Gospel of Mark Chapter 9

Historical Commentary on the Gospel of Mark

Chapter 9

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Mark 9:1-13

1: And he said to them, "Truly, I say to you, there are some standing here who will not taste death before they see that the kingdom of God has come with power."

2: And after six days Jesus took with him Peter and James and John, and led them up a high mountain apart by themselves; and he was transfigured before them, 3: and his garments became glistening, intensely white, as no fuller on earth could bleach them. 4: And there appeared to them Eli'jah with Moses; and they were talking to Jesus. 5: And Peter said to Jesus, "Master, it is well that we are here; let us make three booths, one for you and one for Moses and one for Eli'jah." 6: For he did not know what to say, for they were exceedingly afraid.

7: And a cloud overshadowed them, and a voice came out of the cloud, "This is my beloved Son; listen to him." 8: And suddenly looking around they no longer saw any one with them but Jesus only. 9: And as they were coming down the mountain, he charged them to tell no one what they had seen, until the Son of man should have risen from the dead. 10: So they kept the matter to themselves, questioning what the rising from the dead meant. 11: And they asked him, "Why do the scribes say that first Eli'jah must come?" 12: And he said to them, "Eli'jah does come first to restore all things; and how is it written of the Son of man, that he should suffer many things and be treated with contempt? 13: But I tell you that Eli'jah has come, and they did to him whatever they pleased, as it is written of him."

NOTES

1: And he said to them, "Truly, I say to you, there are some standing here who will not taste death before they see that the kingdom of God has come with power."

v1: Price argues (2003) that this verse indicates a much later period when most of the disciples had died. While that is reasonable, there is no reason that Jesus could not have uttered this during his own life time.

v1: the chiastic structure of the previous pericope indicates that Mark 9:1 does not belong here, but to the previous pericope. Perrin (1999) noted its affinities to Mk 8:30 and 8:38. He argues that Mark produced this saying to serve its current function in the pericope that runs from 8:27-91.

v1: Hatina (2005) argues that the 9:1 is not a promise to followers but a threat against those who reject Jesus:

"In contrast to this conventional approach, the reading proposed in this essay begins with the group(s) which will experience ("see") "the kingdom of God coming with power", first in 9,1 and then in 13,26 and 14,62. When prior attention is given to these groups in the context of the narrative, Jesus’ prediction in Mark 9,1 emerges not as a blessing promised to the protagonists, but as a threat of judgment aimed at antagonists."

2: And after six days Jesus took with him Peter and James and John, and led them up a high mountain apart by themselves; and he was transfigured before them,

v2: "After six days?" From what? The writer doesn't tell us. Has something been deleted?

v2: McNeile (1927) sees a close relationship with Exodus 24:13-18:

13 Then Moses set out with Joshua his aide, and Moses went up on the mountain of God. 14 He said to the elders, "Wait here for us until we come back to you. Aaron and Hur are with you, and anyone involved in a dispute can go to them." 15 When Moses went up on the mountain, the cloud covered it, 16 and the glory of the LORD settled on Mount Sinai. For six days the cloud covered the mountain, and on the seventh day the LORD called to Moses from within the cloud. 17 To the Israelites the glory of the LORD looked like a consuming fire on top of the mountain. 18 Then Moses entered the cloud as he went on up the mountain. And he stayed on the mountain forty days and forty nights. (NIV)

4: And there appeared to them Eli'jah with Moses; and they were talking to Jesus.

v4: Elijah plays an important role in Mark's gospel. Heil (1999) writes:

"Whereas Matt 17,3 and Luke 9,30 mention Moses first and coordinate him with Elijah in the expression, "Moses and (kai\) Elijah", Mark 9,4 mentions Elijah first and seems to subordinate Moses to him in the expression, "Elijah with (su\n) Moses" 1. But a close examination of all the instances where Mark uses the preposition su/n indicates that this is not the case. On the contrary, the object of the preposition su\n in every instance represents the more notable party."

v4: One way to interpret this is to observe that Moses and Elijah represent Law and Prophecy, respectively.

v4: It should also be pointed out that the disciples have no way to recognize Elijah or Moses. This comment is clearly aimed at the reader/hearer of the book.

5: And Peter said to Jesus, "Master, it is well that we are here; let us make three booths, one for you and one for Moses and one for Eli'jah." 6: For he did not know what to say, for they were exceedingly afraid.

v5-6: Timothy Wiarda (1999) has argued that the writer of Mark here shows Peter as an individual, explaining from the inside what his feelings were.

9: And as they were coming down the mountain, he charged them to tell no one what they had seen, until the Son of man should have risen from the dead.

v9: As Thomas Sheehan (1986, p281) observes, in Mark Jesus never tells his disciples that he is the Christ, and when God announces the fact to Peter, James, and John during the heavenly vision in v9, Jesus enjoins them to silence, as he did in Mark 8.

10: So they kept the matter to themselves, questioning what the rising from the dead meant.

v10: The RSV has smoothed over an embarrassing passage here, where the Greek clearly indicates that the disciples are pictured arguing amongst themselves over what Jesus' words might mean. Tolbert (1989, p207), points out that once again the writer is poking fun at the disciples. The disciples question each other, instead of Jesus. Further, the absurdity is heightened as Peter, James, and John have already seen Jairus' daughter rising from the dead, and so have some idea of what Jesus might mean. In other words, the reason for the 3 disciples accompanying Jesus to see the daughter raised from the dead has now become apparent. It is so that, once again, the writer can skewer them for being clueless. Tolbert drives this home by pointing out that Peter, James, and John have even witnessed Moses and Elijah raised, and still haven't the foggiest notion of what Jesus might mean. The author's portrayal of the disciples' stupidity is merciless.

11: And they asked him, "Why do the scribes say that first Eli'jah must come?" 12: And he said to them, "Eli'jah does come first to restore all things; and how is it written of the Son of man, that he should suffer many things and be treated with contempt?

v11-12: Romans 11:2-3 has a very similar passage:

2: God has not rejected his people whom he foreknew. Do you not know what the scripture says of Eli'jah, how he pleads with God against Israel?
3: "Lord, they have killed thy prophets, they have demolished thy altars, and I alone am left, and they seek my life."(RSV)

Historical Commentary:
This scene is both entirely supernatural, and a riff on the OT based on the ascension of Elijah:

Mark 9:4-13 2 Kings 1

Transfiguration Elijah is carried by fire into heaven

unearthly light fire from heaven

(five references to Elijah)

Another possible origin is in Josephus' description of Moses' ascension to heaven in Antiquities of the Jews, where Moses goes to the mountain of Abarim and is taken up to heaven in the presence of the seventy elders of Israel, Eleazar and Joshua (Joshua is the Hebrew name represented by "Jesus").

Crispin Fletcher-Louis (1997) has pointed out that the Transfiguration may also represent Jesus' ascension as High Priest, a position connected to the Son of Man imagery. The "booths" would then suggest New Years holiday, three separate holidays, among which was the Day of Atonement, on which one denies oneself (Mark 8:34).

Note the numerous references to Elijah, whose story and miracles the writer used to create the story of Jesus throughout the Gospel of Mark.

This pericope consists of parts of three chiasms. The first one extends into Mark 9:1-2, the second two cover the rest of the periocope.

A
And after six days Jesus took with him Peter and James and John, and led them up a high mountain apart by themselves;

B
and he was transfigured before them, and his garments became glistening, intensely white, as no fuller on earth could bleach them.

C
And there appeared to them Eli'jah with Moses; and they were talking to Jesus.

D
And Peter said to Jesus, "Master, it is well that we are here; let us make three booths, one for you and one for Moses and one for Eli'jah."

D
For he did not know what to say, for they were exceedingly afraid.

C
And a cloud overshadowed them, and a voice came out of the cloud, "This is my beloved Son; listen to him."

B
And suddenly looking around they no longer saw any one with them but Jesus only.

A
And as they were coming down the mountain, he charged them to tell no one what they had seen, until the Son of man should have risen from the dead.

Here is the second chiasm:

A
And as they were coming down the mountain, he charged them to tell no one what they had seen, until the Son of man should have risen from the dead.

B
So they kept the matter to themselves, questioning what the rising from the dead meant.

C
And they asked him, "Why do the scribes say that first Eli'jah must come?"

C
And he said to them, "Eli'jah does come first to restore all things; and how is it written of the Son of man, that he should suffer many things and be treated with contempt?

B
But I tell you that Eli'jah has come, and they did to him whatever they pleased, as it is written of him."

A
And when they came to the disciples, they saw a great crowd about them, and scribes arguing with them.

It contains the usual Markan redactive themes, such as the messianic secret (v9) and the cluelessness of the disciples. Some exegetes reconstruct this as originally a story of a post-Easter appearance (Crossan 1991, p396). Regardless of origin, it is clearly entirely supernatural and therefore cannot support historicity.

Mark 9:14-29

14: And when they came to the disciples, they saw a great crowd about them, and scribes arguing with them. 15: And immediately all the crowd, when they saw him, were greatly amazed, and ran up to him and greeted him. 16: And he asked them, "What are you discussing with them?" 17: And one of the crowd answered him, "Teacher, I brought my son to you, for he has a dumb spirit; 18: and wherever it seizes him, it dashes him down; and he foams and grinds his teeth and becomes rigid; and I asked your disciples to cast it out, and they were not able." 19: And he answered them, "O faithless generation, how long am I to be with you? How long am I to bear with you? Bring him to me." 20: And they brought the boy to him; and when the spirit saw him, immediately it convulsed the boy, and he fell on the ground and rolled about, foaming at the mouth. 21: And Jesus asked his father, "How long has he had this?" And he said, "From childhood.

22: And it has often cast him into the fire and into the water, to destroy him; but if you can do anything, have pity on us and help us." 23: And Jesus said to him, "If you can! All things are possible to him who believes." 24: Immediately the father of the child cried out and said, "I believe; help my unbelief!" 25: And when Jesus saw that a crowd came running together, he rebuked the unclean spirit, saying to it, "You dumb and deaf spirit, I command you, come out of him, and never enter him again." 26: And after crying out and convulsing him terribly, it came out, and the boy was like a corpse; so that most of them said, "He is dead." 27: But Jesus took him by the hand and lifted him up, and he arose. 28: And when he had entered the house, his disciples asked him privately, "Why could we not cast it out?" 29: And he said to them, "This kind cannot be driven out by anything but prayer."

NOTES

14: And when they came to the disciples, they saw a great crowd about them, and scribes arguing with them.

v14: the scribes disappear immediately.

17: And one of the crowd answered him, "Teacher, I brought my son to you, for he has a dumb spirit; 18: and wherever it seizes him, it dashes him down; and he foams and grinds his teeth and becomes rigid; and I asked your disciples to cast it out, and they were not able."

v17: Pesch (1977) pointed out that this passage does not contain the typical motifs of an exorcism in antiquity, instancing the failure of the disciples to cure the boy shown in v17. However, in the healing of the Shunnamite woman's son (2 Kings 4) Elisha's disciple Gehazi fails to heal the boy.

19: And he answered them, "O faithless generation, how long am I to be with you? How long am I to bear with you? Bring him to me.

v19: yet another of the endless examples in Mark of disciples who are clueless. In this case, Mark piles on a further polemical attack: the disciples cannot do miracles either. The verse echoes Deut 32:5 (Donahue and Harrington 2002, p279):

They have acted corruptly toward him; to their shame they are no longer his children, but a warped and crooked generation. (NIV)

This is the second possible pointer to Deut 32:5 in the gospel (see also Mark 8:38). Going back to Deut 32, we find one of only two references to demons in the OT. The other is in Psalm 106, which refers to the events of Deut 32. In other words, the writer of Mark appears to have created a pointer to the source of the demons that appear in his Gospel.

They sacrificed to demons, which are not God- gods they had not known, gods that recently appeared, gods your fathers did not fear.

21: And Jesus asked his father, "How long has he had this?" And he said, "From childhood. 22: And it has often cast him into the fire and into the water, to destroy him; but if you can do anything, have pity on us and help us."

v21-22: The writer probably has Jesus ask this in order to supply the reader with this piece of information.

29: And he said to them, "This kind cannot be driven out by anything but prayer."

	v29: many manuscripts add "and fasting" but this is generally seen as a spurious addition of a later era when fasting became popular.
	v29: As Tolbert (1989, p188-9), if the demon can only be driven out prayer, and the disciples cannot drive it out, the logical conclusion is that the disciples do not pray. Tolbert points out that aside from customary blessings of food and children, Jesus makes a point of going off to pray by himself on several occasions during the gospel.

Historical Commentary
Koester (1990, p280; 2000, p173) also point out that this text has probably been heavily and clumsily redacted, for large sections of v25-29 are missing from the other two Synoptics. Both Matt and Luke have a simple exorcism story here. Additionally, "were greatly amazed" in v15 appears to have been added as well. v14 "scribes" is without the definite article the writer of Mark invariably gives it. Arguments have been made for insertions of v22-23, v21-24, and v28-29, or some combination, on the grounds that they help explain failures in exorcism in the later Church. Koester also points out that the exorcism, a formula, is actually for a deaf-and-dumb child, not an epileptic.

This paragraph is replete with Markan themes, including the power of belief, and the idea of "rising" often present in Markan miracles, and of course, Jesus giving private teaching in a house. As in other miracle stories in Mark the demon identifies Jesus immediately, but being deaf and dumb, can only signal that it knows who Jesus is by making the boy convulse. Another common Markan habit is the scribes, who appear for one verse, and then disappear from the pericope.

The chiastic structure of this pericope is beautifully balanced.

A
And when they came to the disciples, they saw a great crowd about them, and scribes arguing with them.

B
And immediately all the crowd, when they saw him, were greatly amazed, and ran up to him and greeted him.

C
And he asked them, "What are you discussing with them?"

D
And one of the crowd answered him, "Teacher, I brought my son to you, for he has a dumb spirit; and wherever it seizes him, it dashes him down; and he foams and grinds his teeth and becomes rigid; and I asked your disciples to cast it out, and they were not able."

E
And he answered them, "O faithless generation, how long am I to be with you? How long am I to bear with you? Bring him to me."

F
And they brought the boy to him; and when the spirit saw him, immediately it convulsed the boy, and he fell on the ground and rolled about, foaming at the mouth.

G
And Jesus asked his father, "How long has he had this?"

G
And he said, "From childhood. And it has often cast him into the fire and into the water, to destroy him; but if you can do anything, have pity on us and help us."

F
And Jesus said to him, "If you can! All things are possible to him who believes."

E
Immediately the father of the child cried out and said, "I believe; help my unbelief!"

D
And when Jesus saw that a crowd came running together, he rebuked the unclean spirit, saying to it, "You dumb and deaf spirit, I command you, come out of him, and never enter him again."

C
And after crying out and convulsing him terribly, it came out, and the boy was like a corpse; so that most of them said, "He is dead."

B
But Jesus took him by the hand and lifted him up, and he arose.

A
And when he had entered the house, his disciples asked him privately, "Why could we not cast it out?"

The A brackets once again have a shift of location. The B brackets have an amazed crowd paired with a raised boy. The D brackets pair Jesus' ability to rebuke the spirit with the disciples' inability. The E brackets are comments on the theme of faithlessness.

The strong presence of the supernatural and typical Markan themes, as well as conventional miracle formulae, indicates that there is no support for historicity in this pericope.

Mark 9:30-37

30: They went on from there and passed through Galilee. And he would not have any one know it; 31: for he was teaching his disciples, saying to them, "The Son of man will be delivered into the hands of men, and they will kill him; and when he is killed, after three days he will rise." 32: But they did not understand the saying, and they were afraid to ask him. 33: And they came to Caper'na-um; and when he was in the house he asked them, "What were you discussing on the

way?" 34: But they were silent; for on the way they had discussed with one another who was the greatest. 35: And he sat down and called the twelve; and he said to them, "If any one would be first, he must be last of all and servant of all." 36: And he took a child, and put him in the midst of them; and taking him in his arms, he said to them, 37: "Whoever receives one such child in my name receives me; and whoever receives me, receives not me but him who sent me."

NOTES

30: They went on from there and passed through Galilee. And he would not have any one know it; 31: for he was teaching his disciples, saying to them, "The Son of man will be delivered into the hands of men, and they will kill him; and when he is killed, after three days he will rise." 32: But they did not understand the saying, and they were afraid to ask him.

v30-32: are Markan redaction. Some exegetes have seen Isaiah 53 (LXX) in v31 "the hands of men." Others see Daniel 7:25 and 12:2. Daniel 7:25 runs:

He will speak against the Most High and oppress his saints and try to change the set times and the laws. The saints will be handed over to him for a time, times and half a time. (NIV)

Note that early Christians often referred to themselves as "the Saints" or "the Elect." Daniel 12:1-2, referring to the resurrection of the Just, says:

"At that time Michael, the great prince who protects your people, will arise. There will be a time of distress such as has not happened from the beginning of nations until then. But at that time your people-everyone whose name is found written in the book-will be delivered. Multitudes who sleep in the dust of the earth will awake: some to everlasting life, others to shame and everlasting contempt. (NIV)

v31: Note again the simple chiastic structure that underlies so many of the verses of Mark.

A: "The Son of man will be delivered into the hands of men,
B: and they will kill him;
B: and when he is killed,
A: after three days he will rise."

33: And they came to Caper'na-um; and when he was in the house he asked them, "What were you discussing on the way?"

	v33: supplies a hint that Jesus had a house in Capernaum, although it may also be Peter's house (1:29)
	v33: "the way." The Way is a common motif in Mark.
	v33-5a: also Markan redaction. v35b "If any one would be first, he must be last of all and servant of all" may come from a source, according to some exegetes.

34: But they were silent; for on the way they had discussed with one another who was the greatest.

v34: Once again, the writer depicts the disciples as self-aggrandizing, callous, and ignorant, for they react to Jesus' prediction of his coming death by discussing amongst themselves which one is the greatest.

36: And he took a child, and put him in the midst of them; and taking him in his arms, he said to them, 37: "Whoever receives one such child in my name receives me; and whoever receives me, receives not me but him who sent me."

	v36-7: Note again that Jesus refers to himself as sent, apparently by God, a position consistent with a Christology of Adoptionism.
	v36-7: Thompson (2005) relates a Samaritan tale that brings together the elemnts of children and the image of God. Alexander the Great visited Shechem and demanded that the Samaritans place an image of him atop their holy mountain, a great sacrilege. The image had to be there by the time of his return from Egypt. The Samaritans were stumped. How to avoid either committing blasphemy or getting killed by Alexander? When Alexander returned, there was no image of himself on top of the holy mountain, and he was beside himself. The high priest of the Samaritans patiently explained that the Samaritans did not build lifeless statues like lesser nations, but made images of Alexander that could move and talk. He assembled all the children of Samaria and as each one passed by Alexander in review, asked him his name. The child proudly replied "Alexander!" The king was delighted and everyone lived happily ever after.
	v36-7: Weeden (1971) compares this passage to the heretics of 2 Corinthians, who also want to know who is the greatest of all. He goes on to note that the next pericope also can be seen as a commentary on 2 Corinthians, for the dispute is over how the members of the community relate to each other, a question that Jesus resolves with an ethic of inclusiveness.

Historical Commentary

This is Jesus' second passion prediction. Note the parallel with the third passion prediction in Mark 10:

Mark 9:30-34	Mark 10:32-37
Passion Prediction 30: They went on from there and passed through Galilee. And he would not have any one know it; 31: for he was teaching his disciples, saying to them, "The Son of man will be delivered into the hands of men, and they will kill him; and when he is killed, after three days he will rise." 32: But they did not understand the saying, and they were afraid to ask him. 33: And they came to Caper'na-um; and when he was in the house he asked them, "What were you discussing on the way.?" 34: But they were silent; for on the way they had discussed with one another who was the greatest.	Passion Prediction 32: And they were on the road, going up to Jerusalem, and Jesus was walking ahead of them; and they were amazed, and those who followed were afraid. And taking the twelve again, he began to tell them what was to happen to him, 33: saying, "Behold, we are going up to Jerusalem; and the Son of man will be delivered to the chief priests and the scribes, and they will condemn him to death, and deliver him to the Gentiles; 34: and they will mock him, and spit upon him, and scourge him, and kill him; and after three days he will rise."
Who is the Greatest? 34: But they were silent; for on the way they had discussed with one another who was the greatest.	Can we be the Greatest? 35: And James and John, the sons of Zeb'edee, came forward to him, and said to him, "Teacher, we want you to do for us whatever we ask of you." 36: And he said to them, "What do you want me to do for you?" 37: And they said to him, "Grant us to sit, one at your right hand and one at your left, in your glory."

In addition to the doublet, the pericope is also a set of chiasms.

A	And when he had entered the house, his disciples asked him privately, "Why could we not cast it out?"
	B	And he said to them, "This kind cannot be driven out by anything but prayer."
A	They went on from there and passed through Galilee.

A	They went on from there and passed through Galilee.
	B	And he would not have any one know it; for he was teaching his disciples, saying to them, "The Son of man will be delivered into the hands of men, and they will kill him; and when he is killed, after three days he will rise."
	B	But they did not understand the saying, and they were afraid to ask him.
A	And they came to Caper'na-um;

A		And they came to Caper'na-um;
	B	and when he was in the house he asked them, "What were you discussing on the way?"
	B	But they were silent; for on the way they had discussed with one another who was the greatest.
A	And he sat down and called the twelve; and he said to them, "If any one would be first, he must be last of all and servant of all."

A	And he sat down and called the twelve; and he said to them, "If any one would be first, he must be last of all and servant of all."
	B	And he took a child, and put him in the midst of them;
		C	and taking him in his arms, he said to them, "Whoever receives one such child in my name receives me; and whoever receives me, receives not me but him who sent me."
			D	John said to him, "Teacher, we saw a man casting out demons in your name, and we forbade him, because he was not following us."
			D	But Jesus said, "Do not forbid him; for no one who does a mighty work in my name will be able soon after to speak evil of me.
		C	For he that is not against us is for us.
	B	For truly, I say to you, whoever gives you a cup of water to drink because you bear the name of Christ, will by no means lose his reward. Whoever causes one of these little ones who believe in me to sin, it would be better for him if a great millstone were hung round his neck and he were thrown into the sea. And if your hand causes you to sin, cut it off; it is better for you to enter life maimed than with two hands to go to hell, to the unquenchable fire. And if your foot causes you to sin, cut it off; it is better for you to enter life lame than with two feet to be thrown into hell. And if your eye causes you to sin, pluck it out; it is better for you to enter the kingdom of God with one eye than with two eyes to be thrown into hell, where their worm does not die, and the fire is not quenched. For every one will be salted with fire. Salt is good; but if the salt has lost its saltness, how will you season it? Have salt in yourselves, and be at peace with one another."
A	And he left there and went to the region of Judea and beyond the Jordan, and crowds gathered to him again;

Jesus answers the disciples' implicit question Who is the greatest? with a typical chreia response: If you want to be great, you first must serve. The chreia structure, the inherently supernatural prediction, and the location of Jesus' sayings in the OT indicate that there is no support for historicity in this pericope.

Mark 9:38-41

38: John said to him, "Teacher, we saw a man casting out demons in your name, and we forbade him, because he was not following us." 39: But Jesus said, "Do not forbid him; for no one who does a mighty work in my name will be able soon after to speak evil of me.

40: For he that is not against us is for us. 41: For truly, I say to you, whoever gives you a cup of water to drink because you bear the name of Christ, will by no means lose his reward.

NOTES

38: John said to him, "Teacher, we saw a man casting out demons in your name, and we forbade him, because he was not following us."

v38-40: Probably taken from Numbers 11:26-29 (Price 2003, p197, Gundry 1993, p511, Donahue and Harrington 2002, p286, Myers 1988, p261):

26 However, two men, whose names were Eldad and Medad, had remained in the camp. They were listed among the elders, but did not go out to the Tent. Yet the Spirit also rested on them, and they prophesied in the camp. 27 A young man ran and told Moses, "Eldad and Medad are prophesying in the camp." 28 Joshua son of Nun, who had been Moses' aide since youth, spoke up and said, "Moses, my lord, stop them!" 29 But Moses replied, "Are you jealous for my sake? I wish that all the LORD's people were prophets and that the LORD would put his Spirit on them!"(NIV)

Note that the name "Jesus" is the Greek form of "Joshua." Looking at it intertextually, Moses' remark illuminates Jesus': "If only all of God's followers were prophets!" Myers (1988, p262) notes the irony: Peter, who has done miracles in Jesus' name, will deny Jesus later.

v38: John's solo role is unique in this gospel.

v38: The disciples once again fail to understand the meaning of the Kingdom of God.

40: For he that is not against us is for us.

v40: paralled in traditions outside the Gospels, for example, in Cicero Speeches 41: "For us, all are opponents except for those who are with us; for Caesar, all are his own in so far as they are not against him." This does not mean that the author of Mark read Cicero, but rather that the idea might suggest itself in many situations independently, and need not go back to a source or to Jesus.

41: For truly, I say to you, whoever gives you a cup of water to drink because you bear the name of Christ, will by no means lose his reward.

v41: A clear anachronism. "Christians" as a term for the followers of Christ does not show up until late in the first century. Paul never refers to "Christians" when describing his Church. Instead, he calls it the "Church of God" and its people "saints" or "the Elect" (Ellegard 1999, p20,27).

Historical Commentary
The close links to the OT, as well as the clear anachronism, indicate that there is no support for historicity in this pericope.

Mark 9:42-50

42: "Whoever causes one of these little ones who believe in me to sin, it would be better for him if a great millstone were hung round his neck and he were thrown into the sea. 43: And if your hand causes you to sin, cut it off; it is better for you to enter life maimed than with two hands to go to hell, to the unquenchable fire. 45: And if your foot causes you to sin, cut it off; it is better for you to enter life lame than

with two feet to be thrown into hell. 47: And if your eye causes you to sin, pluck it out; it is better for you to enter the kingdom of God with one eye than with two eyes to be thrown into hell, 48: where their worm does not die, and the fire is not quenched. 49: For every one will be salted with fire. 50: Salt is good; but if the salt has lost its saltness, how will you season it? Have salt in yourselves, and be at peace with one another."

NOTES

42: "Whoever causes one of these little ones who believe in me to sin, it would be better for him if a great millstone were hung round his neck and he were thrown into the sea.

v42: "to sin." The Greek verb skandalise (literally closer to to offend rather than to sin) is used here, echoing Paul in several places in 1 Corinthians, including the famous passage in 1:23, as well as 8:13. The appendix to McCracken (1994) lists this word and its appearances in the NT, including 8 times in Mark (4:17, 6:3, 9:42, 9:43, 9:45, 9:47, 14:27, and 14:29). The verb means both "to stumble" (fall away from the right) and "to offend." In the Septaugint translation of the OT, it is used to translate the Hebrew word for "snare."

44 & 46...... [spurious].....

v44, v46: considered interpolations by the majority of scholars. There are simply sayings without context, and unhistorical. Chilton (1984) has argued that they should be reinstated, since they accord with an Aramaic targum.

43: And if your hand causes you to sin, cut it off; it is better for you to enter life maimed than with two hands to go to hell, to the unquenchable fire. 45: And if your foot causes you to sin, cut it off; it is better for you to enter life lame than with two feet to be thrown into hell. 47: And if your eye causes you to sin, pluck it out; it is better for you to enter the kingdom of God with one eye than with two eyes to be thrown into hell,

v43-47: recalls Paul's construction in 1 Cor 12 as a community with hands, eye, and feet.

48: where their worm does not die, and the fire is not quenched.

v48: quotation of Isaiah 66:24

50: Salt is good; but if the salt has lost its saltness, how will you season it? Have salt in yourselves, and be at peace with one another."

v50: Fledderman (1981, p73) observes that in the OT "salt" is a symbol of the covenant. Leviticus 2:13 says:

Season all your grain offerings with salt. Do not leave the salt of the covenant of your God out of your grain offerings; add salt to all your offerings.

Similarly, Numbers 18:19 (paralleled in 2 Chron 13:5) offers:

Whatever is set aside from the holy offerings the Israelites present to the LORD I give to you and your sons and daughters as your regular share. It is an everlasting covenant of salt before the LORD for both you and your offspring."

Historical Commentary

Ludemann (2001, p66) and Donahue and Harrington (2002, p287) see the reference to body parts being cut out as actually a reference to the community and individuals in it who do not hew to community norms: they should be cut off. Note that self-mutiliation is forbidden in Judaism (Deut 14:1, for example). That may in turn link back to Paul's crudely sarcastic remark about "cutting off' certain parts of his opponents. The verb for "cutting off" is the same in both cases.

Funk et al (1997) note that the Jesus Seminar sees Mk 9:42 as a proverb that had become Christianized.

The links to the OT, and probably to 1 Corinthians as well, indicate that there is no support for historicity in this pericope.

Excursus: Was Mark meant to be Performed?

Gal 3:1 O foolish Galatians! Who has bewitched you, before whose eyes Jesus Christ was publicly portrayed as crucified? (RSV)

For more than a century scholars have noticed how the structuring of the Passion Narrative (arrest, trial, and death of Jesus) resembles a play. Livio Stecchini and Jan Sammer have even proposed a reconstruction of the Passion Narrative as Nazarenus: Seneca's Lost Play. While there is no evidence to link the Passion to Seneca, their reconstruction does offer many possibilities for thinking about how Mark is constructed.

In her study of Mark 4:11-12, Mary Ann Beavis (1989, p128-9) proposed that the Gospel of Mark is patterned after a model of Greek tragedy that became standardized in Hellenistic times. This five act pattern is clear in the tragedies of Seneca, but may also be found in the most complete surviving Hellenistic tragedy, the Exagoge of Exekiel. Her reconstruction of Mark follows the basic program of prologue, episode, and chorus, laid out by Aristotle in his Poetics. In her reconstruction, the writer of Mark varied this model by substituting teaching sections for the chorus. John Dart (2003, p158-171), also reconstructs Mark as a five act presentation with a prologue and a conclusion.

Reconstruction of Gospel of Mark as Hellenistic Drama (adapted from Beavis 1989, p128-9)		....	Dart's 5-Act Reconstruction of Mark (Dart, 2003, p158-171)

Prologue	1:1-13 Jesus introduced as Son of God, John precedes Jesus		1:1-14
Act 1	1:14-3:35 Jesus calls disciples, preaching and healing begins, conflict stories		1:14-4:12
Teaching 1	4:1-34 Parables, themes of private teaching, catchword is Listen!
Act 2	4:35-6:56 Miracles, Jesus rejected in own country, disciples sent, John executed, first feeding miracle, section opens and closes with miracles on the sea		4:13-6:46
Teaching 2	7:1-23 Teaching on clean and unclean, private teaching
Act 3	7:24-9:29 Story of Syro-Phoenician woman, healing, feeding, healing, recognition scene (Mk 8), transfiguration		8:27-10:52 (Dart rejects Bethsaida section but accepts Secret Mark)
Teaching 3	9:30-10:45 Teaching on discipleship, passion prediction and ransom saying
Act 4	10:26-12:44 Healing of blind, entry into Jerusalem, Temple cleansed, hostilities with Jewish leaders		11:1-14:9
Teaching 4	13:1-37 Private eschatological teaching to disciples, catchwords are Look! and Watch!
Act 5	Arrest, trial, and execution of Jesus		14:10-15:33
Epilogue	Empty tomb, Jesus is risen.		15:34-16:8 + 1:3

John the Baptist would then play the role of the actor in a Greek play whose job it is to set up the scene and explain some of the plot and details. Similarly Tolbert's interpretation of the Parable of the Sower and the Parable of the Tenants argues that they function as synopses of the action and characters to help the audience understand the performance. Vernon Robbins (1991) has also focused on the Gospel as oral performance. Whitney Shiner (2003) points to a tell-tale passage in Paul in which he describes the "public exhibition" of the Gospel:

The gospel probably developed over time through progressive elaborations of a passion
narrative in repeated performances. Paul takes his audience to task as “foolish Galatians, before
whose eye’s Jesus Christ was publicly exhibited as crucified” (Gal 3:1).

Joanna Dewey (2004, p497-8) writes:

Performance of sacred stories was a major part of synagogue worship, so most
likely it was important also in early Christian worship.

Mark Goodacre (2004b) has suggested that the timing of the Passion Narrative indicates that the audience was meant to experience or perform it. He observes:

"The text itself appears to be drawing attention to the three hour pattern, alerting the bright reader to what is to come. And though an explanation has been put forward separately by three different scholars, a Canadian (Philip Carrington) in the 1950s, an Englishman (Michael Goulder) in the 1970s, and a Frenchman (Etienne Trocme) in the 1980s, it is still hardly known at all in mainstream scholarship. These three scholars claim that the liturgy is the only thing that would make sense of this. What is happening, they suggest, is that the early Christians were holding their own annual celebration of the events of the Passion at the Jewish Passover, remembered as roughly the time of Jesus' death. While other Jews were celebrating Passover, Christian Jews held a twenty-four hour vigil in which they retold and relived the events surrounding Jesus' arrest and death, from (what modern Christians would call) Maundy Thursday at 6 p.m. to Good Friday at 6 p.m. Perhaps Mark's account of the Passion, with its heavy referencing of Scripture, its regular time notes, was itself influenced by such a liturgical memory of the Passion."

There is no reason that this suggestion should not be applied throughout the Gospel. The fivefold structure of many Markan features -- two sets of five conflict stories, two sets of fivefold miracle stories, a fivefold identification of Jesus in Mark 15, and so on, may relate to the fivefold structure of Attic drama. Viewing Mark as a performed liturgy may help us think about why the author chose to present certain stories in certain ways. Stephen Smith (1999), however, points out that five-fold models may be too rigid, and the five-act pattern one that was a convention which was often ignored or altered in antiquity. He proposes a seven-fold structure for Mark.

Markan Intercalations
One of the writer's signature features is the "intercalation" in which one story is sandwiched inside another. Such intercalations include:

	Mk 2:1-12	Jesus heals a paralytic lowered through a roof (argument over healing on the Sabbath)
	Mk 3:20-35	Jesus family looks for Jesus, Parable of Binding the Strong Man, Jesus family finds Jesus
	Mk 5:21-43	Jesus raises Jairus' daughter and heals the bleeding woman
	Mk 6:7-31	Jesus sends disciples out, Herod kills John, disciples return
	Mk 11:12-25	Jesus curses fig tree, Temple Cleansed, fig tree found dead
	Mk 14:1-11	Authorities look for way to kill Jesus, Jesus is annointed, Judas betrays Jesus
	Mk 14:53-72	Jesus is hauled before Sanhedrin, Peter is outside, Jesus is tried, Peter denies Jesus

One interesting aspect of these intercalations is that they all involve a change of either state or location that demands time for the actors to re-arrange something or someone. In Mk 2:1-12 the paralytic comes in, there is an argument, and then he stands up, healed. Similarly, in Mk 3:20-35 Jesus' family heads out to look for Jesus. He's talking, then next they find him. The change of scene represents the passage of time while they search. In the healing of Jairus' daughter, the healing of the bleeding woman gives the set crew time to change the set from the place beside the sea where the crowd listens to Jesus, and Jairus meets him and informs him of the daughter, to the scene of Jairus' house. In Mk 6:7-31 Jesus sends out disciples. As time passes, we get the long telling of Herod's murdur of John the Baptist. Now that time has passed, the disciples can return with the results. In Mk 11:12-25 the set crew needs time to clear out the living fig tree and substitute a dead one.

Mk 14:1-11 sandwiches Jesus' annointing between plans to have him killed. First the writer presents the authorities' goal of finding a way to do away with Jesus. Next, Judas' betrayal occurs. The scene could have started out with Judas' betrayal, but that still would have demanded an intercalation, because Judas is a disciple and must be with Jesus. Thus, the writer would have had to intercalate Judas' leaving and rejoining, as well as a plausible story. Here too the impetus comes from the Jewish leadership rather than from Judas, and Judas need only leave once instead of leave and return. Finally, the intercalated denial of Peter Mk 14:53-72 requires in and out movement of individuals. People come in and accuse Peter, while Peter changes location to move out to the gateway. Intercalations make sense as a simple way of solving the problem of location and set changes.

Other Issues

Another problem solved by viewing Mark as something to be performed is the lack of lines relating to movements of individuals. For example, the writer does not tell us exactly how Jesus was crucified. If the Gospel was meant to be performed, the audience would have that problem solved visually. Similarly, the writer never narrates Judas sneaking off in Mk 14:1-11 to betray Jesus. Nor does he provide any lines relating to Judas leaving during the Last Supper, though Judas had to have left, because he shows up at Gethsemane at the head of a mob to arrest Jesus, and no one on Jesus' side expresses any surprise to see Judas there. In a performance the audience would be able to see Judas leave, and perhaps offstage, assemble a mob to arrest Jesus. In Mark 3:13 Jesus calls "those he desired" but from where? The audience, seeing a group of actors, would see some thread their way out of the group. or perhaps out of the audience itself. It also helps to inform the meaning of "immediately" in Mark: Jesus debouches from a boat and immediately people surround him. Difficult to imagine in reality, but easy to show on a stage or set. One could even read Jesus' remark in Mark 7:6 that the Pharisees were hypocrites as a sly pun, for the term hypocrite originally meant "stage actor."

Seeing the Gospel of Mark as a performed text may also explain some other aspects of the story. For example, the writer's vague geography and lack of geographical description and detail may reflect the expectation that those items would be presented visually. All the writer had to do was give some general idea of the location of incidents: a synagogue, a lonely place, the other side, in the house, and so on. The set crew would do the rest. Further, none of Jesus' miracles represent actions that would have been physically difficult or materially complicated and expensive to portray on stage. Jesus doesn't fly, move mountains, cast lightning, or transform one object into another. Instead, the blind see, the lame walk, demons leave their hosts, and a fig tree wilts. Clearly, the Gospel of Mark could easily be staged by a non-professional cast and crew on short notice, with a minimum of sets and equipment.

One could easily imagine sitting on a railing or a balcony overlooking a cleared space, on a warm evening on the Tiber, the smell of frying olive oil filling the air, and an overpowering voice cutting across the chatter in the rickety tenement houses: "The beginning of the gospel of Jesus Christ, the Son of God. As it is written in Isaiah the prophet, "Behold, I send my messenger before thy face....." Slowly curious locals come to their windows and spill out of their homes. What is going on down below?

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Historical Commentary on the Gospel of Mark
Chapter 1	Chapter 9	Home
Chapter 2	Chapter 10	Home
Chapter 3	Chapter 11	Topical Index
Chapter 4	Chapter 12	Topical Index
Chapter 5	Chapter 13	References
Chapter 6	Chapter 14	References
Chapter 7	Chapter 15	Contact Author
Chapter 8	Chapter 16	Contact Author