12 October Sunday school notes Mark 12:24 - 14:31
Nobody asked for this, but I'm publishing it so it doesn't get lost: more than the Handout to class members present, this is my own notes of things to discuss with last Sunday's (12 October) session on Mark and his gospel. I'll leave it here on my Blogger site permanently; I'll link it on my Facebook page for a day or so in case anyone's interested, then I'll do my usual thing of moving that link to "archive."
Respectfully,
T90
Mark 13 Good News Translation
The Rejected Stone
10 Surely you have read this scripture?
‘The stone which the builders rejected as worthless
turned out to be the most important of all.
11 This was done by the Lord;
what a wonderful sight it is!’”
12 The Jewish leaders tried to arrest Jesus, because they knew that he had told this parable against them. But they were afraid of the crowd, so they left him and went away.
Psalm 118:22,23 “The stone which the builders rejected has become the chief cornerstone. This is the Lord’s doing; it is marvelous in our eyes.”Jesus’ saying about The Rejected Stone is separate from Jesus’ Parable of the Tenants in the Vineyard. However, apparently very early on, both in oral telling and in writing, the early Church connected the two in order to convey a strengthened allegory about God replacing the Jews with the Christians as God’s chosen people.
The Question about Paying Taxes
13 Some Pharisees and some members of Herod's party were sent to Jesus to trap him with questions. 14 They came to him and said, “Teacher, we know that you tell the truth, without worrying about what people think. You pay no attention to anyone's status, but teach the truth about God's will for people. Tell us, is it against our Law to pay taxes to the Roman Emperor? Should we pay them or not?”
15 But Jesus saw through their trick and answered, “Why are you trying to trap me? Bring a silver coin, and let me see it.”
16 They brought him one, and he asked, “Whose face and name are these?”
“The Emperor's,” they answered.
17 So Jesus said, “Well, then, pay to the Emperor what belongs to the Emperor, and pay to God what belongs to God.”
And they were amazed at Jesus.
There is “the yeast of Herod” and “the yeast of the Pharisees,” that we already talked about. Herodians and Pharisees ganging up to trick Jesus into saying something for which they can arrest him and put him to death.
The Question about Rising from Death
18 Then some Sadducees (here’s another group that doesn’t like Jesus and wants to trick him into saying something stupid), who say that people will not rise from death, came to Jesus and said, 19 “Teacher, Moses wrote this law for us: ‘If a man dies and leaves a wife but no children, that man's brother must marry the widow so that they can have children who will be considered the dead man's children.’ 20 Once there were seven brothers; the oldest got married and died without having children. 21 Then the second one married the woman, and he also died without having children. The same thing happened to the third brother, 22 and then to the rest: all seven brothers married the woman and died without having children. Last of all, the woman died. 23 Now, when all the dead rise to life on the day of resurrection, whose wife will she be? All seven of them had married her.”
24 Jesus answered them, “How wrong you are! And do you know why? It is because you don't know the Scriptures or God's power. 25 For when the dead rise to life, they will be like the angels in heaven and will not marry. 26 Now, as for the dead being raised: haven't you ever read in the Book of Moses the passage about the burning bush? There it is written that God said to Moses, ‘I am the God of Abraham, the God of Isaac, and the God of Jacob.’ 27 He is the God of the living, not of the dead. You are completely wrong!”
Clever and confident in debate with his detractors, Jesus points out that God said to Moses, “I AM the God of Abraham, Isaac and Jacob,” NOT “I WAS the God of Abraham, Isaac and Jacob” Luke 20:27f makes this point clearer about what Jesus meant (“they are all alive”). Luke also has the Pharisees compliment Jesus for outwitting the Sadducees.
The Great Commandment
28 A teacher of the Law was there who heard the discussion. He saw that Jesus had given the Sadducees a good answer, so he came to him with a question: “Which commandment is the most important of all?”
29 Jesus replied, “The most important one is this: ‘Listen, Israel! Schema, Yisrael, Adonai Eloheinu, Adonai echad The Lord our God is the only Lord. 30 Love the Lord your God with all your heart, with all your soul, with all your mind, and with all your strength.’ 31 The second most important commandment is this: ‘Love your neighbor as you love yourself.’ There is no other commandment more important than these two.”
32 The teacher of the Law said to Jesus, “Well done, Teacher! It is true, as you say, that only the Lord is God and that there is no other god but he. 33 And you must love God with all your heart and with all your mind and with all your strength; and you must love your neighbor as you love yourself. It is more important to obey these two commandments than to offer on the altar animals and other sacrifices to God.”
34 Jesus noticed how wise his answer was, and so he told him, “You are not far from the Kingdom of God.”
After this nobody dared to ask Jesus any more questions.
This man does not seem hostile; in the same encounter, Matthew 22:34-40, presents the questioner as just another hostile Pharisee. Luke 10:25f uses the encounter to introduce the Parable of the Good Samaritan, having the man ask, “And who is my neighbor?”
The Question about the Messiah
35 As Jesus was teaching in the Temple, he asked the question, “How can the teachers of the Law say that the Messiah will be the descendant of David? 36 The Holy Spirit inspired David to say:
‘The Lord said to my Lord:
Sit here at my right side
until I put your enemies under your feet.’
37 David himself called him ‘Lord’; so how can the Messiah be David's descendant?”
This is a clever twisted riddle to confuse people up. I have read that it was popular at the Time. There are at least three problems. The first problem is Mark having Jesus seem to pick a confrontation: we do not see Jesus doing that, he responds when other people challenge him but he does not start fights. The second problem is, Why would Jesus cast doubt on the tradition that the expected Messiah will be of the house and lineage of David? That makes no sense. The third and more interesting issue is that what Mark has Jesus say misinterprets what the psalm really says (although, as I say, it was a popular riddle at the Time). The quotation comes from Psalm 110 verse 1, where the Hebrew says, “Of David, A Psalm. Thus says Yahweh to my lord: ‘Sit at my right hand, till I make your enemies your footstool.’” David did not write the psalm, nor does the psalm have David saying “The Lord said to my lord.” It’s a standard court psalm OF David, ABOUT David. Some scholars say it was said or sung at the king’s coronation, in which the court prophets or court musicians flatter the king (the David, all the kings were referred to as “the David”). The musician or prophet sings to him that God tells him, “Sit here till I make your enemies your footstool.” It you read the psalm as the Hebrew bible actually has it, it’s no puzzle at all, it makes perfect sense. If you misinterpret the psalm (as Mark has Jesus doing), it’s a puzzle, which is fine: Mark using it to show Jesus perplexing his enemies!
Jesus Warns against the Teachers of the Law
A large crowd was listening to Jesus gladly. 38 As he taught them, he said, “Watch out for the teachers of the Law, who like to walk around in their long robes and be greeted with respect in the marketplace, 39 who choose the reserved seats in the synagogues and the best places at feasts. 40 They take advantage of widows and rob them of their homes, and then make a show of saying long prayers. Their punishment will be all the worse!”
Jesus condemning people who like to show off their importance and people who take advantage of the poor. The prophets of old condemned such people also, hurting the poor was one of the two main messages of the OT prophets of doom (the prophets’ other message was against the people falling away from worship of God, including mixing with the Palestinians).
The Widow's Offering
41 As Jesus sat near the Temple treasury, he watched the people as they dropped in their money. Many rich men dropped in a lot of money; 42 then a poor widow came along and dropped in two little copper coins, worth about a penny. 43 He called his disciples together and said to them, “I tell you that this poor widow put more in the offering box than all the others. 44 For the others put in what they had to spare of their riches; but she, poor as she is, put in all she had—she gave all she had to live on.”
I have read that this story is not original to Jesus, that it has many parallels, one in the Buddhist tradition, another in rabbinic literature, another in Greek writings, contrasting rich people giving a tiny portion of their wealth to charity, with poor people whose giving is more sacrificial. Mark here has Jesus tell it.
Mark 13 Good News Translation
Mark chapter 13 is called “the little apocalypse.” An apocalypse prophecies events, usually horrific, that will happen at the end of Time. The Revelation of John is an apocalypse (in fact its Greek title is “The Apocalypse of John,” and there is apocalyptic writing in the OT. Mark has Jesus in 30 AD prophesy exactly what happens forty years later, in 70 AD, when Mark is writing, so Mark has the advantage of hindsight. This “little apocalypse” helps scholars agree on a Time when Mark wrote based on what he knew: Mark wrote during or just after the Roman destruction of Jerusalem and the Temple in 70 AD. Again, this is a literary discussion about Mark and his gospel, Mark was the author, Mark exercised writer’s license, and what Jesus thinks and says and does in Mark’s story is whatever Mark wrote that Jesus thought and said and did. Our interest in “Mark” is as much on the writer as it is on what he wrote.
Jesus Speaks of the Destruction of the Temple
13 As Jesus was leaving the Temple, one of his disciples said, “Look, Teacher! What wonderful stones and buildings!”
2 Jesus answered, “You see these great buildings? Not a single stone here will be left in its place; every one of them will be thrown down.” And, of course, that happened forty years later in the Time when Mark wrote, when the Romans destroyed Jerusalem and the Temple.
Troubles and Persecutions
3 Jesus was sitting on the Mount of Olives, across from the Temple, when Peter, James, John, and Andrew came to him in private. 4 “Tell us when this will be,” they said, “and tell us what will happen to show that the time has come for all these things to take place.”
5 Jesus said to them, “Watch out, and don't let anyone fool you. 6 Many men, claiming to speak for me, will come and say, ‘I am he!’ and they will fool many people. 7 And don't be troubled when you hear the noise of battles close by and news of battles far away. Such things must happen, but they do not mean that the end has come. 8 Countries will fight each other; kingdoms will attack one another. There will be earthquakes everywhere, and there will be famines. These things are like the first pains of childbirth.
9 “You yourselves must watch out. You will be arrested and taken to court. You will be beaten in the synagogues; you will stand before rulers and kings for my sake to tell them the Good News. 10 But before the end comes, the gospel must be preached to all peoples. 11 And when you are arrested and taken to court, do not worry ahead of time about what you are going to say; when the time comes, say whatever is then given to you. For the words you speak will not be yours; they will come from the Holy Spirit (i.e., God: Jesus was not “trinitarian” but perhaps Mark was picking up early trinitarianism in the Church). 12 Men will hand over their own brothers to be put to death, and fathers will do the same to their children. Children will turn against their parents and have them put to death. 13 Everyone will hate you because of me. But whoever holds out to the end will be saved.
The Awful Horror
In Jewish thought “the abomination of desolation” refers to the act of profaning the Temple by Antiochus IV Epiphanes, a Seleucid king who in 167 BC erected an altar to Zeus in the Second Temple and offered a pig on it, an blasphemy prophesied by Daniel. That desecration is considered the primary, historical fulfillment of Daniel's prophecy, but which also holds significance for Jesus’ prophecy here.
14 “You will see ‘The Awful Horror’ standing in the place where he should not be.” (Note to the reader: understand what this means!)
Based on the abomination of desolation prophecies in Daniel, where blasphemous sacrilege is set up in the Temple, the Awful Horror that Mark means for Jesus to refer to here, is the upcoming Romans’ desecration and destruction of Jerusalem and the Jewish Temple.
“Then those who are in Judea must run away to the hills. 15 Someone who is on the roof of a house must not lose time by going down into the house to get anything to take along. 16 Someone who is in the field must not go back to the house for a cloak. 17 How terrible it will be in those days for women who are pregnant and for mothers with little babies! 18 Pray to God that these things will not happen in the winter! 19 For the trouble of those days will be far worse than any the world has ever known from the very beginning when God created the world until the present time. Nor will there ever be anything like it again. 20 But the Lord has reduced the number of those days; if he had not, nobody would survive. For the sake of his chosen people, however, he has reduced those days.
21 “Then, if anyone says to you, ‘Look, here is the Messiah!’ or, ‘Look, there he is!’—do not believe it. 22 For false Messiahs and false prophets will appear. They will perform miracles and wonders in order to deceive even God's chosen people, if possible. 23 Be on your guard! I have told you everything ahead of time.
The Coming of the Son of Man
24 “In the days after that time of trouble the sun will grow dark, the moon will no longer shine, 25 the stars will fall from heaven, and the powers in space will be driven from their courses. 26 Then the Son of Man will appear, coming in the clouds with great power and glory. 27 He will send the angels out to the four corners of the earth to gather God's chosen people from one end of the world to the other.
In the first session we talked about the Son of Man, a figure prophesied in Daniel 7:13, “13 I saw in the night visions, and, behold, one like the Son of Man came with the clouds of heaven, and came to the Ancient of Days, and they brought him near before him. 14 And there was given him dominion, and glory, and a kingdom, that all people, nations, and languages, should serve him: his dominion is an everlasting dominion, which shall not pass away, and his kingdom that which shall not be destroyed.” This was the Jewish expectation of what the Messiah would be at “the end of days,” when God would overthrow earthly powers and institute the kingdom of God on earth.
The Lesson of the Fig Tree
28 “Let the fig tree teach you a lesson. When its branches become green and tender and it starts putting out leaves, you know that summer is near. 29 In the same way, when you see these things happening, you will know that the time is near, ready to begin. 30 Remember that all these things will happen before the people now living have all died. 31 Heaven and earth will pass away, but my words will never pass away.
No One Knows the Day or Hour
32 “No one knows, however, when that day or hour will come—neither the angels in heaven, nor the Son; only the Father knows. 33 Be on watch, be alert, for you do not know when the time will come. 34 It will be like a man who goes away from home on a trip and leaves his servants in charge, after giving to each one his own work to do and after telling the doorkeeper to keep watch. 35 Watch, then, because you do not know when the master of the house is coming—it might be in the evening or at midnight or before dawn or at sunrise. 36 If he comes suddenly, he must not find you asleep. 37 What I say to you, then, I say to all: Watch!”
OKAY, here begins Mark’s passion narrative, the third/final section of his story about Jesus:
Mark 14 Good News Translation
The Plot against Jesus
14 It was now two days before the Festival of Passover and Unleavened Bread. The chief priests and the teachers of the Law were looking for a way to arrest Jesus secretly and put him to death. 2 “We must not do it during the festival,” they said, “or the people might riot.”
Jesus Is Anointed at Bethany
(Matthew copies this story from Mark. Luke 7:36-50 uses it entirely differently, early in his story. In the Gospel of John 12:!f, this dinner is at the home of Mary and Martha, and their brother Lazarus whom Jesus had raised from death, and John’s gospel makes Judas Iscariot the bad guy)
3 Jesus was in Bethany at the house of Simon, a man who had suffered from a dreaded skin disease. While Jesus was eating, a woman came in with an alabaster jar full of a very expensive perfume made of pure nard. She broke the jar and poured the perfume on Jesus' head. 4 Some of the people there became angry and said to one another, “What was the use of wasting the perfume? 5 It could have been sold for more than three hundred silver coins and the money given to the poor!” And they criticized her harshly.
6 But Jesus said, “Leave her alone! Why are you bothering her? She has done a fine and beautiful thing for me. 7 You will always have poor people with you, and any time you want to, you can help them. But you will not always have me. 8 She did what she could; she poured perfume on my body to prepare it ahead of time for burial. 9 Now, I assure you that wherever the gospel is preached all over the world, what she has done will be told in memory of her.”
Judas Agrees to Betray Jesus
10 Then Judas Iscariot, one of the twelve disciples, went off to the chief priests in order to betray Jesus to them. 11 They were pleased to hear what he had to say, and promised to give him money. So Judas started looking for a good chance to hand Jesus over to them.
several Old Testament prophecies are seen as predicting the betrayal of Jesus by Judas. Psalm 41:9 is cited as a prophecy about a close friend betraying someone, and Zechariah 11:12-13 prophesied the betrayal would be for 30 pieces of silver.
Jesus Eats the Passover Meal with His Disciples
12 On the first day of the Festival of Unleavened Bread, the day the lambs for the Passover meal were killed, Jesus' disciples asked him, “Where do you want us to go and get the Passover meal ready for you?”
The Gospel of John has Jesus crucified on this day, the day the lambs are killed, completing Gospel John’s story of John the Baptist, right up front in chapter One, calling Jesus “the Lamb of God.”
13 Then Jesus sent two of them with these instructions: “Go into the city, and a man carrying a jar of water will meet you. Follow him 14 to the house he enters, and say to the owner of the house: ‘The Teacher says, Where is the room where my disciples and I will eat the Passover meal?’ 15 Then he will show you a large upstairs room, fixed up and furnished, where you will get everything ready for us.”
16 The disciples left, went to the city, and found everything just as Jesus had told them; and they prepared the Passover meal.
17 When it was evening, Jesus came with the twelve disciples. 18 While they were at the table eating, Jesus said, “I tell you that one of you will betray me—one who is eating with me.”
Psalm 41:9: "Even my close friend in whom I trusted, who ate my bread, has lifted his heel against me". Jesus is understood to have alluded to this in John 13:18 when he speaks of the one who shares his bread betraying him.
Zechariah 11:12-13: This passage includes a prophecy where the prophet is told to throw to the potter "the price of the shepherd, for me" and is given wages of "thirty pieces of silver". This is directly connected to the 30 pieces of silver Judas received for his betrayal
19 The disciples were upset and began to ask him, one after the other, “Surely you don't mean me, do you?”
20 Jesus answered, “It will be one of you twelve, one who dips his bread in the dish with me. 21 The Son of Man will die as the Scriptures say he will; but how terrible for that man who will betray the Son of Man! It would have been better for that man if he had never been born!”
The Lord's Supper
22 While they were eating, Jesus took a piece of bread, gave a prayer of thanks, broke it, and gave it to his disciples. “Take it,” he said, “this is my body.”
23 Then he took a cup, gave thanks to God, and handed it to them; and they all drank from it. 24 Jesus said, “This is my blood which is poured out for many, my blood which seals God's covenant. 25 I tell you, I will never again drink this wine until the day I drink the new wine in the Kingdom of God.”
The Lord's Supper (Disciples’ Literal New Testament)
Mark 14:22 And while they were eating, having taken bread, having blessed it, He broke it and gave it to them and said, “Take it. This is My body”. 23 And having taken a cup, having given-thanks, He gave it to them. And they all drank from it. 24 And He said to them, “This is My blood of the covenant— the blood being poured-out for many. 25 Truly I say to you that I will no longer by any means drink of the fruit of the grapevine until that day when I drink it new in the kingdom of God”.
Lord's Supper (from Eucharistic Prayer, BCP362) words of institution
For in the night in which he was betrayed, he took bread;
and when he had given thanks, he brake it, and gave it to his
disciples, saying, "Take, eat, this is my Body, which is given
for you. Do this in remembrance of me."
Likewise, after supper, he took the cup; and when he had
given thanks, he gave it to them, saying, "Drink ye all of this;
for this is my Blood of the New Covenant, which is shed for
you, and for many, for the forgiveness of sins. Do this, as oft as
ye shall drink it, in remembrance of me.”
1 Corinthians 11:23 For I received from the Lord what I also handed-over to you— that the Lord Jesus, in the night on which He was being handed-over, took bread. 24 And having given-thanks, He broke it and said “This is My body, the one being given for you. Be doing this for My remembrance”. 25 Similarly also the cup after the dining, saying, “This cup is the new covenant in My blood. Be doing this, as-often-as you drink it, for My remembrance”. 26 For as-often-as you eat this bread and drink the cup, you are proclaiming the death of the Lord, until which time He comes.
Matthew 26:26 And while they were eating, having taken bread and having blessed it , Jesus broke it. And having given it to the disciples, He said, “Take, eat. This is My body”. 27 And having taken a cup and given-thanks, He gave it to them, saying, “Drink from it, everyone. 28 For this is My blood of the covenant— the blood being poured-out for many for forgiveness of sins. 29 And I say to you, I will by-no-means drink of this fruit of the grapevine from now on until that day when I drink it new with you in the kingdom of My Father”.
Luke 22:14 And when the hour came, He fell back [to eat], and the apostles with Him. 15 And He said to them, “I greatly desired to eat this Passover [meal] with you before I suffer. 16 For I say to you that I will by no means eat it until it is fulfilled in the kingdom of God”. 17 And having taken a cup, having given-thanks, He said “Take this and distribute it to yourselves. 18 For I say to you that I will by no means drink from the fruit of the grapevine from now on until which time the kingdom of God comes”. 19 And having taken bread, having given-thanks, He broke it and gave it to them, saying “This is My body, the one being given for you. Be doing this for My remembrance”. 20 And similarly the cup after the dining, saying “This cup is the new covenant in My blood— the blood being poured-out for you.
26 Then they sang a hymn and went out to the Mount of Olives.
Jesus Predicts Peter's Denial
27 Jesus said to them, “All of you will run away and leave me, for the scripture says, ‘God will kill the shepherd, and the sheep will all be scattered.’
[Zechariah 13:7, Awake, O sword, against my shepherd, and against the man that is my fellow, saith the Lord of hosts: smite the shepherd, and the sheep shall be scattered: and I will turn mine hand upon the little ones. KJV]
28 But after I am raised to life, I will go to Galilee ahead of you.”
29 Peter answered, “I will never leave you, even though all the rest do!”
30 Jesus said to Peter, “I tell you that before the rooster crows two times tonight, you will say three times that you do not know me.”
31 Peter answered even more strongly, “I will never say that, even if I have to die with you!”
And all the other disciples said the same thing.
Remember, this is a literary discussion about how Mark brought this gospel story together, we are not doing a devotional reading. It’s Mark’s story, and there are scholars who suggest that Mark the gospel writer invented this scene and Peter’s denial, to fulfill Zechariah’s oracle prophecy, which was against Jerusalem and Judea.