Doubting Doubt
(Table of Contents - Click This Link)
The Process
Step 3 – He is Beside Himself (cont.)
3. The Timing
The timing of the
action taken by Jesus’ family.
We
have the claim that Jesus’ family made the trip from Nazareth. I have not verified that assumption and
neither, at my current level of education, do I know how to verify that
assumption, nor do I know how anyone can
verify that assumption. But a lot of
people are much better trained than me at doing those things and I am prepared
to take their word for it for the moment.
After all, we know that Jesus’ family did live in Nazareth, so it seems
sensible to assume that that’s where they were when they got the news about
Jesus’ activities. So I am willing to
accept that assumption for now.
We
also have the claim that Jesus’ family made the trip on foot rather than to
ride some animal such as a donkey. I
suppose it is not entirely outside the realm of possibility that some kind of
traveling animals could have been obtained, but from my understanding of the
society of that day in that location, it is more likely that the family
walked. So I can easily accept that
assumption as well. I would say that it
makes little difference at any rate.
Donkeys are not rapid transit vehicles.
And also we have had it claimed that the trip that the family made was
about 25 miles. As it looks to me, this
event likely occurred somewhere in the Capernaum vicinity, which is
approximately within that distance from Nazareth, so this also seems to be a
safe assumption.
All of these assumptions concur with those made by Pastor X. Now, in connection to this time element, we
must settle on a couple of other facts of the event.
Even if the trip was made at a brisk walk, the whole way with no stops,
it would have taken at least 6 hours between the departure point and the
destination, in fact, probably closer to 8 hours, with no lunch break. We agreed that they probably did not ride
donkeys or camels, but even on a good horse the trip would not have gone much
faster than an easy walk, because you do not push a horse for several miles at
a gallop unless you’re the Pony Express.
So, the trip probably took the better part of a full day.
This creates a bit of a predicament for us, because before verse 21 we
are being told about the things that Jesus and His disciples were doing and in
verse 20 we read
20
Then Jesus entered a house, and again a crowd gathered, so that he and his
disciples were not even able to eat.
We
know that all of the events that are recorded in the Gospels are not
necessarily in chronological order. Even
so, the difficulty comes in verse 21:
When
his family heard about this, they went to take charge of him …
On
the surface, it sounds as though Jesus and His disciples were out engaging in
all of their prior activities after which, in the midst of a large crowd, they
came to the house, and then somehow someone dispatched a person with the
athletic skill of a marathon runner all the way to Nazareth to tell Jesus’
family. Remember, this scenario is under
the condition that all of our earlier assumptions were correct.
Of
course, there are a few other ways to resolve this predicament. For one, it could have been that for whatever
reason, Jesus’ family was in the vicinity at the time. But there are a couple of other ways to
resolve the predicament besides. Jesus
and His disciples could have entered the house early in the day and stayed at
the house and contended with the crowd for a very extended period of time,
giving someone enough time to go all the way to Nazareth, tell Jesus’ family
what was going on, get the whole bunch ready to march and return to where Jesus
was sometime during the night. (Whew!)
That does not seem like an optimal solution to the predicament to me,
but it lends itself to support a comment made by Matthew Henry on the subject
of the belief by Jesus’ family that Jesus was out of His mind (verse 21):
1. Some understand it of
an absurd preposterous care, which had more in it of reproach to him than of
respect; and so we must take it as we read it, He is beside himself. His
kindred were willing to hearken to this ill construction which some put upon
his great zeal, and to conclude him crazed in his intellects. 2. Others understand it of a well-meaning care; and then they read, “He fainteth, he has no time to eat bread, and therefore his strength
will fail him; he will be stifled with the crowd of people. Therefore let us use a friendly violence with
him, and get him a little breathing time.”[1]
One thing that Matthew Henry’s comment indicates to me is that in his
day, over 300 years ago, there were people who, more than seems to be the case
in our day, were a little more receptive to the possibility that other
explanations were possible than to strictly say that Jesus’ family truly
believed in their hearts that Jesus was crazy.
At
any rate, the second part of his comment somewhat supports the scenario that
Jesus had been languishing all the day long without food. Thus, it would be possible that the period of
time that had elapsed would have been enough for someone to fetch Jesus’ family
and return again.
If
either of these two solutions to the predicament are not satisfactory, there is
another. Where verse 21 says, “When his family heard about this …” it
could be that the word ‘this’ refers to the situation in other terms. Perhaps it could mean “When his family heard
about all of the things that had been going on …” I have attempted to see if the original Greek
sheds any light on the matter one way or another. I have not been able to determine that it
does, but I am an amateur researcher and this is not an area of special
expertise for me. I suspect that it
would be necessary to consult an expert on the linguistics of the early New
Testament manuscripts.
This third solution to the predicament nearly seems to be the most
plausible to me. But I think that in the
end I am more inclined to think that the second one is correct, though probably
with one modification, for reasons I will explain when I deal with the next
element, that of the claim itself.
However we choose to deal with it, for the purposes of this current
stage of the project, this predicament is not strictly pertinent to the main
focus of the current subject of this study, but pertinent enough that we should
make note of it.
Now we are ready to move on to the third element of our examination of
the Mark 3:21 passage.
[1] Matthew Henry, Matthew Henry’s Commentary (Grand Rapids, MI: Zondervan, 1961) p. 1370
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