Mark 10 Quotes

What you ask for tells you who you are. “What do you want?” is thus a telling question when God asks it of Solomon (1 Kings 3) and when Jesus asks it of another blind man (also in Mark 10)

John Goldingay

Finally, Jesus drew a distinction between the will of God, for which he appeared to speak directly, and what had been allowed by the tradition (e.g., Mark 10:2–12)

Rodney L. Petersen

Jesus is not, however, against those who have suffered divorce, and he is specifically defending, at least in Mark 10, those who are divorced against their will.

Craig Keener

God’s original plan was that one man be married to one woman for one lifetime (Mark 10:1–9).

Warren W. Wiersbe

Matt. 19:1–12, where the same “exception clause” appears: no divorce “except for sexual immorality” (porneia). These teachings should be compared and contrasted with the parallel to Matt. 19:1–12, Mark 10:1–11, in which no exception clause appears at all, and with 1 Cor. 7:10–16, in which Paul introduces a second exception: desertion by an unbeliever.

Craig Blomberg

Of all the disciples, Matthew gave up most. He literally left all to follow Jesus. Peter and Andrew, James and John could go back to the boats. There were always fish to catch and always the old trade to which to return; but Matthew burned his boats completely.

William Barclay

Jesus referred to various events in Genesis as authentic history (Matthew 19:4–6; 24:37–39; Mark 10:4–9; Luke 11:49–51; 17:26–32; John 7:21–23; 8:44, 56). In speaking to His disciples after His resurrection, He called the section including the book of Genesis “the Law of Moses” (Luke 24:44).

Alfred Martin

What attracted large crowds to Jesus’ ministry? Jesus did three things with crowds: He loved them (Matt. 9:36, et al.), he met their needs (Matt. 15:30; Luke 6:17–18; John 6:2, et al.), and he taught them in interesting and practical ways (Matt. 13:34; Mark 10:1; 12:37, et al.). These same three ingredients will attract crowds today.

Rick Warren

But that is the problem: those who are confident of their ability to see do not ask for sight. So (implicitly) they remain blind, with the culpable blindness of smug self-satisfaction. There are none so blind as those who do not know they are blind.

D. A. Carson

Love is blind and marriage is an institution. Therefore, marriage is an institution for the blind.

Anonymous

There’s none so blind as those who will not see.

Matthew Henry

Marriage is an institution. Marriage is love. Love is blind. Therefore, marriage is an institution for the blind.

Anonymous

They are blind to the glory of Jesus Christ, and deaf to the voice of the Holy Spirit.

John Stott

The first is blind to sin and denies its existence; the second is indifferent to sin and denies its gravity.

John Stott

You can read your Bible—read any version you want—and if you are honest you will admit that it is either obedience or inward blindness. You can repeat Romans word for word and still be blind inwardly. You can quote all the psalms and still be blind inwardly. You can know the doctrine of justification by faith and take your stand with Luther and the Reformation and be blind inwardly. It is not the body of truth that enlightens; it is the Spirit of truth who enlightens.8

A. W. Tozer

To be blind is bad, but worse is it to have eyes and not to see.

Helen Keller

 4   The unrenewed part of mankind is rambling through the world like so many blind men, who will neither take a guide, nor can guide themselves.

Thomas Boston

Human Nature in Its Fourfold State (1830)

Thomas Boston

Many of the doctrinal divisions among the churches are the result of a blind and stubborn insistence that truth has but one wing.10

A. W. Tozer

Love may be blind, but jealousy sees too much.

Anonymous

Their being lukewarm spiritually was evidenced by their being content with their material wealth and their being unaware of their spiritual poverty. Christ used strong words to describe them: wretched, pitiful, poor, blind, and naked.

John Walvoord

That old law about “an eye for an eye” leaves everybody blind.

Martin Luther King Jr.

“He has blinded their eyes …,” he does not mean that the blinding takes place without the will or against the will of these people.

Leon Morris

No physician can cure the blind in mind.

Anonymous

Bartimaeus asks for faith, James and John ask for fame; Bartimaeus wants to follow Jesus “on the way,”48 James and John want to sit with him in glory.

James R. Edwards

They are angry because James and John beat them to the punch and may now have an edge over them for the power slots.

David E. Garland

Looking at James and John is like looking in the mirror. We can see our own selfishness, and Mark hopes that we can see how foolish we look.

David E. Garland

Not long before, James and John had urged the Lord to call down fire from Heaven to destroy some inhospitable Samaritans (cf. 9:54)

R. Kent Hughes

When you see him calling James and John to leave their father in the boat, he’d already left his Father’s throne.

Timothy Keller

Jesus does not rebuke James and John. When they affirm that they are able to drink his cup and be baptized with his baptism, he accepts their words, but turns them right side out.

Lamar Williamson

Jesus asked Bartimaeus the same question he put to James and John: What do you want me to do for you?

Ronald J. Kernaghan

According to Matthew, it was their ambitious mother who actually brought the request to Jesus. Mark put the words into the mouths of James and John and showed that they went along with her in their ambition.

Harold E. Wicke

Of all the disciples, Matthew gave up most. He literally left all to follow Jesus. Peter and Andrew, James and John could go back to the boats. There were always fish to catch and always the old trade to which to return; but Matthew burned his boats completely.

William Barclay

It is significant that while James and John seek the best seats in the kingdom, Bartimaeus asks only for mercy. Curiously, Jesus asks both the same question: What do you want me to do for you? Yet their motives are very different. James and John seek power and glory; the blind man wants only to see. True discipleship means seeing the world God’s way and submitting our life to his purpose and will.

Mark L. Strauss

Sadly, James and John fail to see that the pathway to glory is always the pathway of suffering. Before the crown there is a cup of suffering. Before the blessings that flow there is a baptism that overwhelms and drowns.

Daniel L. Akin

The cup spoke of His inward sufferings; the baptism spoke of His outward sufferings. Thus, He challenged James and John and their ambitious mother.

John Phillips

A few have learned to be patient and pitiful to the ungodly, but many more are of the mind of James and John, who would have called fire from heaven upon those who rejected the Savior. We are in such a hurry.”

David Guzik

By process of elimination, she must have been Salome (Mark 15:40), the mother of the sons of Zebedee (Matt. 27:56) and the sister of Mary the mother of Jesus, and hence His aunt.

John F. MacArthur

He calls himself, “the disciple whom Jesus loved” (21:20), and “the other disciple” (20:4), and one of the “sons of Zebedee” (21:2).

James P. Allen

John had a double qualification for the service Jesus entrusted to him—he was Jesus’ cousin, being Salome’s son, and he was the disciple whom Jesus loved.

William Barclay

John’s mother was a woman named Salome. Most commentators agree that Salome was the sister of Mary, the mother of Jesus. This would have made John and Jesus cousins.

Jon Courson

Matthew calls her the mother of Zebedee. Mark calls her Salome, so that was her name. John calls her the sister of Jesus’ mother. So their mother is Jesus’ aunt.

John F. MacArthur