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Gospel of Mark – second lecture

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? . The narrative agon of Mark. The unfolding (or exploding?) “kingdom of God vs. established order (Scribes and Pharisees, others).

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Gospel of Mark – second lecture

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  1. 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?

  2. 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.

  3. 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?

  4. 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?

  5. “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.

  6. Transfiguration: Raphael’s rendering

  7. 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?

  8. Lower half of Raphael’s Transfiguration: 9: 14-29

  9. 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.

  10. 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.)

  11. 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.)

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