[GMark] "Satanas" in Mark 3:23-27 (Khbonnell at aol.com)

HStaiti at aol.com HStaiti at aol.com
Sat Aug 4 16:41:00 EDT 2007


Isn't Mark 3 a Christian polemic for believers? Doesn't it record in  
narrative form the friction and controversy between the Jewish synagogue and the  
emerging Christian church after the destruction of the temple? Isn't the  passage 
reflecting the mutual rejection and exclusion between the two groups. It  
does come on the heels of Mark's "conflict stories" arranged neatly in chapters  
2-3. It appears these stories were used by early believers to define 
themselves  and their beliefs above and beyond those of the synagogue groups which led 
the  Jewish people after the destruction of the temple. 
 

Mark  narrates Jesus as victorious in each one of these encounters and then 
on to  define Israel in a new and different way:
 
Israel  defined:
3.20-21: Jesus' family
    3.22-30: Jesus Demonizing of  Israel's Leaders
3. 31-35: Jesus Defining the New Family
 
This inclusio seems to narrate how the church of antiquity defined  
themselves apart from ties to the Jewish scribes and Judaism of their day. 
 
On an ending note, this may have been how Christians created an identity  for 
themselves in antiquity, but it now Christianity has a 2000 history in which  
to define itself with its own victories and horrors. 


---
Harry Staiti
_My  Yahoo! 360° and Blog_ 
(http://blog.360.yahoo.com/blog-9diOazMherVUBYroWhZhhA8lIQ--?cq=1) 






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