Kata Markon

[JFAlward AT aol.com]

In a message dated 3/7/01 8:00:57 PM Pacific Standard Time, rreid AT dbq.edu 
writes:


In response to my question to the list about the antecedents of the men 
beaten, struck on the head, and killed in Mark's Parable of the Wicked 
Tenants (Mark 12:1-12), Robert Reid writes

> Looking for allusions is central in reading
> Mark, but I would argue that his narrative argument (what I have called in
> my Book PREACHING MARK, his fictive argument) sometimes requires the
> addition of material that otherwise leaves us puzzled. 


 <snip Reid's chiastic diagram>

I've found the men I've been looking for.  The man struck on the head and 
killed was Zechariah son of Jehoiada the priest (2 Chronicles 24:20-21); 
Jeremiah was seized, beaten and put in prison (Jeremiah 17:12-16), and Isaiah 
was beaten, spit at, and mocked (Isaiah 50:4-7).  There are others, but these 
men were no doubt among the ones Mark had in mind; they clearly weren't added 
to his story to complete the symmetry Reid believes Mark was striving for, 
but were a very necessary part of the story.  Mentioning these men make Jesus 
seem more heroic:  Others went before him, and died, but he will nevertheless 
let himself be killed. Luke didn't have any of the men killed, perhaps 
because he wanted Jesus' sacrifice to be greater. (Luke 20:9-19)  Thus, Mark 
went for heroism, Luke for greatest sacrifice.

The entirety of Mark's parable is based on the Old Testament, and was not in 
the slightest guided by a desire for chiastic symmetry, in my opinion.  


Joe Alward