Kata Markon

[Jeffrey Krantz <jkrantz AT optonline.net>]

I have always read this passage from Mark as an indication that it should be 
dated later than 
the destruction of the temple in 70. (Even when I was much more sure of 
Markan priority 
than I am these days!)

But it results less from Mark's apparent intention to equate the fate of the 
temple with the fate 
of the tree.  (Though this is strong, especially as Jesus is said to have 
quoted Jeremiah when 
_he_  stood in the gate of the first temple and predicted its destruction.  
(It makes Jesus 
upsetting of the tables into an enacted prophecy.  "Cleansing" is such a 
mis-naming of the 
event.))

Instead, I have grounded my thinking about this "sandwich" and Markan dating 
on the very 
strange exchange between Peter and Jesus when they come upon the wilted tree. 
(11:20-25)  
It has often been taken to be an excursus by Jesus on the power of prayer.  
"Pray for the tree 
to wilt, and it will!"  But rather, I believe that Mark intended it to be a 
response to the dismay 
of the Markan hearer/reader to the destruction of the temple.

Peter makes a hidden comment about the destruction of the temple, (the tree 
and the temple 
have become so thoroughly identified with each other by this time.) and Jesus 
replies, "Have 
faith in God!"  Only then does he go on to suggest that prayer has the power 
to move 
mountains.  And this prayer is grounded in the forgiveness of one another.  
(As close as 
Mark comes to the Lord's Prayer, or "how do we pray in community?")

This makes the whole event into (for Mark) an opportunity to allow Jesus to 
comment from 
the past on the meaning of the Temple's destruction for Mark's community. (An 
apt prelude 
to the apocalypse of chapter 13.)


> I would never have thought of it before, but is it not possible that
> the structure of this indicates a more direct paralleling between fig tree
> and temple? 

  Perhaps you New Testament
> folk can decide how this bears on how this affects the dating of Mark
> (i.e., if the positioning indicates that the temple was gone at the time
> of the writing, like the withered fig tree in the next passage ).  Just a
> thought.

Jeffrey Krantz
Church of the Advent, Westbury LI
Mercer School of Theology
http://www.agapenetwork.org


Jeffrey H. Krantz
Church of the Advent
Mercer School of Theology
http://www.agapenetwork.org