Mark 2:4

2:4 When they were not able to bring him in because of the crowd, they removed the roof ¹  above Jesus. ²  Then, ³  after tearing it out, they lowered the stretcher the paralytic was lying on.

Mark 2:14

2:14 As he went along, he saw Levi, the son of Alphaeus, sitting at the tax booth. ⁴  “Follow me,” he said to him. And he got up and followed him.

Mark 2:18

The Superiority of the New

2:18 Now ⁵  John’s ⁶  disciples and the Pharisees ⁷  were fasting. ⁸  So ⁹  they came to Jesus ¹⁰  and said, “Why do the disciples of John and the disciples of the Pharisees fast, but your disciples don’t fast?”

Mark 2:22

2:22 And no one pours new wine into old wineskins; ¹¹  otherwise, the wine will burst the skins, and both the wine and the skins will be destroyed. Instead new wine is poured into new wineskins.” ¹² 

Mark 6:20

6:20 because Herod stood in awe of ¹³  John and protected him, since he knew that John ¹⁴  was a righteous and holy man. When Herod ¹⁵  heard him, he was thoroughly baffled, ¹⁶  and yet ¹⁷  he liked to listen to John. ¹⁸ 

Mark 10:42

10:42 Jesus called them and said to them, “You know that those who are recognized as rulers of the Gentiles lord it over them, and those in high positions use their authority over them.

Mark 11:11

11:11 Then ¹⁹  Jesus ²⁰  entered Jerusalem and went to the temple. And after looking around at everything, he went out to Bethany with the twelve since it was already late.

Mark 12:15

12:15 But he saw through their hypocrisy and said ²¹  to them, “Why are you testing me? Bring me a denarius ²²  and let me look at it.”

Mark 13:35

13:35 Stay alert, then, because you do not know when the owner of the house will return – whether during evening, at midnight, when the rooster crows, or at dawn –

¹ sn A house in 1st century Palestine would have had a flat roof with stairs or a ladder going up. This access was often from the outside of the house.

² tn Grk “him”; the referent (Jesus) has been specified in the translation for clarity.

³ tn Grk “And.” Here καί (kai) has been translated as “then” to indicate the implied sequence of events within the narrative.

⁴ tn While “tax office” is sometimes given as a translation for τελώνιον (telwnion, so L&N 57.183), this could give the modern reader a false impression of an indoor office with all its associated furnishings.

⁷ tn Grk “And.” Here καί (kai) has been translated as “now” to indicate the transition to a new topic.

⁸ sn John refers to John the Baptist.

⁹ sn See the note on Pharisees in 2:16.

¹⁰ sn John’s disciples and the Pharisees followed typical practices with regard to fasting and prayer. Many Jews fasted regularly (Lev 16:29-34; 23:26-32; Num 29:7-11). The zealous fasted twice a week on Monday and Thursday.

¹¹ tn Grk “And.” Here καί (kai) has been translated as “So” to indicate that in the narrative this question happened as a result of the fasting of John’s disciples and the Pharisees.

¹² tn Grk “him”; the referent (Jesus) has been specified in the translation for clarity.

¹⁰ sn Wineskins were bags made of skin or leather, used for storing wine in NT times. As the new wine fermented and expanded, it would stretch the new wineskins. Putting new (unfermented) wine in old wineskins, which had already been stretched, would result in the bursting of the wineskins.

¹¹ sn The meaning of the saying new wine is poured into new skins is that the presence and teaching of Jesus was something new and signaled the passing of the old. It could not be confined within the old religion of Judaism, but involved the inauguration and consummation of the kingdom of God.

¹³ tn Grk “was fearing,” “was respecting”; the imperfect tense connotes an ongoing fear or respect for John.

¹⁴ tn Grk “he”; the referent (John) has been specified in the translation for clarity.

¹⁵ tn Grk “he”; the referent (Herod) has been specified in the translation for clarity.

¹⁶ tc In place of ἠπόρει (hporei, “he was baffled”) the majority of mss (A C D ˹ 33 Ï lat sy) have ἐποίει (epoiei, “he did”; cf. KJV’s “he did many things.”) The best mss (א B L [W] Θ 2427 co) support the reading followed in the translation. The variation may be no more than a simple case of confusion of letters, since the two readings look very much alike. The verb ποιέω (poiew, “I do”) certainly occurs more frequently than ἀπορέω (aporew, “I am at a loss”), so a scribe would be more likely to write a more familiar word. Further, even though the reading ἐποίει is the harder reading in terms of the sense, it is virtually nonsensical here, rendering it most likely an unintentional corruption.

¹⁷ tn Grk “and.” Here καί (kai) has been translated as “and yet” to indicate the concessive nature of the final clause.

¹⁸ tn Grk “him”; the referent (John) has been specified in the translation for clarity.

¹⁶ tn Here καί (kai) has been translated as “Then” to indicate the transition from the previous narrative.

¹⁷ tn Grk “he”; the referent (Jesus) has been specified in the translation for clarity.

¹⁹ tn Grk “Aware of their hypocrisy he said.”

²⁰ tn Here the specific name of the coin was retained in the translation, because not all coins in circulation in Palestine at the time carried the image of Caesar. In other places δηνάριον (dhnarion) has been translated simply as “silver coin” with an explanatory note.