5:21 When Jesus had crossed again in a boat to the other side, a large crowd gathered around him, and he was by the sea.
8:1 In those days there was another large crowd with nothing to eat. So 4 Jesus 5 called his disciples and said to them,
9:14 When they came to the disciples, they saw a large crowd around them and experts in the law 6 arguing with them.
12:37 If David himself calls him ‘Lord,’ how can he be his son?” 7 And the large crowd was listening to him with delight.
12:41 Then 8 he 9 sat down opposite the offering box, 10 and watched the crowd putting coins into it. Many rich people were throwing in large amounts.
1 tn Mark 4:31-32 is fairly awkward in Greek. Literally the sentence reads as follows: “As a mustard seed, which when sown in the earth, being the smallest of all the seeds in the earth, and when it is sown, it grows up…” The structure has been rendered in more idiomatic English, although some of the awkward structure has been retained for rhetorical effect.
2 tn Grk “the birds of the sky” or “the birds of the heaven”; the Greek word οὐρανός (ouranos) may be translated either “sky” or “heaven,” depending on the context. The idiomatic expression “birds of the sky” refers to wild birds as opposed to domesticated fowl (cf. BDAG 809 s.v. πετεινόν).
3 sn The point of the parable seems to be that while the kingdom of God may appear to have insignificant and unnoticeable beginnings (i.e., in the ministry of Jesus), it will someday (i.e., at the second advent) be great and quite expansive. The kingdom, however, is not to be equated with the church, but rather the church is an expression of the kingdom. Also, there is important OT background in the image of the mustard seed that grew and became a tree: Ezek 17:22-24 pictures the reemergence of the Davidic house where people can find calm and shelter. Like the mustard seed, it would start out small but grow to significant size.
4 tn Here καί (kai) has been translated as “so” to indicate the implied sequence of events within the narrative.
5 tn Grk “he”; the referent (Jesus) has been specified in the translation for clarity.
6 tn Or “and scribes.” See the note on the phrase “experts in the law” in 1:22.
7 tn Grk “David himself calls him ‘Lord.’ So how is he his son?” The conditional nuance, implicit in Greek, has been made explicit in the translation (cf. Matt 22:45).
8 tn Here καί (kai) has been translated as “then” to indicate the implied sequence of events within the narrative.
9 tc Most
10 tn On the term γαζοφυλάκιον (gazofulakion), often translated “treasury,” see BDAG 186 s.v., which states, “For Mk 12:41, 43; Lk 21:1 the mng. contribution box or receptacle is attractive. Acc. to Mishnah, Shekalim 6, 5 there were in the temple 13 such receptacles in the form of trumpets. But even in these passages the general sense of ‘treasury’ is prob., for the contributions would go [into] the treasury via the receptacles.” Based upon the extra-biblical evidence (see sn following), however, the translation opts to refer to the actual receptacles and not the treasury itself.
sn The offering box probably refers to the receptacles in the temple forecourt by the Court of Women used to collect freewill offerings. These are mentioned by Josephus, J. W. 5.5.2 (5.200); 6.5.2 (6.282); Ant. 19.6.1 (19.294), and in 1 Macc 14:49 and 2 Macc 3:6, 24, 28, 40 (see also Luke 21:1; John 8:20).