Testimonia — Early Christian Bible Commentary

Enter a reference such as John 1:1, then press Enter.

Mark 3

1He entered again into the synagogue, and there was a man there whose hand was withered.

2They watched him, whether he would heal him on the Sabbath day, that they might accuse him.

3He said to the man whose hand was withered, “Stand up.”

4He said to them, “Is it lawful on the Sabbath day to do good or to do harm? To save a life or to kill?” But they were silent.

5When he had looked around at them with anger, being grieved at the hardening of their hearts, he said to the man, “Stretch out your hand.” He stretched it out, and his hand was restored as healthy as the other.

6The Pharisees went out, and immediately conspired with the Herodians against him, how they might destroy him.

7Jesus withdrew to the sea with his disciples; and a great multitude followed him from Galilee, from Judea,

8from Jerusalem, from Idumaea, beyond the Jordan, and those from around Tyre and Sidon. A great multitude, hearing what great things he did, came to him.

9He spoke to his disciples that a little boat should stay near him because of the crowd, so that they wouldn’t press on him.

10For he had healed many, so that as many as had diseases pressed on him that they might touch him.

11The unclean spirits, whenever they saw him, fell down before him and cried, “You are the Son of God!”

12He sternly warned them that they should not make him known.

13He went up into the mountain and called to himself those whom he wanted, and they went to him.

14He appointed twelve, that they might be with him, and that he might send them out to preach

15and to have authority to heal sicknesses and to cast out demons:

16Simon (to whom he gave the name Peter);

17James the son of Zebedee; and John, the brother of James, (whom he called Boanerges, which means, Sons of Thunder);

18Andrew; Philip; Bartholomew; Matthew; Thomas; James, the son of Alphaeus; Thaddaeus; Simon the Zealot;

19and Judas Iscariot, who also betrayed him. Then he came into a house.

20The multitude came together again, so that they could not so much as eat bread.

21When his friends heard it, they went out to seize him; for they said, “He is insane.”

22The scribes who came down from Jerusalem said, “He has Beelzebul,” and, “By the prince of the demons he casts out the demons.”

23He summoned them and said to them in parables, “How can Satan cast out Satan?

24If a kingdom is divided against itself, that kingdom cannot stand.

25If a house is divided against itself, that house cannot stand.

26If Satan has risen up against himself, and is divided, he can’t stand, but has an end.

27But no one can enter into the house of the strong man to plunder unless he first binds the strong man; then he will plunder his house.

28“Most certainly I tell you, all sins of the descendants of man will be forgiven, including their blasphemies with which they may blaspheme;

29but whoever may blaspheme against the Holy Spirit never has forgiveness, but is subject to eternal condemnation.”

30—because they said, “He has an unclean spirit.”

31His mother and his brothers came, and standing outside, they sent to him, calling him.

32A multitude was sitting around him, and they told him, “Behold, your mother, your brothers, and your sisters are outside looking for you.”

33He answered them, “Who are my mother and my brothers?”

34Looking around at those who sat around him, he said, “Behold, my mother and my brothers!

35For whoever does the will of God is my brother, my sister, and mother.”

Early Christian commentary

c. 182–188 AD (historical editorial dating) | Irenaeus of Lyons

3. Who, then, is this Lord God to whom Christ bears witness, whom no man shall tempt, whom all should worship, and serve Him alone? It is, beyond all manner of doubt, that God who also gave the law. For these things had been predicted in the law, and by the words (sententiam) of the law the Lord showed that the law does indeed declare the Word of God from the Father; and the apostate angel of God is destroyed by its voice, being exposed in his true colours, and vanquished by the Son of man keeping the commandment of God. For as in the beginning he enticed man to transgress his Maker's law, and thereby got him into his power; yet his power consists in transgression and apostasy, and with these he bound man [to himself]; so again, on the other hand, it was necessary that through man himself he should, when conquered, be bound with the same chains with which he had bound man, in order that man, being set free, might return to his Lord, leaving to him (Satan) those bonds by which lie himself had been fettered, that is, sin. For when Satan is bound, man is set free; since "none can enter a strong man's house and spoil his goods, unless he first bind the strong man himself." The Lord therefore exposes him as speaking contrary to the word of that God who made all things, and subdues him by means of the commandment. Now the law is the commandment of God. The Man proves him to be a fugitive from and a transgressor of the law, an apostate also from God. After [the Man had done this], the Word bound him securely as a fugitive from Himself, and made spoil of his goods,—namely, those men whom he held in bondage, and whom he unjustly used for his own purposes. And justly indeed is he led captive, who had led men unjustly into bondage; while man, who had been led captive in times past, was rescued from the grasp of his possessor, according to the tender mercy of God the Father, who had compassion on His own handiwork, and gave to it salvation, restoring it by means of the Word—that is, by Christ—in order that men might learn by actual proof that he receives incorruptibility not of himself, but by the free gift of God.

Commentary · Against Heresies, Book V, Chapter 21, Section 3 · Original source · Irenaeus of Lyons; The Writings of Irenaeus, Volume II, Ante-Nicene Christian Library IX; translated by Alexander Roberts and W. H. Rambaut; T. & T. Clark, Edinburgh, 1869. Existing transcription supplied by Wikisource contributors. · Licence · Source revision · Whitespace normalized; source pagination and footnote reference markers removed. English wording unchanged.