Mark 3:8

Listen to Mark 3:8
8 and Jerusalem and 1Idumea and from beyond the Jordan and from around 2Tyre and Sidon. When the great crowd heard all that he was doing, they came to him.

Mark 3:8 Meaning and Commentary

Mark 3:8

And from Jerusalem
The metropolis of the country of Judea;

and from Idumea,
or Edom, as the Syriac version reads it; a country that lay on the south of Judea, formerly inhabited by the sons of Edom, but now by Jews; or at least the inhabitants of it were proselytes to the Jewish religion. Mention is made of the plains of Idumea, along with Gazera, Azotus, and Jamnia, as in 1 Maccabees:

``Howbeit all the hindmost of them were slain with the sword: for they pursued them unto Gazera, and unto the plains of Idumea, and Azotus, and Jamnia, so that there were slain of them upon a three thousand men.'' (1 Maccabees 4:15)
Pliny F20 speaks of Idumea and Judea together, as a part of Syria; and Ptolemy says F21, this country lies on the west of the river Jordan; and it is here added,

and from beyond Jordan;
the country of Peraea, on the east of Jordan:

and they about Tyre and Sidon;
either the inhabitants of these places, as the Syriac, Arabic, Persic, and Ethiopic versions favour, reading "a great company from Tyre and Sidon"; or those that lived near the borders, and upon the confines of these cities of Phoenicia:

a great multitude;
when all met together, from these several parts; who

when they had heard what great things he did, came unto him:
for his fame went through all the countries, for the miracles he wrought; which drew this vast concourse of people after him; and who, inquiring where he was, came to him at the sea of Galilee.


FOOTNOTES:

F20 Nat. Hist. l. 5. c. 12.
F21 Geograph. l. 5. c. 16.
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Mark 3:8 In-Context

6 The Pharisees went out and immediately held counsel with the Herodians against him, how to destroy him.
7 Jesus withdrew with his disciples to the sea, and a great crowd followed, from Galilee and Judea
8 and Jerusalem and Idumea and from beyond the Jordan and from around Tyre and Sidon. When the great crowd heard all that he was doing, they came to him.
9 And he told his disciples to have a boat ready for him because of the crowd, lest they crush him,
10 for he had healed many, so that all who had diseases pressed around him to touch him.

Cross References 2

  • 1. 3:8 Isa. 34:5; Ezek. 35:15
  • 2. 3:8 See Matt. 11:21
The Holy Bible, English Standard Version® (ESV®) © 2001 by Crossway, a publishing ministry of Good News Publishers. All rights reserved. ESV Text Edition: 2025