Mark 3:1-12

Healing a Withered Hand

3:1 Then ¹  Jesus ²  entered the synagogue ³  again, and a man was there who had a withered ⁴  hand. 3:2 They watched ⁵  Jesus ⁶  closely to see if he would heal him on the Sabbath, ⁷  so that they could accuse him. 3:3 So he said to the man who had the withered hand, “Stand up among all these people.” ⁸  3:4 Then ⁹  he said to them, “Is it lawful to do good on the Sabbath, or evil, to save a life or destroy it?” But they were silent. 3:5 After looking around ¹⁰  at them in anger, grieved by the hardness of their hearts, ¹¹  he said to the man, “Stretch out your hand.” He stretched it out, and his hand was restored. ¹²  3:6 So ¹³  the Pharisees ¹⁴  went out immediately and began plotting with the Herodians, ¹⁵  as to how they could assassinate ¹⁶  him.

Crowds by the Sea

3:7 Then ¹⁷  Jesus went away with his disciples to the sea, and a great multitude from Galilee followed him. ¹⁸  And from Judea, 3:8 Jerusalem, ¹⁹  Idumea, beyond the Jordan River, ²⁰  and around Tyre ²¹  and Sidon ²²  a great multitude came to him when they heard about the things he had done. 3:9 Because of the crowd, he told his disciples to have a small boat ready for him so the crowd ²³  would not press toward him. 3:10 For he had healed many, so that all who were afflicted with diseases pressed toward him in order to touch him. 3:11 And whenever the unclean spirits ²⁴  saw him, they fell down before him and cried out, “You are the Son of God.” 3:12 But ²⁵  he sternly ordered them not to make him known. ²⁶ 

[3:1]  ¹ tn Grk “And.” Here καί (kai) has been translated as “then” to indicate the implied sequence of events within the narrative.

[3:1]  ² tn Grk “he”; the referent (Jesus) has been specified in the translation for clarity.

[3:1]  ³ sn See the note on synagogue in 1:21.

[3:1]  ⁴ sn Withered means the man’s hand was shrunken and paralyzed.

[3:2]  ⁵ sn The term translated watched…closely is emotive, since it carries negative connotations. It means they were watching him out of the corner of their eye or spying on him.

[3:2]  ⁶ tn Grk “him”; the referent (Jesus) has been specified in the translation for clarity.

[3:2]  ⁷ sn The background for this is the view that only if life was endangered should one attempt to heal on the Sabbath (see the Mishnah, m. Shabbat 6.3; 12.1; 18.3; 19.2; m. Yoma 8.6).

[3:3]  ⁸ tn Grk “Stand up in the middle.”

[3:4]  ⁹ tn Grk “And.” Here καί (kai) has been translated as “then” to indicate the implied sequence of events within the narrative.

[3:5]  ¹⁰ tn The aorist participle περιβλεψάμενος (peribleyameno") has been translated as antecedent (prior) to the action of the main verb. It could also be translated as contemporaneous (“Looking around…he said”).

[3:5]  ¹¹ tn This term is a collective singular in the Greek text.

[3:5]  ¹² sn The passive was restored points to healing by God. Now the question became: Would God exercise his power through Jesus, if what Jesus was doing were wrong? Note also Jesus’ “labor.” He simply spoke and it was so.

[3:6]  ¹³ tn Grk “And.” Here καί (kai) has been translated as “so” to indicate the implied result of previous action(s) in the narrative.

[3:6]  ¹⁴ sn See the note on Pharisees in 2:16.

[3:6]  ¹⁵ tn Grk inserts “against him” after “Herodians.” This is somewhat redundant in English and has not been translated.

[3:6]  ¹⁶ tn Grk “destroy.”

[3:7]  ¹⁷ tn Grk “And.” Here καί (kai) has been translated as “then” to indicate the implied sequence of events within the narrative.

[3:7]  ¹⁸ tn The word “him” is not in the Greek text, but is implied. Direct objects were often omitted in Greek when clear from the context.

[3:8]  ¹⁹ map For location see Map5 B1; Map6 F3; Map7 E2; Map8 F2; Map10 B3; JP1 F4; JP2 F4; JP3 F4; JP4 F4.

[3:8]  ²⁰ tn “River” is not in the Greek text but is supplied for clarity. The region referred to here is sometimes known as Transjordan (i.e., “across the Jordan”).

[3:8]  ²¹ map For location see Map1 A2; Map2 G2; Map4 A1; JP3 F3; JP4 F3.

[3:8]  ²² sn These last two locations, Tyre and Sidon, represented an expansion outside of traditional Jewish territory. Jesus’ reputation continued to expand into new regions.

[3:9]  ²³ tn Grk “they”; the referent (the crowd) has been specified in the translation for clarity.

[3:11]  ²⁴ sn Unclean spirits refers to evil spirits.

[3:12]  ²⁵ tn Grk “And.” Here καί (kai) has been translated as “but” to indicate the contrast present in this context.

[3:12]  ²⁶ sn Jesus did not permit the demons to make him known because the time for such disclosure was not yet at hand, and such a revelation would have certainly been misunderstood by the people. In all likelihood, if the people had understood him early on to be the Son of God, or Messiah, they would have reduced his mission to one of political deliverance from Roman oppression (cf. John 6:15). Jesus wanted to avoid, as much as possible, any premature misunderstanding about who he was and what he was doing. However, at the end of his ministry, he did not deny such a title when the high priest asked him (14:61-62).