TEXT [Commentary]

10. The Pharisees demand a sign (8:11-13; cf. Matt 16:1-4)

11 When the Pharisees heard that Jesus had arrived, they came and started to argue with him. Testing him, they demanded that he show them a miraculous sign from heaven to prove his authority.

12 When he heard this, he sighed deeply in his spirit and said, “Why do these people keep demanding a miraculous sign? I tell you the truth, I will not give this generation any such sign.” 13 So he got back into the boat and left them, and he crossed to the other side of the lake.

NOTES

8:11 Testing him, they demanded that he show them a miraculous sign from heaven to prove his authority. The NLT adds the explanatory phrase “to prove his authority” to the request for a heavenly sign, a request that was also a test. The addition makes explicit what such a sign would indicate. The mention of testing points to the dispute that has been a constant part of Mark’s account (2:6-12, 16-17, 18-22, 23-28; 3:1-5; 7:1-23; Hurtado 1989:130).

8:12 he sighed deeply. Mark again notes Jesus’ emotions (1:41; 3:5; 6:6; 10:14; 14:34). This term appears in the LXX (Sir 25:18; 2 Macc 6:30).

Why do these people keep demanding a miraculous sign? Only the blind could fail to see what God was doing through Jesus and thereby ask for more proof. Mark rarely refers to a sign; he views such requests negatively, since they reflected a lack of belief (as here) or a readiness to be deceived (as in 13:4, 22).

I will not give this generation any such sign. In Gr., the unusual construction used to express this refusal makes the remark emphatic (Taylor [1966:362] calls the refusal “absolute”). Mark omits the appeal to the sign of Jonah that is included in Matthew and Luke. Mark’s version is curt and brusque.

8:13 to the other side. Jesus again crossed the lake that was at the center of his activity. Only this general description of the setting is given.

COMMENTARY [Text]

Jesus refused the demand for a specific sign. In all likelihood, the request was for some apocalyptic, Elijah-like sign that would definitively point to the arrival of the end time. Perhaps the request was for something that would make Jesus distinct from others who healed and exorcised. Since Jesus had done nothing but give signs, the request for a very specific sign ignored the great variety of evidence Jesus had already provided concerning his authority from God.

Jesus was already showing them who he was and that God was working through him. Therefore, Jesus refused their request for a sign and noted that they were placing inappropriate demands on God’s work, dictating what it should look like by seeking a specific indicator. The generation that saw Jesus had enough evidence to believe in him as the Messiah, the Son of God. To ask for more evidence was to manifest their unbelief.