Previous posts on Mark at the bottom.
_________________________
1. Mark 7 is a key Scripture for understanding Jesus' ethic. Elsewhere in Mark, Jesus says that the command to love God and love neighbor gives us the first and second most important commands of the Law (Mark 12:28-34). Matthew 22:40 goes further -- all of the Law can be summed up in these commands. [1] What is the essence of a Christian ethic? It is to love God and love others, where the love of others includes our enemies (Matt. 5:43-48).
Mark 7 not only gives us supporting evidence for that love command, it clarifies for us that Christian ethics is a heart ethic. That is to say, it is a virtue ethic rather than an act-oriented ethic. Our human sense of right and wrong often deteriorates into "dos and don'ts." It is hard for most people to handle nuance or complexity, which requires an ability to think on a higher, more complex level.
So religious systems often deteriorate into rules. Then the human penchant for certainty over ambiguity multiples rules, and inevitably religions can become legalistic -- at least their members can. Legalism is a love for rules for their own sake. The Bible becomes a list of rules, and fundamental principles are ignored because of "this verse."
2. The Pharisees and some scribes come up from Jerusalem to "inspect" Jesus. In their minds, they are the authorities coming to pronounce a verdict on Jesus. This is the hubris of some with formal authority in the face of divine authority. They do not realize that they have no authority whatsoever in the face of Jesus.
(As an aside, we tend to stereotype the ancient Pharisees because most of Jesus' encounters with them in the Gospels are negative -- Matthew 23 especially. However, like today, some Pharisees followed their traditions from a love of God. Nicodemus would be a case in point. Some people are strict because they're legalists. Others are strict because they want to do everything to the glory of God and they believe God requires of them all the things they do. [2])
3. The flash point is washing one's hands before eating, along with all the items associated with eating. [3] It's easy for us to think this is about good hygiene and germs, but that would be to impose modern concerns on the biblical text. They knew nothing of such things.
This was about purity. Think the holiness codes of Leviticus. In the marketplace, one was likely to touch something that was religiously unclean. The practice thus seems meant to ensure that you do not contaminate yourself by eating with hands that have been "commonized" (koinos) or made unclean. It's not a matter of sin but of ritual purity.
(As an aside, it is unclear that the word baptizo here is about "immersing" ones hands. It is possible, but it would be the root fallacy to think that the word always must mean immersion because of a historical root going back to a word for dipping. The meanings of words wander with cultural use and they can easily leave etymological or historical meanings behind. "Wash" is the safest translation to avoid overinterpretation.)
4. Verses 3-4 explain basic practices of Pharisees and "the Jews." These explanations likely imply that the original audience of Mark was Gentile or non-Jewish. You don't need to explain to a Jew what a Jew does. [4]
These verses also explain that this hand washing practice is the "tradition of the elders." These were likely specifically Pharisee traditions about how to keep the Law. The Sadducees claimed to just follow the Law -- not traditions about how to keep the Law. [5] Of course that's a crock. The Sadducees also had their own traditions on how to keep the Law. In that sense they are like fundamentalists today who claim to follow Scripture alone, not recognizing that their interpretations follow traditions they aren't even aware of. It wasn't tradition itself that they were rejecting but Pharisaic tradition. [6]
5. Jesus effectively calls them hypocrites and legalists. They claim to follow God. They put up a good show of following God because they follow a lot of rules. They follow God "with their lips" (7:6). But, perhaps like some Christians today, their heart is far from him. The way they treat others reveals that they really have no part in the real service of God. They use their rule keeping as an excuse not to do the things that God wants the most -- mercy, faith, and justice for those without it (Matt. 23:23). They strain out gnats from their cereal, but let camels pass through.
Jesus uses the example of getting out of taking care of your parents by pretending to dedicate those resources to God (7:9-13). "Sorry mom, I can't take care of you because I've designated those funds." It's a lawyer trick that uses the details of the Law to get out of keeping the heart of the Law. Many Americans do this today with the Bible, using a verse here or there to wiggle out of the more fundamental principles of Scripture. [7]
Mark once again uses an Aramaic word, corban. Mark does this 7 times and it is a small piece of a cumulative case that Mark is the earliest of the four Gospels.
6. In 7:14-23, Jesus gives the heart of his virtue ethic. External things do not make a person unclean. That's not how it works. "Uncleanness" is something that is on the inside. It comes from the heart. If the heart is "unclean," evil things come out. These include things like sexual immorality, murder, adultery, envy, slander, and others. Defiling things don't come from the outside. They are a function of what is inside.
These words reflect a fundamental moral truth. The acts we do are not the focus of whether we are doing good or evil. Rather, it is the attitude and intention of our hearts that reveals whether our acts are truly evil. Don't get me wrong, there is a place for considering the consequences of an act as well. One can unintentionally wrong someone. There are unintentional sins.
But this is not the focus of a Christian -- or New Testament -- ethic. Paul presents the same ethical approach in Romans 14. Two people can do the same thing and it be sin for one and not sin for the other, depending on one's intention in relation to the act. Whether one is acting from a heart of faith is what makes the difference (Rom. 14:23). In Paul's view, "nothing is unclean in itself" (Rom. 14:14). It is rather our attitude toward the act that makes it clean or unclean. [8]
7. A key verse in this paragraph is 7:19, usually translated as something like "Thus he declared all foods clean." Traditionally, this verse has been understood to release Christians from keeping the Old Testament food laws. It thus would sit alongside traditional understandings of Acts 10 and Paul in Romans 14 and Colossians 2.
At the very least, we should probably nuance this understanding to recognize that Mark is writing for non-Jews. Matthew does not copy this remark in his version of this story. After all, he is likely writing for a Jewish audience that did not likely believe Jews were free from keeping the food laws.
It is of course a parenthetical remark that would not likely have come from Jesus' lips. In fact, Logan Williams has made a landmark proposal that in fact Jesus is saying that the stomach cleanses all food that we eat, making washing of hands unnecessary. [9] While this is an important argument, it probably fails not only on the grammar of the verse (katharizon is masculine, nominative, singular, which seems to be an independent nominative and thus not tied to the grammatical train of thought). It also fails to recognize the Gentile orientation of the comment.
The traditional understanding would thus seem correct. Four decades after Jesus' crucifixion, there were Gentile Christian communities that did not believe that the Jewish food laws were binding on them, and they saw Jesus as the ultimate authorization of this position. This is of course the understanding of most Christians today, namely, that we can eat pork, blood pudding, and other foods prohibited of Israel in Leviticus.
8. Mark 7 has two more stories. The first is the story of the Syro-Phoenician woman. She is not a Jew -- a striking juxtaposition with a story of great interest to non-Jews. Jesus is far afield in Tyre and Sidon to the northwest. It would be a 2-4 day journey from Galilee.
Her daughter has an unclean spirit. Again, this is a striking juxtaposition with a story that has just been about what makes a person unclean. Unlike those things that are thought to make a person unclean when you touch them, Jesus' touch works the opposite direction. And in this case, he does not even touch her. His faith from a distance cleanses this young girl of her unclean spirit, and the demon leaves her.
One of the more striking aspects of their conversation is Jesus' words to her on the priority of "feeding the children" of Israel. He effectively refers to the woman as a puppy milling around the table where the children are eating. [10] She does not reject the premise but instead responses that even the puppies get to eat scraps from the children's table.
Jesus casts the woman's daughter out and makes her clean.
9. The final story in the chapter is the healing of a deaf man who also cannot speak. Jesus spits and touches the man's tongue. He sticks his fingers in his ears. These actions were of course not necessary, but they probably were known patterns of behavior used by other healers of the day. They are thus an example of Jesus meeting his world within their own cultural assumptions.
Mark gives us another Aramaic word, Ephphatha. See above. The man is instantly healed and begins to speak.
Jesus tells them not to tell anyone. This is part of the "messianic secret" theme where in Mark especially Jesus commands the demons not to speak his identity and tells those he heals to tell others. The demons obey. But of course most of the people don't, making it difficult for Jesus to travel openly.
It would seem that, in this season, God gives us humans the freedom to disobey him. This is a major rejection of the impulse of some Christians to try to take over their governments to force the world to follow their understanding of God's rules.
[1] Matthew 7:12 is similar, as is Romans 13:10.
[2] See especially Joseph Sievers and Amy-Jill Levine, eds, The Pharisees (Eerdmans, 2021).
[3] Some later manuscripts include the table itself.
[4] It is of course possible that this as a marginal note that made its way into the text. It is not copied into Matthew, which used Mark as its primary source. Matthew similarly does not copy Mark 7:19. It does include Mark 13:14. These three verses in Mark have traditionally been seen as parenthetical comments from the author of Mark to his audience.
However, in the case of the first two, it is clear enough why Matthew would not include them. Since he is likely writing to a Jewish audience, he does not need to explain what Jews do. And quite possibly he would not see 7:19 as applying to a Jewish audience. More below.
[5] This sense of the Sadducees is based on one source alone -- Josephus, Antiquities 13.297. Some have mistakenly read this passage to mean that the canon of the Sadducees only included the Pentateuch. That may also be true, but it is not what Josephus was saying here.
[6] It reminds me of denominations that say they aren't denominations. Or churches that say they are non-denominational when they clearly stand in the streams of particular Christian traditions.
[7] One example is the full participation of women in the gospel, something modeled throughout the New Testament and anticipated even in the Old Testament. Yet modern day "Pharisees" use 1 Timothy 2:12 to try to wiggle out of this fundamental principle of Pentecost (Acts 2:17; cf. Gal. 3:28).
[8] In this regard, Paul and Mark seem to operate within similar communities of early (Gentile) Christianity.
[9] Logan Williams, "The Stomach Purifies All Foods: Jesus’ Anatomical Argument in Mark 7.18–19," NTS 70 (2024): 371-91.
[10] It helps the tone a little to recognize that the word used is not dog outright but "little dog," perhaps suggesting a playful tone to the conversation.
_________________________
Mark 1:1-13
Mark 1:14-15
Mark 1:16-45
Mark 2
Mark 3
Mark 4:1-34
Mark 4:35-5:43
Mark 6
Mark 11:1-11 (Palm Sunday)
Mark 11:12-25 (Temple Monday)
Mark 11:26-12:44 (Debate Tuesday)
Mark 13 (Temple Prediction)
Mark 14:1-52 (Last Supper)
Mark 14:53-15:47 (Good Friday)
No comments:
Post a Comment