(34) And he looked round about.--Literally, looking round on those who sat in a circle round Him. Another graphic touch of this Evangelist.

Verse 34. - Looking round on them περιβλεψάμενος <ΒΤΤ·Ξομμενταρψ Ωορδ>which sat round about him. Here is one of the graphic touches of St. Mark, reproduced, it may be, from St. Peter. Our Lord's intellectual and loving eye swept the inner circle of his disciples. The twelve, of course, would be with him, and others with them. His enemies were not far off. But immediately about him were those who constituted his chosen ones. As man, he had his human affections and his earthly relationships; but as the Son of God, he knew no other relatives but God's children, to whom the performance of his will and the promotion of his glory are the first of all duties and the dominant principle of their lives.

3:31-35 It is a great comfort to all true Christians, that they are dearer to Christ than mother, brother, or sister as such, merely as relations in the flesh would have been, even had they been holy. Blessed be God, this great and gracious privilege is ours even now; for though Christ's bodily presence cannot be enjoyed by us, his spiritual presence is not denied us.And he looked round about on them which sat about him,.... To find out his disciples among them, and point them out particularly, by stretching forth his hand towards them: and said,

behold my mother and my brethren: not in a natural, but in a spiritual sense; his mother, because, in regeneration, he was formed in them; his brethren, because, by adoption, his God was their God, his Father their Father; See Gill on Matthew 12:49.