3:31 Then 3 Jesus’ 4 mother and his brothers 5 came. Standing 6 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 7 are outside looking for you.” 3:33 He answered them and said, “Who are my mother and my brothers?” 8 3:34 And looking at those who were sitting around him in a circle, he said, “Here 9 are my mother and my brothers! 3:35 For whoever does the will of God is 10 my brother and sister and mother.”
1 sn Is guilty of an eternal sin. This passage has troubled many people, who have wondered whether or not they have committed this eternal sin. Three things must be kept in mind: (1) the nature of the sin is to ascribe what is the obvious work of the Holy Spirit (e.g., releasing people from Satan’s power) to Satan himself; (2) it is not simply a momentary doubt or sinful attitude, but is indeed a settled condition which opposes the Spirit’s work, as typified by the religious leaders who opposed Jesus; and (3) a person who is concerned about it has probably never committed this sin, for those who commit it here (i.e., the religious leaders) are not in the least concerned about Jesus’ warning. On this last point see W. W. Wessel, “Mark,” EBC 8:645-46.
2 sn Unclean spirit refers to an evil spirit.
3 tn Grk “And.” Here καί (kai) has been translated as “then” to indicate the implied sequence of events within the narrative.
4 tn Grk “his”; the referent (Jesus) has been specified in the translation for clarity.
5 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.
6 tn Because of the length and complexity of the Greek sentence, a new sentence was started here in the translation.
7 tc ‡ Many
8 tn Grk “Who is my mother and my brothers?” The use of the singular verb ἐστιν (estin) here singles out Mary above Jesus’ brothers, giving her special prominence (see ExSyn 401-2). This is slightly unnatural in English since the predicate nominative is plural, though, so a plural verb was used in the translation.
9 tn Grk “Behold my mother and my brothers.”
10 tn The pleonastic pronoun οὗτος (Jouto", “this one”) which precedes this verb has not been translated.