Skip to Content.
Sympa Menu

gmark - Re: The Temple and the fig tree

gmark AT lists.ibiblio.org

Subject: Kata Markon

List archive

Chronological Thread  
  • From: "James Crossley" <crossleyjames AT hotmail.com>
  • To: GMark
  • Subject: Re: The Temple and the fig tree
  • Date: Mon, 7 Feb 2000 9:31:48


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




Archive powered by MHonArc 2.6.24.

Top of Page