Then there arose a reasoning among them, which of them should be greatest.
For the exposition, see the notes at Mark. 33-37 .
It is a remarkable characteristic of this Gospel that the contents of nearly nine chapters of it-beginning with this section (Luke 9:51), and going down to Luke 18:14 - are, with the exception of two or three short passages, unique to itself. Since there are scarcely any marks of time and place in all this special portion, it is difficult to fix these with any certainty. But there is reason to believe that the earlier portion of it belongs to the period to our Lord's final journey from Galilee-which was probably a circuitous journey, with the view, perhaps, of ministering localities not before visited; and that the latter portion of it belongs to the intervals between the Feast of Tabernacles and that of the Dedication, in our Lord's last year (see the note at John 10:22), and between the Feast of the Dedication and that of His Last Passover-during which intervals our Lord appears to have sojourned chiefly in Peraea, within the jurisdiction of Herod Antipas.