Theophylact Bulgarian. Commentary on the Gospel of Mark
Mark 3: 6. The Pharisees, leaving, immediately consulted with the Herodians against Him, how to destroy Him.
Mark 3: 7. But Jesus with His disciples withdrew to the sea; and a great multitude followed him from Galilee, Judea,
Mark 3: 8. Jerusalem, Idumea and because of Jordan. And those who dwelt in the vicinity of Tire and Sidon, hearing what He was doing, went to him in great multitudes.
Mark 3: 9. And He told His disciples that a boat should be ready for Him because of the multitude, so that they would not crush Him.
Mark 3:10. For He healed many, so that those who had plagues rushed to Him to touch Him.
Mark 3:11. And the unclean spirits, when they saw Him, fell before Him and cried out: You are the Son of God.
Mark 3:12. But He strictly forbade them not to make Him known.
Who were the Herodians? - or the soldiers of Herod, or some new sect that recognized Herod as Christ for the reason that under him the succession of the Jewish kings ended. The prophecy of Jacob determined that when the princes became impoverished from Judas, then Christ would come (Genesis 49). So, since at the time of Herod no one was a prince of the Jews, but Herod the foreigner ruled (he was an Edomite), some took him for Christ and formed a sect. It was these people who wanted to kill the Lord. But He goes away for the time of suffering has not yet come. Leaves the ungrateful in order to benefit more people. Indeed, many followed Him, and He healed them; even the Tyrians and Sidonians benefited, despite the fact that there were foreigners. Meanwhile, His fellow tribesmen persecuted Him. So there is no benefit in kinship if there is no good behavior! So strangers came to Christ from afar, and the Jews persecuted Him, who came to them. See how Christ is alien to glory; so that the people do not surround Him, He requires a boat, so that in it to be at a distance from the people.
The evangelist calls 'plagues' sickness, for sickness really does a lot to teach us, so that God punishes us with these plagues, like the father of children. In a figurative sense, pay attention to the fact that the Herodians want to kill Jesus, these fleshly and rude people (Herod means leather). On the contrary, those who have left their homes and from their fatherland, that is, from the carnal way of life, they will follow Him; why their wounds will be healed, that is, sins that bite the conscience, and unclean spirits are driven out. Pay attention, finally, to the fact that Jesus commands His disciples to bring the boat, so that the people do not embarrass Him. Jesus is in us the word commanding that our boat, that is, our body, be ready for Him, and not be left to the storm of everyday affairs, so that these crowds of worries about business troubled the Christ who lives in us.
