Mark

Daily Gleanings about Nijay Gupta’s critical introduction to 1–2 Thessalonians and KoineGreek.com’s videos of Mark’s gospel in Greek.

Daily Gleanings from Brice Jones about P.Oxy. 83.5345 (a “first-c.” Mark fragment) and Larry Hurtado about Darina Staudt’s, “Der eine und einzige Gott.”

This month, the Logos Bible Software site is highlighting Mark Noll’s The Old Religion in a New World: The History of North American Christianity (Eerdmans, 2002), which is on sale for free. Similarly, the Verbum site is highlighting John Donahue and Daniel Harrington’s Mark volume in the Sacra Pagina series (Liturgical, 2002), which is available for free. ...

Steven Runge has the latest article in Biblical and Ancient Greek Linguistics: “Relative Saliency and Information Structure in Mark’s Parable of the Sower.” According to the abstract: This study applies the cognitive model of Chafe and Givón, and the information-structure model of Lambrecht as applied by Levinsohn and Runge to the Markan explanation of the Parable of the Sower (4:14–20). The primary objective is to identify and analyze other linguistic devices, besides demonstratives, which might clarify the apparent prominence given to the unfruitful scatterings in Mark’s account. This study provides the necessary framework for comparing Mark’s pragmatic weighting of saliency to that found in Matthew and Luke’s accounts in order to determine whether Mark’s version is consistent with or divergent from the other traditions. ...

Image via Wikipedia The next issue of the Biblical Theology Bulletin includes: David M. Bossman, “The Ebb and Flow of Biblical Interpretation” Joel Edmund Anderson, “Jonah in Mark and Matthew: Creation, Covenant, Christ, and the Kingdom of God” Peter Admirand, “Millstones, Stumbling Blocks, and Dog Scraps: Children in the Gospels” Zeba A. Crook, “Memory and the Historical Jesus” John W. Daniels, Jr., “Gossip in the New Testament”

Mark 12:28–30 reports Jesus’ citation of Deut 6:4–5 as Torah’s preeminent commandment and of Lev 19:18 as the commandment of next greatest standing (cf. Matt 22:34–40; Luke 10:25–28). Jesus’ expansion of Deuteronomy’s בכל־מאדך ( Deut 6:5; ἐξ ὅλης τῆς δυνάμεώς σου; with all your might) into ἐξ ὅλης τῆς διανοίας σου καὶ ἐξ ὅλης τῆς ἰσχύος σου ( Mark 12:30; with all your mind and with all your strength) 1 is in step with Deuteronomy’s original formulation (cf. Mark 12:33a) but perhaps stresses still further יהוה’s comprehensive claim on the affections of the command’s addressees. 2 Not surprisingly, these commands’ importance also provides further, mutually-reinforcing suggestions about readings of Israel’s scriptures, including ones that privilege the love of יהוה and even of one’s potentially disagreeable neighbor over any burnt offering or sacrifice ( Mark 12:32–34). 3 ...

[caption id="" align=“alignright” width=“284” caption=“von Carolsfeld, Woodcut for “Bibel der Bildern” (Image via Wikipedia)”] [/caption] The story of Jesus’ raising Jairus’s daughter appears in all three synoptics ( Matt 9:18–19, 23–26; Mark 5:21–24, 35–43; Luke 8:41–42, 49–56), but only Mark and Luke report a closing admonition about the event’s further dissemination ( Mark 5:43; Luke 8:56). In Luke 8:56, Jesus instruction focuses on the fact that the witnesses, perhaps especially the parents, should not themselves engage in describing what happened. By contrast, in Mark 5:43, Jesus warns those around him ἵνα μηδεὶς γνοῖ τοῦτο (so that no one would know this*). ...

[caption id="" align=“alignright” width=“225” caption=“Image via Wikipedia”] [/caption] In Num 12:1, Miriam and Aaron confront Moses because of his marriage to a Cushite woman, and in so doing, they attempt to claim equal prophetic status with Moses ( Num 12:2a). Apparently, on this occasion, Moses’ meekness constrains him from responding ( Num 12:3; cf. Rom 12:19; 1 Clem. 17 [ANF 9:234]; Socrates, Hist. eccl., 7.42 [NPNF2 2:176]), but יהוה hears the conversation and summons all three siblings to the tent of meeting ( Num 12:2b, 4). יהוה then summons Aaron and Miriam for a special rebuke ( Num 12:5): however high may be their claim to apparently equal prophetic status with Moses, Moses own status still surpasses that of prophet ( Num 12:6–9). The status that Aaron and Miriam claim for themselves gets them only so far—only to dreams and visions ( Num 12:6). By contrast, Moses is not limited to dreams and visions, but פה אל־פה אדבר־בו ומראה ולא בחידת ותמנת יהוה יביט ( Num 12:8a; with him, I [יהוה] speak mouth to mouth, plainly, and not in riddles, and he looks upon the form of יהוה). More than a prophet, Moses is a faithful servant in all יהוה’s house ( Num 12:7; Heb 3:5). ...

In an essay on “Jesus, John, and the Dead Sea Scrolls,” Craig Evans observes that Jesus’s appointment of the twelve ( Mark 3:14; 6:7) is an extension of John [the Baptist]’s typology. The Jordan River has been crossed, and now representatives of the restored tribes have reentered the promised land, announcing the rule of God. If the nation repents, restoration will take place. It will be a time when the twelve apostles will sit on twelve thrones, judging the twelve tribes of Israel, judging not in a condemning sense but in an administrative, even shepherding sense ( Evans 60; emphasis added). ...