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  • From: "James Crossley" <crossleyjames AT hotmail.com>
  • To: gmark AT franklin.oit.unc.edu
  • Subject: Re: Mark 7:3-4 and the readers of Mark
  • Date: Wed, 23 Feb 2000 13:41:55 GMT


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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