3:31 Then 4 Jesus’ 5 mother and his brothers 6 came. Standing 7 outside, they sent word to him, to summon him. 3:32 A crowd was sitting around him and they said to him, “Look, your mother and your brothers 8 are outside looking for you.”
1 sn This is a parenthetical comment by the author.
2 tn Or “a boat.” The phrase ἐν τῷ πλοίῳ (en tw ploiw) can either refer to a generic boat, some boat (as it seems to do in Matt 4:21); or it can refer to “their” boat, implying possession. Mark assumes a certain preunderstanding on the part of his readers about the first four disciples and hence the translation “their boat” is justified (cf. also v. 20 in which the “hired men” indicates that Zebedee’s family owned the boats).
3 tn Grk “to James, the son of Zebedee, and John, the brother of James.”
4 tn Grk “And.” Here καί (kai) has been translated as “then” to indicate the implied sequence of events within the narrative.
5 tn Grk “his”; the referent (Jesus) has been specified in the translation for clarity.
6 sn The issue of whether Jesus had brothers (siblings) has had a long history in the church. Epiphanius, in the 4th century, argued that Mary was a perpetual virgin and had no offspring other than Jesus. Others argued that these brothers were really cousins. Nothing in the text suggests any of this. See also John 7:3.
7 tn Because of the length and complexity of the Greek sentence, a new sentence was started here in the translation.
5 tc ‡ Many
6 tn Grk “Behold my mother and my brothers.”
7 tn Grk “and James,” but καί (kai) has not been translated since English normally uses a coordinating conjunction only between the last two elements in a series of three or more.