good old Sunday school stories
See, I've ordered pastrami from Katz Deli in New York, and I've ordered superlative cheeses but no pastrami or other meats from Zingerman's Deli in Ann Arbor. Recent emails from AA, though, got me to thinking I'd try a pound of Zingerman's pastrami. But I've not done it yet, so Monday had a pound of Boar's Head pastrami cut at Publix, along with buying a loaf of Jewish pumpernickel rye and a package of aged Swiss cheese. Already have my deutscher Senf, and it's all in mind for a sandwich at Tuesday early afternoon dinner. Maybe along with pop a can of German beer, eh? and dine out on 7H porch.
So, will Boar's Head pastrami live up to Katz's or Zingerman's? Katz's is fatty, luscious, indulgent; this looks rather lean.
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Thinking ahead to Sep 21,
Mark 5 New International Version (NIV)
Jesus Restores a Demon-Possessed Man
5:1 They went across the lake (the Sea of Galilee, Lake of Tiberias) to the region of the Gerasenes.[a] 2 When Jesus got out of the boat, a man with an impure spirit came from the tombs to meet him.
3 This man lived in the tombs, and no one could bind him anymore, not even with a chain. 4 For he had often been chained hand and foot, but he tore the chains apart and broke the irons on his feet. No one was strong enough to subdue him. 5 Night and day among the tombs and in the hills he would cry out and cut himself with stones.
6 When he saw Jesus from a distance, he ran and fell on his knees in front of him. 7 He shouted at the top of his voice, “What do you want with me, Jesus, Son of the Most High God? In God’s name don’t torture me!” 8 For Jesus had said to him, “Come out of this man, you impure spirit!”
9 Then Jesus asked him, “What is your name?”
“My name is Legion,” he replied, “for we are many.” 10 And he begged Jesus again and again not to send them out of the area.
11 A large herd of pigs was feeding on the nearby hillside. 12 The demons begged Jesus, “Send us among the pigs; allow us to go into them.” 13 He gave them permission, and the impure spirits came out and went into the pigs. The herd, about two thousand in number, rushed down the steep bank into the lake and were drowned.
14 Those tending the pigs ran off and reported this in the town and countryside, and the people went out to see what had happened. 15 When they came to Jesus, they saw the man who had been possessed by the legion of demons, sitting there, dressed and in his right mind; and they were afraid. 16 Those who had seen it told the people what had happened to the demon-possessed man—and told about the pigs as well. 17 Then the people began to plead with Jesus to leave their region.
18 As Jesus was getting into the boat, the man who had been demon-possessed begged to go with him. 19 Jesus did not let him, but said, “Go home to your own people and tell them how much the Lord has done for you, and how he has had mercy on you.” 20 So the man went away and began to tell in the Decapolis[b] how much Jesus had done for him. And all the people were amazed.
Jesus Raises a Dead Girl and Heals a Sick Woman
21 When Jesus had again crossed over by boat to the other side of the lake, a large crowd gathered around him while he was by the lake. 22 Then one of the synagogue leaders, named Jairus, came, and when he saw Jesus, he fell at his feet. 23 He pleaded earnestly with him, “My little daughter is dying. Please come and put your hands on her so that she will be healed and live.” 24 So Jesus went with him.
A large crowd followed and pressed around him. 25 And a woman was there who had been subject to bleeding for twelve years. 26 She had suffered a great deal under the care of many doctors and had spent all she had, yet instead of getting better she grew worse. 27 When she heard about Jesus, she came up behind him in the crowd and touched his cloak, 28 because she thought, “If I just touch his clothes, I will be healed.” 29 Immediately her bleeding stopped and she felt in her body that she was freed from her suffering.
30 At once Jesus realized that power had gone out from him. He turned around in the crowd and asked, “Who touched my clothes?”
31 “You see the people crowding against you,” his disciples answered, “and yet you can ask, ‘Who touched me?’ ”
32 But Jesus kept looking around to see who had done it. 33 Then the woman, knowing what had happened to her, came and fell at his feet and, trembling with fear, told him the whole truth. 34 He said to her, “Daughter, your faith has healed you. Go in peace and be freed from your suffering.”
35 While Jesus was still speaking, some people came from the house of Jairus, the synagogue leader. “Your daughter is dead,” they said. “Why bother the teacher anymore?”
36 Overhearing[c] what they said, Jesus told him, “Don’t be afraid; just believe.”
37 He did not let anyone follow him except Peter, James and John the brother of James. 38 When they came to the home of the synagogue leader, Jesus saw a commotion, with people crying and wailing loudly. 39 He went in and said to them, “Why all this commotion and wailing? The child is not dead but asleep.” 40 But they laughed at him.
After he put them all out, he took the child’s father and mother and the disciples who were with him, and went in where the child was. 41 He took her by the hand and said to her, “Talitha koum!” (which means “Little girl, I say to you, get up!”). 42 Immediately the girl stood up and began to walk around (she was twelve years old). At this they were completely astonished. 43 He gave strict orders not to let anyone know about this, and told them to give her something to eat.
Footnotes
[a] Mark 5:1 Some manuscripts Gadarenes; other manuscripts Gergesenes
[b] Mark 5:20 That is, the Ten Cities
[c] Mark 5:36 Or Ignoring
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Some scholars suggest that Mark has in mind at least tongue-in-cheek, a relationship between the legion of demon-filled pigs and the foreign occupying force of a legion of Roman soldiers in the area, that the story is as much a slam at Rome, and local Jewish view of the Roman soldiers as filthy pigs, as it is relating a story of Jesus casting out evil spirits. Again, the spirits know who Jesus is, but here's a case when Jesus doesn't shush them. Quite the opposite in fact, Jesus tells the man to go tell how much the Lord (ὁ κύριός) has done for him, and Mark says the man went and told how much Jesus had done for him. In the same story at Luke 8, Jesus tells the man to go tell how much God (ὁ θεός) has done for him, and the man still tells how much Jesus did for him, is Luke seeing this theologically different from Mark? In the SV (Scholars' Version of the Jesus Seminar) Jesus tells the man to go tell how much his patron has done for him.
See, there's something to contemplate there about what Jesus might actually have said in this situation, and about what exactly Mark meant to convey with the word Lord. Luke sees Mark's "Kyrie" as Adonai, God of Israel: why did Luke change Mark's NT Greek wording, is there a shifting theological significance in the twenty or twenty-five years between Mark's writing and Luke's writing?
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In the next story, Mark uses a literary device called an intercalation: he starts the story with the frantic father of the dying girl, there is urgency, Time is of the essence. But Jesus takes his Time even pausing to deal with the bleeding woman. The intercalation is squeezing the bleeding woman story into the dying girl story while everyone panics, "for God's sake, hurry up, man, a child is dying while you dally." But the child dies. In these healing and casting out demons stories, Mark is showing his audience (us readers) that Jesus has power over evil, life, and Time itself. And his power can be released by touch, by word, or even without Jesus' participation, by the faith of a stranger.
Noting that Mark's secrecy device returns in the Talitha story, with Jesus shushing those present not to tell.
In this NIV translation, the scholars have smoothed over various of Mark's writing eccentricities.
Images all pinched online sans permission.
Posting late Monday, hoping to sleep late Tuesday morning. We'll see.
RSF&PTL
T89&c
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