Mark 7:3-4 and the readers of Mark
James Crossley
crossleyjames at hotmail.com
Wed Feb 23 08:41:55 EST 2000
I would like to develop some points concerning the background to Mark 7:3-4.
It is quite right that we should expect Jews among Mark's audience. This is
linked to the use of the term 'community' which can now be seen, in some
cases, as an anachronism. Christianity spread rapidly throughout the Roman
world and the gospels may well have been distributed widely and therefore
among Jewish and gentile people. See Bauckham, ed., -The Gospels for All
Christians-.
I should emphasise here that I do not use the term 'gentile Christianity' in
the sense of 'pagan Christianity'. I define gentiles as people who did not
perceive themselves to be Jewish and were not percieved by others to be
Jewish. The terms 'Jew' and 'Jewish' can still be used because they imply
people who perceived to be Jewish by others and by themselves (with
ethnicity being the primary identity marker). This is of course a
simplification of Jewish and non-Jewish identity because detailed discussion
would require much more space & time.
The Johannine use of the term 'Jew' remains useful because it shows that it
really did mean 'Jew'. It not used particularly negatively when he uses it
in the context of the passover of the Jews. John did use it negatively in
other places but this does not mean that it could not be used descriptively
or positively elsewhere, as it is by Jews. (I can't remember the
references at the moment but I will find them).
I think the term Judeans is very misleading because it it has too many
geographical connotations. The term IOUDAIOI would have to be explictly
qualified if it meant Judeans. In Mark 7 it is primariy referring to people
who would be perceived to be Jewish by other people and who would perceive
themselves to be Jewish. It is not used in a particularly polemical way;
rather, it is more descriptive. Mark is of course exaggerating but
exaggeration is to be found elsewhere in the gospel (again I can't remember
the precise references but one is quite early e.g. all the people bringing
those in need of healing to Jesus). A Jewish parallel can be found in the
Letter of Aristeas referring to Jewish practices before prayer, I think
(again I'm working from memory and so I will need to confirm this).
As for scriptural references, I think my argument remains plausible but I
should make it a bit clearer. Scriptures are alluded to throughout, for
example, the epistles, the synoptic gospels, and John which has numerous
very complex scriptural allusions (John also has a very strong case for a
wide gentile audience because of its oppostition to Jews, among other
reasons). These are rarely explained in the New Testament so we can infer
that some people were familiar with Jewish scriptures. It is also worth
noting the people often called 'godfearers'. These people were not
ethnically Jewish but had some interest in Judaism. They may well have
attended synagogues and have been familiar with Jewish scriptures. It does
not matter if this was an oral tradition because a learning of Scripture
remains. The knowledge of Scripture is only one argument that people were
not familiar with the details of halakhic observance and therefore required
explanation. It was noted in another response, and quite rightly, that it
may have been unlikely that observant Jews and gentiles ate together.
Of course their may have been some gentiles who had little familiarity with
scriptures but this is not so important for the background to Mark 7:3-4
because the Jewish practice of handwashing & so on was not as famous as
Jewish observance of the Sabbath or avoidance of non-kosher food. It did not
require a knowledge of Jewish scriptures to know that many Jews observed the
Sabbath or refuse to eat pork.
I think we can infer from the amount of Jewish assumptions made in Mark and
the need for explanations in Mark 7:3-4 that there was a mixed audience of
Jews and gentiles who were going to hear the gospel.
Yours,
James Crossley,
Dept. of Theology,
University of Nottingham,
U.K.
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