Commentaries:
Adam Clarke
At him they cast stones and wounded him in the head - Or rather, as most learned men agree, they made short work of it, . We have followed the Vulgate, illum in capite vulneraverunt , in translating the original, wounded him in the head, in which signification, I believe, the word is found in no Greek writer. signifies to sum up, to comprise, and is used in this sense by St. Paul, Romans 13:9. From the parable we learn that these people were determined to hear no reason, to do no justice, and to keep the possession and the produce by violence; therefore they fulfilled their purpose in the fullest and speediest manner, which seems to be what the evangelist intended to express by the word in question. Mr. Wakefield translates, They speedily sent him away; others think the meaning is, They shaved their heads and made them look ridiculously; this is much to the same purpose, but I prefer, They made short work of it. Dr. Lightfoot, De Dieu, and others, agree in the sense given above; and this will appear the more probable, if the word , they cast stones, be omitted, as it is by BDL, the Coptic, Vulgate, and all the Itala.
Other Adam Clarke entries containing Mark 12:4:
Luke 20:9
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