Kata Markon

[JFAlward AT aol.com]

In a message dated 10/5/01 5:51:53 PM Pacific Daylight Time, dgeyer AT aol.com 
writes:

<< if I may suggest it:
 John the Baptist's head is not asked for and put on a "platter" for a
 banquet, but on a "tablet" (pinax) that emulates a "tablet" of the OT
 stories about the 10 commandments.  The story has John's prophetic voice
 silenced, his bloody head that once spoke on behalf of what is fitting and
 proper now sitting silently on a symbol of the law that guided him when he
 spoke.
 
  >>
=================
This is far too speculative for me, and without any supportive evidence, in 
my opinion.  If Mark had wished for his readers to know he had such a tablet 
in mind, wouldn't he have used the same word--"plax"--found in 2 Cor 3:3 and 
Heb 9:4, where in the latter the reference is to a tablet of the covenant?  
It's just too much to believe that Mark expected his readers to think "pinax" 
referred to a flat stone tablet when a serving platter not only seems more 
appropriate because the head was brought into a dining hall, but also because 
a platter or dish, by its nature, could better contain the head as it was 
carried, whether to a dining all, or any other place.


Joe Alward
"A Skeptical View of Christianity and the Bible"
http://members.aol.com/jalw/joseph_alward.html