Mark 7:36 — Community Reflections

MARK 7:36 — KING JAMES VERSION 0

“And he charged them that they should tell no man: but the more he charged them, so much the more a great deal they published it;”

Jesus commanded them not to tell anyone. But the more he did so, the more they kept talking about it — the Messianic Secret command fails again, as it consistently does throughout Mark. The more he did so, the more they kept talking about it: the prohibition has the opposite of the intended effect. The miracle is too significant to contain; the command to silence is overwhelmed by the compulsion to testify. The progressive intensification (the more he did so, the more they talked) captures the futility of attempting to suppress news of the kingdom's arrival.

Church Fathers on Mark 7:36

The Lord did not wish to stay in the parts of the Gentiles, lest He should give the Jews occasion to say, that they esteemed Him a transgressor of the law, because He held communion with the Gentiles, and therefore He immediately returns.
Theophylact · 11th century

Decapolis is a region of ten cities, across the Jordan, to the east, over against Galilee [ed. note: It appears, however, from Reland, Pales. v.1, p198, that a portion of Decapolis, including its metropolis, Scythopolis, was on this side Jordan, and therefore this text of St. Mark may be taken literally.] When therefore it is said that the Lord came to the sea of Galilee, through the midst of the borders of Decapolis, it does not mean that He entered the confines of Decapolis…
Bede · 8th century · in Marc., 2, 31

A city, however, placed on a hill cannot be hid, and lowliness always comes before glory.
Pseudo-Jerome · 5th century

Read all 12 entries in the readerCatena Aurea · St. Thomas Aquinas, tr. J. H. Newman · public domain

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