And he sternly charged them that they should not make him known.
All Commentaries on Mark 3:12 Go To Mark 3
Theophylact of Ochrid
AD 1107
But the soldiers of Herod theking are called Herodians, because a certain new heresy had sprung up, which asserted that Herod was the Christ. For the prophecy of Jacob intimated that when the princes of Judah failed then Christ should come; because therefore in the time of Herod none of the Jewish princes remained, and he, an alien, was the sole ruler, some thought that he was the Christ, and set on foot this heresy. These, therefore, werewith the Pharisees trying to kill Christ. It goes on, “But Jesus withdrew Himself with His disciples to the sea;” He fled from their treachery, because the hour of His passion had not yet come, and no place away from Jerusalem was proper for His Passion. By which also He gave an example to His disciples, when they suffer persecution in one city, to flee to another.
At the same time again, Hegoes away, that by quitting the ungrateful He might do good to more, “for many followed Him, and He healed them. "For there follows, “And a great multitude from Galilee” Syrians and Sidonians,being foreigners, receive benefit from Christ; but His kindred the Jews persecute Him: thus there is no profit in relationship, if there be not asimilarity in goodness.
Consider then how He hid His glory, for He begs for a little ship, lest the crowd should hurt Him, so that entering into it, He might remain unharmed. It follows, “As many as had scourges. "But he means by scourges, diseases, for God scourges us, as a father does His children.
Morally again, the Herodians,that is, persons who love the lusts of the flesh, wish to slay Christ. For the meaning of Herod is, ‘of skin’ .But those who quit their country, that is, a carnal mode of living, follow Christ, and their plagues are healed, that is, the sins which wound their conscience. But Jesus in us is our reason, which commands that our vessel, that is, our body, should serve Him, lest the troubles of worldly affairs should press upon our reason.
