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Subject: Kata Markon

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  • From: JFAlward AT aol.com
  • To: gmark AT franklin.oit.unc.edu
  • Subject: Re: The Homeric Epics and the Gospel of Mark
  • Date: Tue, 6 Feb 2001 18:09:32 EST


In a message dated 2/6/01 11:22:16 AM Pacific Standard Time, pmh15 AT cam.ac.uk
writes:

<<
Dear Rikk,

Isn't this very thing particularly difficult for Mark, if not impossible,
in view of the paucity of early comments on Mark? For example, I haven't
found the theme of Isaiah's New Exodus to be noted very much (if ever?)
among church fathers, but we know how pervasively that has influenced
Mark's presentation! (All the same I can't find the section of your book
where you apply this particular test to your theory.).
>>
===========
Joe:

This "new exodus" theme plays a role in my argument against MacDonald's claim
that parallels exist between Mark's twin feedings and the feasts of Nestor
and Menelaus. The article containing my argument, just completed, is at
http://sol.sci.uop.edu/~jfalward/MultiplyingLoaves.htm

The concluding paragraph of that article follows:

"Virtually all of MacDonald's suggested parallels of Mark's twin feeding
stories to Homer's twin feasts are nonexistent, in my opinion, and virtually
every aspect of both stories can be far, far better explained on the basis of
Old Testament antecedents than they can by Homeric correspondence. The
sailing theme arose not out of Mark's desire to evoke Odyssean sailing
images, but of a literary need to have Jesus and his disciples be fishers of
men as spoken of in the Old Testament and to give Jesus an opportunity to
walk on water to save his disciples, as per the Old Testament. Mark's
portrayal of Jesus' disciples as uncomprehending and heart-hardened wasn't
meant to signal the readers that they should compare the disciples to
Odysseus's companions. It was an invitation to his readers to compare the
disciples to Pharaoh who was too dense to recognize and understand the power
of God; don't you be like the Pharaoh, too, was Mark's message to them. Mark
had Jesus lay his people down on green grass in fifties and hundreds not
because he wanted his readers to think of the nine groups of five hundred at
Nestor's feast and Homer's Telemachus sitting on soft sheepskins, but because
Mark was having Jesus emulate the Lord, who would lay the people down in
green pastures, and Moses, who organized the people of the old exodus in
groups of thousands, hundreds, and fifties. Mark's message is that Jesus was
the Lord and Moses all wrapped up in one. Jesus was neither particularly
hospitable nor generous toward the multitudes, as MacDonald claims; indeed,
Jesus gave up nothing when he miraculously multiplied the loaves and fishes
with a wave of his hand, and he treated his guests like cattle, apparently
not allowing them to sit wherever they wished, but instead ordering them to
be placed in highly organized groups. The "guests" at Jesus' feedings
couldn't even decide when they could leave; Jesus abruptly dismisses them,
sending them on their way. There are two feeding stories not because Mark was
influenced by Homer's twin feasts, but because he wanted first to reach out
to the Jews, then to the Gentiles."

Regards,

Joe
=================
Joseph F. Alward, Ph.D.
Assistant Professor
Department of Physics
University of the Pacific
Stockton California 952111
e-mail: JFAlward AT aol.com




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