Mark 12:3

Greek (Tischendorf 8th ed.)

English Translation

They took him, beat him, and sent him away empty.

World English Bible · Public Domain

Highlights

1 first appearance in the Greek New Testament

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ἔδειραν

dérō

G1194

“to flay”

Verb, Aorist, Active, Indicative, 3rd person, Plural

Appears 15× in the Greek New Testament
First appears at Matthew 21:35

Full Thayer's Definition

Origin: a root word

TDNT: None

1. to flay, skin 2. to beat, thrash, smite

About this verse

These counts appear in no published source. They are computed here, from the morphology-tagged text and Lemma’s own curated glosses. What Lemma adds →

7: words
6: distinct lemmas
Gospels: section

Notable vocabulary

The rarest word here is ἔδειραν to flay G1194 — appearing just 15 times in the whole Greek New Testament.

First appearance in Scripture

This word makes its first canonical appearance in the Greek New Testament here:

κενόν empty G2756

Shared distinctive vocabulary

ἔδειραν to flay G1194 occurs in 15 verses of the Greek New Testament. Also found in:

Repetition

A word recurs within this verse:

καὶ and G2532 ×2

Cross-references

Topical passages linked to Mark 12:3 in the Treasury of Scripture Knowledge — connected by theme and wording, ordered by reader-vote popularity; previews shown in the World English Bible.

2 Chronicles 36:16 but they mocked the messengers of God, and despised his words, and scoffed at his prophets, until the wrath of Yahweh arose against his people, until there was no remedy.
Nehemiah 9:26 Nevertheless they were disobedient, and rebelled against you, and cast your law behind their back, and killed your prophets that testified against them to turn them again to you, and they committed awful blasphemies.
Jeremiah 26:20–24 There was also a man who prophesied in the name of Yahweh, Uriah the son of Shemaiah of Kiriath Jearim; and he prophesied against this city and against this land according to all the words of Jeremiah:
Jeremiah 29:26 Yahweh has made you priest in the place of Jehoiada the priest, that there may be officers in the house of Yahweh, for every man who is mad, and makes himself a prophet, that you should put him in the stocks and in shackles.
Acts 7:52 Which of the prophets didn't your fathers persecute? They killed those who foretold the coming of the Righteous One, of whom you have now become betrayers and murderers.
1 Thessalonians 2:15 who killed both the Lord Jesus and their own prophets, and drove us out, and didn't please God, and are contrary to all men;
Hebrews 11:36–37 Others were tried by mocking and scourging, yes, moreover by bonds and imprisonment.
1 Kings 18:4 for it was so, when Jezebel cut off the prophets of Yahweh, that Obadiah took one hundred prophets, and hid them by fifty in a cave, and fed them with bread and water.)

1 Kings 18:13 Wasn't it told my lord what I did when Jezebel killed the prophets of Yahweh, how I hid one hundred men of Yahweh's prophets by fifty in a cave, and fed them with bread and water?
1 Kings 19:10 He said, I have been very jealous for Yahweh, the God of hosts; for the children of Israel have forsaken your covenant, thrown down your altars, and slain your prophets with the sword: and I, even I only, am left; and they seek my life, to take it away.
1 Kings 19:14 He said, I have been very jealous for Yahweh, the God of hosts; for the children of Israel have forsaken your covenant, thrown down your altars, and slain your prophets with the sword; and I, even I only, am left; and they seek my life, to take it away.
1 Kings 22:27 and say, Thus says the king, Put this fellow in the prison, and feed him with bread of affliction and with water of affliction, until I come in peace.
2 Chronicles 16:10 Then Asa was angry with the seer, and put him in the prison-house; for he was in a rage with him because of this thing. Asa oppressed some of the people at the same time.
2 Chronicles 24:19–21 Yet he sent prophets to them, to bring them again to Yahweh; and they testified against them: but they would not give ear.
Jeremiah 2:30 In vain have I struck your children; they received no correction: your own sword has devoured your prophets, like a destroying lion.
Jeremiah 20:2 Then Pashhur struck Jeremiah the prophet, and put him in the stocks that were in the upper gate of Benjamin, which was in the house of Yahweh.

Jeremiah 37:15–16 The princes were angry with Jeremiah, and struck him, and put him in prison in the house of Jonathan the scribe; for they had made that the prison.
Jeremiah 38:4–6 Then the princes said to the king, Let this man, we pray you, be put to death; because he weakens the hands of the men of war who remain in this city, and the hands of all the people, in speaking such words to them: for this man doesn't seek the welfare of this people, but the hurt.
Jeremiah 44:4–5 However I sent to you all my servants the prophets, rising up early and sending them, saying, Oh, don't do this abominable thing that I hate.
Jeremiah 44:16 As for the word that you have spoken to us in the name of Yahweh, we will not listen to you.
Daniel 9:10–11 neither have we obeyed the voice of Yahweh our God, to walk in his laws, which he set before us by his servants the prophets.
Zechariah 7:9–13 "Thus has Yahweh of Hosts spoken, saying, 'Execute true judgment, and show kindness and compassion every man to his brother.
Matthew 23:34–37 Therefore, behold, I send to you prophets, wise men, and scribes. Some of them you will kill and crucify; and some of them you will scourge in your synagogues, and persecute from city to city;
Luke 11:47–51 Woe to you! For you build the tombs of the prophets, and your fathers killed them.

Luke 13:33–34 Nevertheless I must go on my way today and tomorrow and the next day, for it can't be that a prophet perish outside of Jerusalem.'
Luke 20:10–12 At the proper season, he sent a servant to the farmers to collect his share of the fruit of the vineyard. But the farmers beat him, and sent him away empty.

Cross-references courtesy of OpenBible.info (CC BY 4.0).

Commentary

Notes on Mark 12:3 from classic Christian and Jewish commentators (each source and its license shown beneath its notes). The classic Christian expositions comment on the surrounding passage and are grouped to its opening verse, so a note may address several verses; the Jewish commentaries on the Tanakh (Rashi and others) are per-verse, so they appear only where the commentator wrote on this verse.

Lemma curates 59 commentaries, every one of them public domain or Creative Commons licensed, each selected and text-cleaned for this edition rather than reprinted as found. About our sources →

The Cambridge Bible for Schools and Colleges

gen. ed. J. J. S. Perowne

3. they caught him] The gradual growth of the outrage is clearly traced: (i) The first servant they “caught, beat, and sent away empty;” (ii) at the second they “cast stones, and wounded him in the head, and sent him away shamefully handled;” (iii) the third “they killed.”

The Cambridge Bible for Schools and Colleges (gen. ed. J. J. S. Perowne; Cambridge University Press, 1878–1918) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.

John Gill's Exposition

And they caught him,.... This clause is left out in the Syriac and Persic versions, though it seems proper to be retained; and denotes the rudeness and violence with which the prophets of the Lord were used by the Jewish nation:

and beat him: either with their fists, or with rods, and scourges, till the skin was flayed off:

and sent him away empty; without any fruit to carry with him, or give an account of, to the owner of the vineyard.

John Gill's Exposition of the Whole Bible (1746–1763) — public domain (CC PDM 1.0). Text via the HelloAO Bible API.

Trapp's Complete Commentary

John Trapp

2 And at the season he sent to the husbandmen a servant, that he might receive from the husbandmen of the fruit of the vineyard.

3 And they caught him, and beat him, and sent him away empty.

Ver. 3. And beat him] Properly, they hild (tanned) him; but by a metonymy, {a} they beat him. Sic percutimus vulpem, ut pellis ei detrahatur; so men beat a fox that they may the better skin him. (Δερω proprie excorio, pellem detraho. Gerhard.)

{a} A figure of speech which consists in substituting for the name of a thing the name of an attribute of it or of something closely related. ŒD

John Trapp, A Commentary or Exposition upon All the Books of the Old and New Testament (1647–1656) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.

Whedon's Commentary on the Bible

Daniel D. Whedon

3. Beat him, and sent him away empty — Mark minutely describes the gradual climax of their advancing villany. This servant was only beaten and dismissed empty, that is, without any payment or rentage. They at first scarce dared little more than the withholding the due. The second servant is so wounded in the head and shamefully treated that it seems not worth while to add that he departed unpaid. The third, with his retinue, undergoes beating and slaughter.

Daniel D. Whedon (gen. ed.), Commentary on the Old and New Testaments (1874–1909) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.

Cambridge Greek Testament for Schools and Colleges

3. καὶ λαβόντες ([2660][2661][2662][2663][2664] 33) rather than οἱ δὲ λαβόντες ([2665][2666][2667][2668]). See on Mar 1:14.

[2660] Codex Sinaiticus. 4th cent. Discovered by Tischendorf in 1859 at the Monastery of St Katharine on Mount Sinai. Now at St Petersburg. The whole Gospel, ending at Mar 16:8. Photographic facsimile, 1911.

[2661] Codex Vaticanus. 4th cent., but perhaps a little later than א. In the Vatican Library almost since its foundation by Pope Nicolas V., and one of its greatest treasures. The whole Gospel, ending at Mar 16:8. Photographic facsimile, 1889.

[2662] Codex Bezae. 6th cent. Has a Latin translation (d) side by side with the Greek text, and the two do not quite always agree. Presented by Beza to the University Library of Cambridge in 1581. Remarkable for its frequent divergences from other texts. Contains Mark, except Mar 16:15-20, which has been added by a later hand. Photographic facsimile, 1899.

[2663] Codex Regius. 8th cent. An important witness. At Paris. Contains Mar 1:1 to Mar 10:15; Mar 10:30 to Mar 15:1; Mar 15:20 to Mar 16:20, but the shorter ending is inserted between Mar 16:8 and Mar 16:9, showing that the scribe preferred it to the longer one.

[2664] Codex Sangallensis. 9th or 10th cent. Contains the Gospels nearly complete, with an interlinear Latin translation. The text of Mark is specially good, agreeing often with CL. At St Gall.

[2665] Codex Alexandrinus. 5th cent. Brought by Cyril Lucar, Patriarch of Constantinople, from Alexandria, and afterwards presented by him to King Charles I. in 1628. In the British Museum. The whole Gospel. Photographic facsimile, 1879.

[2666] Codex Ephraemi. 5th cent. A palimpsest: the original writing has been partially rubbed out, and the works of Ephraem the Syrian have been written over it; but a great deal of the original writing has been recovered; of Mark we have Mar 1:17 to Mar 6:31, Mar 8:5 to Mar 12:29, Mar 13:19 to Mar 16:20. In the National Library at Paris.

[2667] Codex Monacensis. 10th cent. Contains Mar 6:47 to Mar 16:20. Many verses in 14, 15, 16 are defective.

[2668] Codex Petropolitanus. 9th cent. Gospels almost complete. Mar 16:18-20 is in a later hand.

3. λαβόντες … ἀπέστειλαν. He was sent to take the fruits, and the men took him and sent him off without any. This is probably a mere accident in expression; Mk is not given to playing on words. The more literary Lk. is more subtle in language; in Mar 5:25 he perhaps does mean to suggest that the man now carried what had hitherto carried him. St Paul is fond of playing on words; see on 2Co 1:13 and App. D. In LXX. δέρω, if the readings are right, means “flay” (Lev 1:6; 2Ch 29:34; 2Ch 35:11); in N.T. it means always “beat.” Cf. our colloquial “hide,” “give a hiding.” For “send empty away” see Luk 1:53; Gen 31:42; Deu 15:13; 1Sa 6:3; Job 22:9.

Cambridge Greek Testament for Schools and Colleges (Cambridge University Press, 1896; 21 vols, various authors incl. Carr, Maclear, Plummer, Farrar, Lumby, Moule, M. R. James, Simcox) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.

International Critical Commentary

3. Καὶ λαβόντες αὐτὸν ἔδειραν1—And they took (him), and beat him.

καὶ, instead of οἱ δὲ, Tisch. Treg. WH. RV. א BDL Δ 33, mss. Lat. Vet. Memph.

International Critical Commentary — older volumes (1896–1929), various authors — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.

Lesson kit

Teaching starters — assembled from the data on this page, not authored interpretation. Every prompt links to the verse data it draws on. Edit before teaching.

Mark, in the Gospels, opens this verse with 7 words (6 distinct Greek lemmas). Its most distinctive word is dérō (“to flay”). A historical commentator’s framing appears above. Read the whole chapter for the surrounding context.

Discussion questions

How does “to flay” (dérō) shape what this verse is saying?
This is the first place “empty” appears in Scripture (first appears here). What does its debut here establish?
How does Matthew 21:35, which shares the word «to flay», read alongside this verse?
What does the repetition of “and” (2× in this one verse) do in this verse?
The translations on this page render this verse differently — a whole-verse word diff, not a word-by-word alignment. What might account for the different wordings?
Compare how The Cambridge Bible for Schools and Colleges and John Gill's Exposition read this verse. Where do they agree or differ?

Things to notice

1 word makes its first canonical appearance in Scripture here.
These translations choose different wording for 4 words in this verse.
“and” occurs 2× in this single verse.
6 distinct Greek lemmas span 7 words in this verse.