Mark 6:3

6:3 Isn’t this the carpenter, the son 1  of Mary 2  and brother of James, Joses, Judas, and Simon? And aren’t his sisters here with us?” And so they took offense at him.

Mark 10:29-30

10:29 Jesus said, “I tell you the truth, 3  there is no one who has left home or brothers or sisters or mother or father or children or fields for my sake and for the sake of the gospel 10:30 who will not receive in this age 4  a hundred times as much – homes, brothers, sisters, mothers, children, fields, all with persecutions 5  – and in the age to come, eternal life. 6 

1 tc Evidently because of the possible offensiveness of designating Jesus a carpenter, several mss ([Ì45vid] Ë13 33vid [565 579] 700 [2542] pc it vgmss) harmonize the words “carpenter, the son” to the parallel passage in Matt 13:55, “the son of the carpenter.” Almost all the rest of the mss read “the carpenter, the son.” Since the explicit designation of Jesus as a carpenter is the more difficult reading, and is much better attested, it is most likely correct.

2 sn The reference to Jesus as the carpenter is probably derogatory, indicating that they knew Jesus only as a common laborer like themselves. The reference to him as the son of Mary (even though Jesus’ father was probably dead by this point) appears to be somewhat derogatory, for a man was not regarded as his mother’s son in Jewish usage unless an insult was intended (cf. Judg 11:1-2; John 6:42; 8:41; 9:29).

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

4 tn Grk “this time” (καιρός, kairos), but for stylistic reasons this has been translated “this age” here.

5 tn Grk “with persecutions.” The “all” has been supplied to clarify that the prepositional phrase belongs not just to the “fields.”

6 sn Note that Mark (see also Matt 19:29; Luke 10:25, 18:30) portrays eternal life as something one receives in the age to come, unlike John, who emphasizes the possibility of receiving eternal life in the present (John 5:24).