Lecture Six Gospel of Mark

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Lecture Six Gospel of Mark

• Lecturer Wu Shiyu

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Outline

• I. The previous lecture, on the Book of Exodus,
  began the exploration of the prophet, a figure
  who compels people to deal with the theme of God.
  The previous lecture dealt with Moses, the
  prophet who founded Judaism this lecture deals
  with Jesus, who founded Christianity.

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• II. The Gospel of Mark begins in Judaea, a
  province of the Roman Empire in 36 A.D., at the
  Sea of Galilee.
• A. To several fishermen, one of whom was Peter,
  appeared a man about whom they knew nothing. The
  man said, Follow me, and I will make you fishers
  of men.
• B. Peter followed Jesus for reasons that he
  perhaps could never explain and continued
  following him and teaching about him until his
  (Peters) death in Rome.

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• III. All we know about Jesus is contained in the
  four Gospels. Three of themMatthew, Mark, and
  Lukehave a great deal in common.
• A. John, which has a profound message, differs
  substantially from the other three, even in
  chronology. Matthew, Mark, and Luke were named by
  the early church as the Synoptic Gospels, those
  that see things in the same way.

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• B. Matthew appears to have been written for a
  primarily Jewish audience.
• C. Luke, the most historically minded of the
  Gospels, was written for a Gentile audience.
• D. Mark is believed to represent the firsthand
  account of Jesus, as taught by Peter and taken
  down by John Mark, the friend and disciple of
  Peter it is believed to represent the message of
  Jesus that Peter preached. Like the other
  Gospels, it was first published around 70 A.D.,
  but it may have been the first one written.

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• IV. Mark, unlike Luke or Matthew, does not begin
  with the birth of Jesus or with a long
  introduction. Instead, it begins with Jesus being
  called by John the Baptist, then suddenly
  appearing at the Sea of Galilee.

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• A. After calling Peter and the other fishermen,
  Jesus went with the men to the town of Capernaum.
  
• B. Jesus began his public mission in the
  synagogue at Capernaum, which was built in the
  style of a Greek temple. This building style
  points to the penetration of Greek culture
  throughout the Roman Empire, even as far as the
  Near East.

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• C. Jesus is believed to have been a learned man.
  He knew the Hebrew testament and probably knew
  Greek and Latin, as well as Aramaic, the language
  of the people.
• D. At that time, the formula for the synagogue
  service was prayer, followed by a reading from
  the Old Testament, including law, Prophets, or
  Psalms then, one person stood up to give a
  message. Traditionally, only Pharisees gave this
  message.

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• E. The Pharisees were learned in the law. They
  explicated the Jewish laws, which stemmed from
  the Ten Commandments but had become so complex
  that no layperson could understand them. Jesus
  later said that the Ten Commandments were simple
  and could be summarized as Love God and love
  your neighbor. The Pharisees believed that their
  social identity was wrapped up with their
  knowledge of the law. They believed that if every
  Jewish person followed the letter of the Jewish
  law for one day, the Kingdom of God would be
  restored, Rome would be forced to leave, and
  Israel would become a kingdom.

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• F. Jesus, who had no known academic credentials,
  preached his message in the temple. Unlike the
  Pharisees, Jesus taught as one who had authority.
  He did not make his message complicated, and his
  voice was powerful and mesmerizing. From the
  outset, Jesus put himself on a collision course
  with the Pharisees, the most influential members
  of the community.
• G. After delivering his message, Jesus went to
  Peters home, where he healed Peters
  mother-in-law.

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• H. The next morning, a crowd was waiting for
  Jesus. Peter found Jesus sitting outside and
  informed him that people were waiting to see him.
  Jesus said, Then let us go back, for that is why
  I have come out.
• 1. According to the Gospel of Mark,
  before Jesus arrived in Galilee, he spent time in
  the Wilderness, where there was a Jewish monastic
  community.

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• 2. The Essenes, according to Josephus, cut
  themselves off from the world, lived in monastic
  conditions, practiced baptism, and spent their
  days waiting for the coming of the Kingdom of
  God. They believed that it would come about by
  copying the word of God. The Dead Sea Scrolls
  come from this community.
• 3. Jesus may have been part of that community. He
  was baptized in the River Jordan by John, where
  God announced to Jesus alone, You are my beloved
  son, in whom I am well pleased. That was Gods
  call to Jesus.

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• 4. Jesus then had to decide whether to stay in
  the monastic community to prepare for the coming
  of the Kingdom of God or to go out and teach the
  message about the Kingdom of God.
• 5. Because he decided to go out, he became a
  prophet, like Moses, Muhammad, and Socrates. The
  public mission of Jesus began at Galilee.

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• I. Jesus was addressed as a teacher, a rabbi. He
  taught a message that is simple and ambiguous at
  the same time The Kingdom of God is at hand.
  This is the critical moment. Repent and believe
  in the good news of the Gospel. Jesus traveled
  on a teaching mission that lasted not more than a
  year, spreading this simple doctrine and
  performing miracles.

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• V. Scholars of the 19th and 20th centuries spent
  much time rationalizing and attempting to explain
  the miracles of Jesus.

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• A. These miracles cannot be removed or explained
  away. They are fundamental to the message as
  perceived by the audience of Jesus. As people of
  the 21st century believe in science, people then
  believed in magic. Although contemporary people
  may not accept that such miracles occurred, the
  age in which Jesus lived believed in miracles.
  The miracles have a progressive character, from
  curing Peters mother-in-law of a fever to
  bringing a girl back from the dead.

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• B. The miracles prompted people to deal with the
  question of God and whether he was speaking
  through this prophet or whether Jesus was a false
  prophet. In the narrative of the Gospel of Mark,
  these miracles are essential to authenticate the
  message of Jesus.

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• VI. At the time of Jesus, many false prophets had
  appeared who were seeking to drive out the
  Romans. It was a time of much social unrest. The
  people of Judaea resented Roman taxation and the
  fact that the Romans sent garrisons to Jerusalem
  at Passover. The Jews felt a sense of national
  degradation at the hands of the Romans.

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• VII. Jesus, an unknown man who lacked academic
  credentials as a Pharisee, appeared and was able
  to cure people.
• A. The Pharisees began to keep an eye on Jesus
  he was perceived to be a dangerous troublemaker
  who claimed to be a prophet.

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• B. Jesus did not try to conciliate the Pharisees
  and, in fact, went out of his way to antagonize
  them.
• 1. The disciples of Jesus did not perform
  the ritual ablutions prescribed by the Pharisees
  before eating.
• 2. Jesus told the Pharisees that what
  defiles a person is not what goes into them but
  what comes out of them, specifically, lies and
  hypocrisy. He told the Pharisees that they were
  rotten inside.

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• C. The message of Jesus was easy to misinterpret,
  which the Pharisees did.
• 1. They thought that Jesus was preaching
  social revolution, that riches should be taken
  from wealthy people and given to the poor.
• 2. When Jesus stated, The critical
  moment is at hand, the Pharisees interpreted it
  to mean a crisis, that is, a moment that would
  never come again. They thought that he was saying
  that now was the time to strike.

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• 3. The Kingdom of God is at hand could be
  interpreted to mean that the Romans should be
  overthrown and the kingdom of Israel
  reestablished.
• 4. Repent could be interpreted to mean that
  everything should be changed and the existing
  order should be overthrown.
• 5. Believe in the Gospel might mean that Jesus
  was teaching a new gospel in conflict with the
  good news of Roman propaganda, that is, that
  the emperor was the savior of mankind. Jesuss
  Gospel meant the overthrow of Rome.

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• D. Jesus was labeled a revolutionary and an enemy
  of Rome.
• E. Although Jesus knew that his position was
  dangerous, he traveled to Jerusalem, the center
  of Judaism, during Passover, the most sacred time
  of the Jewish year, when all Jews celebrate the
  end of their bondage in Egypt and when all
  Jewseven the most pro-Roman among themhoped
  that Rome might be driven out and Israel restored
  to greatness.

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• F. Although the Romans generally showed respect
  for Jewish sensibilities, they sent a garrison to
  Jerusalem at Passover to prevent an uprising.
  Pontius Pilate, the governor of Judaea, was
  nervous about the emperor Tiberius, who was
  suspicious, paranoid, and obsessed with treason.
  Tiberius did not allow his governors to tolerate
  traitors.
• G. After arriving at the Temple, Jesus drove out
  the moneychangers.

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• H. Jesus had become dangerous and had to be
  destroyed but could not be arrested.
• 1. The Sanhedrin, a council of 71 Jewish
  elders who governed Judaea, decided to remove
  Jesus from the support of his followers.
• 2. To test Jesus, a Pharisee asked him
  whether he believed that the people should pay
  taxes. Jesus asked the Pharisee to show him one
  of his coins. The coin of the Pharisee had an
  image of Caesar. Jesus said, Render unto Caesar
  the things that are Caesars and unto God the
  things that are Gods.

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• I. The Sanhedrin had absolute control over the
  internal affairs of Judaea. Jesus was arrested
  and tried before the court of the Sanhedrin.
  Caiaphas, the high priest, asked Jesus whether he
  was the Messiah. Jesus answered, Yes, and you
  will see the son of God coming, seated at the
  right hand of God, the father. The Sanhedrin
  wished to sentence Jesus to death, but only the
  governor was allowed to impose a death sentence.

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• J. Pontius Pilate recognized that the Jews had
  turned Jesus over to him out of envy. Because a
  person was considered guilty until proven
  innocent under Roman law, Jesus had to at least
  say that he was not guilty of the crimes, but he
  did not do so. Blasphemy, however, was not a
  crime under Roman law. The Sanhedrin alleged that
  Jesus had called himself king of the Jews, which
  was indeed a crime, because there could be only
  one king of the Roman Empire and that king was
  Tiberius. Jesus refused to deny that he was king
  of the Jews.

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• K. A member of the Sanhedrin said that if Jesus
  was not found guilty, they would refer the case
  to Caesar, against Pilates wishes. Pilate still
  wanted to let Jesus go and gave the people a
  chance to choose which prisoner would be
  pardoned. Because Jesus had called the people to
  individual redemption rather than giving a fiery
  call to overthrow the Romans, they were no longer
  interested in his message. The crowd requested
  that Barabbas be pardoned, and Jesus was led to
  his execution.

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• L. In the Gospel of Mark, none of the disciples
  was present at the crucifixion of Jesus. A Roman
  officer in charge of the crucifixion stated that
  he had never seen a man die with such courage.
  The Roman officer was the first person to say,
  Truly, this man is the son of God.

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• M. With that statement, the message of the
  prophet began to reach out to the Gentile world.

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• N. Only those who study Roman history in detail
  know anything about Tiberius, but Jesus Christ
  transformed the lives of millions in worlds the
  ancient Romans never knew existed. The words of
  the prophet Jesus echo down the corridors of
  time.

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