Shedding some light on the Gospel of Saint Mark ch. 3 v.20-21

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Mk 3:20-21
20 He went home again, and once more such a crowd collected that they could not even have a meal.
21 When his relations heard of this, they set out to take charge of him; they said, ‘He is out of his mind.’ :eek:

Jesus relation though he was made. :confused:
What is the meaning of this passage? 🤷
 
I think this story is included to show us that even those closest to Jesus (maybe especially they) had to have faith to accept Him. It’s easy for us to think “how foolish they were” (meaning His contemporaries). We’re so accustomed to thinking about Him as Fully Divine as well as Fully Human, and we tend to imagine Him sort of wandering around in a halo. But He was fully human and those around Him (except for His blessed Mother and Father) didn’t know or expect Him to be anything special. And no one could possibly have imagined that He would be the Son of God. So when the rest of the region started treating Him like a big celebrity, His relatives got concerned - maybe jealous, maybe suspicious - families can be pretty competitive and contentious.

I also think His Mother was worried about Him - He didn’t even have time to eat, or get proper rest . . . what mom wouldn’t worry?
 
So you think Jesus relations including his mother thought he was nuts?
 
Ace_of_Spades said:
Mk 3:20-21
20 He went home again, and once more such a crowd collected that they could not even have a meal.
21 When his relations heard of this, they set out to take charge of him; they said, ‘He is out of his mind.’ :eek:

Jesus relation though he was made. :confused:
What is the meaning of this passage? 🤷
Click to expand...
Re “they said”. The text does not specifically say who “they” are (altho the particular translation you give makes it sound like it was Jesus’ relations). There was another thread on this topic not too long ago (titled “Question about Mark’s view of Mary”). You might check it out.
Here is the link: forums.catholic-questions.org/search.php?searchid=6465616

This is the response I gave on that thread.:I guess it depends on which translation you read. The Greek doesn’t make it clear as to who was saying that he was “beside himself” – that is, whether it was his family, some of the crowd, or others.

The RSV translation of the Mark passage:
Mk 3:19b-22 Then he went home; 20. and the crowd came together again, so that they could not even eat. 21. And when his family heard it, they went out to seize him, for people were saying, “He is beside himself.” 22. And the scribes who came down from Jerusalem said, “He is possessed by Be-el-zebul, and by the prince of demons he casts out the demons.”
Click to expand...
The ones saying Jesus was “beside Himself” most likely refers to the scribes (eg vs 22) and Pharisees, and those in the crowds who accepted their words. His family was no doubt concerned for his welfare.
 
Does any one know what the most literal translation says?
The link above doesn’t work 👍
 
Ace_of_Spades said:
So you think Jesus relations including his mother thought he was nuts?
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No, I said I thought His mother was worried about Him, and some of His relatives were concerned - with any number of possible underlying reasons. Some of them probably did think He was out of His mind. He was, after all, making statements that could be used as evidence to convict Him of a capital crime (blasphemy), which would, among other things, bring dishonor to His extended family.

I don’t think we can bring a modern concept of mental health or disorder to the text, since people of the era had very different notions of what various behaviors and symptoms evidenced. “Out of ones mind” could mean anything from demonic possession (which we know He was also accused of) to retardation to epilepsy, mania or catatonia. It is also possible - and I have no way of knowing this - that it could be used colloquially just as we do today, to express the idea that someone is making rash or outrageous statements.

On the other hand, C.S. Lewis observed that if you take Jesus’ statements about Himself seriously, He is either the Son of God or a lunatic, on the same level as a person who calls himself a fried egg (I’m quoting from memory, so probably not precise). Except for His mother and step-father, no one else would have had any context at all in which to think of Him as the Son of God. So maybe some of them did think He was in danger of losing touch with reality, being swept up in the celebrity experience, or somehow otherwise in need of being taken home, away from the crowd. We don’t have enough information to make anything more than a speculative observation.
 
Ace_of_Spades said:
Mk 3:20-21
20 He went home again, and once more such a crowd collected that they could not even have a meal.
21 When **his relations **heard of this, they set out to take charge of him; they said, ‘He is out of his mind.’ :eek:

:
Click to expand...
Re “his relations”
I have almost no knowledge of Greek. What I do have are Greek Interlinear Bibles (one in book form and the other a computer software program). The software gives parsing info, dictionary, …
I was hoping to copy and paste all of verse 21 in the Greek - hoping we could get someone skilled in that language to give us an educated answer. 🙂 But, when I pasted the Greek, it all just turned into gobbledegook! So I’ve made an attempt to transliterate just the words which you show as “his relations” - giving some of the dictionary and parsing info from my software.

oi par aytoy
*oi *
Dictionary: the, this, that, he, she, it
Parsing: nominative, plural, masculine.
(Would it’s meaning be masculine “those” ??)

par
Dictionary: from, of, by, with
Parsing: Preposition, genitive

aytoy
Dictionary: self, of oneself
Parsing: Pronoun, genetive, singular, masculine, third person

So, would a very literal translation be “those - of/by/from/with - Him”???
Sure hope there are some Greek scholars who can help out.

Nita
 
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