Mark 11:1-11
11:1 When they were approaching Jerusalem, at Bethphage and Bethany, near the Mount of Olives, he sent two of his disciples
11:2 and said to them, “Go into the village ahead of you, and immediately as you enter it, you will find tied there a colt that has never been ridden; untie it and bring it.
11:3 If anyone says to you, ‘Why are you doing this?’ just say this, ‘The Lord needs it and will send it back here immediately.’”
11:4 They went away and found a colt tied near a door, outside in the street. As they were untying it,
11:5 some of the bystanders said to them, “What are you doing, untying the colt?”
11:6 They told them what Jesus had said; and they allowed them to take it.
11:7 Then they brought the colt to Jesus and threw their cloaks on it; and he sat on it.
11:8 Many people spread their cloaks on the road, and others spread leafy branches that they had cut in the fields.
11:9 Then those who went ahead and those who followed were shouting, “Hosanna! Blessed is the one who comes in the name of the Lord!
11:10 Blessed is the coming kingdom of our ancestor David! Hosanna in the highest heaven!”
11:11 Then he entered Jerusalem and went into the temple; and when he had looked around at everything, as it was already late, he went out to Bethany with the twelve.
[1] Καὶ ὅτε ἐγγίζουσιν εἰς ῾Ιερουσαλὴμ εἰς Βηθσφαγῆ καὶ Βηθανίαν πρὸς τὸ ὄρος τῶν ἐλαιῶν, ἀποστέλλει δύο τῶν μαθητῶν αὐτοῦ
[2] καὶ λέγει αὐτοῖς· ὑπάγετε εἰς τὴν κώμην τὴν κατέναντι ὑμῶν, καὶ εὐθέως εἰσπορευόμενοι εἰς αὐτὴν εὑρήσετε πῶλον δεδεμένον, ἐφ᾿ ὃν οὐδεὶς ἀνθρώπων κεκάθικε· λύσαντες αὐτὸν ἀγάγετε.
[3] καὶ ἐάν τις ὑμῖν εἴπῃ· τί ποιεῖτε τοῦτο; εἴπατε ὅτι ὁ Κύριος αὐτοῦ χρείαν ἔχει, καὶ εὐθέως αὐτὸν ἀποστέλλει πάλιν ὧδε.
[4] ἀπῆλθον δὲ καὶ εὗρον τὸν πῶλον δεδεμένον πρὸς τὴν θύραν ἔξω ἐπὶ τοῦ ἀμφόδου, καὶ λύουσιν αὐτόν.
[5] καί τινες τῶν ἐκεῖ ἑστηκότων ἔλεγον αὐτοῖς· τί ποιεῖτε λύοντες τὸν πῶλον;
[6] οἱ δὲ εἶπον αὐτοῖς καθὼς ἐνετείλατο ὁ ᾿Ιησοῦς, καὶ ἀφῆκαν αὐτούς.
[7] καὶ ἤγαγον τὸν πῶλον πρὸς τὸν ᾿Ιησοῦν καὶ ἐπέβαλον αὐτῷ τὰ ἱμάτια αὐτῶν, καὶ ἐκάθισεν ἐπ᾿ αὐτῷ.
[8] πολλοὶ δὲ τὰ ἱμάτια αὐτῶν ἔστρωσαν εἰς τὴν ὁδόν, ἄλλοι δὲ στοιβάδας ἔκοπτον ἐκ τῶν δένδρων καὶ ἐστρώννυον εἰς τὴν ὁδόν.
[9] καὶ οἱ προάγοντες καὶ οἱ ἀκολουθοῦντες ἔκραζον λέγοντες·
ὡσαννά,
εὐλογημένος ὁ ἐρχόμενος ἐν ὀνόματι Κυρίου.
[10] εὐλογημένη ἡ ἐρχομένη βασιλεία ἐν ὀνόματι Κυρίου τοῦ πατρός ἡμῶν Δαυΐδ·
ὡσαννὰ ἐν τοῖς ὑψίστοις.
[11] Καὶ εἰσῆλθεν εἰς ῾Ιεροσόλυμα ὁ ᾿Ιησοῦς καὶ εἰς τὸ ἱερόν· καὶ περιβλεψάμενος πάντα, ὀψίας ἤδη οὔσης τῆς ὥρας, ἐξῆλθεν εἰς Βηθανίαν μετὰ τῶν δώδεκα.
Comments
Mark combines the historic (or dramatic ) present with past tenses.
[2] ὑπάγετε εἰς τὴν κώμην: 3rd pers. pl. pres. imp. < ὑπάγω, ‘go, go away, go forth’ (standard in koine and frequent in NT, esp. in miracle accounts). Md Gk πηγαίνω, ‘I go’ is derived from this vb.
εὑρήσετε πῶλον δεδεμένον:πῶλος, ὁ, ἡ, ‘foal’ (already in Homer); here = colt. δεδεμένον, ‘bound, tethered’, pass. pf. part. < δέομαι < δέω, ‘I bind’. The phrase πῶλον δεδεμένον (acc.) recurs in v. 4 and πῶλον (acc.) recurs in vv. 5 and 7. What kind of colt is meant here will be governed by scriptural (theological) considerations. For instance, Justin Martyr, I Apology 35 glosses the beast as the colt of an ass.
[3]ὁ Κύριος αὐτοῦ χρείαν ἔχει: κύριος, ‘lord, master’; in the Greek text (and the Engl. tr. above) the substantive has an upper-case K (or L in Engl.), and hence is an appellation, ‘the Lord’, referring to Jesus. (Jesus is referring to himself.) This is the interpretation of, e.g., Blessed Theophylact, Archbishop of Ochrid and Bulgaria (late 11th century); it seems to be the consensus. Thus: ‘the Lord has need of it [the colt]’. If we accept this, we must admit with other 20th century specialists that the reference to Jesus as ‘Lord’ is unusual in Mark (but cf. Mk 5:19). ‘Lord’ is repeated in the communal cry of jubilation in vv. 9 and 10.
ἀποστέλλει πάλιν: ‘sends it back’, pres. used instead of the future tense as in cl. Gk to express a future certainty. Jesus promises to return the colt after borrowing it.
[9] ἔκραζον λέγοντες: 3rd pers. pl. impf. < κράζω, ‘I scream, shriek, cry’ (LSJ), here used absol. The participle λέγοντες, ‘saying’, is pleonastic. The contents of the loud cries are given in direct speech in vv. 9-10 (ὡσαννά, εὐλογημένος ὁ ἐρχόμενος ἐν ὀνόματι Κυρίου, etc.).
[11] περιβλεψάμενος πάντα: the mid. voice περιβλέπομαι is attested in post-cl. Gk. περί + βλέπομαι = ‘I look round inquisitively’ (used absol. in this sense in LXX: Muraoka s.v., but here the vb has an obj., πάντα). The meaning here is ‘after looking all around everything with curiosity’. Jesus looked searchingly at everything inside the temple.
Insights into Biblical Greek Grammar and Syntax 