Markus 10:18

10:18 Jesus said to him, “Why do you call me good? ¹  No one is good except God alone.

Markus 10:25

10:25 It is easier for a camel ²  to go through the eye of a needle ³  than for a rich person to enter the kingdom of God.”

Markus 15:6

Jesus and Barabbas

15:6 During the feast it was customary to release one prisoner to the people, ⁴  whomever they requested.

[10:18]  ¹ sn Jesus’ response, Why do you call me good?, was designed to cause the young man to stop and think for a moment about who Jesus really was. The following statement No one is good except God alone seems to point the man in the direction of Jesus’ essential nature and the demands which logically follow on the man for having said it.

[10:25]  ² tc A few witnesses (˹³ 28 579 pc) read κάμιλον (kamilon, “rope”) for κάμηλον (kamhlon, “camel”), either through accidental misreading of the text or intentionally so as to soften Jesus’ words.

[10:25]  ³ sn The referent of the eye of a needle is a sewing needle. (The gate in Jerusalem known as “The Needle’s Eye” was built during the middle ages and was not in existence in Jesus’ day.) Jesus was speaking rhetorically to point out that apart from God’s intervention, salvation is impossible (v. 27).

[15:6]  ⁴ tn Grk “them”; the referent (the people) has been specified in the translation for clarity.

[15:6]  sn The custom of Pilate to release one prisoner to them is unknown outside the gospels in Jewish writings, but it was a Roman custom at the time and thus probably used in Palestine as well (cf. Matt 27:15; John 18:39); see W. W. Wessel, “Mark,” EBC 8:773-74.