Mark 3:32
3:32 A crowd was sitting around him and they said to him, “Look, your mother and your brothers 1 are outside looking for you.”
Mark 4:11
4:11 He said to them, “The secret 2 of the kingdom of God has been given 3 to you. But to those outside, everything is in parables,
Mark 7:15
7:15 There is nothing outside of a person that can defile him by going into him. Rather, it is what comes out of a person that defiles him.”
Mark 7:18
7:18 He said to them, “Are you so foolish? Don’t you understand that whatever goes into a person from outside cannot defile him?
1 tc ‡ Many mss read “and your sisters” here after “your brothers” (A D Γ 700 pm it). However, the pedigree of several of the mss which lack this phrase is considerable (א B C K L W Δ Θ Ë1,13 28 33 565 892 1241 1424 2542 pm lat sy). It seems likely that this phrase was added by an early Western scribe to harmonize this statement with Jesus’ response in v. 35. NA27 has the words in brackets, indicating some doubt as to their authenticity.
2 tn Grk “the mystery.”
sn The key term secret (μυστήριον, musthrion) can mean either (1) a new revelation or (2) a revealing interpretation of existing revelation as in Dan 2:17-23, 27-30. Jesus seems to be explaining how current events develop old promises, since the NT consistently links the events of Jesus’ ministry and message with old promises (Rom 1:1-4; Heb 1:1-2). The traditional translation of this word, “mystery,” is misleading to the modern English reader because it suggests a secret which people have tried to uncover but which they have failed to understand (L&N 28.77).
3 tn This is an example of a “divine passive,” with God understood to be the source of the revelation (see ExSyn 437-38).