σπλαγχνισθεὶς or ὀργισθεὶς

Years ago, Linda and I went to a training session at a theological seminary and stayed in a bed & breakfast inn. It was the private home of an elderly, retired priest and his wife. Every morning, and again every evening, we saw that elderly retired priest sitting in a chair pouring over his Bible, and he did nothing else all day long. Ever since then, it has been my determination not to get to that point or to see myself that way. But the epiphany just dawned that that is exactly where I am this morning. Coreg and other pills gulped down, reclining in my mother’s lift chair, lap robe over legs for warmth, Bucky pillow behind the head, MacBook in lap, table lamp at the left and coffee cooling, stack of reference books on a footstool at the right. If it were a bit chillier my tallit would be around my shoulders and perhaps pulled up over my head. Sometimes as an elderly retired priest with time on hands, the inscription in the lintel over the library door of one of my seminaries, “Seek the truth, come whence it may, cost what it will” gets the best of me. Just so this morning.

Through this Epiphany Season we have been reading through the first chapter of Mark, concluding next Sunday, February 12th, with this story:

⁴⁰ A leper came to him begging him, and kneeling he said to him, ‘If you choose, you can make me clean.’ ⁴¹Moved with pity,^* he stretched out his hand and touched him, and said to him, ‘I do choose. Be made clean!’ ⁴²Immediately the leprosy left him, and he was made clean. ⁴³After sternly warning him he sent him away at once, ⁴⁴saying to him, ‘See that you say nothing to anyone; but go, show yourself to the priest, and offer for your cleansing what Moses commanded, as a testimony to them.’ ⁴⁵But he went out and began to proclaim it freely, and to spread the word, so that Jesus^* could no longer go into a town openly, but stayed out in the country; and people came to him from every quarter.

For many reasons, Mark is my favorite gospel; and furthermore, this is one of my favorite healing stories, especially the translation in the Today’s English Version (Good News Bible). The leper says “If you want to, you can make me clean.” To which Jesus, moved with compassion (σπλαγχνισθεὶς) responds, “I do want to. Be clean.” And immediately (εὐθὺς again), he was made clean. That very appealingly portrays Jesus as eager to help the pathetic people he meets in his earthly travels. That is certainly what I want to think. 

But my online NRSV translation has an asterisk * after the phrase (verse 41) “Moved with pity.” For many years I have known that that asterisk was there and exactly what it signifies: other ancient authorities read “anger.” That is not what I want to hear about Jesus, not what I want to think. We want to think of him as always kind and gentle, eager to heal. Shall I cling to what I have always believed and want to keep on thinking, or shall I explore? Unfortunately, my library here, together with online resources, makes it possible for the elderly retired priest in the lift chair, even impels him involuntarily, to explore for truth regardless of what he may prefer to think and believe. “Seek the truth, come whence it may, cost what it will,” remember?

The truth is that some ancient Greek manuscripts of Mark do not have the word σπλαγχνισθεὶς (compassionately) but the word ὀργισθεὶς (angrily). Sometimes in Bible study, if we are honest with the text and ourselves, we have to face up to unappealing possibilities. Maybe Jesus was angry, indignant, annoyed. We might rather not think so, but the theology of the church is that he was not only fully divine, but also fully human. And the man was not dispassionate, he did have a temper, remember how angry he got when he saw the moneychangers in the temple. Maybe being constantly mobbed by people who wanted to be healed of something, or to have a demon cast out -- when what he really came for was to proclaim the kingdom of God and didn’t have much time to do it -- maybe he did get aggravated, frustrated at times. And again, if we’re doing historical-critical Bible study, it might occur to us that someone later -- a scribe, a copyist, an editor -- may have decided to change just one word of the ancient manuscript to present Jesus as we prefer to think.

Which word seems more likely to have been in the autograph -- σπλαγχνισθεὶς -- or -- ὀργισθεὶς -- and are we willing to discover something that may be counter to what we prefer to think? 

And there’s that Markan messianic secret again, Jesus telling a healed person not to tell others about him. But they always did anyway, and as a result, Jesus was constantly mobbed, so much so that he couldn’t even go into a town openly. Maybe he was angry that day.

σπλαγχνισθεὶς or ὀργισθεὶς

It’s the Epiphany Season: think about it.

TW+