James's Weblog

R T France is very helpful on what Jesus expects of his disciples. He comments on Mark 10:

Peter Leithart makes a wonderful observation about Jacob, Esau and Joseph.

He says this:

Esau is a “hairy man” (sa’iyr), something we learn only when Jacob dresses himself in goat hair to approach his father (Genesis 27:11, 23). Jacob becomes a hairy one, subbing in for his brother. The only other use of the word in Genesis is in 37:31, where it describes the “kid” killed to fool into thinking that Joseph has died. Both passages involve substitution, and both involve deception of a father.

I think this has struck me before. Re-reading 1 Samuel, we find that:

• Saul is rebuked by Samuel (1 Samuel 15)
  • David has to flee to the Philistines (1 Samuel 21)
    • The Ziphites betray David to Saul, then David spares Saul's life (1 Samuel 23-24)
      • Samuel dies (1 Samuel 25:1)
      • David accepts Abigail's gift, and marries her after God kills her fool of a husband (1 Samuel 25:2ff)
    • The Ziphites betray David to Saul, then David spares Saul's life (1 Samuel 26)
  • David lives among the Philistine (1 Samuel 27)
• Saul is rebuked by Samuel (1 Samuel 28)

Why is Mark 6:14-29 in Mark's gospel?

It's a good question. Mark devotes significantly more space to the death of John the Baptist than the other gospel writers, yet it is a story that involves neither Jesus nor his disciples. Mark's gospel is usually characterised by brevity; he rarely uses 10 words if 5 will do; Matthew and Luke (when they record the same events as those found in Mark) almost always contain a longer and fuller account. Yet the death of John the Baptist seems an exception - for some reason, he thinks it so important that he devotes about one fortieth of his gospel to the story. Why?

To make things more confusing, the chronology and the focus of the story is ambiguous. The story of John the Baptist is set in the account of Herod deliberating who Jesus is. Is this a story about who Jesus is? If so, why does the account of John's death itself take up so much space and involve so much detail? Or is this a story about John the Baptist? If so, why is Mark concerned with Herod's questions? And why does Mark record a "flash-back" like this. Jesus only begun his ministry after John's arrest; at some point after that, but before 6:16, John is executed. Herod hears of Jesus' ministry and thinks back to John's death. Why?

This post will attempt to look at the details of Mark 6:14-29, as it is found within its context in Mark's gospel, and to answer that question. (It's a longer than average post for this blog).

I thought the reference in Mark 6:23 to "up to half my kingdom" sounded familiar. Sure enough, the phrase also occurs in Esther 5:3 and Esther 7:2.

That got me thinking.

In the book of Esther we have a king with an extravagant party who makes an oath to depose his queen, which would be (for her) a kind of death. He promises a girl up to half of his kingdom, and then executes somebody because it is effectively what that girl asked for. We have someone (Haman), who has the king's ear, asking for the people of God to be put to death. Sound familiar?

“I thank you, Father, Lord of heaven and earth, that you have hidden these things from the wise and understanding and revealed them to little children; yes, Father, for such was your gracious will.” (Luke 10:21)

I have always read this, but subconsciously read Jesus to say “and revealed them to those who are not terribly wise or understanding — in fact, some thoroughly unexpected people”.

R T France thinks that, in looking for links between the story of the raising of Jairus's daughter and the healing of a bleeding woman, recourse to the detail of “12 years” is “a counsel of despair” (page 235, fn 20).

Interesting, Larry Hurtado does not agree. From page 88 of his commentary:

I've discovered a relatively new, and absolutely brilliant website for anyone involved in picking hymns for congregational use.

Visit http://www.hymnary.org

It is an online database containing an index of texts and tunes of all the hymns found in most of the major hymnals, developed by the same people behind Christian Classics Ethereal Library. Where MIDI files of tunes are available online, there is a link (so you can hear the tune). You'll get the hymn number in all the major hymnals too. You can search for tunes by name, composer or meter; you can search for hymn texts by title, by a full-text search, or by Scripture reference. Really, really useful stuff.

(It also happens to be a wonderful example of the CMS Drupal in action. There is no direct credit to Drupal on the site. I can tell that it's a Drupal site, but the fact is well-hidden by the good theming and the many custom features.)

The Church's one foundation
Is Jesus Christ, her Lord;
She is His new creation
By water and the word;
From heaven He came and sought her
To be His holy bride,
With His own blood He bought her,
And for her life He died.

Elect from every nation,
Yet one o’er all the earth,
Her charter of salvation—
One Lord, one faith, one birth;
One holy name she blesses,
Partakes one holy food,
And to one hope she presses
With every grace endued.

Though with a scornful wonder
Men see her sore oppressed,
By schisms rent asunder,
By heresies distressed,
Yet saints their watch are keeping,
Their cry goes up, ‘How long?’
And soon the night of weeping
Shall be the morn of song.

’Mid toil, and tribulation,
And tumult of her war,
She waits the consummation
Of peace forever more;
Till with the vision glorious
Her longing eyes are blessed,
And the great church victorious
Shall be the church at rest.

Yet she on earth hath union
With God the Three in One,
And mystic sweet communion
With those whose rest is won:
O happy ones and holy!
Lord, give us grace that we,
Like them, the meek and lowly,
On high may dwell with Thee.

Let the reader understand

This is the third of a series of three posts considering the story of the Gerasene demoniac in Mark 5:1-20. The first two were:

• The Gerasene Demoniac: Prior Context
• The Gerasene Demoniac: Following Context