Hot answers tagged mark
25
The idea of the "eye of the needle" being a gate apparently had its origins in the Middle Ages.
From The Straight Dope:
Next, the history and archaeology. The notion your Baptist friend has picked up apparently comes from a single ninth-century commentary which asserts that in first-century Jerusalem there was a gate called the Needle's Eye which a ...
23
If it did refer to something that was merely difficult, the immediate reaction of the disciples would be incomprehensible:
26And they were exceedingly astonished, and said to him, "Then who can be saved?" ESV
As would Jesus' response:
27Jesus looked at them and said, "With man it is impossible, but not with God. For all things are ...
23
Palestine at the time of Jesus was something of a crossroads for culture and language. It's entirely possible a young man growing up in the region would have been exposed to at least four different languages: Greek, Aramaic, Latin, and Hebrew.
Aramaic
Far and away the most common language that Jesus is quoted in is Greek. But that seems largely due to the ...
8
A detailed study on this issue by Daniel B. Wallace of the Evangelical Theological Society discusses five possibilities:
Text-Critical: The text as it stands is incorrect and needs to be emended.
Dominical: Jesus himself made a mistake or was intentionally midrashic (i.e., he embellished the OT story to make his point).
Source-critical: Mark’s source ...
8
There are places in the Bible where "the world" means less than the globe, yet it would still not include all of Africa or Eurasia. For instance, "all the world should be taxed" in Luke 2:1. Clearly, Augustus' decree only held weight in the Empire, its provinces, and protectorates. Acts 11:28 is similar "a great famine over all the earth." That would ...
8
Jon gives a good answer as to why Jesus would have been able to speak Greek, Aramaic, and Hebrew. He also asked for more information regarding the existence of Hebrew in the Land at the time of Jesus. Mishnaic Hebrew was very well known in the first century and was distinguished from Aramaic in such works as the Letter of Aristeas and Josephus. See below for ...
8
I think it must be kept in mind that the Jewish day begins at dusk/sunset, which is the beginning of the evening. The day lasts until the next sunset. It could alternately be translated, "And evening coming, when the sun sank..." or "And evening having come, when the sun did set...."
I don't know whether this is a closing passage to the previous context ...
7
σκώληξ (Strongs G4663) means "worm", specifically a grub or maggot. This passage in Mark is the only appearance of the Greek word in the New Testament. However, He appears to be quoting Isaiah 66:24, which uses the word תּוֹלָע (Strongs H8438), also translated "worm" or "maggot". (The only other definition of this word, besides "worm", refers to a dye ...
7
The letter gimel has the meaning of a 'rich man chasing after a poor man' (1) and camel is gamal, an obvious pun.
The rich young ruler had just chased after Jesus (a poor man) and played a game of threading the needle. This is where the law is defined by the individual so that he finds himself narrowly avoiding a violation of the law in his own eyes. ...
7
Abstract
The primary argument for Markian priority is the strong evidence that both Luke and Matthew redacted Mark's material. If Mark were a summary of Matthew, we would expect it to smooth out any rough edges. However the reverse is true. In the triple tradition, it's invariably Mark that has the rough edges that are smoothed out by Luke and Matthew.
...
7
My understanding is that a strong majority of scholars (including conservative scholars) take the position that the long ending of Mark was not in the original and was not written by the same author as the rest of the text, but nonetheless was added very early on (probably in the early 2nd century). However, the evidence is not as overwhelming as for the ...
6
I found out that "camel" in Aramaic can mean "thick rope made out of camel-hair". This seems like a natural interpretation to me, because the rich man is like a coarse rope, and the entrance to the kingdom of heaven is like a small needle, and the coarse rope will not pass. It makes the parallel more explicit, and it is more eloquent (although less ...
6
The definition of λῃστῶν is:
λῃστής, οῦ, ὁ (ληϊς, epic form of λεία ‘booty, spoils’; Soph., Hdt.+; ins, pap, LXX; ApcSed 15:3; Joseph.; loanw. in rabb.; Ar. 3, 2;
Just., Tat., Ath., R. 19 p. 72, 25; Theoph. Ant. 3, 14 [p. 232, 13]).
① robber, highwayman, bandit (in Palestine: Jos., Bell. 2, 125;
228 al.) Lk 10:30, 36; 2 Cor 11:26 (Chariton 6, 4, ...
6
According to Bruce M. Metzger, in his able Textual Commentary on the Greek New Testament (Stuttgart: Deutschebibelgesellschaft, 2012), the academy places their highest certitude "{A}" that the verse of Mark 11:26 was not part of the original autograph. On Page 93 of his commentary, Metzger says that
...although it might be thought that the sentence was ...
5
The usual hermeneutic rule is that words are interpreted to mean what they usually mean in the wider culture unless there's good reason to read it differently. For instance, in the New Testament, the word εὐαγγέλιον (gospel) begins to take on a specific sense related to the good news of Jesus Christ. It becomes a technical term.
In order for the term ...
5
Every commentary I could find has seemingly a different interpretation on this passage! I have however, managed to distil these down into two main interpretations:
1. Jesus was going to pass them by, but was diverted
The phrase "meant to" in the ESV and RSV is also translated "would have" in the KJV. The Greek word used here is thelō which means to wish or ...
5
Some say the "Kingdom of Heaven" refers to the a physical/political kingdom on earth while the "Kingdom of God" is the spiritual, coming reign of Christ.
Arguments against the two being the same often come down to hair splitting and misinterpretation of verses. For example, the site listed above relies on a single verse in an attempt to say they are ...
5
The Hebrew word שמיים (shamayim), which is translated into English, is what is known in Judaism as a כנוי (kinnui), or a "substitute," "nickname."
The reason why Matthew uses "kingdom of Heaven" more often than "kingdom of God" is because he wrote to a Jewish audience, and the Jews did not pronounce the Tetragrammaton יהוה, and sometimes not even the word ...
4
I don't see this as compassion, but as allowing them to choose their punishment.
Jesus had a couple of different options on how to deal with the demons. Indeed, he probably had more options than we know of. However, we know of two, for sure.
The first option, send them out of the country:
Mark 5:10 (NASB)
And he began to implore Him earnestly not ...
4
No, the problem they were asking isn't about polygamy. The problem they were struggling with is regarding adultery.
The problem with adultery is that the woman is married to multiple men:
Matthew 5:32 (NASB)
but I say to you that everyone who divorces his wife, except for the reason of unchastity, makes her commit adultery; and whoever marries a ...
4
According to the International Standard Bible Encyclopedia entry on house construction, a roof was typically made of a straw and mud mixture. This would have consisted of timbers, covered with brush or similar thatching, and topped with mud and straw. This is apparently a wide-spread construction technique, and they also cite the use of a small roller that ...
4
In my understanding the key is the final verses:
“The Sabbath was made for man, not man for the Sabbath. So the Son of Man is lord even of the Sabbath.”
These two statements are not unconnected truths. The point being that God's (or the 'Son of Man's') intention with regard to the Sabbath law trumps obedience to the 'letter of the law'. Jesus explains ...
4
Mark 13 is not critical to dating this gospel, but can help corroborate external evidence, and perhaps help improve our precision in dating it.
External Evidence
The earliest external evidence we have, from a second century bishop named Papias, says Mark was based on Peter's preaching:
Mark having become the interpreter of Peter, wrote down accurately ...
4
Jews of the time understood God to have different roles (and different names), and one of these views of God was as father. For example, in Pirkei Avot, an early mishnaic writing from somewhere between 200 BCE and 200 CE, one rabbi writes:
20 Judah the son of Teima would say: Be bold as a leopard, light as an eagle, fleeting as a deer and mighty as a ...
3
One issue is that Mark was written in Rome about 30 years after the actual events. According to the earliest tradition of Papias, Origen, and Tertullian, the source of the account was actually the Apostle Peter.
While some commentators maintain that the “twice” refers to specific points of time—midnight and dawn, respectively—A Dictionary of Christ and ...
3
Literally, his sight had not yet fully recovered. The question is why not?
When there are two things, one represents a heavenly aspect and the other an earthly aspect of the same thing.
The man was healed spiritually and physically.
When his eyes/understanding was 'washed in the word' (of spit/water) he was healed spiritually first. He saw men as trees, ...
3
Firstly, I believe in the inerrancy of God's Word, but I don't believe it is always helpful to bend over backwards making things 'fit' - sometimes we have to just accept that we don't have the knowledge to do so (and in those cases I'd say the things that have been revealed are the things that matter - and also go along with jrdioko's quote against the ...
3
Jesus is showing compassion to the man
The relationship between Jesus and demons is complicated as presented in Mark. On the one hand, Jesus has authority over them, and on the other, they still cause problems for him. Take his first encounter with a demon recorded in Mark 1:23-26 (ESV):
And immediately there was in their synagogue a man with an ...
3
We need to acknowledge at the start that Mark's primary goal in describing the trial of Jesus is to show that he was unjustly executed. From the beginning while he was operating in Galilee, various factions conspired to eliminate Jesus. Mark 3:6 (ESV):
The Pharisees went out and immediately held counsel with the Herodians against him, how to destroy ...
3
Patrilineality
Both the Jewish and Roman societies of the time were strongly patrilinear in nature. This meant that family identity and inheritance came from your father only. Under the Roman system, a wife legally remained a part of her father's family. Part of the drama of the book of Ruth stems from the complicated patrilineal system of the Hebrews at ...
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