Setting the scene
Who wrote it
Traditionally John Mark
Who it was for
Followers of Jesus, likely mostly Gentiles
What was happening
On the road up to Jerusalem: marriage, money, and a blind beggar
Read the full background in the book overview

What’s happening

Jesus leaves Galilee for Judea and the other side of the Jordan, and crowds follow again. Pharisees test him: is it lawful for a man to divorce his wife? He asks what Moses commanded; they say Moses allowed a certificate of divorce. He answers that Moses wrote that because of their hardness of heart, but from the beginning of creation God made them male and female, and the two become one flesh. "What therefore God has joined together, let no man separate." Privately he tells the disciples that whoever divorces and marries another commits adultery, whether man or woman. People bring little children, and the disciples rebuke them; Jesus is indignant: "Allow the little children to come to me. Don't forbid them, for the kingdom of God belongs to such as these." He takes them in his arms and blesses them. A man runs up, kneels, and asks, "Good Teacher, what shall I do that I may inherit eternal life?" Jesus names the commandments; the man says he has kept them all from his youth. Jesus, looking at him, loves him, and says, "One thing you lack: go, sell whatever you have, and give to the poor, and you will have treasure in heaven; and come, follow me." He goes away sad, for he has great possessions. Jesus says it is hard for the rich to enter the kingdom, easier for a camel to go through the eye of a needle. The disciples are astonished: "Then who can be saved?" "With men it is impossible, but not with God." Peter says, "We have left everything," and Jesus promises a hundredfold in this life, with persecutions, and eternal life to come; "many who are first will be last." On the road up to Jerusalem, with the disciples amazed and others afraid, he tells them a third time: he will be mocked, spat on, flogged, killed, and rise. James and John ask for the seats at his right and left in his glory. "Are you able to drink the cup that I drink, and to be baptized with the baptism that I am baptized with?" The other ten are angry. Jesus says rulers among the Gentiles lord it over people, "But it shall not be so among you ... For the Son of Man also came not to be served but to serve, and to give his life as a ransom for many." At Jericho a blind beggar, Bartimaeus, cries out, "Jesus, Son of David, have mercy on me!" Many tell him to be quiet; he cries louder. Jesus stops, they call him, he throws off his cloak and comes. "What do you want me to do?" "Rabboni, that I may see again." "Go your way. Your faith has made you well." At once he sees and follows Jesus on the road.

Why the setting matters

The route runs down the Jordan valley on the east side, the way pilgrims often took to avoid Samaria, and then up from Jericho, a climb of about 3,300 feet (1,000 m) over some fifteen miles to Jerusalem. The divorce question was a live one: Deuteronomy 24:1-4 allowed it but was read differently by different teachers, and Herod Antipas had killed John the Baptist over a marriage, so the Pharisees' question was dangerous. Mark, unlike Matthew, says a wife can also divorce, which fits Roman law and not Jewish practice, another hint at his Gentile readers. Children had no standing, so receiving them is a reversal like the one in chapter 9. The saying about the camel and the needle is deliberate exaggeration; the idea that a small gate in Jerusalem was called "the needle's eye" has no early evidence. Wealth was commonly read as a sign of God's favor, which is why the disciples are astonished. "Cup" and "baptism" are images for suffering, and James and John will share in it. "Ransom" is the price paid to free a slave or prisoner. Bartimaeus is Aramaic for "son of Timaeus," and Mark names him, unusually for a healing. "Son of David" is a royal title, the first time anyone publicly uses it of Jesus in Mark, just before Jerusalem.

Read Mark 10 (World English Bible)

Who’s in this chapter

Jesus

Teaches on marriage, wealth, and greatness on the way up to Jerusalem.

Scribes and Pharisees

Pharisees who test him about divorce.

The man who ran up

Earnest and law-keeping; Jesus loves him, and he goes away grieving.

Simon Peter

Says they have left everything.

James

Asks with John for the seats of honor.

John

Asks with James for the seats of honor.

The twelve

Amazed, afraid, and indignant on the road.

Bartimaeus

A blind beggar who will not be quiet.

The crowds

Tell Bartimaeus to be quiet, then call him.

Talk it through

  1. Jesus points back to creation, not just to Moses, on marriage. What does going back to the beginning change?
  2. "Jesus, looking at him, loved him," and then asked for everything. How do the love and the demand go together?
  3. James and John ask for glory right after the third prediction of suffering. What do they miss?
  4. Bartimaeus is the last person healed in Mark. What does the story show about what following looks like?

Read Mark 10

World English Bible

1He arose from there and came into the borders of Judea and beyond the Jordan. Multitudes came together to him again. As he usually did, he was again teaching them. 2Pharisees came to him testing him, and asked him, “Is it lawful for a man to divorce his wife?”

3He answered, “What did Moses command you?”

4They said, “Moses allowed a certificate of divorce to be written, and to divorce her.”

5But Jesus said to them, “For your hardness of heart, he wrote you this commandment. 6But from the beginning of the creation, God made them male and female. 7For this cause a man will leave his father and mother, and will join to his wife, 8and the two will become one flesh, so that they are no longer two, but one flesh. 9What therefore God has joined together, let no man separate.”

10In the house, his disciples asked him again about the same matter. 11He said to them, “Whoever divorces his wife, and marries another, commits adultery against her. 12If a woman herself divorces her husband, and marries another, she commits adultery.”

13They were bringing to him little children, that he should touch them, but the disciples rebuked those who were bringing them. 14But when Jesus saw it, he was moved with indignation, and said to them, “Allow the little children to come to me! Don’t forbid them, for God’s Kingdom belongs to such as these. 15Most certainly I tell you, whoever will not receive God’s Kingdom like a little child, he will in no way enter into it.” 16He took them in his arms, and blessed them, laying his hands on them.

17As he was going out into the way, one ran to him, knelt before him, and asked him, “Good Teacher, what shall I do that I may inherit eternal life?”

18Jesus said to him, “Why do you call me good? No one is good except one—God. 19You know the commandments: ‘Do not murder,’ ‘Do not commit adultery,’ ‘Do not steal,’ ‘Do not give false testimony,’ ‘Do not defraud,’ ‘Honor your father and mother.’ ”

20He said to him, “Teacher, I have observed all these things from my youth.”

21Jesus looking at him loved him, and said to him, “One thing you lack. Go, sell whatever you have, and give to the poor, and you will have treasure in heaven; and come, follow me, taking up the cross.”

22But his face fell at that saying, and he went away sorrowful, for he was one who had great possessions. 23Jesus looked around, and said to his disciples, “How difficult it is for those who have riches to enter into God’s Kingdom!”

24The disciples were amazed at his words. But Jesus answered again, “Children, how hard it is for those who trust in riches to enter into God’s Kingdom! 25It is easier for a camel to go through a needle’s eye than for a rich man to enter into God’s Kingdom.”

26They were exceedingly astonished, saying to him, “Then who can be saved?”

27Jesus, looking at them, said, “With men it is impossible, but not with God, for all things are possible with God.”

28Peter began to tell him, “Behold, we have left all, and have followed you.”

29Jesus said, “Most certainly I tell you, there is no one who has left house, or brothers, or sisters, or father, or mother, or wife, or children, or land, for my sake, and for the sake of the Good News, 30but he will receive one hundred times more now in this time: houses, brothers, sisters, mothers, children, and land, with persecutions; and in the age to come eternal life. 31But many who are first will be last; and the last first.”

32They were on the way, going up to Jerusalem; and Jesus was going in front of them, and they were amazed; and those who followed were afraid. He again took the twelve, and began to tell them the things that were going to happen to him. 33“Behold, we are going up to Jerusalem. The Son of Man will be delivered to the chief priests and the scribes. They will condemn him to death, and will deliver him to the Gentiles. 34They will mock him, spit on him, scourge him, and kill him. On the third day he will rise again.”

35James and John, the sons of Zebedee, came near to him, saying, “Teacher, we want you to do for us whatever we will ask.”

36He said to them, “What do you want me to do for you?”

37They said to him, “Grant to us that we may sit, one at your right hand, and one at your left hand, in your glory.”

38But Jesus said to them, “You don’t know what you are asking. Are you able to drink the cup that I drink, and to be baptized with the baptism that I am baptized with?”

39They said to him, “We are able.”

Jesus said to them, “You shall indeed drink the cup that I drink, and you shall be baptized with the baptism that I am baptized with; 40but to sit at my right hand and at my left hand is not mine to give, but for whom it has been prepared.”

41When the ten heard it, they began to be indignant toward James and John.

42Jesus summoned them, and said to them, “You know that they who are recognized as rulers over the nations lord it over them, and their great ones exercise authority over them. 43But it shall not be so among you, but whoever wants to become great among you shall be your servant. 44Whoever of you wants to become first among you, shall be bondservant of all. 45For the Son of Man also came not to be served, but to serve, and to give his life as a ransom for many.”

46They came to Jericho. As he went out from Jericho, with his disciples and a great multitude, the son of Timaeus, Bartimaeus, a blind beggar, was sitting by the road. 47When he heard that it was Jesus the Nazarene, he began to cry out, and say, “Jesus, you son of David, have mercy on me!” 48Many rebuked him, that he should be quiet, but he cried out much more, “You son of David, have mercy on me!”

49Jesus stood still, and said, “Call him.”

They called the blind man, saying to him, “Cheer up! Get up. He is calling you!”

50He, casting away his cloak, sprang up, and came to Jesus.

51Jesus asked him, “What do you want me to do for you?”

The blind man said to him, “Rabboni, that I may see again.”

52Jesus said to him, “Go your way. Your faith has made you well.” Immediately he received his sight, and followed Jesus on the way.

Text: World English Bible, Public domain. About our sources