TGBC Monday, 18 Jan 2021. Mark 7:14-30
Monday morning and back to the Disciples Literal New Testament translation for the moment.
In all this, I enjoy a routine. After checking the TGBC passage for the day, go to my online source and set the passage up in four or five parallel English translations, sometimes a Greek version if there's something I want to explore. Read each column to see which English version is most interestingly said. If there are references to Old Testament passages I track those down. Early on, I copy the English version I like and paste it into my Weblog new post page for the day. Sometimes it's printed with footnotes and cross references, so go back and take all that out, sometimes going back to highlight or add back in things that interest me that I think may interest others.
In this case, how the passage "rings true" for me is how I hold it in mind from the King James Version I grew up with, like verse 15: "There is nothing from without a man, that entering into him can defile him: but the things which come out of him, those are they that defile the man." So check to verify that the "correcting" modern revisions have it right. Sure enough, Jesus didn't say "man", Mark has him saying ἄνθρωπος, which is not specifically a male, but human being. I don't think Jesus spoke Greek though, and I don't know what he would have said in Aramaic, but maybe I can find out:
ܠܝܬ ܡܕܡ ܕܠܒܪ ܡܢ ܒܪܢܫܐ ܗܘ ܘܥܐܠ ܠܗ ܕܡܫܟܚ ܡܣܝܒ ܠܗ ܐܠܐ ܡܕܡ ܕܢܦܩ ܡܢܗ ܗܘ ܗܘ ܡܣܝܒ ܠܒܪܢܫܐ
Mark 7:15 There isn’t anything that is from the outside of a son of man, and enters into him, that is able to masayeb {defile} him. But rather, the thing which goes out from him, that is which defiles a son of man.
So, Jesus didn't say "man" and he didn't say ἄνθρωπος, speaking Aramaic, Jesus said "bar enosh"
Next wanders my mind to the Nicene Creed line in which we say of Jesus that he "was made man". The church fathers' Greek original Nicene Creed doesn't say that, it says he was made ἄνθρωπος, asserting that God became human, one of us.
And regretting that today there are so many modern translations and none of them memorable, none suitable for committing to memory as we can hold a favorite poem in mind. So, my mind wanders.
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Mark 7:14-30
Disciples’ Literal New Testament
14 And having summoned the crowd again, He was saying to them, “Everyone listen-to Me and understand— 15 there is nothing outside of the person proceeding into him which is able to defile him. But the things proceeding out of the person are the things defiling the person. 16 [a]
What Goes Into The Body Does Not Defile, But What Comes Out of The Heart
17 And when He entered into a house away-from the crowd, His disciples were questioning Him as to the parable. 18 And He says to them, “So are even you without-understanding? Do you not perceive that everything outside proceeding into the person is not able to defile[b] him 19 because it does not proceed into his heart, but into his stomach, and it proceeds out into the latrine?” (He was making all foods clean[c].) 20 And He was saying that “The thing proceeding out of the person— that defiles the person. 21 For from within, out of the heart of people, proceed the evil thoughts, sexual-immoralities, thefts, murders, 22 adulteries, greeds, evils, deceit, sensuality, an evil eye[d], blasphemy, arrogance, foolishness. 23 All these evil things proceed-out from within, and defile the person”.
A Gentile Woman Begs For Crumbs From The Master’s Table
24 And having arisen, He went from there to the districts of Tyre. And having entered into a house, He was wanting[e] no one to know[f] it. And-yet He was not able to escape-notice. 25 But immediately, a woman having heard about Him— of whom her little daughter was having an unclean spirit— having come, fell at His feet. 26 Now the woman was a Greek[g], a Syro-Phoenician[h] by nationality. And she was asking Him that He cast out the demon from her daughter. 27 And He was saying to her, “First allow the children to be filled-to-satisfaction. For it is not good to take the bread of the children and throw it to the little-dogs[i]”. 28 But the one responded and says to Him, “Master, even the little dogs under the table eat from the crumbs of the children!” 29 And He said to her, “Because of this statement, go— the demon has gone out of your daughter”. 30 And having gone to her house, she found the child having been put[j] on the bed, and the demon having gone out.
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This is late being posted, so I'm going to leave the footnote links in there. What does the story tell us? Any number of things, including
that we don't need to consider any foods unclean,
that we need to watch our mouth and our fingers, what we say and what we write,
that Jesus responds to our faith, even the faith of gentiles,
that Jesus healed from a distance, he didn't need to touch or see, only hear of.
All for today!
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