Gospel of Mark – second lecture 1) The narrative agon of the gospel 2) Various ways of manifesting...
Transcript of Gospel of Mark – second lecture 1) The narrative agon of the gospel 2) Various ways of manifesting...
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Gospel of Mark – second lecture
•1) The narrative agon of the gospel•2) Various ways of manifesting the “Kingdom”. •3) Who is Jesus, and what is messiahship?
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The narrative agon of Mark• The unfolding (or exploding?) “kingdom of
God vs. established order (Scribes and Pharisees, others).
• Kingdom (and Jesus) vs. “unclean spirits,” demons.
• Kingdom vs. political order (Saducees, Romans).
• But also understanding vs. misunderstanding.
• The “inner circle” (Peter, James, and John) over against readers.
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John and Herod: 6: 14-29• Herod’s opinion: “John, whom I beheaded,
has been raised.”
• Does Jesus replace John?
• Backstory: Herod and Herodias. More “pollution”?
• John’s martyrdom.
• Prolepsis (Prolepsis = narrative anticipation.): does this forecast Jesus’ death?
• What is John’s relation to Jesus?
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Two feedings -- and the question of the gentiles
• Seemingly doubled story: 6: 34-44 feeding of 5,000; 8: 1-10: feeding of 4,000.
• The first happens in Galilee, Jewish territory. How many baskets left over?
• At 7: 24: Jesus to the Syro-phoenician woman: “let the children be fed first” – don’t give their food to the dogs!
• But she completes Jesus’ trope: even the dogs get the crumbs!
• And Jesus appreciates this! Her daughter is cured. • Then the second miraculous feeding in the Decapolis,
gentile country. Seven loaves.• And how many baskets left over? • But do the disciples get it? 8: 14-21. • Ehrman suggests the blind man of 8: 22-26 is Peter, who
sees, but initially only imperfectly. Perhaps analogous to Peter?
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“Who do men say that I am?” 8:27-33
• John the Baptist? This was Herod’s answer. • Elijah or another of the prophets? Not a bad
guess: Elijah was to return to herald the messianic age.
• Peter’s answer: messiah. • But “immejately” a very strange, dark,
unexpected sort of messiahship: rejection, suffering, death, and “rising again” after three days.
• And Peter’s response to this – and rebuke. • Sayings about losing and saving life.
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Transfiguration: Raphael’s rendering
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At very center of gospel• Robinson sees this as originally a post-
Resurrection appearance “retrojected” into the narrative of Jesus’ career.
• Whatever the case, it’s the very center of Mark’s text.
• Moses and Elijah may suggest “the Law and the prophets,” the two portions of the Hebrew scriptures (as understood in J’s time.)
• What does Peter’s suggestion of “three tents” mean? Misunderstanding?
• But then the second voice indicating “my Son, the beloved one” – then only Jesus there.
• Puzzling teaching about Elijah. Is John meant?
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Lower half of Raphael’s Transfiguration: 9: 14-29
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The cure of the boy• Does it coordinate with the episode of Jairus’
daughter? The gesture of v. 27.• Jesus’ anger at the “faithless generation,”
including the disciples. • The boy’s spirit -- that makes him rigid, unable to
hear or speak -- sounds symbolic. Who is this boy?
• Again, seeming death becomes life. • Proleptic? • Immediate reiteration of prophecy of death and
resurrection.
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The darkening of gospel in second half
• The reiterated prophecies of death in relation to messiahship: 8:31, 9:30, 10:32-34.
• The increasing cluelessness of disciples. • The irony of the request of sons of Zebedee:
10:35-45. • Contrasted to Bar Timaeus, 10: 46ff?• Messianic entry into Jerusalem: ch. 11.• Immediately undercut by the allegory of the fig
tree. Strange: do fig trees bear fruit in spring?• And the pollution, cleansing of the Temple.• (In all likelihood, this event was the historical
trigger for Jesus’ execution; he had taken a side in a dispute over Temple authority.)
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Teaching in Jerusalem• Interestingly, it’s Jesus’ cleverness that emerges
here.• He parries the question about his authority by
the question about John’s authority: 11: 27ff.• The parable of the vineyard: 12:1-12.• The response to the question about taxes to
Caesar: 12: 13-17.• Response to the Saducees over resurrection of
dead: 12: 18-27.• Response to question of the “greatest
commandment”: 12:28-34• The issue of specifically Davidic messiahship.
This is very important to Matthew and Luke. But Mark has Jesus rejecting the necessity. 12: 35-37.
• (In Mark Jesus is emphatically a Galilean – no connection with Judea, Bethlehem, Jerusalem.)