Mark 2:9

2:9 Which is easier, ¹  to say to the paralytic, ‘Your sins are forgiven,’ or to say, ‘Stand up, take your stretcher, and walk’?

Mark 2:12

2:12 And immediately the man ²  stood up, took his stretcher, and went out in front of them all. They were all amazed and glorified God, saying, “We have never seen anything like this!”

Mark 6:8

6:8 He instructed them to take nothing for the journey except a staff ³  – no bread, no bag, ⁴  no money in their belts –

Mark 8:19

8:19 When I broke the five loaves for the five thousand, how many baskets full of pieces did you pick up?” They replied, “Twelve.”

Mark 15:21

The Crucifixion

15:21 The soldiers ⁵  forced ⁶  a passerby to carry his cross, ⁷  Simon of Cyrene, who was coming in from the country ⁸  (he was the father of Alexander and Rufus).

Mark 16:18

16:18 they will pick up snakes with their hands, and whatever poison they drink will not harm them; ⁹  they will place their hands on the sick and they will be well.”

[2:9]  ¹ sn Which is easier is a reflective kind of question. On the one hand to declare sins are forgiven is easier, since one does not need to see it, unlike telling a paralyzed person to walk. On the other hand, it is harder, because for it to be true one must possess the authority to forgive the sin.

[2:12]  ² tn Grk “he”; the referent (the man who was healed) has been specified in the translation for clarity.

[6:8]  ³ sn Neither Matt 10:9-10 nor Luke 9:3 allow for a staff. It might be that Matthew and Luke mean not taking an extra staff, or that the expression is merely rhetorical for “traveling light,” which has been rendered in two slightly different ways.

[6:8]  ⁴ tn Or “no traveler’s bag”; or possibly “no beggar’s bag” (L&N 6.145; BDAG 811 s.v. πήρα).

[15:21]  ⁴ tn Grk “They”; the referent (the soldiers) has been specified in the translation for clarity.

[15:21]  ⁵ tn Or “conscripted”; or “pressed into service.”

[15:21]  ⁶ sn Jesus was beaten severely with a whip before this (the prelude to crucifixion, known to the Romans as verberatio, mentioned in Matt 27:26; Mark 15:15; John 19:1), so he would have been weak from trauma and loss of blood. Apparently he was unable to bear the cross himself, so Simon was conscripted to help (in all probability this was only the crossbeam, called in Latin the patibulum, since the upright beam usually remained in the ground at the place of execution). Cyrene was located in North Africa where Tripoli is today. Nothing more is known about this Simon.

[15:21]  ⁷ tn Or perhaps, “was coming in from his field” outside the city (BDAG 15-16 s.v. ἀγρός 1).

[16:18]  ⁵ tn For further comment on the nature of this statement, whether it is a promise or prediction, see ExSyn 403-6.