Markus 9:19

9:19 He answered them, ¹  “You ²  unbelieving ³  generation! How much longer ⁴  must I be with you? How much longer must I endure ⁵  you? ⁶  Bring him to me.”

Markus 10:13-14

Jesus and Little Children

10:13 Now ⁷  people were bringing little children to him for him to touch, ⁸  but the disciples scolded those who brought them. ⁹  10:14 But when Jesus saw this, he was indignant and said to them, “Let the little children come to me and do not try to stop them, for the kingdom of God belongs to such as these. ¹⁰ 

[9:19]  ¹ tn Grk “And answering, he said to them.” The participle ἀποκριθείς (apokriqeis) is redundant, but the phrasing of the sentence was modified slightly to make it clearer in English.

[9:19]  ² tn Grk “O.” The marker of direct address, ὦ (w), is functionally equivalent to a vocative and is represented in the translation by “you.”

[9:19]  ³ tn Or “faithless.”

[9:19]  sn The rebuke for lack of faith has OT roots: Num 14:27; Deut 32:5, 30; Isa 59:8.

[9:19]  ⁴ tn Grk “how long.”

[9:19]  ⁵ tn Or “put up with.” See Num 11:12; Isa 46:4.

[9:19]  ⁶ sn The pronouns you…you are plural, indicating that Jesus is speaking to a group rather than an individual.

[10:13]  ⁷ tn Here καί (kai) has been translated as “now” to indicate the transition to a new topic.

[10:13]  ⁸ tn Grk “so that he would touch them.” Here the touch is connected with (or conveys) a blessing (cf. v. 16; also BDAG 126 s.v. ἅπτω 2.c).

[10:13]  ⁹ tc “Those who brought them” (ἐπετιμῶν τοῖς προσφέρουσιν, epetimwn toi" prosferousin) is the reading of most mss (A D W [Θ Ë^1,13] Ï lat sy), but it is probably a motivated reading. Since the subject is not explicit in the earliest and best witnesses as well as several others (א B C L Δ Ψ 579 892 2427), scribes would be prone to add “those who brought them” here to clarify that the children were not the ones being scolded. It could be argued that the masculine pronoun αὐτοῖς (autois, “them”) only rarely was used with the neuter antecedent παιδία (paidia, “children”), and thus the longer reading was not motivated by scribal clarification. However, such rare usage is found in Mark (cf. 5:41; 9:24-26); further, scribes routinely added clarifications when such were not necessary. Thus, both on external and internal grounds, the shorter reading is strongly preferred. Similar motivations are behind the translation here, namely, “those who brought them” has been supplied to ensure that the parents who brought the children are in view, not the children themselves.

[10:13]  tn Grk “the disciples scolded them.”

[10:14]  ¹⁰ sn The kingdom of God belongs to such as these. Children are a picture of those whose simple trust illustrates what faith is all about. The remark illustrates how everyone is important to God, even those whom others regard as insignificant.