Mark 3:21
And when his friends had heard of it, they went out to lay hold on him. For they said: He is become mad.
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- Vulgate (Clementine)
- Et cum audissent sui, exierunt tenere eum : dicebant enim : Quoniam in furorem versus est.
- Greek New Testament (SBLGNT)
- καὶ ἀκούσαντες οἱ παρʼ αὐτοῦ ἐξῆλθον κρατῆσαι αὐτόν, ἔλεγον γὰρ ὅτι ἐξέστη.
Haydock's commentary
And when his friends had heard of it;1 literally, his own. We cannot here understand his apostles, for they were in the house with him; but either some of his kindred and friends, or some that were of the same country and town of Nazareth, though perhaps enemies to him.
For they said. It is not certain who said this, whether his friends or his adversaries.
He is become mad.2 By the Greek, he is not himself. Christ might be called a madman by the Scribes and Pharisees, when he blamed their vices and when he preached with such extraordinary zeal. Or, as the Greek implies, he was thought to be transported out of his wits, and, as the Protestant translation hath it, was beside himself. If they were his friends that said this of him, they did not think so, but only pretended it, that they might get him safe out of the hands of his adversaries. (Witham)
1 Sui, oi par autou.
2 In furorem versus est, exeste; the word existasthai, is extra se esse, from which cometh the word ecstacy. See 2 Corinthians v. 13, where St. Paul useth the same Greek word.
Haydock wrote amid the controversies of his day. The Church teaches that those born into communities separated from her cannot be charged with the sin of separation, and embraces them as brothers (CCC 818).
From Haydock's Catholic Bible Commentary, 1859, in the transcription made by Todd Easton and kept online by John Paul Wohlschied at johnblood.gitlab.io/haydock.
The Fathers on this verse
St Bede Catena Aurea on verses 19-22
the Lord leads the Apostles, when they were elected, into a house, as if admonishing them, that after having received the Apostleship, they should retire to look on their own consciences. Wherefore it is said, "And they came into a house, and the multitude came together again, so that they could not eat bread."
Pseudo-Chrysostom Catena Aurea on verses 19-22
Ungrateful indeed were the multitudes of princes, whom their pride hinders from knowledge, but the grateful multitude of the people came to Jesus.
St Bede Catena Aurea on verses 19-22
And blessed indeed the concourse of the crowd, flocking together, whose anxiety to obtain salvation was so great, that they left not the Author of salvation even an hour free to take food. But Him, whom a crowd of strangers loves to follow, His relations hold in little esteem. For it goes on, "And when His friends heard of it, they went out to lay hold upon Him." For since they could not take in the depth of wisdom, which they heard, they thought that He was speaking in a senseless way. Wherefore it continues, "for they said, He is beside Himself."
Theophylact Catena Aurea on verses 19-22
That is, He has a devil and is mad, and therefore they wished to lay hold upon Him, that they might shut Him up as one who had a devil. And even His friends wished to do this, that is, His relations, perchance His countrymen, or His brethren. But it was a silly insanity in them, to conceive that the Worker of such great miracles of Divine Wisdom had become mad.
St Bede Catena Aurea on verses 19-22
Now there is a great difference between those who do not understand the word of God from slowness of intellect, such as those who are here spoken of, and those who purposely blaspheme, of whom it is added, "And the Scribes which came down from Jerusalem, &c." For what they could not deny they endeavour to pervert by a malicious interpretation, as if they were not the works of God, but of a most unclean spirit, that is, of Beelzebub, who was the God of Ekrom. For "Beel" means Baal himself, and "zebub" a fly; the meaning of Beelzebub therefore is, the man of flies, on account of the filth of the blood which was offered, from which most unclean rite, they call him prince of the devils, adding, "and by the prince of the devils casteth He out devils."
Pseudo-Jerome Catena Aurea on verses 19-22
But mystically, the house to which they came, is the early Church. The crowds which prevent their eating bread are sins and vices; for he who eateth unworthily, "eateth and drinketh damnation to himself." [1 Cor 11:29]
St Bede Catena Aurea on verses 19-22
The Scribes also coming down from Jerusalem blaspheme. But the multitude from Jerusalem, and from other regions of Judaea, or of the Gentiles, followed the Lord, because so it was to be at the time of His Passion, that a crowd of the people of the Jews should lead Him to Jerusalem with palms and praises, and the Gentiles should desire to see Him; but the Scribes and Pharisees should plot together for His death.
St Jerome The Letters of St. Jerome, To Eustochium
19. In her frequent sicknesses and infirmities she used to say, “when I am weak, then am I strong:” “we have our treasure in earthen vessels” until “this corruptible shall have put on incorruption and this mortal shall have put on immortality” and again “as the sufferings of Christ abound in us, so our consolation also aboundeth by Christ:” and then as ye are partakers of the sufferings, so shall ye be also of the consolation. In sorrow she used to sing: “Why art thou cast down, O my soul? and why art thou disquieted within me? hope thou in God for I shall yet praise him who is the health of my countenance and my God.” In the hour of danger she used to say: “If any man will come after me, let him deny himself and take up his cross and follow me:” and again “whosoever will save his life shall lose it,” and “whosoever will lose his life for my sake the same shall save it.” When the exhaust …
The Fathers are given as they wrote. Where a passage lays the Passion on the Jewish people, the Church teaches that it cannot be charged against all the Jews then living, nor against the Jews of today, and that all sinners were its authors (CCC 597, 598).