Was Jesus Out of his Mind?

Did Jesus' Family Think He Was Crazy?

In the Gospel stories, Jesus is sometimes accused of "having a demon," or of being just plain crazy--which may mean the same thing in first century idioms. In response to these accusations, The Gospel of Mark reports that some people close to Jesus showed up to take him in to custody as a lunatic (Mark 3:20-21). Did his own people agree that he was nuts? The original Greek is challenging, and requires careful translation. Not all Bible translators have been up to the challenge.

Mark 3:20 says that when Jesus came home, the crowds gathered to such an extent that they could not even eat a meal. Is this crazy? Is Jesus neglecting his diet? The rest of the citation clarifies for us.

Here is a hard-literal translation of the first half of verse 21:
"kai akousantes (new-paragraph having-heard) hoi par autou (those of his-own) exalthon auton : (they-went-out to-take-charge-of him colon)." The Greek word kai (and) is frequently used as a new-paragraph marker. The Greek symbol for a colon is the same as for a semi-colon.

So far we have, "Having heard, those of his own went out to take charge of him; "
The center three words hoi par auto is a Greek idiom that can mean several things, as reflected in the several Bible versions. We find "his friends" in the KJV and ASV, "his family" (RSV, NEB, CEB, ESV, NIV, NLT), "his relatives" (JB), "his relations" (NJB), or "his own people" (NKJV, NRSV, NASB). Looking at the paragraph standing alone, the best translation is the last of these choices, "his own [people]." This avoids reading what is unknown into the text. (Abbreviations for Bible versions is at the end of this article.)

BUT There is more that is known about who hoi par auto refers to. Translation must always be placed in context In this major story section (Mark 3:20 thru 3:35), we find Jesus' mother and brothers arriving at the crowd scene, and calling for him. Thus we are justified contextually in saying that it was his family that came to take charge of Jesus.

But, does Jesus' Family think he's Crazy?

First, let's look at the hard literal translation of the rest of verse 21's original Greek, beginning after the colon:
"elegon gar hoti exesta (they-were-saying for quote He-is-out-of-his-mind period". hoti is placed here as a marker for the beginning of a direct quotation.

Thus we have, "They were saying, 'He is out of his mind.' " But who is "They"? The pronoun in English is ambiguous, for the rest of this major section has the scribes who came down from Jerusalem saying, "He has Beelzebul [a devil] in him." Does the pronoun "they" point to Jesus' family or to the scribes? Most translators have left it ambiguous, with two English "they's" in a row which might point to the same or different persons.

And don't go to the English rules for the antecedents to pronouns. First, there is no actual second pronoun in the Greek; the word "they" is indicated in the conjugation for the verb elegon. Second, in Greek there is great freedom where different words may be placed in a sentence. Sometimes the antecedent can be found several sentences later.

The translators of the Jerusalem Bible thought they knew what to do. They translated verse 21 as, "When his relatives heard of this, they set out to take charge of him, convinced he was out of his mind." In other words, the first "they" is understood as relatives, and the second "they" is the same group. MSG and TLB have similar translations.

But, remember that colon above? If the JB's rendering is really the case, why did the scribe who wrote our Greek text place a colon after "take-charge-of-him" and before "they-were-saying"? Doesn't that indicate a new thought with a new "they" in mind? I believe so.

Several groups of Bible translators agree with me. These translators have "And when his family heard it, they went out to seize him, for people were saying, 'He is beside himself'," or similar language (RSV, NEB, GNT).

Why is Jesus' Family Involved?

If his family has not decided that Jesus is a lunatic, what are they doing there in this story?

The answer lies in the tribal honor-and-shame societal values, and the  nefarious plots of the Scribes and Pharisees who have been sent to harass Jesus. They wish to prevent him from challenging the authority of the Sanhedrin--the supreme council of the Jews.

At this point in the story, Jesus' adoptive father Joseph has clearly passed away. Jesus' oldest step-brother James--born to James' first wife before Mary--is titular head of the family, and responsible for dealing with challenges to the family honor. If the family of Joseph has a lunatic son running around spouting nonsense, James is responsible to constrain this person for the protection of society.

But James does not know that Jesus is a lunatic. All he has are some unproven allegations coming from the priests and scribes who are part of the temple cult. His job, then, is to conduct an investigation. So that there may be no disagreement within his family, he brings his brothers with him to help investigate. And since Jesus' parentage is a bit strange (Holy Spirit descending, etc.) he also brings along Jesus' mother, whom Jesus is bound to honor according to Jewish law (remember the fifth commandment?).

Jesus, ever on his toes, turns their appearance into a topic for a sermon. He doesn't sound like a lunatic at all at this point, and we hear nothing of any further effort by his family to take him into custody. Case closed.

Or is it?

Jesus was Crazy!

At least, by the standards of some people. As a master of hyperbole, he was fond of saying outrageous things. "Does your eye offend you? Gouge it out!" (Mark 9:47). "Are you rich? You'll have a tougher time getting into the Kingdom of God than a camel trying to squeeze through the eye of a needle!" (Mark 10:25). "Do you want to hang out with me? Then you're going to have to drink my blood!" (John 6:53).

Some people were delighted. Others were offended. The scribes and Pharisees took these things as challenges to the way the people were being taught. Jesus was a danger, in their eyes. But in Jesus' view, the people were being put to sleep, and they needed strong language to wake them up.

Are you awake? Do you hang with Jesus? Do you honor the outrageous things he said?
Then, maybe, you're crazy too.

Bible Version Abbreviations

ASV     American Standard Version
CEB    Common English Bible
ESV     English Standard Version
JB        Jerusalem Bible
KJV     King James Version
MSG    The Message
NASB  New American Standard Bible
NEB     New English Bible
NIV      New International Version
NJB     New Jerusalem Bible
NKJV  New King James Version
NLT     New Living Translation
NRSV  New Revised Standard Version
RSV     Revised Standard Version
TLB     The Living Bible