John Trapp on Mark 12

CHAP. XII.

Verse 1. A certain man planted, &c.] SEe the Notes on Matth. 21. 33.

Verse 3. And beat him] Properly, they hilded him; but by [non-Latin text not transcribed] [illegible: 1 word] excorio, [illegible: 2 words]. Gerhard. a Metonymie, they beat him. Sie [illegible: 1 word] vulpem, [illegible: 1 word] pellis [illegible: 1 word] AEtrahatur: So men beat a Fox, that they may the better hilde him.

Verse 4. Wounded him in the head] Caput. [illegible: 1 word], they [non-Latin text not transcribed] Theophylact. brake his head. Theophylact interpreteth it, They completed their villany, and spent all their spite upon him.

Verse 6. They will reverence my [illegible: 1 word] ] They will surely be [illegible: 1 word] to look him in the [illegible: 1 word]. This is the proper signification of [non-Latin text not transcribed] the word. But sin had [illegible: 1 word] an impudency in their faces, that they could blush no more then a Sack-but.

Verse 13. To catch him in his words] As Hunters catch the [non-Latin text not transcribed]. beast in a toyl; as Fowlers catch the bird in a snare, as Saint Matthewes [non-Latin text not transcribed]. word here signifies. Fistula [illegible: 2 words], [illegible: 1 word] dum decipit auceps.

Verse 14. To give tribute] This tribute the Jewes then paid to the Romanes, as now they doe to the Turks, for the very heads they wear. And yet they had the face to say to our Saviour, Joh. 8. 33. We never were in bondage to any man. But perhaps these Jewes were of the Sect of Judas Gaulonites, who would not beIoseph. lib 18. cap. 2. drawn by any torments to acknowledge any Lord upon earth; beleeving that God only was to be held their Lord and King.

Verse 24. Not knowing the Scriptures] And yet they alledged and argued out of Scripture, but upon a false ground; viz. that the state of men should continue in the other world such as it is here, as to eat, drink, marry, generate, &c.

Verse 26. I am the God of Abraham] Therefore thy God also, if thou walk in the foot-steps of faithfull Abraham, Rom. 4. 23, 24.

Verse 28. Asked him, which is the first] All Christs Disciples must be [illegible: 1 word], Questionists, and doe the same to learn, that this Scribe here doth, for a worse purpose.

Verse 29. Is one Lord] This the wiser Heathens, as Pythagoras, [non-Latin text not transcribed], &c. Pythag. Socrates, Plato, and Aristotle with his Ens Entium miserere mei (if that were his) acknowledged. Exod. 34. 14. Thou shalt worship [illegible: 1 word] other god. Where the word Acher rendred Other, hath R greater then ordinary, to shew the greatnesse of theBuxtorf. Tiber. sinne of serving others gods, and to set forth a difference between Acher Other, and Echad One God; One in Three, and Three in One.

Verse 34. Answered discreetly] That he was better then the [non-Latin text not transcribed]. Ennius. Pharisees used to be. He was Egregiè cordatus homo, and began to lift up his head out of the mud toward heaven.

Verse 35. How say the Scribes] They were great Genealogists; how was it then that they were no better versed in the Genealogie of Christ? that they could give no better an account of his two-fold nature? Of other things one may be ignorant, and yet be saved: Not so here.

Verse 36. Said by the Holy Ghost] The Psalmes then are a part of holy Writ by Christs own testimony, who also Luk. 24. 44. divideth the Old Testament into the Law of Moses, the Prophets and the Psalmes. Yea, Psalmorum liber [illegible: 1 word] utilia sunt ex omnibus continet, saith Augustine after Basil: The Psalmes are a treasury of all holy truths.

Verse 38. Love to goe in long clothing] Down to the heels, as Senators, or Counsellors. A garment that Christ himself ware, as [non-Latin text not transcribed]. [illegible: 2 words]. being a Citizen or free Denison of Capernaum. But he loved not to go in it, as these Pharisees, these glorious Masters of the Jewes; he affected not this habit more then another out of pride and vainglory, to be looked at, and admired by the vulgar. This they thought a goodly businesse.

Verse 41. And beheld] He still sits and seeth the condition, gift, and mind of every almes-giver: And weighs all, not by the worth of the gift, but by the will of the Giver. Lycurgus enjoyned the Lacedaemonians to offer small sacrifices. For God, said He, respecteth more the internall devotion, then the externall oblation. How the people cast mony] Gr. Brasse: the worst was thought [non-Latin text not transcribed] good enough for God, and his poor. Something men will do, but as little as they can.

Verse 42. Two mites] A mite is valued of our mony to be threeGodw. Antiq. parts of one c.

Verse 43. This poore Widow] Women are noted in the Parable of the lost Groat to be fond of mony: Widowes especially, and poore Widowes, make much of that little they have, as their [non-Latin text not transcribed]. life, so it is called here, verse 44. even all her life, that is, her livelyhood. All this she cast in, it being rather to and for the service of God, then to the poore. She resolves, as a Widow indeed, to trust wholly in God.