Mark 1:7

1:7 He proclaimed, ¹  “One more powerful than I am is coming after me; I am not worthy ²  to bend down and untie the strap ³  of his sandals.

Mark 4:24-25

4:24 And he said to them, “Take care about what you hear. The measure you use will be the measure you receive, ⁴  and more will be added to you. 4:25 For whoever has will be given more, but ⁵  whoever does not have, even what he has will be taken from him.” ⁶ 

Mark 7:36

7:36 Jesus ordered them not to tell anything. But as much as he ordered them not to do this, they proclaimed it all the more. ⁷ 

Mark 10:48

10:48 Many scolded ⁸  him to get him to be quiet, but he shouted all the more, “Son of David, have mercy on me!”

Mark 12:43

12:43 He called his disciples and said to them, “I tell you the truth, ⁹  this poor widow has put more into the offering box ¹⁰  than all the others. ¹¹ 

Mark 14:5

14:5 It ¹²  could have been sold for more than three hundred silver coins ¹³  and the money ¹⁴  given to the poor!” So ¹⁵  they spoke angrily to her.

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¹ tn Grk “proclaimed, saying.” The participle λέγων (legwn) is redundant in contemporary English and has not been translated.

² tn Grk “of whom I am not worthy.”

sn The humility of John is evident in the statement I am not worthy. This was considered one of the least worthy tasks of a slave, and John did not consider himself worthy to do even that for the one to come, despite the fact he himself was a prophet.

³ tn The term refers to the leather strap or thong used to bind a sandal. This is often viewed as a collective singular and translated as a plural, “the straps of his sandals,” but it may be more emphatic to retain the singular here.

⁴ tn Grk “by [the measure] with which you measure it will be measured to you.”

⁵ tn Grk “and.” Here καί (kai) has been translated as “but” to indicate the contrast present in this context.

⁶ sn What he has will be taken from him. The meaning is that the one who accepts Jesus’ teaching concerning his person and the kingdom will receive a share in the kingdom now and even more in the future, but for the one who rejects Jesus’ words, the opportunity that that person presently possesses with respect to the kingdom will someday be taken away forever.

⁷ tn Grk “but as much as he ordered them, these rather so much more proclaimed.” Greek tends to omit direct objects when they are clear from the context, but these usually need to be supplied for the modern English reader. Here what Jesus ordered has been clarified (“ordered them not to do this”), and the pronoun “it” has been supplied after “proclaimed.”

⁸ tn Or “rebuked.” The crowd’s view was that surely Jesus would not be bothered with someone as unimportant as a blind beggar.

⁹ tn Grk “Truly (ἀμήν, amhn), I say to you.”

¹⁰ tn See the note on the term “offering box” in v. 41.

¹¹ sn Has put more into the offering box than all the others. With God, giving is weighed evaluatively, not counted. The widow was praised because she gave sincerely and at some considerable cost to herself.

¹² tn Here γάρ (gar) has not been translated.

¹³ tn Grk “three hundred denarii.” One denarius was the standard day’s wage, so the value exceeded what a laborer could earn in a year (taking in to account Sabbaths and feast days when no work was done).

¹⁴ tn The words “the money” are not in the Greek text, but are implied (as the proceeds from the sale of the perfumed oil).

¹⁵ tn Here καί (kai) has been translated as “so” to indicate the implied result of previous action(s) in the narrative.