Kata Markon

[Earl Kellett <ekellett AT earthlink.net>]

on 5/29/02 12:00 AM, Kata Markon digest at gmark AT franklin.oit.unc.edu wrote:

> GMARK Digest for Tuesday, May 28, 2002.
> 
> 1. Holy Week
> 
> ----------------------------------------------------------------------
> 
> Subject: Holy Week
> From: Steve Black <sblack AT axionet.com>
> Date: Tue, 28 May 2002 06:57:10 -0700
> X-Message-Number: 1
> 
> I was having a discussion recently with someone regarding the theory
> that the last seven days of Jesus' life in GMark is a condensed
> version of what originally took much longer than seven days. This was
> accomplished to harmonize it with the ancient practise of celebrating
> holy week in the early church. In other words, Mark changed the story
> of Jesus' last days from a longer time period to a week to support
> the celebration of holy week in his community.
> 
> I am not sure where I heard this theory, but it seems plausible
> enough to me. It seems to me to be like most such theories - not
> something that will likely ever pass out of the realm of mere
> possibility, but still, it is attractive. In any event, my friend
> assured me that this theory has been thoroughly "discredited". This
> puzzled me at the time, but I didn't explore what he meant. How would
> such a theory be "discredited" (or proven for that matter) without
> the discovery of some new relevant manuscript or something. I am
> curious as to the nature of the scholarly discussion surrounding this
> issue, and was wondering if any one in this list might shed some
> light on the matter.


From: Earl Kellett
Date: 5/29/02
RE: Holy Week celebration in the Byzantine Liturgy
One possible way of supporting or rejecting the theory is the liturgical
practices of the early church. The Byzantine Synaxarion lectionary contains
readings / lessons from Matthew (Mt 21:18-43 for morning prayer and Mt
24:3-35 for evening prayer for Monday; Mt 22:15-24:2 for Tues morning and Mt
24:36-26:2 for Tues evening; Jn 12:17-50 for Wed; Lk 22:1-39 for Thurs; Jn
13:1-11, 12-17 for Friday of Holy Week. These passages are recorded in both
lectionaryy manuscripts and in some non-lectionary manuscripts. Consult C.R.
Gregory's Textkritik des Neuen Testaments for a complete list of the
liturgical cycles. Hope this helps.

Regards,
Earl Kellett
Ph.D. Student New Orleans Baptist Theological Seminary
Research Assistant in the Center for New testament Textual Studies