Bible Strands
Mark 3:8
Jerusalem, Idumea, the region beyond the Jordan, and the vicinity of Tyre and Sidon. The large crowd came to Him when they heard what great things He was doing.
Berean Standard Bible
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Study note
Setting — Mark 3:8 records the geographic origins of a large crowd gathering near the sea as Jesus withdraws with His disciples. The moment occurs between the initial report of followers from Galilee and Judea and Jesus' subsequent order to prepare a boat to prevent the crowd from crushing Him.
The words — The supplied Greek emphasizes ἀπὸ (apo) meaning "from" and Ἰδουμαίας (Idoumaias) meaning "Idumea." These lexical items structurally anchor the narrative's description of where the crowd is coming.
The thread — The text lists Idumea among the crowd's origins, while Isaiah 34:5, Ezekiel 35:15, and Ezekiel 36:5 use Edom/Idumea to depict divine judgment. Mark employs the name strictly as a geographic marker rather than to activate those prophetic themes.
Why it lands — The verse documents a factual mobilization of people responding to reported miracles, requiring the reader to track narrative geography without importing external theological meanings. It asks the reader to observe how Mark uses place names to measure the expanding scope of Jesus' public ministry.
Drafted by a language model from the text, its original words and its cross-references, then checked against them. It can still be wrong: open the verse in the app to report it.
The Greek words
King James Version
And from Jerusalem, and from Idumea, and from beyond Jordan; and they about Tyre and Sidon, a great multitude, when they had heard what great things he did, came unto him.
Cross-references
- Ezekiel 35:15 As you rejoiced when the inheritance of the house of Israel became desolate, so will I do to you. You will become a desolation, O Mount Seir, and so will all of Edom. Then they will know that I am the LORD.
- Isaiah 34:5 When My sword has drunk its fill in the heavens, then it will come down upon Edom, upon the people I have devoted to destruction.
- Ezekiel 36:5 Therefore this is what the Lord GOD says: Surely in My burning zeal I have spoken against the rest of the nations, and against all Edom, who took My land as their own possession with wholehearted joy and utter contempt, so that its pastureland became plunder.
- Matthew 11:21 “Woe to you, Chorazin! Woe to you, Bethsaida! For if the miracles that were performed in you had been performed in Tyre and Sidon, they would have repented long ago in sackcloth and ashes.
- Numbers 32:33 So Moses gave to the Gadites, to the Reubenites, and to the half-tribe of Manasseh son of Joseph the kingdom of Sihon king of the Amorites and the kingdom of Og king of Bashan—the land including its cities and the territory surrounding them.
- Joshua 13:8 The other half of Manasseh, along with the Reubenites and Gadites, had received the inheritance Moses had given them beyond the Jordan to the east, just as Moses the servant of the LORD had assigned to them:
- Joshua 19:28 It went on to Ebron, Rehob, Hammon, and Kanah, as far as Greater Sidon.
- Psalms 45:12 The Daughter of Tyre will come with a gift; men of wealth will seek your favor.
- Psalms 87:4 “I will mention Rahab and Babylon among those who know Me—along with Philistia, Tyre, and Cush—when I say, ‘This one was born in Zion.’”
- Isaiah 23:1 This is the burden against Tyre: Wail, O ships of Tarshish, for Tyre is laid waste, without house or harbor. Word has reached them from the land of Cyprus.