Mark 4:41

4:41 The disciples were absolutely terrified—a frequent response to Jesus in Mark (5:15, 33; 6:50; 9:32; 10:32; 11:18; 16:8). • Who is this man? Readers already know that Jesus is the Messiah, the Son of God (1:1, 11, 24; 3:11).

Tyndale Open Study Notes — © Tyndale Open Resources, licensed CC BY-SA 4.0. Text via the HelloAO Bible API.

Mar 4:41 . ἐφοβήθησαν φ . μ .: nearly the same phrase as in Jon 1:16 . τίς ἄρα οὗτός , who then is this? One would have thought the disciples had been prepared by this time for anything. Matthew indeed has οἱ ἄνθρωποι , suggestive of other than disciples, as if such surprise in them were incongruous. But their emotional condition, arising out of the dangerous situation, must be taken into account. For the rest Jesus was always giving them surprises; His mind and character had so many sides. ὑπακούει , singular, the wind and the sea thought of separately, each a wild lawless element, not given to obeying: even the wind , even the sea , obeys Him!

The Expositor's Greek Testament, edited by W. Robertson Nicoll (1897–1910) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.

Verse 41. What manner of man is this?] They were astonished at such power proceeding from a person who appeared to be only like one of themselves. It is often profitable to entertain each other with the succour and support which we receive from God in times of temptation and distress; and to adore, with respectful awe, that sovereign power and goodness by which we have been delivered.

HAVING spoken so largely of the spiritual and practical uses to be made of these transactions, where the parallel places occur in the preceding evangelist, I do not think it necessary to repeat those things here, and must refer the reader to the places marked in the margin.

Adam Clarke's Commentary on the Bible (1810–1826) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword/MySword module.

41 And they feared exceedingly, and said one to another, What manner of man is this, that even the wind and the sea obey him?

Ver. 41. {See Trapp on "Mat 8:27"}

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.

And they feared exceedingly, and said one to another, Who then is this, that even the wind and the sea obey him? This would seem to have been said by the sailors, though it was doubtless assented to by all.

The Pulpit Commentary (1880–1919), ed. H.D.M. Spence-Jones & Joseph S. Exell — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.

41. They feared exceedingly. The disciples in the boat. Such an astounding display of power, the control of the storm in which men are as helpless as infants, filled them with awe. What manner of being could he be whom storm, wind, and sea obeyed? They had not yet learned that the word which the sea obeyed was the word in obedience to which the world itself was made.

B. W. Johnson's The People's New Testament with Notes (1889–1891) — public domain. Electronic text from the Christian Classics Ethereal Library (CCEL) ThML edition.

41. ἐφοβήθησαν φόβον μέγαν. Cf. Mar 5:42; Isa 8:12; Jon 1:10; 1Ma 10:8. Mk says that they feared, Mt. that they marvelled, Lk. gives both. We have the same cogn. acc. Luk 2:9. This fear is different from their terror during the storm, and it is not rebuked. To be suddenly conscious of the presence of the supernatural commonly engenders fear; Mar 6:50; Luk 1:12; Luk 1:30; Luk 5:10; Luk 5:26; Luk 8:37; Luk 9:32; etc. The disciples had seen His power over demons and over disease; but this power over wind and wave was a new thing.

ἔλεγον πρὸς ἀλλήλους. See on Mar 10:26. It is remarkable that in none of the accounts do they say anything to Him; and this also is natural (Mar 9:32, Mar 10:32). Even Peter is silent; contrast Luk 5:8; Joh 21:7. This was a miracle which, as fishermen, they could appreciate. In a legend they would have taken the miracle as a matter of course.

ὑπακούει. Sing. verb with a plurality of nominatives, the so-called σχῆμα Πινδαρικόν, which is more common when the verb precedes (Mar 13:3; Mat 5:18; Rev 9:12); but the other order is not rare (Mat 6:19; 1Co 15:50). Here “wind and sea” are regarded as one entity. [889][890][891] have ὑπακούουσιν.

[889] 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.

[890] 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.

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

A comparison of the three narratives shows substantial agreement, with some difference in details, esp. as to the words spoken. Augustine (De Cons. Evan. ii. 24) says, supposing Christ used words which no Evangelist records, but which mean much the same as what is recorded, “what does it matter?” See on Mar 10:46.

It is instructive also to compare the three narratives with the description of a storm at sea in the Testaments (Naphtali vi. 4–9). It seems to be based on all three Gospels, esp. Mk and Lk., with a remarkable conclusion taken from Joh 6:21. Note especially γίνεται λαῖλαψ ἀνέμου μεγάλη καὶ ἐπληρώθη τὸ πλοῖον ὑδάτων, ὥστε καὶ συντρίβεσθαι αὐτό. ὡς δὲ ἐπαύσατο ὁ χειμών, ἔφθασε τὸ σκάφος ἐπὶ τῆς γῆς ἐν εἰρήνῃ. It is difficult to believe that this narrative was written first and influenced two, three, and possibly all four of the Gospels. The above quotation is condensed, but without change of a word, in order to show the chief points of resemblance.

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.

41.] The ἄρα expresses the inference from the event which they had witnessed: Who then is this?

Henry Alford, The Greek Testament (1849–1861) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.

41. ἐφοβήθησαν φόβον μέγαν—they were frightened a great fright.3 The subject is the disciples, who alone are mentioned here. Mt., on the contrary, says οἱ ἄνθρωποι. Τίς ἄρα—who then, a question inspired by what they had seen. ὅτι—that. But the conj. is causal, denoting the reason of their fright, and of the question that is forced from them. καὶ ὁ ἄνεμος κ. ἡ θάλασσα—even the wind and the sea. Not only diseases and demons, but the elements themselves. Their wonder in this case took the form of fear, corresponding to the feeling with which they regarded the power of the elements against which Jesus matched himself. ὑπακούει—obeys him. The wind and the sea are looked at collectively here, as making one great whole.

ὑπακούει, instead of ὑπακούουσιν, Tisch. Treg. WH. א* BCL Δ 1, 13, 28, 69, etc.

Weiss and Beyschlag rationalize this miracle after the same general fashion. The rebuke of the disciples grows into a rebuke of the elements, and the confidence of Jesus in his Father’s deliverance into an assertion of his own power to still the waves. Holtzmann adds to this the presence in the narrative of O.T. material, which has been used in building up the account. Weiss is not so rationalistic in this as the others, as he is contending only against the notion that Jesus performs the miracles himself, instead of the Father. The command given to the elements, he thinks, would be an assumption of power over them by Jesus himself. But any more so than the commands given to the demons? He acts throughout as God’s agent, but such an agent can order about demons and storms. Holtzmann is prepossessed against miracles in general; Beyschlag against miracles in the sphere of inanimate nature, where spirit does not act upon spirit. But the apostolic source of the narrative renders this rationalizing futile. The general fact of the miracles is established by this, and by their absolute uniqueness, conforming them to the unique quality of Jesus’ whole life in the moral sphere. This leaves room to exclude individual miracles for special reasons, or even to discriminate among kinds of miracles, as Beyschlag does. But Beyschlag’s principle excludes, e.g. the miracle of feeding the multitude, the best attested of all the miracles. And there is no other special improbability about this miracle of stilling the storm—on the contrary, a certain congruousness, a manifestation of the fact that the power resident in nature is in the last analysis spiritual, and that Jesus was the Agent of that Power.

Tisch. Tischendorf.

Treg. Tregelles.

WH. Westcott and Hort.

RV. Revised Version.

אԠCodex Sinaiticus.

B Codex Vaticanus.

C Codex Bezae.

L Codex Regius.

Δ̠Codex Sangallensis

13 Codex Regius.

28 Codex Regius.

69 Codex Leicestrensis.

K Codex Cyprius.

M Codex Campianus.

1 .Codex Basiliensis

33 Codex Regius.

209 An unnamed, valuable manuscript.

1 Mt. gives the same mark of the size of the multitude in this case. But it is one of the characteristic marks of this Gospel to emphasize the crowds that followed Jesus by some graphic touch. See 1:33, 2:2, 3:7, 20.

Lat. Vet. Vetus Latina.

2 See 3:23, note.

3 This is the generic use of the article, an individual being taken to represent the class. See Win. 18, 1.

1 On this use of the relative in antithetical statements, see Win. 17, 1 b.

A Codex Alexandrinus.

Vulg. Vulgate.

2 The proper correlative of ὃ μὲν is ὃ δὲ.

D Codex Ephraemi.

Memph. Memphitic.

3 This verb belongs to later Greek.

marg. Revided Version marg.

E Codex Basiliensis.

F Codex Borelli.

G Codex Wolfi A.

U Codex Nanianus.

V Codex Mosquensis.

Latt. Latin Versions.

Syrr. Syriac Versions.

1 The separation of καταμόνας into κατὰ μόνας is simply a matter of interpretation. χώρας is to be supplied with μόνας.

1 See 3:23, note.

Harcl. Harclean.

AV. Authorised Version.

346 Codex Ambrosianus.

Pesh. Peshito.

102 Codex Bibliothecae Mediceae.

1 συμπνίγουσι belongs to later Greek.

2 See 10:23-25. But this depreciation of wealth is specially a trait of Lk.’s Gospel. See 6:20, 24, 12:15-21, 16:9-12, 19-31.

1 The word μόδιος comes from the Latin modius, which denotes a peck measure. EV. bushel..

2 λυχνία is a later Greek form for λυχνεῖον..

1 βλαστᾷ is subj. from the form βλαστάω. μηκύνηται means literally to lengthen. It is used only here in N.T., and Isa 44:14 in the O.T. In both cases, it is used of the growth of plants, an unfamiliar use of the word.

2 αὐτομάτη occurs only twice in the N.T. On its adverbial use, see Win. 54, 2.

3 The nom. makes this statement independent of the preceding structure, and so calls attention to it.

4 So Thay.-Grm. Lex. Meyer, Weiss. The intrans. meaning, presents itself, is not attested. παραδοῖ is an irregular form of the sec. aor. subj., instead of παραδῷ.

1 The subj. in these verbs is the subj. of deliberative questions, in which the questioner consults another about the matter in hand. See Win. 41 a, 4.

2 This retains in the answer the construction of the question; supplying the omitted word, it would read, ὡς κόκκῳ σινάπεως ὁμοιώσομεν, as to a grain of mustard seed we will liken it.

3 There is a double anacoluthon here; first, the neuter, as if the antecedent were σπέρμα; and secondly, the participle, instead of the indicative. The whole sentence is thrown into confusion by this, so that a literal translation would read, which, whenever it is sown, being less than all seeds, and whenever it is sown, comes up, etc.

4 See Hackett, Illustrations of Scripture, p. 131.

1 The earlier classical form of καθώς is καθό or καθά. See Thay.-Grm. Lex. Win. 2, 1, d, e.

1 ὀψίας is used as an adjective only, outside of Biblical Greek. It means late.

2 Δι- in διέλθωμεν, like our word over, refers to the space to be passed through or over in reaching the point designated.

1 On this intransitive use of βάλλω and its compounds, see Win. 38, 1.

2 See Win. 43, 4.

3 See Win. 32, 2.

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

They feared exceedingly [εφοβηθησαν φοβον μεγαν] . Lit., they feared a great fear.

What manner of man is this? [τις αρα ουτος εστιν] . The A. V. is rather a rendering of Matthew's potapov, what manner of (viii. 27), than of Mark's tiv, who. The Rev. gives it rightly : Who then is this? The then [αρα] is argumentative. Since these things are so, who then is this?

Marvin R. Vincent, Word Studies in the New Testament (1887–1900) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword/MySword module.