Robert said
OK, but why marginalize these Jewish ‘Christian’ sects? What were the differences between Mark or his community/audience from these sects? Do you think any traces of these differences be found in the text of the gospel?
I assume the big issue was whether there was a need to follow the law.
Your thoughts?
I can hear the conversation now:
Preacher: You must not eat pork
Community leaders: okay
Preacher: You must not eat shellfish
Community leaders: Er . . . well, okay
Preacher: You must not mix meat and dairy
Community leaders: Hmmmmm . . . well . . . okay
Preacher: And you must be circumcised
Community leaders: Now just hold on a minute there. Can’t we just not eat something else?
Robert said
Yeah, that seems likely, especially with respect to dietary laws (cf Mk 7), but it’s surprising there doesn’t seem to be any discussion of circumcision. So these matters may be settled in Mark’s community. After the destruction of the temple and Jerusalem, I doubt the Jerusalem leaders would have been seen as much of a continuing threat in debates about the law. Maybe the Jerusalem communities had thought the parousia should have happened already with the destruction of the temple, and Mark is creating a larger vision for the gentile mission to encompass the whole world. That’s what I meant above about the Jerusalem churches perhaps failing to grasp the extent or the success of the gentile mission.
All good points.
I agree Mark has a pov and is not simply regurgitating his sources. But I’m not sold on the idea that the gospel is an anti-Jerusalem community polemic. Mark has the same problem Paul does. The disciples were Jesus’ immediate companions. He chose them. They had authority. (Jesus even tells them in Mark they have access to a level of revelation unavailable to outsiders.) If the disciples got it wrong then what would the basis be for Paul’s or Mark’s understanding? Paul claims a certain amount of personal revelation but he certainly quotes earlier sources. Mark’s sources are a continuing source of debate.
I’m sympathetic to the idea that Mark is ministering to a community that had undergone some sort of trauma as a result of their faith and is using the fear and confusion of the disciples to mirror the fear and confusion of his traumatized community*. I have no more access to the author’s intentions than does anyone else but if you read Mark in this light it does resolve some of the book’s mysteries. This approach presupposes that Mark was willing to adapt his sources to make his point. It also indicates that Mark was writing for the internal use of a community and not primarily as an attempt at outreach. This would help explain some of the dissatisfaction Matthew and Luke seem to have felt towards Mark judging by the ways they use his text.
* Obviously this comment is an assertion and does not contain reasons for believing it to be true. I don’t have time now to write the long post it would take to sketch this view out but a quick example would be Mark’s depiction of the crucifixion. It is a scholarly commonplace that Mark is using Psalm 22 as his template. His account of the crucifixion is thus an interpretation of the crucifixion not merely a narrative about the crucifixion. But what is Psalm 22 actually about? Read it.
Robert said
OK, but why marginalize these Jewish ‘Christian’ sects? What were the differences between Mark or his community/audience from these sects? Do you think any traces of these differences be found in the text of the gospel?
For one thing consider that Mark is evidently writing for a gentile audience, which suggests a more Pauline understanding of Christianity than we would associate with the more Jewish Christians. This comes out particularly in passages like Mk 7:19 or Mk 2:27.
On Edit: Wow, I guess I forgot to refresh the page to see new replies before I started typing that.
Stephen said
I’m sympathetic to the idea that Mark is ministering to a community that had undergone some sort of trauma as a result of their faith and is using the fear and confusion of the disciples to mirror the fear and confusion of his traumatized community*.* . . . I don’t have time now to write the long post it would take to sketch this view out but a quick example would be Mark’s depiction of the crucifixion. It is a scholarly commonplace that Mark is using Psalm 22 as his template. His account of the crucifixion is thus an interpretation of the crucifixion not merely a narrative about the crucifixion. But what is Psalm 22 actually about? Read it.
I’m interested by the idea, but I don’t yet follow how the crucifixion narrative’s being modeled on ps 22 substantiates the idea that Mark was using the disciples’ fear to mirror the fear of his traumatized community.
I’m interested by the idea, but I don’t yet follow how the crucifixion narrative’s being modeled on ps 22 substantiates the idea that Mark was using the disciples’ fear to mirror the fear of his traumatized community.
Well ideally I would lay out a foundation and work my way to the crucifixion so in a way this is arguing backwards. Psalm 22 is written from the point of view of a person who is crying out in utter despair and a sense of abandonment by God. This person reminds us of the presence of God in the past and contrasts that with the distress of the present. (There is a sense in which this person is reminding God of what he did in he past and wondering where He is now.) At his lowest point this person cries out for salvation. He subjunctively imagines the glory of this salvation for himself and then by extension, for everyone. The thinking is that the author, by using Psalm 22 as his template for the crucifixion, is guiding his audience through this process from a feeling of despair to hope for salvation. Here of course the mirror is Jesus not his disciples.
Not nearly complete enough but I think you see the analogy. The disciples are experiencing fear and confusion in the situations that Mark’s community had experienced such. The community is confused and doesn’t understand what’s going on. The community is afraid. Under duress many of Mark’s community probably remained silent (like Jesus) or denied being disciples (like Peter).
Anyway to make my point I first have to establish a reason to think that Mark’s community has been traumatized. Then I have to show how the incidents in the gospel related to the situation in which the community found itself. (Of course I’m not claiming this is all that’s going on in Mark.) I think I can make this case but I’m still working through it. I invite criticism.
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