Mark 3:21 - Coke's Commentary on the Holy Bible

For they said, He is beside himself.— For they said, He fainted away. So the version of 1729. Dr. Macknight observes, that most translators render this verse as we do; but the meaning which they give is false, and such as suggests a very unbecoming idea of our Lord, who on no other occasion behaved so as to give his friends room to suspect that he was mad. The original runs thus; u922?αι ακουσαντες οι παρ αυτου, εξηλθον κρατησαι αυτον. u917?λεγον γαρ-g0-. u927?τι εξεστη-g0-. They that were with him, namely, in the house, (Mark 3:19.) ακουσαντες, hearing, viz. the noise which the mob made at the door, they went out, κρατησαι αυτον, to restrain, or quell,—not Jesus, for he was in the house, (Mark 3:19.) But the multitude, or mob [αυτον, it, viz. οχλος] the multitude, either by dispersing them, or keeping them out; for they said εξεστη, (viz. οχλος) the multitude or mob is mad. This sense the verb κρατεω has without dispute, Revelation 7:1 where we read, κρατουντας τους τεσσαρας ανεμους, — holding, detaining, restraining the four winds of the earth. Dr. Doddridge renders the words, he is transported too far. One can hardly think, says he, that Christ's friends would speak of him so contemptibly and impiously as our version represents; and if that sense must necessarily be retained, it would be much more decent to render the clause, "It (that is, the multitude, mentioned in the verse) is mad, thus unseasonably to break in upon him." But 2 Corinthians 5:13 is the only passage in the New Testament where the word has this signification: it generally signifies to be greatly transported; or as we express it, in a word derived from this, to be thrown into an exstasy. See Ch. Mark 2:12 Mark 5:42 Mark 6:51.Luke 8:56. Acts 2:7; Acts 2:12; Acts 12:16. And though the LXX sometimes use it for fainting away, as in Genesis 45:26. Joshua 2:11.Isaiah 7:2. I do not find that it ever signifies that faintness which arises from excess of labour, or want of food: but our Lord's attendants here seem to have feared, lest his zeal and the present fervency of his spirit should have been injurious to his health.