Mark 1:1-13, Final Translation and Final Notes

Μάρκον 1·1 Ἀρχὴ τοῦ εὐαγγελίου Ἰησοῦ Χριστοῦ [υἱοῦ θεοῦ]. 

Μάρκον 1·2 Καθὼς γέγραπται ἐν τῷ Ἠσαΐᾳ τῷ προφήτῃ·

ἰδοὺ ἀποστέλλω τὸν ἄγγελόν μου πρὸ προσώπου σου,

ὃς κατασκευάσει τὴν ὁδόν σου· 

3 φωνὴ βοῶντος ἐν τῇ ἐρήμῳ·

ἑτοιμάσατε τὴν ὁδὸν κυρίου,

εὐθείας ποιεῖτε τὰς τρίβους αὐτοῦ, 

4 ἐγένετο Ἰωάννης [ὁ] βαπτίζων ἐν τῇ ἐρήμῳ καὶ κηρύσσων βάπτισμα μετανοίας εἰς ἄφεσιν ἁμαρτιῶν.  5 καὶ ἐξεπορεύετο πρὸς αὐτὸν πᾶσα ἡ Ἰουδαία χώρα καὶ οἱ Ἱεροσολυμῖται πάντες, καὶ ἐβαπτίζοντο ὑπ᾿ αὐτοῦ ἐν τῷ Ἰορδάνῃ ποταμῷ ἐξομολογούμενοι τὰς ἁμαρτίας αὐτῶν.  6 καὶ ἦν ὁ Ἰωάννης ἐνδεδυμένος τρίχας καμήλου καὶ ζώνην δερματίνην περὶ τὴν ὀσφὺν αὐτοῦ καὶ ἐσθίων ἀκρίδας καὶ μέλι ἄγριον. 

Μάρκον 1·7 Καὶ ἐκήρυσσεν λέγων· ἔρχεται ὁ ἰσχυρότερός μου ὀπίσω μου, οὗ οὐκ εἰμὶ ἱκανὸς κύψας λῦσαι τὸν ἱμάντα τῶν ὑποδημάτων αὐτοῦ.  8 ἐγὼ ἐβάπτισα ὑμᾶς ὕδατι, αὐτὸς δὲ βαπτίσει ὑμᾶς ἐν πνεύματι ἁγίῳ. 

Μάρκον 1·9 Καὶ ἐγένετο ἐν ἐκείναις ταῖς ἡμέραις ἦλθεν Ἰησοῦς ἀπὸ Ναζαρὲτ τῆς Γαλιλαίας καὶ ἐβαπτίσθη εἰς τὸν Ἰορδάνην ὑπὸ Ἰωάννου.  10 καὶ εὐθὺς ἀναβαίνων ἐκ τοῦ ὕδατος εἶδεν σχιζομένους τοὺς οὐρανοὺς καὶ τὸ πνεῦμα ὡς περιστερὰν καταβαῖνον εἰς αὐτόν·  11 καὶ φωνὴ ἐγένετο ἐκ τῶν οὐρανῶν· σὺ εἶ ὁ υἱός μου ὁ ἀγαπητός, ἐν σοὶ εὐδόκησα. 

Μάρκον 1·12 Καὶ εὐθὺς τὸ πνεῦμα αὐτὸν ἐκβάλλει εἰς τὴν ἔρημον.  13 καὶ ἦν ἐν τῇ ἐρήμῳ τεσσεράκοντα ἡμέρας πειραζόμενος ὑπὸ τοῦ σατανᾶ, καὶ ἦν μετὰ τῶν θηρίων, καὶ οἱ ἄγγελοι διηκόνουν αὐτῷ.

The beginning of the Good News of Jesus Christ the Son of God.  As it has been written in Isaiah the prophet, 

“Behold, I am sending my messenger before your face, 

who will prepare your way:

a voice crying in the wilderness, 

prepare the way of the Lord, 

make his paths straight.”

John came, baptizing in the wilderness and proclaiming a baptism of repentance for the forgiveness of sins.  And all of the region of Judea and all of Jerusalem went out to him, and were baptized by him in the Jordan River while confessing their sins.  And John was wearing camel hair and a leather belt around his waist and was eating locust and wild honey.  

And he was proclaiming saying, “The mightier one than I am is coming after me, of whom I am not worthy to stoop down to loose the strap of his sandals.  I baptized you with water, but he will baptize you in the Holy Spirit.”

And it came to pass in those days that Jesus came from Nazareth of Galilee and was baptized in the Jordan by John.  And immediately, while coming up from the water, he saw the skies split and the spirit, as a dove, came down on him; and a voice came from the heavens, “You are my beloved son.  In you, I am most pleased.”

And immediately the spirit is throwing him out into the wilderness.  And he was in the wilderness forty days being tempted by Satan, and he was with wild beast, and angels were serving him.  Mark 1:1-13

     

Final Notes

Here is my final translation of the passage.  I’ve hit the highest of the highlights already in past blogs.  Here are a couple more “nuggets” from the passage.

Ἀρχὴ τοῦ εὐαγγελίου Ἰησοῦ Χριστοῦ (The beginning of the Good News of Jesus Christ)

“The beginning of the Good News of Jesus Christ” should be considered the Good News about Jesus Christ and the things that he did while he was on earth.  In other words, this is the beginning of the stories of what Jesus did and what he went through while here on earth.

ἰδοὺ (Behold)...

These verses from the Old Testament are from Malachi 3:1 and Isaiah 40:3.  Mark puts these two verses together in order to place Jesus in the wilderness (or desert) in the Old Testament writings.  Mark’s theme throughout the Prologue is to remind the reader that Jesus is in the wilderness, thus fulfilling prophecy.

ὁ ἰσχυρότερός (“the” mightier one or “the” stronger one)

Since ὁ ἰσχυρότερός is preceded by the article (ὁ), the grammar indicates that this is a “special” person who is coming.  The article can mean different things, but in this context, it is referring to a unique, one-of-a-kind person.  In this case, that is Jesus.

Luke 7:31-35, The Children of Influence

 Λουκᾶν 7·31 Τίνι οὖν ὁμοιώσω τοὺς ἀνθρώπους τῆς γενεᾶς ταύτης καὶ τίνι εἰσὶν ὅμοιοι;  32 ὅμοιοί εἰσιν παιδίοις τοῖς ἐν ἀγορᾷ καθημένοις καὶ προσφωνοῦσιν ἀλλήλοις ἃ λέγει·

ηὐλήσαμεν ὑμῖν καὶ οὐκ ὠρχήσασθε,

ἐθρηνήσαμεν καὶ οὐκ ἐκλαύσατε. 

33 ἐλήλυθεν γὰρ Ἰωάννης ὁ βαπτιστὴς μὴ ἐσθίων ἄρτον μήτε πίνων οἶνον, καὶ λέγετε· δαιμόνιον ἔχει.  34 ἐλήλυθεν ὁ υἱὸς τοῦ ἀνθρώπου ἐσθίων καὶ πίνων, καὶ λέγετε· ἰδοὺ ἄνθρωπος φάγος καὶ οἰνοπότης, φίλος τελωνῶν καὶ ἁμαρτωλῶν.  35 καὶ ἐδικαιώθη ἡ σοφία ἀπὸ πάντων τῶν τέκνων αὐτῆς. 

Therefore, how will I compare the people of this generation and who are they like?  They are like children who are sitting in the market and are calling out to one another saying, 

“We played a flute for you, and you didn’t dance, 

We sang a lament and you didn’t cry”

For John the Baptist has come neither eating bread nor drinking wine, and you say, “He has a demon”.  The son of man has come eating bread and drinking wine, and you say, “Behold, a man who is a glutton and a drunk, a friend of tax-collectors and sinners.”  But wisdom is pronounce righteous from all of her children.  Luke 7:31-35

ἐθρηνήσαμεν (We sang a lament)

Lamenting as at a funeral.  During that time, it was common for jewish families to hire people to lament (sing sad songs) at funerals.  That may seem a little crazy to us, but that was the culture of their time.  From this text, you can see that it was so common, that children actually pretended to be the hired lamenters while playing with each other.

οἰνοπότης (a drunk)

Literally, this means “one who drinks too much wine” or “drinks wine to excess”.  This noun is formed from another noun οἶνος (wine).  οἶνος is a fermented beverage made from grapes.  There are some who contend that Jesus didn’t drink real wine, but only grape juice.  As you can see from this context, that proves to not be true.

καὶ ἐδικαιώθη ἡ σοφία ἀπὸ πάντων τῶν τέκνων αὐτῆς. (But wisdom is pronounced righteous from all of her children)

It could be translated “wisdom is shown to be right from all of her children”.  It’s interesting that Jesus relates it this way.  It indicates that people’s wisdom is either shown to be right or wrong base on the product of what they produce later.  So, what they know now really comes to light later.  In other words, your influence now will really prove right or wrong by those who either accept your influence or reject your influence later.  The ones who accept the influence, continue to produce more of that influence or wisdom.  As we can see now, Jesus’ wisdom and influence is shown to be right because of us, his children.

For some more insight, check out Stephen’s Blog.

http://wordforlifeinlove.blogspot.com/2010/10/same-old-tune.html

Mark 1:12-13, More Highlights in the Study of Mark's Gospel

Μάρκον 1·12 Καὶ εὐθὺς τὸ πνεῦμα αὐτὸν ἐκβάλλει εἰς τὴν ἔρημον.  13 καὶ ἦν ἐν τῇ ἐρήμῳ τεσσεράκοντα ἡμέρας πειραζόμενος ὑπὸ τοῦ σατανᾶ, καὶ ἦν μετὰ τῶν θηρίων, καὶ οἱ ἄγγελοι διηκόνουν αὐτῷ.

And immediately, the spirit is throwing him out into the wilderness.  And he was in the wilderness forty days being tempted by Satan, and he was with wild animals, and angels were serving him. Mark 1:12-13

ἐκβάλλει (is throwing out)

This is the same verb that is used when Jesus casted out demons.  It really means “to cast out” or “to throw out”.  Most translations render this as “driven out” or “sent out”.  ἐκβάλλει shows just how much force Mark puts into the scene of Jesus being “driven” into the wilderness by the spirit.

πειραζόμενος (being tempted)

This participle is present tense and carries a continual action.  So, it means that Jesus was continually being tempted by Satan while he was in the wilderness for 40 days.

καὶ οἱ ἄγγελοι διηκόνουν αὐτῷ (and angels waited on him)

διηκόνουν means “to serve”, “to minister”, or “to wait upon” as to wait on a table or to serve a table.  The verb is in the imperfect tense and carries a continual action.  So, it means that angels were waiting on him continually while he was in the wilderness.  The text doesn’t say what form of “attending to” Jesus was receiving, but it could have been food, drink, spiritual attending. or all three, or something else.

Final note.

Please note that we are only dealing with Mark’s version of the events. With that said, I deal with what are considered “hard” readings in the New Testament and they have to be dealt with.  Because some New Testament readings are “hard”, that doesn’t give us a pass on not understanding what they mean.  Most can be handled logically by just understanding what the author is trying to portray.

 Mark’s main theme is to show Jesus being in the wilderness first and foremost.  He starts that idea off in verses 2 and 3 by putting two Old Testament passages together in order to show prophecy that Jesus would be in the wilderness.  He also reinforces that idea when he mentions that Jesus was with the wild animals during his 40-day stay in the wilderness.  Mark seems to portray all of the other events that happened in the wilderness as not being as important.  Notice that Mark doesn’t mention at all that Jesus was fasting while he is in the wilderness, but we know that Matthew and Luke do state that he was fasting.  Mark doesn’t describe Satan leaving Jesus in the wilderness, but Matthew and Luke do state it.  Instead of the angels coming after Satan left, Mark seems to have them with Jesus during the whole 40 days while he is being tempted.  It is also possible that Mark has those angels giving him food and water during the 40 days.  That’s not too far-fetched as the text does say that they were continually waiting on him and the verb means "to serve" or "to wait" on someone!  Matthew’s version has the angels continually waiting on him as well, but Matthew makes sure that the reader knows that Satan has already departed before they render the service.  Mark, on the other hand, does not make that distinction.

Is this a hard reading?  Of course it is, but we must not skip over it just because it is hard.  We must study it and understand it!  Remember what Mark really wanted us to know; he wanted to drive home that Jesus was in the wilderness and Jesus being in the wilderness was fulfilling prophecy.

Mark 1:9-11, Study of Mark Highlights

Μάρκον 1·9 Καὶ ἐγένετο ἐν ἐκείναις ταῖς ἡμέραις ἦλθεν Ἰησοῦς ἀπὸ Ναζαρὲτ τῆς Γαλιλαίας καὶ ἐβαπτίσθη εἰς τὸν Ἰορδάνην ὑπὸ Ἰωάννου.  10 καὶ εὐθὺς ἀναβαίνων ἐκ τοῦ ὕδατος εἶδεν σχιζομένους τοὺς οὐρανοὺς καὶ τὸ πνεῦμα ὡς περιστερὰν καταβαῖνον εἰς αὐτόν·  11 καὶ φωνὴ ἐγένετο ἐκ τῶν οὐρανῶν· σὺ εἶ ὁ υἱός μου ὁ ἀγαπητός, ἐν σοὶ εὐδόκησα. 

And it came to pass in those days that Jesus came from Nazareth of Galilee and was baptized in the Jordan by John.  And immediately, while coming up from the water, he saw the sky split and the spirit, as a dove, came down on him.  And a voice came from heaven, “You are my beloved son.  In you, I am most pleased.”  Mark 1:9-11

Καὶ ἐγένετο ἐν ἐκείναις ταῖς ἡμέραις (And it came to pass in those days)

This phrase is used to introduce a new subject or a new event.

ἀναβαίνων ἐκ τοῦ ὕδατος εἶδεν σχιζομένους τοὺς οὐρανοὺς (coming up from the water, he saw the sky split)

Who saw the sky split?  According to the greek grammar, Jesus is the one who saw the sky split.  We know that the participle ἀναβαίνων (coming) is referring to Jesus as he is the one being baptized.  In greek, participles were verbal forms that carried personal endings from nouns.  In this case, ἀναβαίνων is a present singular masculine participle and indicates that the sky split while Jesus was coming up from the water.  Since ἀναβαίνων is singular masculine (noun part), it is referring to Jesus.   εἶδεν (he saw) doesn’t have the pronoun provided, but it is inferred in greek and it refers to ἀναβαίνων, which indicates the person coming out of the water, which is Jesus.

τοὺς οὐρανοὺς  (the sky or heaven)

In this text, οὐρανὸς is in the plural, but it is common in the NT for it to be stated both singular and plural.  It could be translated “the skies” or “the heavens”. but normally it is just translated as “the sky”.

σὺ εἶ ὁ υἱός μου ὁ ἀγαπητός, ἐν σοὶ εὐδόκησα. (You are my beloved son, in you, I am most pleased)

The actual greek says “in you, I was most pleased”.  The verb is in an aorist form which puts it in a past tense”  It most likely means that God was  pleased with Jesus from the beginning.

Luke 7:18-22, John's BIG Question

Λουκᾶν 7·18 Καὶ ἀπήγγειλαν Ἰωάννῃ οἱ μαθηταὶ αὐτοῦ περὶ πάντων τούτων. καὶ προσκαλεσάμενος δύο τινὰς τῶν μαθητῶν αὐτοῦ ὁ Ἰωάννης  19 ἔπεμψεν πρὸς τὸν κύριον λέγων· σὺ εἶ ὁ ἐρχόμενος ἢ ἄλλον προσδοκῶμεν;  20 παραγενόμενοι δὲ πρὸς αὐτὸν οἱ ἄνδρες εἶπαν· Ἰωάννης ὁ βαπτιστὴς ἀπέστειλεν ἡμᾶς πρὸς σὲ λέγων· σὺ εἶ ὁ ἐρχόμενος ἢ ἄλλον προσδοκῶμεν;  21 ἐν ἐκείνῃ τῇ ὥρᾳ ἐθεράπευσεν πολλοὺς ἀπὸ νόσων καὶ μαστίγων καὶ πνευμάτων πονηρῶν καὶ τυφλοῖς πολλοῖς ἐχαρίσατο βλέπειν.  22 καὶ ἀποκριθεὶς εἶπεν αὐτοῖς· πορευθέντες ἀπαγγείλατε Ἰωάννῃ ἃ εἴδετε καὶ ἠκούσατε·

τυφλοὶ ἀναβλέπουσιν, χωλοὶ περιπατοῦσιν,

λεπροὶ καθαρίζονται καὶ κωφοὶ ἀκούουσιν,

νεκροὶ ἐγείρονται, πτωχοὶ εὐαγγελίζονται· 

23 καὶ μακάριός ἐστιν ὃς ἐὰν μὴ σκανδαλισθῇ ἐν ἐμοί. 

And his (John’s) disciples reported to John about all these things.  And summoning a certain two of his disciples, John send them to the Lord saying, “Are you the one who is coming or do we wait for another?”  And after coming to him, the men said, “John the Baptist sent us to you saying, ‘Are you the one who is coming or do we wait for another?’”  In that hour, he healed many from diseases, plagues, evil spirits, and gave many blind people the ability to see.  And answering, he said to them, “Go, report to John what you saw and heard:

blind people are receiving sight, crippled people are walking, 

lepers are cleansed, and deaf people are hearing, 

dead people are raised up, poor people are having the good news brought to them.

And blessed is whoever is not offended because of me.”  Luke 7:18-23

This is the 1st blog in a series that deal with Luke 7:18-35.  My pastor, Shane Brown, preached on this passage, and I decided to blog on the passage as it is so powerful.  As I translated this, there are some surprises in the text that I would like to bring out.

δύο τινὰς (certain two) 

τινὰς means “any one” or “a certain one”.  It’s plural in this passage and must mean “two certain disciples”.  This could indicate that John summoned his closest two disciples.  He had a very important question that he wanted answered, so it’s possible that he chose two men that he could fully trust to get those answers he so desperately needed.

ὁ ἐρχόμενος (the one who is coming)

This is referring to ἔρχεται δὲ ὁ ἰσχυρότερός μου (but one who is stronger than I am is coming) in Luke 3:16

ἐν ἐκείνῃ τῇ ὥρᾳ (in that hour) 

This is an idiom that means “during that time”.  

μαστίγων (plagues)  

This word also means “to beat with a whip”  That should give you a big perspective of what the ancients really thought of plagues.

blind people are receiving sight, crippled people are walking, 

lepers are cleansed, and deaf people are hearing, 

dead people are raised, poor people are receiving good news.

These phrases are placed in poetry styling because they are allusions to passages in the Book of Isaiah.  John would have recognized what Jesus was referring to by how he said it.

ἐθεράπευσεν πολλοὺς ἀπὸ νόσων καὶ μαστίγων καὶ πνευμάτων πονηρῶν (he healed many from diseases, plagues, evil spirits)

You can get a feel for how the ancients looked at sickness just by how they are grouped together with evil spirits.  The idea may be that diseases and plagues possessed people Just like evil spirits possess people.  He healed them from... or the cured them from...

One final note

John’s disciples had already told him what Jesus was doing (verse 18a), but he still had his doubts.  He was so concerned with this, he chose “a certain two of his disciples” to get his question answered.  Luke reinforces this need by writing John’s question twice in the text.  When an author does that, it’s a very important question that demands a BIG answer.  I would say that Jesus cured any doubt that John may have had when his disciples informed him of what they had seen and what they had heard.  That answer was fulfillment of prophecy.

See Stephen's most excellent Blog on this subject.

http://wordforlifeinlove.blogspot.com/2010/10/are-you-one.html

John 1:15-17, The "Law" according to John

Ἰωάννην 1·15 Ἰωάννης μαρτυρεῖ περὶ αὐτοῦ καὶ κέκραγεν λέγων· οὗτος ἦν ὃν εἶπον· ὁ ὀπίσω μου ἐρχόμενος ἔμπροσθέν μου γέγονεν, ὅτι πρῶτός μου ἦν  16 ὅτι ἐκ τοῦ πληρώματος αὐτοῦ ἡμεῖς πάντες ἐλάβομεν καὶ χάριν ἀντὶ χάριτος·  17 ὅτι ὁ νόμος διὰ Μωϋσέως ἐδόθη, ἡ χάρις καὶ ἡ ἀλήθεια διὰ Ἰησοῦ Χριστοῦ ἐγένετο. 

John testifies about him and has cried out saying, “This one was of whom I said, ‘The one coming after me has become the one in front of me, because he was before me.’” Because from his completeness, we also all received grace in place of grace; because the law was given through Moses, grace and truth came through Jesus Christ.

ὅτι πρῶτός μου ἦν “because he was before me”  πρῶτός means “first”, so, in this context, the writer means that Jesus existed before John the Baptist existed.

χάριν ἀντὶ χάριτος: “grace in place of grace”.  ἀντὶ is anti in english.  To clear this up, think of how antichrist (ἀντίχριστος) is opposite of christ.  I know some translations render this “grace upon grace” or “one blessing after another”, but the context argues against it because of what is written in the following verse (17).  John is setting up verse 17 with verses 15 and 16 (actually, it is set up from the beginning of the chapter, but that’s a different blog).  He is showing the authority and divinity of Jesus as compared to Moses the man.  With that in mind, “we also all received grace in place of grace” probably means “we also all received the grace and truth through Jesus Christ in place of the law”.

The best writing on this subject that I’ve found to illustrate this is found in “The Biblical Illustrator”

Points, of contrast between Judaism and Christianity

I. IN THE PERSONS REPRESENTING JUDAISM AND CHRISTIANITY.

1. Moses was the servant, Christ the master.

2. Moses was a subject, dependent, Christ was King of kings.

3. Moses was only a man, but Christ was the God-man.

4. Moses was the agent smiting the rock, Christ was the rock smitten.

5. Moses was but the channel of communication between God and His people; Christ is the source of all our mercy.

6. Moses was only the student; in Christ dwelt all the fulness of wisdom.

7. Moses was delegated; Christ spoke in His own name and on His own authority.

(from The Biblical Illustrator, S. Jones)

After going through my beginning parts of this blog, I shared it with my friend, Stephen Brown, who actually started me on the path of this blog by telling me that he was going to blog on it.  He shared with me that he thought the “grace in place of grace” made sense because Jesus came to “fulfill the law and not to abolish it” (Matthew 5:17-18).  That got me to thinking about John’s theology (Yes, John had theology as did all of the authors of the New Testament).  John’s portrayal of the law seems to be conflicting with Matthew’s portrayal of the law.  I did a search in John and in every occurrence, Jesus (and John) speaks of the law as “their law”, “your law”, or something similar.  The Mosaic law never seems to be embraced by the Jesus that John portrays.  I know that this may be a little controversial, but it is hard to escape the actual writings that we have.  Anyone who is a student of the Bible knows that the Book of John is vastly different than the other three gospels.  One may call it “the perspective of John” and “the perspective of Matthew”, but there’re big differences non-the-less.

Regardless of what you believe about the theology of John and Matthew, this one thing remains true:  Jesus as God trumps anything that was given by Moses according to this passage.  The author goes to great links in order to establish that thought in this text.

I’m sure I’ll get questions and I’m sure that more blogs on the subject will follow.

Mark 10:20-21, Thinking it Through

Μάρκον 10·20 ὁ δὲ ἔφη αὐτῷ· διδάσκαλε, ταῦτα πάντα ἐφυλαξάμην ἐκ νεότητός μου.  21 ὁ δὲ Ἰησοῦς ἐμβλέψας αὐτῷ ἠγάπησεν αὐτὸν καὶ εἶπεν αὐτῷ· ἕν σε ὑστερεῖ· ὕπαγε, ὅσα ἔχεις πώλησον καὶ δὸς [τοῖς] πτωχοῖς, καὶ ἕξεις θησαυρὸν ἐν οὐρανῷ, καὶ δεῦρο ἀκολούθει μοι.  22 ὁ δὲ στυγνάσας ἐπὶ τῷ λόγῳ ἀπῆλθεν λυπούμενος· ἦν γὰρ ἔχων κτήματα πολλά. 

And he affirmed to him, “Teacher, I’ve kept all these things from my youth.”  And Jesus, after gazing directly at him, loved him and said to him, “You lack one thing.  Go, sell as much as you have, give the proceeds to the poor, and you will have treasure in heaven; and come, follow me.”  And shocked by the word, he departed grieving; for he had many possessions. Mark 10:20-22

Part of my mission to learn greek is to get people to think through things that they read in the New Testament.  Since not everyone knows greek, we have to rely on translations.  Those translations can’t fully describe what is going on in a particular passage and certainly doesn’t fully portray the author’s intent or what he is thinking or how he is being inspired as he writes.  Learning greek allows us to “get into the head” of the author.  The below comments tries to demonstrate some of that.

ἔφη means “to say” or “to affirm”  based on the context, the man was “affirming” that he had kept the commandments.

ἐμβλέψας is a aorist participle that means “to gaze upon directly” or “to consider”.  Since it is aorist, the action of the participle was done prior to Jesus loving him.  So, after Jesus looked at him, considered him, Jesus loved him.  It’s possible that the construction allows for the aorist participle’s action and the aorist verb’s action, ἠγάπησεν (loved), to be happening at the same time, but the context doesn’t seem to allow it.  Even if it does, the following questions still need to be asked as we stay within the context of the passage:

Why does Jesus love him?  Did Jesus love him before they met or only after they spoke?  Did Jesus know that the man would not accept his saying?  How do you think Jesus felt about the man after he departed?  Does thinking though this change how you would view the scene?  What do you think of Mark’s theology based on this passage?

στυγνάσας means “sad, shocked, or appalled”.  “Shocked” seems to fit the context better.

ἦν γὰρ ἔχων really says “for he was having (continually)”.  Mark is using this construction to indicate that the man had many, many possessions.  In other words, he was very, very wealthy.

We should always arm ourselves with the understanding of our scriptures so that we can help new students of the Bible as well as current students of the Bible.  The Bible has a purpose.  We are charged with understanding it for ourselves.  Understanding it better will help us in our mission to save souls.

Please check out my friend Stephen’s excellent blog on the same passage.  Obviously, he is more devotional in his approach and I’m more technical in my approach to the text.

http://wordforlifeinlove.blogspot.com/2010/10/what-possesses-you.html