Mark 14

[And when they had sung an hymn.] I. "What difference is there between the first Passover and the second?" [that is, the Passover of the first month and of the second, Numbers 9]. "In the first, every one is bound under that law, 'Leaven shall not be seen nor found among you.' In the second, 'Leaven and unleavened bread may be with a man in his house.' In the first, he is bound to a hymn when he eats the Passover. In the second, he is not bound to a hymn when he eats it. In both, he is bound to a hymn while he makes or kills. Both are to be eaten roast, and with unleavened bread, and bitter herbs, and both drive away the sabbath." The Gemarists ask, "Whence this is, that they are bound to a hymn, while they eat the Passover? R. Jochanan in the name of R. Simeon Ben Josedek saith, The Scripture saith, 'You shall have a song, as in the night when a feast is kept,' Isaiah 30:29. The night which is set apart for a feast is bound to a hymn: the night which is not set apart for a feast is not bound to a hymn." The Gloss writes thus; "As ye are wont to sing in the night when a feast is kept: but there is no night wherein they are obliged to a song, besides the night when the Passover is eaten."

II. That hymn is called by the Rabbins the Hallel; and was from the beginning of Psalm 113, to the end of Psalm 118, which they cut in two parts; and a part of it they repeated in the very middle of the banquet, and they reserved a part to the end.

How far the former portion extended, is disputed between the schools of Shammai and Hillel. That of Shammai saith, Unto the end of Psalm 113. That of Hillel saith, Unto the end of Psalm 114. But these things must not stop us. The hymn which Christ now sang with his disciples after meat was the latter part. In which, as the Masters of the Traditions observe, these five things are mentioned: "The going out of Egypt. The cutting in two of the Red Sea. The delivery of the law. The resurrection of the dead: and the sorrows of the Messias. The going out of Egypt, as it is written, 'When Israel went out of Egypt.' The cutting in two of the Red Sea, as it is written, 'The sea saw it, and fled.' The delivery of the law, as it is written, 'The mountains leaped like rams.' The resurrection of the dead, as it is written, 'I will walk before the Lord in the land of the living.' And the sorrows of the Messias, as it is written, 'Not unto us, Lord, not unto us.'"

[They went out into the mount of Olives.] They were bound by traditional canons to lodge within Jerusalem. "On the first Passover, every one is bound to lodge also on the second Passover he is bound to lodge." The Gloss thus: "He that keeps the Passover is bound to lodge in Jerusalem the first night." But it is disputed, whether it be the same night wherein the lamb is eaten; or the night first following the feast day. See the place: and let not the lion of the tribe of Judah be restrained in those cobwebs [Pesach. fol. 95 .2.]

36. And he said, Abba, Father, all things are possible unto thee; take away this cup from me: nevertheless not what I will, but what thou wilt.

[Abba, Father.] As it is necessary to distinguish between the Hebrew and Chaldee idiom in the words Abi, and Abba, so you may, I had almost said, you must, distinguish of their sense. For the word Abi, signifies indeed a natural father, but withal a civil father also, an elder, a master, a doctor, a magistrate: but the word Abba, denotes only a natural father, with which we comprehend also an adopting father: yea, it denotes, My father.

Let no man say to his neighbour, 'My father' is nobler than thy father. "R. Chaija asked Rabh the son of his brother, when he came into the land of Israel, Doth my father live? And he answereth, And doth your mother live?" As if he should have said, You know your mother is dead, so you may know your father is dead. "Solomon said, Observe ye what my father saith?" So in the Targum infinite times.

And we may observe in the Holy Scriptures, wheresoever mention is made of a natural father, the Targumists use the word Abba: but when of a civil father, they use another word:--

I. Of a natural father.

Genesis 22:7, "And he said, 'Abi,' my father." The Targum reads, "And said, 'Abba,' my father." Genesis 27:34: "Bless me, even me also 'Abi,' O my father." The Targum reads, Bless me also, 'Abba,' my father. Genesis 48:18: Not so, 'Abi,' my father. Targum, Not so, 'Abba,' my father. Judges 11:36: 'Abi,' my father, if thou hast opened thy mouth. Targum, 'Abba,' my father, if thou hast opened thy mouth. Isaiah 8:4: The Targum reads, before the child shall know to cry 'Abba,' my father, and my mother. See also the Targum upon Joshua 2:13, and Judges 14:16, and elsewhere very frequently.

II. Of a civil father.

Genesis 4:20,21: He was 'Abi,' the father of such as dwell in tents. "He was 'Abi,' the father of such as handle the harp," &c. The Targum reads, He was 'Rabba,' the prince or the master of them. 1 Samuel 10:12: But who is 'Abihem,' their father? Targum, Who is their 'Rab,' master or prince? 2 Kings 2:12: 'Abi, Abi,' my father, my father. The Targum, Rabbi, Rabbi. 2 Kings 5:13: And they said, 'Abi,' my father. The Targum, And they said, 'Mari,' my Lord. 2 Kings 6:21: 'Abi,' my father, shall I smite them? Targum, 'Rabbi,' shall I kill, &c.

Hence appears the reason of those words of the apostle, Romans 8:15: Ye have received the Spirit of adoption, whereby we cry, Abba, Father. And Galatians 4:6: "Because ye are sons, God hath sent forth the Spirit of his Son into your hearts, crying Abba, Father." It was one thing to call God Abi, Father, that is, Lord, King, Teacher, Governor, &c.; and another to call him Abba, My Father. The doctrine of adoption, in the proper sense, was altogether unknown to the Jewish schools (though they boasted that the people of Israel alone were adopted by God above all other nations); and yet they called God Father, and our Father, that is, our God, Lord, and King, &c. But "since ye are sons (saith the apostle), ye cry, Abba, O my Father," in the proper and truly paternal sense.

Thus Christ in this place, however under an unspeakable agony, and compassed about on all sides with anguishments, and with a very cloudy and darksome providence; yet he acknowledges, invokes, and finds God his Father, in a most sweet sense.

We cry, 'Abba,' Father. Did the saints, invoking God, and calling him Abba, add also Father? Did Christ also use the same addition of the Greek word Father, and did he repeat the word Abba or Abi? Father seems rather here to be added by Mark, and there also by St. Paul, for explication of the word 'Abba': and this is so much the more probable also, because it is expressed Father, and not O Father, in the vocative.

51. And there followed him a certain young man, having a linen cloth cast about his naked body; and the young men laid hold on him:

[Having a linen cloth cast about his naked body.] It is well rendered by the Vulgar clothed in sindon or fine linen: for to that the words have respect: not that he had some linen loosely and by chance cast about him, but that the garment wherewith he always went clothed, was of sindon, that is, of linen. Let us hearken a little to the Talmudists.

"The Rabbins deliver: Sindon [linen] with fringes, what of them? The school of Shammai absolves, the school of Hillel binds, and the wise men determine according to the school of Hillel. R. Eliezer Ben R. Zadok saith, Whosoever wears hyacinth [purple] in Jerusalem, is among those who make men admire." By hyacinthinum [purple] they understand those fringes that were to put them in mind of the law, Numbers 15. And by sindon, linen, is understood a cloak, or that garment, which, as it serves for clothing the body, so it is doubly serviceable to religion. For, 1. To this garment were the fringes fastened, concerning which mention is made, Numbers 15:38. 2. With this garment they commonly covered their heads when they prayed. Hence that in the Gemarists in the place quoted: "talith, or the cloak whereby the boy covereth his head, and a great part of himself; if any one of elder years goes forth clothed with it in a more immodest manner, he is bound to wear fringes." And elsewhere, "The priests who veil themselves when they go up into the pulpit, with a cloak which is not their own," &c.

But now it was customary to wear this cloak, in the summer especially, and in Jerusalem for the most part, made of sindon or of linen. And the question between the schools of Shammai and Hillel arose hence, that when the fringes were woolen, and the cloak linen, how would the suspicion of wearing things of different sorts be avoided? R. Zeira loosed his sindon. The Gloss is: "He loosed his fringes from his sindon [that is, from his talith, which was of 'sindon,' linen], because it was of linen," &c. "The angel found Rabh Ketina clothed in sindon; and said to him, O Ketina, Ketina, sindon in the summer, and a short cloak in the winter."

You see that word which is spoke by the evangelist, about his naked body, carries an emphasis: for it was most usual to be clothed with sindon for an outer garment. What therefore must we say of this young man? I suppose in the first place, that he was not a disciple of Jesus; but that he now followed, as some curious looker on, to see what this multitude would at last produce. And to such a suspicion they certainly do consent, who think him to have been roused from his bed, and hastily followed the rout with nothing but his shirt on, without any other clothes. I suppose, secondly, St. Mark in the phrase having a sindon cast about him, spake according to the known and vulgar dialect of the nation, clothed with a sindon. For none shall ever persuade me that he would use an idiom, any thing uncouth or strange to the nation; and that when he used the very same phrase in Greek with that Jewish one, he intended not to propound the very same sense. But now you clearly see, they themselves being our teachers, what is the meaning of being clothed with a sindon, with them, namely, to have a talith or cloak made of linen; that garment to which the fringes hung. I suppose, in the last place, that this young man, out of religion, or superstition rather, more than ordinary, had put on his sindon, and nothing but that upon his naked body, neglecting his inner garment (commonly called chaluk), and indeed neglecting his body. For there were some amongst the Jews that did so macerate their bodies, and afflict them with hunger and cold, even above the severe rule of other sects.

Josephus in his own Life writes thus: "I was sixteen years old, and I resolved to make trial of the institution of the three sects among us, the Pharisees, the Sadducees, and the Essenes; for I judged I should be able very well to choose the best of them, if I thoroughly learned them all. Afflicting, therefore, and much tormenting myself, I tried them all. But judging with myself that it was not enough to have tried these sects, and hearing of one Banus, that lived in the wilderness, that he used a garment made of leaves, or the bark of trees, and no food but what grew of its own accord, and often by day and by night washing himself in cold water, I became a follower of him, and for three years abode with him."

And in that place in the Talmudists, which we but now produced, at that very story of Rabh Ketina, wearing a sindon in the winter for his talith, we have these words; "The religious in elder times, when they had wove three wings [of the talith], they joined the purple," whereof the fringes were made: "but otherwise, they are religious who impose upon themselves things heavier than ordinary." And immediately follows the story of the angel and Ketina, who did so. There were some who heaped up upon themselves burdens and yokes of religion above the common rule, and that this is to be understood by such as laid upon themselves heavier things than ordinary, both the practice of some Jews persuade, and the word itself speaks it, being used by the Gemarists in the same sense elsewhere.

Such, we suppose, was this young man (as Josephus was, when a young man, of whom before), who, when others armed themselves against the cold with a double garment, namely, an inner garment, and a talith or cloak, clothed himself with a single garment, and that of sindon or linen, and under the show of some more austere religion, neglecting the ordinary custom and care of himself.

The thing, taken in the sense which we propound, speaks the furious madness of this most wicked rout so much the more, inasmuch as they spared not a man, and him a young man, bearing most evident marks of a more severe religion.

56. For many bare false witness against him, but their witness agreed not together.

[Their witness agreed not together.] The traditional canons, in these things, divide testimonies into three parts:--

I. There was a vain testimony: which being heard, there is no more inquiry made from that witness, there is no more use made of him, but he is set aside, as speaking nothing to the business.

II. There was a standing testimony, for let me so turn it here, which, although it proved not the matter without doubt, yet it was not rejected by the judges, but admitted to examination by citation, that is, others being admitted to try to disprove it if they could.

III. There was the testimony of the words of them that agreed or fitted together (this also was a standing evidence), when the words of two witnesses agreed, and were to the same purpose: an even evidence. Of these, see the tract Sanhedrin; where also discourse is had concerning exact search and examination of the witnesses by inquisition, and scrutiny, and citation: by which curious disquisition if they had examined the witnesses that babbled and barked against Christ, Oh! the unspeakable and infinite innocence of the most blessed Jesus, which envy and madness itself, never so much sworn together against his life, could not have fastened any crime upon!

It is said, verse 55, they sought for witness against Jesus. This is neither equal, O fathers of the Sanhedrim! nor agreeable to your rule: In judgments about the life of any man, they begin first to transact about quitting the party who is tried; and they begin not with those things which make for his condemnation. Whether the Sanhedrim now followed that canon in their scrutiny about Christ's case, let them look to it: by their whole process it sufficiently appears, whither their disquisition tended. And let it be granted, that they pretended some colour of justice and mercy, and permitted that any one who would, might come forth, and testify something in his behalf, where was any such now to be found? when all his disciples turned their backs upon him, and the Fathers of the Traditions had provided, that whosoever should confess him to be Christ should be struck with the thunder of their excommunication, John 9:22.