Mark 10:1 Commentary and Bible Study

The subject of the next few verses is, in the main, the rules of marriage. In the first verse we read of Christ: ‘And he arose from thence, and cometh into the coasts of Judaea [he travelled south from Galilee] by the farther side of Jordan,’ – the eastern side of Jordan – Perea, and here he would remain pretty well until the week before his crucifixion. Although not all of this is in the Gospel of Mark, he had been instructing his disciples and that is why you get the word ‘again’ twice in verse 1. Having spent time elsewhere, largely instructing them privately, he arose, and came down south into Judaea, into a place he hadn’t been much before, ‘and the people resort unto him again’ – not the same people, but people who now hear he is there. The crowds come and the public ministry is resumed, as it were, for the time being – ‘and, as he was wont [previously, that is], he taught them again.’ He will be in the region of Perea for just a few months until his final journey to Jerusalem, where of course he will be arrested and tried and wrongfully, from man's point of view, executed, crucified on the cross of Calvary. We are in the last phase of his ministry. The few months in Perea are covered in much greater detail in the Gospel of Luke, but here we are told of this particular incident. He is confronted once again by the Pharisees who have prepared a trick or a trap question.