ὄχλος) and John 21:8 (also G3101 μαθητής). A five-verse lexeme is rare enough to record as a genuine verbal link; no citation of one text by another is claimed.

Scourges: the same word for a whip and for a disease verbal / quotation: confirmed

⚙ μάστιξ (mastix, G3148) occurs in only six verses, which makes every occurrence significant. Cambridge sets out both senses and the passages for each: "a whip or scourge" at Acts 22:24 and Hebrews 11:36, and "a plague or disease of the body" at Mark 5:29, Mark 5:34 and Luke 7:21. Ellicott gives the same two New Testament references for the literal sense. So the woman with the flow of blood at Mark 5:29 is cured of her mastix, Paul is about to be examined by mastix at Acts 22:24, and the Old Testament faithful at Hebrews 11:36 are tried by mastix. ⚙ The single vocabulary means Mark's crowd carries in its bodies the same word the New Testament uses for punishment under a Roman lash, which is what Geneva and the Pulpit are hearing when they gloss it as chastisement.

Mark 5:29 · Luke 7:21 · Acts 22:24 · Hebrews 11:36

basis: Verifier: shared rare Greek lexeme G3148 μάστιξ (in 6 vv) with Mark 5:29, Luke 7:21 (also G4183 πολύς) and Acts 22:24. Hebrews 11:36 is not in the Verifier candidate list but is named for this same lexeme by both Ellicott and Cambridge. All refs are New Testament Greek, and no text quotes another.

Galilee, the Jordan, and the nations at the edges typological

⚙ The catalogue of vv. 7-8 runs Galilee, Judea, Jerusalem, Idumaea, beyond the Jordan, around Tyre and Sidon, and Cambridge notes the compass points deliberately. Read against Isaiah, that list looks like the map of a promise: Isaiah 9:1-2 names Galilee of the nations and the way of the sea as the place where light dawns on people in darkness, and Isaiah 49:6 says the servant is too small a thing to restore only Jacob and is given as a light to the Gentiles. Idumaea is Edom, which in the prophets appears under judgment, and Cambridge gives the references: Isaiah 34:5-6, Ezekiel 35:15, Ezekiel 36:5. ⚙ Mark makes no citation here and neither does any commentator in this unit, so this is a figural reading of a geography, offered as such and not as an argument from words. It cannot be a verbal link: the Gospel is Greek and Isaiah is Hebrew, so no shared Strong's lexeme is available in either direction.

Isaiah 9:1-2 · Isaiah 49:6 · Isaiah 34:5-6

basis: Cross-Testament, so no shared Strong's numbers exist between the Hebrew of Isaiah and the Greek of Mark, and no verbal tier is possible. The basis is a figural reading of the region list of Mark 3:7-8 against the Isaianic promise of light to Galilee and the nations. The Isaiah and Ezekiel Edom references are those Cambridge cites at Mark 3:7; the reading of the list as the servant's gathering is this tool's own, ancient in its general shape but not stated by any voice in this unit.

"You are the Son of God": whose title it already was typological

⚙ The cry of v. 11 is not a new formula. Psalm 2:7 has the decree "You are my Son," addressed to the anointed king whom the nations and their rulers take counsel against, and 2 Samuel 7:14 gives David's seed the promise "I will be his Father, and he shall be my son." Barnes reads the demons' phrase in exactly this royal and Jewish register, as "equivalent to the Messiah, who was, among the Jews, called the Son of God," and takes that to be why the charge of silence follows. Cambridge traces the rising titles within Mark, from "the Holy One of God" at 1:24 to "the Son of God" here. ⚙ The Psalm 2 background sharpens the irony of the context: Mark 3:6 has just shown rulers taking counsel together against him.

Psalm 2:7 · 2 Samuel 7:14

basis: Cross-Testament (Hebrew Psalm and Samuel against Greek Mark), so shared Strong's numbers are impossible and no verbal tier may be claimed; Mark makes no formal quotation here. The basis is the royal-sonship formula of Psalm 2:7 and 2 Samuel 7:14 standing behind the title Barnes identifies as the Jewish name for the Messiah. Widely held in Christian reading; the specific link to Mark 3:6 is this tool's own observation.

⚙Christ in the Unittypology · verify

AI-generated reading; weigh it against the text.

The Son who refuses to be proved ancient/widely-held

⚙ Mark's paragraph contains an accurate christological confession and a command to stop making it. The spirits say Σὺ εἶ ὁ Υἱὸς τοῦ Θεοῦ, and the answer is the imperfect ἐπετίμα, he kept rebuking, the same verb he uses on wind and sea at Mark 4:39. Ellicott gives the reason most exactly: the testimony "came in a form which our Lord could not receive," having "no place in the evidence to which He appealed" (he cites John 5:31-37). Barnes gives the historical reason, that the claim would have been "treated as that of an impostor" while he was still "poor and unhonored." Gill gives the tactical one, that he did not want witnesses his enemies could use to accuse him of familiarity with devils, which is what they do at Mark 3:22. ⚙ Read together, the three reasons converge: the identity of the Son is to be disclosed by the cross and not by acclamation, and until then even true words are silenced. The word he forbids is not knowledge but φανερός, display.

Mark 1:24 · Mark 3:22 · John 5:31-37

The servant who does not cry out, and the boat he taught from ancient/widely-held

⚙ JFB names Matthew 12:9-21 as the parallel to Mark 3:1-12, and that is exactly where Matthew, reaching this same withdrawal and this same charge of silence, quotes Isaiah 42:1-4 of the servant who will not strive nor cry aloud nor let his voice be heard in the streets, who will not break a bruised reed, and in whose name the Gentiles will hope. ⚙ Mark does not quote it, but he narrates it: the retreat rather than the confrontation, the crowd from Gentile Tyre and Sidon, the bruised bodies falling on him and not being pushed away, the silencing of the loud voice. The little boat is the picture of it. Cambridge sees the lake supplant the synagogue as his place of teaching, and the Pulpit, following Luke 5:3, calls the boat "so to speak, his pulpit": the Son of God sitting just offshore because the crowd would otherwise crush him.

Matthew 12:15-21 · Isaiah 42:1-4 · Luke 5:3

Edom and Phoenicia in one list novel

⚙ A quieter reading, offered as this tool's own. The geography of vv. 7-8 reaches in both directions past the covenant people: south to Idumaea, which Ellicott notes is named nowhere else in the New Testament and which Barnes traces to Esau, the brother who sold his birthright (Genesis 25:30); north to Tyre and Sidon, Phoenician cities the prophets addressed as outsiders. Between them stand Jerusalem and Judea. ⚙ Mark says nothing theological about the list; he simply reports who came. But the shape of it anticipates what his Gospel will later narrate, a Syro-Phoenician woman granted her request at 7:24-30 and a Roman centurion making the confession at 15:39 that the demons were forbidden to publish here. The first to say "Son of God" and be allowed to say it is a Gentile at the foot of the cross.

Genesis 25:30 · Mark 7:24-30 · Mark 15:39

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)
  • Cambridge Bible for Schools and Colleges, — (1880s)
  • Charles Ellicott, Commentary for English Readers (1878)
  • Geneva Study Bible, Marginal Notes (1599)
  • John Gill, Exposition of the Entire Bible (1746–63)
  • Matthew Henry, Concise Commentary on the Whole Bible (1706)
  • The Pulpit Commentary, Spence & Exell, eds. (1880s)

⚙ Text and sources. The English is BSB (CC0); the Greek, parsing and Strong's numbers are from the Berean interlinear as supplied in the brief. Commentary is quoted verbatim from public-domain works: Ellicott (1878), Henry (1706), Barnes (1834), Gill (1746 to 1763), Geneva Study Bible (1599), Cambridge Bible for Schools and Colleges (1880s), and the Pulpit Commentary (1880s). Two authors present in the source apparatus contribute nothing usable to this unit and are therefore not quoted: Matthew Poole's notes on Mark 3:7-12 are all cross-references to his note on Mark 3:6, and JFB's entry is a chapter heading directing the reader to Matthew 12:9-21. Matthew Henry's note is a single comment on Mark 3:6-12 as a block, so it cannot be cited verse by verse; it appears once, at v. 12.

⚙ What is uncertain. Three points deserve flagging. First, ἐπιπίπτειν at v. 10 is genuinely ambiguous, and Gill records the disagreement among the ancient versions: a violent rush in which people fell over one another (Arabic, Persic) or a reverent prostration and petition (Ethiopic). This synthesis leans to the former because of the contrast Mark draws with prospiptō in v. 11, but the case is not closed. Second, the doctrinal gloss on μάστιξ is the commentators' and not Mark's: Geneva, the Pulpit and especially Henry read every disease as God's scourge for sin, while Mark writes only the noun for a whip and does not name whose hand holds it. Third, the Pulpit's suggestion that the demons' prostration may have been "an act of cunning, a ruse," and its account of what the demons did and did not know about the cross, are speculation that the text does not supply; they are reported here as such.

⚙ Thread tiering. Four threads are tiered verbal or structural on the Verifier's computed shared Greek lexemes, with frequencies stated in each basis. The two cross-Testament threads (Isaiah, and Psalm 2 with 2 Samuel 7) are tiered typological for a mechanical reason as well as a theological one: a Hebrew text and a Greek text cannot share a Strong's number, so no verbal basis is available in principle, and Mark makes no formal quotation anywhere in this unit. Hebrews 11:36 appears in the μάστιξ thread on the authority of Ellicott and Cambridge, who both cite it for that word, rather than on Verifier output.

✦ = 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)