Saturday, Jan 2, 2021 - the Good Book Club Mark 1:12-20
The Good Book Club per Mark
Day Two!
Mark 1:12-20
Disciples’ Literal New Testament
12 And immediately the Spirit sends Him out into the wilderness. 13 And He was in the wilderness forty days being tempted by Satan. And He was with the wild-beasts. And the angels were ministering to Him.
14 And after John was handed-over [to prison], Jesus came to Galilee proclaiming the good-news of God 15 and saying that “The time has been fulfilled, and the kingdom of God has drawn-near. Repent, and put-faith in the good-news”.
16 And while passing-by beside the Sea of Galilee, He saw Simon and Andrew (the brother of Simon), casting-a-net in the sea. For they were fishermen. 17 And Jesus said to them, “Come after Me, and I will make you become fishermen of people”. 18 And immediately, having left the nets, they followed Him. 19 And having gone on a little, He saw James the son of Zebedee and John his brother— they also in their boat, preparing the nets. 20 And immediately He called them. And having left their father Zebedee in the boat with the hired ones, they went after Him.
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This morning's reading hits on numerous things.
ABOVE IS PRINTED THE DLNT version, and certain words in italics, so as to identify some of the characteristics of Mark's storytelling. First, I don't know Greek, but scholars often write that Mark's grammar is rough, I'll take their word. What I do know is that reading Mark from start to finish (about twenty minutes, try it yourself sometime, maybe as an Epiphany 2021 commitment?), I have the sense of someone who has just found out about all this, and has rushed home to tell it, where he tells it breathlessly, conversationally rushed, not like someone taking time to sit down and write carefully so he gets an "A" on his report. No English professor is going to give him above a "C+"!
LOOKING AT THE ABOVE, Mark connects almost every sentence and thought to the next with the word "and" (Gk "kai", see the Greek text below, scroll down). And it's been called "The Gospel of Immediacy" because 42 times Mark says "kai euthos", "and immediately". It's fun, it lends a sense that not only Mark's, but Jesus' own story and ministry had an essence of hurry, of having to get it done before it was too late. In the text above I've italicized every such "and" and every "and immediately" so you get the idea.
ANOTHER THING that characterizes Mark's style of storytelling is his frequent use of something called the "historic present". Just as you or I would do if telling about something that happened, he narrates it like it's happening right now. Today Mark writes "the Spirit SENDS" (not sent). This is probably not written intentionally to make the story seem more alive, it's just the way folks tell a story if they are telling it to a room full of rapt listeners instead of writing it down for some future posterity or other. It's Mark's comfortable style, but it's noticeable, remarkable, so I'm remarking on it.
JESUS IN THE WILDERNESS forty days, tempted by Satan. The number forty is significant. Yes, it means a long time, quite a while, whoever wrote about it in Wikipedia says it's like umpteen. But it also marks the event symbolically as not ordinary but momentous, of tremendous importance. The word "epoch" is apt. Forty days,
- paralleling Israel's forty years in the wilderness with Moses, an epoch struggle of purifying, cleansing to become worthy of the gift of the Promised Land (remember, everyone who left Egypt with Moses died, cleansing Israel of that impurity of whining and ingratitude - - which may help us see even Moses' "unfair" death as necessary, and in a godly light);
- as for us, Lent is meant to be, not forty days of cheerily "giving up chocolate" while eagerly anticipating gorging on chocolate that the Easter bunny brings; but challenged to examine ourselves and shrive ourselves of sin, yes, permanently, but for a specific reason, a purpose, an objective: that we may worthily magnify God on Easter;
- just so for Jesus, a time of struggle, tempted to walk away from the distressing call he'd heard, "You are my beloved Son", avoid the nightmare life that the calling signified, tempted to go back for an ordinary human life with Mary Magdalene and a dozen children. Epochally, those forty days mark End, Discerning, and Beginning. Indeed, some theologians and bible scholars suggest that, for Mark, Jesus actually becomes the Son of God at his baptism, his defining (or redefining) Moment, a Dove and a Voice and everything changes forever. Unlike Moses at the Burning Bush, Jesus doesn't say "Not me, Lord, I can't speak in public".
HERE, AS GENERALLY with his gospel, Mark's stories are more basic than Matthew and Luke, the synoptics. Such is the case with Jesus after his baptism, the time in the wilderness tempted by Satan. Mark simply notes it, and I'm not sure Mark, a gentile writing for gentiles, actually realizes its significance as a wrenching time of trial, whereas Luke, and especially the Jewish-Christian Matthew, make quite an event of it, quoting the confrontation between Jesus and Satn with memorable dialogue (sourced from sayings gospel Q; each synoptic evangelist tellingly arranging temptations 3-1-2 bread, temple, world or 3-2-1 bread, world, temple, according to his priorities). Anyone who wants to know more about Q is invited to Sunday School.
WITH THE IMPRISONMENT of John the Baptist, Jesus goes to Galilee and begins his own preaching ministry. Many scholars suggest that Jesus initially was one of John's disciples. Indeed, Mark himself seems to feel some connection between John being imprisoned and Jesus heading for Galilee. What other reason for that unless Jesus had indeed been working with John, and that John's arrest caused Jesus, thinking he would be next, immediately to leave the area.
INCIDENTALLY, does Mark's abrupt and passing way of mentioning John's arrest indicate that Mark assumes his readers would already be aware of that? Likely so: with Mark writing about 70 AD, some forty years after the event. The way Mark says it seems consistent with Mark's way of making the story alive and current. In Mark's breathless way of telling his story, he leaves out stuff that both he and the listeners already know. Mark tells a lively story but he isn't used to writing carefully. Mark's good, but he's no Mark Twain.
THIS PASSAGE gives us a hint of what Jesus' preaching was about and therefore what Jesus must at least initially have sensed as his own personal calling and mission. “The time has been fulfilled, and the kingdom of God has drawn-near" sounds apocalyptically like Paul's Jewish conviction that the End of Days is imminent, when God will shake up human society and establish God's kingdom on earth. The cry, "Repent" seems to echo what John the Baptist had been preaching.
BUT "BELIEVE THE GOSPEL"? What is the "good news" that Jesus means folks to believe? It's got to be more than John's simple message of repentance for the forgiveness of sins. Is it Paul's message of a cosmic upheaval and new creation with God in charge?
WHAT OCCURS to me is from outside our canon of scripture, in Sayings Gospel Thomas, logia 113
113 His disciples said to him, "When will the kingdom come?"
"It will not come by watching and waiting for it. It will not be said, 'Look, here!' or 'Look, there!' Rather, the kingdom of the Father is spread out upon the earth, and people do not see it."
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Maybe we'll see that claiming and following God in this life, not clinging to some future promise, but right here and now, is what Jesus is preaching.
CALLING HIS FIRST DISCIPLES, Peter and Andrew, James and John, we're going to see as Mark develops his story, that Peter, James and John are always the closest to Jesus - WHY? And unless we go to a totally different story, the Gospel according to John, this is about the last we ever hear of Andrew - WHY? I'm going to speculate that this takes place right there near Capernaum, which became Jesus' new hometown as an adult, that he was already close friends with these fishermen, maybe even sometimes went out fishing with them? That maybe Jesus had already talked with them about what he was called to do and they had been enthusiastic and encouraging, were already hoping to be included in the adventure, nd that close relationship continued lifelong. Andrew? I'm thinking that Andrew was Simon Peter's younger brother, sort of a tagalong maybe? Also there's a scholar's notion I once read, questioning why Andrew alone had a Greek name and that maybe Peter's father was dead (Mark never mentions him) and maybe Peter's mother ... well, you know, ἀνδρός, The Man, that traveling man who always came to call and stay for supper when he was in town selling lead weights, from which gossip Andy was the unplanned but not unexplainable half-brother not totally accepted by the rest of the family and friends in the village.
See, in this sketch, Andy doesn't resemble his brother Simon, he even looks Greek
Fr Tom
Mark 1:12-20
ΚΑΤΑ ΜΑΡΚΟΝ 1:12-20
SBL Greek New Testament
12 Καὶ εὐθὺς τὸ πνεῦμα αὐτὸν ἐκβάλλει εἰς τὴν ἔρημον. 13 καὶ [a]ἦν ἐν τῇ ἐρήμῳ [b]τεσσεράκοντα ἡμέρας πειραζόμενος ὑπὸ τοῦ Σατανᾶ, καὶ ἦν μετὰ τῶν θηρίων, καὶ οἱ ἄγγελοι διηκόνουν αὐτῷ.
14 Καὶ μετὰ τὸ παραδοθῆναι τὸν Ἰωάννην ἦλθεν ὁ Ἰησοῦς εἰς τὴν Γαλιλαίαν κηρύσσων τὸ εὐαγγέλιον τοῦ θεοῦ 15 καὶ λέγων ὅτι Πεπλήρωται ὁ καιρὸς καὶ ἤγγικεν ἡ βασιλεία τοῦ θεοῦ· μετανοεῖτε καὶ πιστεύετε ἐν τῷ εὐαγγελίῳ.
16 Καὶ παράγων παρὰ τὴν θάλασσαν τῆς Γαλιλαίας εἶδεν Σίμωνα καὶ Ἀνδρέαν τὸν ἀδελφὸν Σίμωνος ἀμφιβάλλοντας ἐν τῇ θαλάσσῃ, ἦσαν γὰρ ἁλιεῖς· 17 καὶ εἶπεν αὐτοῖς ὁ Ἰησοῦς· Δεῦτε ὀπίσω μου, καὶ ποιήσω ὑμᾶς γενέσθαι ἁλιεῖς ἀνθρώπων. 18 καὶ εὐθὺς ἀφέντες τὰ [i]δίκτυα ἠκολούθησαν αὐτῷ. 19 καὶ προβὰς ὀλίγον εἶδεν Ἰάκωβον τὸν τοῦ Ζεβεδαίου καὶ Ἰωάννην τὸν ἀδελφὸν αὐτοῦ, καὶ αὐτοὺς ἐν τῷ πλοίῳ καταρτίζοντας τὰ δίκτυα, 20 καὶ εὐθὺς ἐκάλεσεν αὐτούς. καὶ ἀφέντες τὸν πατέρα αὐτῶν Ζεβεδαῖον ἐν τῷ πλοίῳ μετὰ τῶν μισθωτῶν ἀπῆλθον ὀπίσω αὐτοῦ.
Mark 1:12-20
Disciples’ Literal New Testament
12 And immediately the Spirit sends Him out into the wilderness. 13 And He was in the wilderness forty days being tempted by Satan. And He was with the wild-beasts. And the angels were ministering to Him.
14 And after John was handed-over [to prison], Jesus came to Galilee proclaiming the good-news of God 15 and saying that “The time has been fulfilled, and the kingdom of God has drawn-near. Repent, and put-faith in the good-news”.
16 And while passing-by beside the Sea of Galilee, He saw Simon and Andrew (the brother of Simon), casting-a-net in the sea. For they were fishermen. 17 And Jesus said to them, “Come after Me, and I will make you become fishermen of people”. 18 And immediately, having left the nets, they followed Him. 19 And having gone on a little, He saw James (the son) of Zebedee and John his brother — they also in their boat, preparing the nets. 20 And immediately He called them. And having left their father Zebedee in the boat with the hired ones, they went after Him.