Mark 3

      13. Goeth up into a mountain. Compare Matt. 10:1-4 and Luke 6:12-16 . The selection of the apostles occurred before the Sermon on the Mount ( Luke 6:13 ). Matthew gives it out of order. See notes on Matt. 10:1-4.

      14. Ordained twelve, that they should be with him. They were to attend him into order to be specially prepared to preach Christ.

      16. Simon he surnamed Peter. He did this previously ( John 1:42 ).

      17. Boanerges. Why this title was bestowed on James and John we are not told. Possibly from their power as preachers.

      19. They went into a house. On the return to Capernaum.

      20. Could not so much as eat. The multitudes were so eager to hear, or be healed, and Jesus so ready to bless them, that there was no time for meals.

      21. His friends. Probably his relatives. See verse 31 . His brethren were not yet counted among his disciples. He is beside himself. Carried away by an unwise enthusiasm.

      22. The scribes . . . said. For notes on the charge of the scribes, Beelzebub, and the sin of blasphemy against the Holy Spirit, see Matt. 12:22-37 . Compare Luke 11:14-23 . From Jerusalem. The men who were leaders in this effort to destroy the influence of Jesus were a delegation from the very religious bodies at Jerusalem that finally sent him to death.

      30. Because they said he had an unclean spirit. This was a sin against the Holy Spirit because Jesus did mighty works in the power of the Holy Spirit, and they ascribed the power to an unclean spirit.

      31. Then came his brethren and his mother. See notes on Matt. 12:46-50. Compare Luke 8:19 . The natural inference is that the "brethren" were the sons of Mary and the half-brothers of Jesus. No other idea would ever have been maintained had it not been that the doctrine of the perpetual virginity of Mary arose some centuries after the apostles.