Kata Markon

["James Crossley" <crossleyjames AT hotmail.com>]

Firstly,  I apologise for the late date of this reply.  This is because 
I've only recently joined.

The so-called cleansing of the Temple need not be seen as a symbolic 
destruction (see Sanders et al);  prophetic symbolism was much more 
explicit in meaning in the Hebrew bible. I think we should see the Temple 
action as a belief on the part of the historical Jesus to have the Temple 
restored to its ideal function,  'a house of prayer'and so on.  Many Jews 
of our period perceived the Temple hierarchy as people involved in economic 
exploitation (well documented in a series of articles by C. A. Evans).  
Mark faithfully records this action and puts it in the context of the fig 
tree passage.  Again this may imply a destruction of the Temple at the 
level of Markan redaction but it is not demanded by the text.  Equally,  it 
could be a judgement on Israel's spiritual leaders.  Perhaps it could be a 
development of the well-attested tradition of Jesus' predictions of Temple 
destruction (I would not count Thomas in this list because it is clearly 
too late) which can reasonably be seen as a response to the Temple leaders 
and their attitude towards Jesus (probably from Jesus himself).  Also worth 
considering is that Mark portrays Jesus answering and speaking to the fig 
tree.  It may be worth while reading this passage in the context of bizarre 
trees in the Jewish tradition (cf. W.  Telford's book on the Temple and the 
fig tree).  As for the date of Mark this passage is of little use except 
that it may be an early tradition that is relatively unaltered (see M.  
Casey's article in CBQ c.1997).
I would welcome any discussion.

James Crossley,
PhD candidate,
University of Nottingham,
U. K.

crossleyjames AT hotmail.com