The Pulpit Commentary on Mark 9:36

The Pulpit Commentary · Joseph S. Exell and contributors · Public domain

And he took a little child ( παιδίον), and set him in the midst of them. St. Mark adds, what is not recorded by the other synoptists, that he took him in his arms. And taking him in his arms ( ἐναγκαλισάμενος); literally, folding him in his arms; embracing him.

It is probable that the house where he was was the house of Simon Peter; and it is possible that this little child might have been Simon's. A tradition not earlier than the ninth century says that this child was Ignatius.

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