Mark 3:12-14 New English Translation
12 But[a] he sternly ordered them not to make him known.[b]
Appointing the Twelve Apostles
13 Now[c] Jesus went up the mountain[d] and called for those he wanted, and they came to him. 14 He[e] appointed twelve[f] so that they would be with him and he could send them to preach
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- Mark 3:12 tn Grk “And.” Here καί (kai) has been translated as “but” to indicate the contrast present in this context.
- Mark 3:12 sn Jesus did not permit the demons to make him known because the time for such disclosure was not yet at hand, and such a revelation would have certainly been misunderstood by the people. In all likelihood, if the people had understood him early on to be the Son of God, or Messiah, they would have reduced his mission to one of political deliverance from Roman oppression (cf. John 6:15). Jesus wanted to avoid, as much as possible, any premature misunderstanding about who he was and what he was doing. However, at the end of his ministry, he did not deny such a title when the high priest asked him (14:61-62).
- Mark 3:13 tn Grk “And.” Here καί (kai) has been translated as “now” to indicate the transition to a new topic.
- Mark 3:13 tn Or “up a mountain” (εἰς τὸ ὅρος, eis to horos).sn The expression up the mountain here may be idiomatic or generic, much like the English “he went to the hospital” (cf. 15:29), or even intentionally reminiscent of Exod 24:12 (LXX), since the genre of the Sermon on the Mount seems to be that of a new Moses giving a new law.
- Mark 3:14 tn Grk “And he.”
- Mark 3:14 tc The phrase “whom he named apostles” is lacking in the majority of mss (A C2 D L ƒ1 33 565 579 1241 1424 M latt sy; SBL). Several primary Alexandrian and other key witnesses (א B C* W Δ Θ ƒ13 28 co) include the phrase, rendering the external evidence strongly in favor of this reading. It is possible that the Alexandrian witnesses have inserted these words to bring the text in line with Luke 6:13 (TCGNT 69), but against this is the internal evidence of Mark’s style: Mark tends toward gratuitous redundancy. However, significant Western and Byzantine mss along with other authorities lack the clause, which is against the Byzantine tendencies. The key issue, however, is that both the wording of the clause and its location in the verse varies significantly among the witnesses, which suggests that it was indeed borrowed from the Lukan parallel. The NA28 puts the words in brackets indicating doubts about their authenticity.
New English Translation (NET)
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