And when his friends heard of it, they went out to lay hold on him: for they said, He is beside himself.
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Cornelius a Lapide
AD 1637
He is beside himself. See what has been said on S. Matthew 12:46. The Arabic has, saying that He is foolish. The Greek is ε̉ξÎστη, i.e, He has gone out of his mind, through too great piety and zeal. The Syriac renders literally. Others render differently, saying that He has swooned, from hunger, because, on account of the multitude, He had no leisure to eat. (Top)
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And when his friends had heard of it; 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. 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)
In the gospel we read that even his kinsfolk desired to bind him as one of weak mind. His opponents also reviled him saying, “You are a Samaritan and have a devil.” Letter , To Eustochium.
