THE SYNOPTIC PROBLEM (Part 5)

Scholars argue that some of the individual stories may have been gathered into collections. The parables which form the basis of Jesus’ teaching in Mark 4: 1 - 34 might be taken from such a collection. The doubling of several miracle stories,

calming the storm: Mark 4: 35 - 41; 6: 45 - 52;
feeding the multitude: 6: 34 - 44; 8: 1 - 9;
healing the blind; 8:  22 - 26; 10: 46 - 52

suggests that there may have been even different collections that contained different versions of the same story.
The story of Jesus’ passion which we find in Mark 14 - 15 is probably based on an earlier written account of these events. However, we should note that it is much more difficult to move from the text of Mark as we have it back to the wording of a “pre-Markan” source.

Mark , as far as we know, was the first person to bring the diverse stories about Jesus together in a single narrative.

· Mark writes in Greek for an audience that does not understand the Aramaic words which occur in some of the stories (5: 41; 7: 34; 15: 34).

· They are also unfamiliar with Jewish customs (7: 3 - 4).

· Mark 7: 31 suggests that the author is not familiar with Palestinian geography. (Try tracing the proposed route on a Map.)

· Mark 13: 2 suggests that the fall of Jerusalem to the Roman army has either occurred or will soon.

· The warnings against false messiahs and the command to flee (Mark 13: 5 - 7, 14 - 16, 21 - 22) could be directed against expectations about the return of Jesus that has been awakened by those events. Mark has edited together these prophetic sayings with what appears to be an address to the situations of the readers in 13: 9 - 13.

· They must expect to suffer for Jesus’ sake at the hands of all the political authorities in the world: synagogue officials, Roman governors and even kings. This suffering is linked with the preaching of the gospel throughout the world. Mark 14:9 also referred to the gospel being preached “in the whole cosmos”.

 

(to be continued)