Lectionary Year B
September 14, 2003
Mark 8:27-38
Step III: Composition
A. Immediate Context
(JFC) Pre - The first 26 verses of Mark 8 begin with accounts about Jesus'
compassion on the gathered crowd without food enough to be fed. So, He miraculously gives them enough to eat from seven loaves of bread and "a few fish" He distributed with liturgy reminiscent of the Last Supper, from which seven baskets full of leftovers were collected. Next, Jesus went into a boat with the disciples to the district of Dalmanutha, Mageda or Magdala, according to the footnotes in the NRSV. Then the Pharisees request "a sign from heaven" and Jesus tells them, "no sign will be given to this generation". Next Jesus teaches them the differences between "the yeast of the Pharisees and the yeast of Herod" and about their failure to understand and/or to remember His miraculously feeding the multitudes with limited provisions. Then, in Bethsaida, He heals a blind man.
Post - Mark 9 tells of Jesus' transfiguration, which He tells those there with Him not to tell about what they have seen there. Next, Jesus explains the coming of Elijah and his sufferings. The disciples question further and seem to object to His healing a boy deaf and mute and convulsing. The disciples were unable to heal the boy and Jesus explained why. Then, they go on through Galilee, where Jesus did not want to be known.
A. Immediate Context
(SC)
One significant contextual factor is that text follows Jesus' exorcism &
healing miracles, which aids our understanding of meaning & authority of
titles such as Messiah & Son of man. For the 1st half of the gospel, Jesus
has been healing & teaching with divine power. Messiah, meaning anointed,
indicates God's choice of Jesus, not our choice or our manipulation of
situation. The Son of Man reference reminds us of: Jesus' claim of God's
authority to forgive sin (Mk 2:10); Jesus' claim to determine suitable
sabbath behavior (Mk 2:28); & Daniel's OT heavenly son of man (Dan 7:13-14)
in which resurrected son of man returns as judge. These are images of
divine power & authority which Jesus appropriates & claims. Understanding
Jesus as both incarnate & divine is important to seeing Jesus as the special
& crucial way God is present to us in our lives. The context of this text
as a climax to the healing/teaching of the 1st eight chapters & as a
beginning of the passion story is important because:
1. Jesus here begins a pattern of predicting the future outcome, which
is another sign of his authority & divinity.
2. Jesus of miracles is now rightly beginning to be balanced by Jesus
of the cross.
Both ideas are critical to our understanding more fully all
the ramifications of what it means for Jesus to be Messiah & Son of Man &
for us to confess him as such.
B. Organization of Compositional Whole
(JFC) "Mark's objective is to proclaim Jesus as the Son of God", Sweizer notes. Chapters 1-9 of Mark's Gospel collect traditions of Jesus' life, preaching, teachings and healings. The accounts read as if they were compiled rapidly. Some seem almost unrelated if not detached from one another. Some commentators find forecasts of Jesus' passion in such passages as of John's arrest in 1:15 and his execution in 6:14-29 and the Pharisees' opposition to Jesus in 3:6. Vincent Taylor's The Gospel According to Saint Mark has the most detailed "Plan and Arrangement of the Gospel", where it identifies the Introduction as in 1:1-13, the Galilean Ministry from 1:14 to 6:13, the Ministry Beyond Galilee from 6:14 to 8:26, the Caeserea Phillipi: the Journey to Jerusalem from 8:27 to 10:52, the Ministry in Jerusalem from 11:1 to 13:37 and the Passion and Resurrection narratives conclude the outline. From the plot to arrest Jesus to the entombment, we get much more detailed descriptions. Jesus' passion and death seem to be the goal toward which this Gospel aims. Mark's Gospel, as briefly as it records Jesus' encounters, does tell of the emotions the people have to Him and His ministries. Therein we read of sorrow, pity, fear, amazement, anger and grief. Furthermore, Lamar Williamson, Jr., in the Interpretation commentary series says, "The Gospel of Mark is . . . a combination of traditions about Jesus presented in story form, a narrative constituting good news about God and his kingdom, and a writing which occupies a place of fundamental importance in the scriptures of the church."
C. Issues of Authorship
(JFC) As previously noted, the Gospel of Mark was probably "the first of the Gospels
committed to writing," as C. E. Mann says in the Anchor Bible. Although Taylor has no doubt that "Mark, the attendant of Peter . . . the John Mark of the Acts and the companion of Paul" wrote this Gospel, the author is really unknown. That John Mark in Acts, Philemon, Colossian and II Timothy, only might be the author. It was probably written in Rome. The Roman context seems to be supported by Latin expressions, although such extractions were found in much literature of that era. Other places that might have generated this Gospel include Antioch in Syria, Alexandria or anywhere in Italy according to James L. Price's Interpreting the New Testament. 7:3f indicate that this Gospel was written for Gentile readers. And, we recall that we have seen in these pages before, "In the MacArthur Study Bible, the following quote from Papias, the Bishop of Hieropolis, written around 140 CE, 'And the Presbyter [the apostle John] said this: "Mark having become the interpreter of Peter, wrote down accurately whatsoever he remembered. It was not, however, the exact order that he related the sayings or deeds of Christ"." Some date in the 60's is likely since there is no very direct mention of Jerusalem's destruction in 70.
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