Mark 10:17-31
Teaching on wealth and reward
10:17 As he was setting out on a journey, a man ran up and knelt before him and asked him, “Good Teacher, what must I do to inherit eternal life?”
10:18 Jesus said to him, “Why do you call me good? No one is good but God alone.
10:19 You know the commandments: ‘You shall not murder. You shall not commit adultery. You shall not steal. You shall not bear false witness; You shall not defraud. Honor your father and mother.’”
10:20 He said to him, “Teacher, I have kept all these since my youth.”
10:21 Jesus, looking at him, loved him and said, “You lack one thing; go, sell what you own, and give the money to the poor, and you will have treasure in heaven; then come, follow me.”
10:22 When he heard this, he was shocked and went away grieving, for he had many possessions.
10:23 Then Jesus looked around and said to his disciples, “How hard it will be for those who have wealth to enter the kingdom of God!”
10:24 And the disciples were perplexed at these words. But Jesus said to them again, “Children, how hard it is to enter the kingdom of God!
10:25 It is easier for a camel to go through the eye of a needle than for someone who is rich to enter the kingdom of God.”
10:26 They were greatly astounded and said to one another, “Then who can be saved?”
10:27 Jesus looked at them and said, “For mortals it is impossible, but not for God; for God all things are possible.”
10:28 Peter began to say to him, “Look, we have left everything and followed you.”
10:29 Jesus said, “Truly I tell you, there is no one who has left house or brothers or sisters or mother or father or children or fields for my sake and for the sake of the good news
10:30 who will not receive a hundredfold now in this age–houses, brothers and sisters, mothers and children, and fields with persecutions–and in the age to come eternal life.
10:31 But many who are first will be last, and the last will be first.”
[17]Καὶ ἐκπορευομένου αὐτοῦ εἰς ὁδὸν προσδραμὼν εἷς καὶ γονυπετήσας αὐτὸν ἐπηρώτα αὐτόν· διδάσκαλε ἀγαθέ, τί ποιήσω ἵνα ζωὴν αἰώνιον κληρονομήσω;
[18]ὁ δὲ ᾿Ιησοῦς εἶπεν αὐτῷ· τί με λέγεις ἀγαθόν; οὐδεὶς ἀγαθὸς εἰ μὴ εἷς ὁ Θεός.
[19]τὰς ἐντολὰς οἶδας· μὴ μοιχεύσῃς, μὴ φονεύσῃς, μὴ κλέψῃς, μὴ ψευδομαρτυρήσῃς, μὴ ἀποστερήσῃς, τίμα τὸν πατέρα σου καὶ τὴν μητέρα.
[20]ὁ δὲ ἀποκριθεὶς εἶπεν αὐτῷ· διδάσκαλε, ταῦτα πάντα ἐφυλαξάμην ἐκ νεότητός μου.
[21]ὁ δὲ ᾿Ιησοῦς ἐμβλέψας αὐτῷ ἠγάπησεν αὐτὸν καὶ εἶπεν αὐτῷ· ἕν σε ὑστερεῖ· εἰ θέλεις τέλειος εἶναι, ὕπαγε, ὅσα ἔχεις πώλησον καὶ δὸς πτωχοῖς, καὶ ἕξεις θησαυρὸν ἐν οὐρανῷ, καὶ δεῦρο ἀκολούθει μοι, ἄρας τὸν σταυρόν σου.
[22]ὁ δὲ στυγνάσας ἐπὶ τῷ λόγῳ ἀπῆλθε λυπούμενος· ἦν γὰρ ἔχων κτήματα πολλά.
[23]Καὶ περιβλεψάμενος ὁ ᾿Ιησοῦς λέγει τοῖς μαθηταῖς αὐτοῦ· πῶς δυσκόλως οἱ τὰ χρήματα ἔχοντες εἰς τὴν βασιλείαν τοῦ Θεοῦ εἰσελεύσονται!
[24]οἱ δὲ μαθηταὶ ἐθαμβοῦντο ἐπὶ τοῖς λόγοις αὐτοῦ. ὁ δὲ ᾿Ιησοῦς πάλιν ἀποκριθεὶς λέγει αὐτοῖς· τέκνα, πῶς δύσκολόν ἐστι τοὺς πεποιθότας ἐπὶ χρήμασιν εἰς τὴν βασιλείαν τοῦ Θεοῦ εἰσελθεῖν·
[25]εὐκοπώτερόν ἐστι κάμηλον διὰ τρυμαλιᾶς ῥαφίδος εἰσελθεῖν ἢ πλούσιον εἰς τὴν βασιλείαν τοῦ Θεοῦ εἰσελθεῖν.
[26]οἱ δὲ περισσῶς ἐξεπλήσσοντο λέγοντες πρὸς ἑαυτούς· καὶ τίς δύναται σωθῆναι;
[27]ἐμβλέψας αὐτοῖς ὁ ᾿Ιησοῦς λέγει· παρὰ ἀνθρώποις ἀδύνατον, ἀλλ᾿ οὐ παρὰ Θεῷ· πάντα γὰρ δυνατά ἐστι παρὰ τῷ Θεῷ.
[28]῎Ηρξατο ὁ Πέτρος λέγειν αὐτῷ· ἰδοὺ ἡμεῖς ἀφήκαμεν πάντα καὶ ἠκολουθήσαμέν σοι.
[29]ἀποκριθεὶς δὲ ὁ ᾿Ιησοῦς εἶπεν· ἀμὴν λέγω ὑμῖν, οὐδείς ἐστιν ὃς ἀφῆκεν οἰκίαν ἢ ἀδελφοὺς ἢ ἀδελφὰς ἢ πατέρα ἢ μητέρα ἢ γυναῖκα ἢ τέκνα ἢ ἀγροὺς ἕνεκεν ἐμοῦ καὶ ἕνεκεν τοῦ εὐαγγελίου,
[30]ἐὰν μὴ λάβῃ ἑκατονταπλασίονα νῦν ἐν τῷ καιρῷ τούτῳ οἰκίας καὶ ἀδελφοὺς καὶ ἀδελφὰς καὶ πατέρα καὶ μητέρα καὶ τέκνα καὶ ἀγροὺς μετὰ διωγμῶν, καὶ ἐν τῷ αἰῶνι τῷ ἐρχομένῳ ζωὴν αἰώνιον.
[31]πολλοὶ δὲ ἔσονται πρῶτοι ἔσχατοι καὶ ἔσχατοι πρῶτοι.
Comments
One might pedantically tweak bits of the Engl. tr. of vv. 18 and 21. What ‘loved him’ in v. 21 means is also worth pondering. In v. 23 Jesus looks about in a searching manner. This instance of ‘body language’ is a cue that Jesus is preparing to deliver a portentous statement.
[17] γονυπετήσας αὐτὸν: γονυπετάω + acc., ‘fall on the knee (γόνυ) before one’; a related sense is attested in Polybius’ koine.
[18] εἰ μὴ εἷς ὁ Θεός: the Engl. tr. is ‘but God alone’. The Gk text states: ‘but (except) one, God’, God being the epexegesis of ‘one’.
[20] ἐκ νεότητός μου: an ever so slight variation on the Homeric phrase ἐκ νεότητος, ‘since youth’, also used in Ge 8.21, 48.15. Mk is perhaps echoing Genesis. This phrase suggests that the man accosting Jesus cannot be very young. Ηe has been married long enough to assure his interlocutor that inter alia, he has not violated the commandment against adultery.
[21] ἠγάπησεν αὐτὸν: ἀγαπάω + acc. pers. in LXX can mean ‘ treat someone with affection’ (Muraoka s.v. 1a); Jesus treated the man affectionately, perhaps embracing him—οr perhaps looking at him with tenderness (cf. ἐμβλέψας αὐτῷ, looking at him’ in the same verse).
ἕν σε ὑστερεῖ: ὑστερέω +acc. pers., ‘to fail, to be lacking in someone’, an LXX construction, e.g., Ps. 22.1 (Muraoka s.v. 1a).
δὸς πτωχοῖς: the Engl. tr. is ‘give the money to the poor’, whereas the Gk states ‘give to poor people’, ‘give to people who are poor’. ‘To the poor’ would have been τοῖς πτωχοῖς, with a definite article.
δεῦρο ἀκολούθει μοι: δεῦρο, an adv., with the sg. imperative of the vb of motion as here (‘follow’), functions as an interjection with deictic force, ‘Come!’
[22] στυγνάσας ἐπὶ τῷ λόγῳ: στυγνάζω, ‘have a gloomy look’, LXX, e.g., Ez 26.16, etc.
[23] περιβλεψάμενος: περιβλέπω, intr., ‘look round about, gaze about’ (περί + βλέπω). Περιβλέπομαι, mid. vc., intr., is post-cl. (LXX, Diod. Sic. 16.32), ‘I look around inquisitively’ (cf. Muraoka s.v. 1). Jesus ‘looked round himself’ searchingly.
[31] πρῶτοι ἔσχατοι καὶ ἔσχατοι πρῶτοι: a statement of paradox, of reversal, aptly formulated as a chiasmus (A ~ B, b~ a). Οn paradox see, e.g., J. Petropoulos, Religious paradox and aporia’, Nuntius Antiquus 13.ii (2017), 39-57 [also available online:http://www.periodicos.letras.ufmg.br/index.php/nuntius_antiquus/issue/view/619
Insights into Biblical Greek Grammar and Syntax 