Kata Markon

[Steve Black <sblack AT axionet.com>]

Mark 7:3-4 (NRSV)
 (For the Pharisees, and all the Jews, do not eat unless they 
thoroughly wash their hands, thus observing the tradition of the 
elders; and they do not eat anything from the market unless they wash 
it; and there are also many other traditions that they observe, the 
washing of cups, pots, and bronze kettles.)

I have gotten a lot of personal mileage from this text, and I want to 
examine my thoughts in light of what others might think. I have 
understood this text to indicate a geographical distance from the 
"Synagogue". (I am aware that the use of the term "Synagogue" might 
be a little problematic - I don't want to get hung up on that detail, 
I mean here non-Xn Jews - which itself might even be problematic...). 
In any event, it seems to me that Mark would not make this 
explanation if he thought that his audience did not have to be told - 
in other words they didn't know. I have assumed that Mark was writing 
for his own community, which would separate him and his community 
somewhat from the Synagogue. (Now I see another alternative - namely 
that Mark wrote his gospel for another community - like Paul writing 
to the Romans - which could mean that he himself might have lived 
near a point of contact with the Synagogue. I prefer the former 
explanation.)

The implications of this theory are significant. It seems to me that 
Mark's polemic with the Synagogue might be seen as something he 
"inherited" in the tradition - something that lacked the significance 
and urgency that it once had earlier - not something with the same 
"bite" as is found in John or Matt. Matthew takes up Mark and uses it 
in his gospel as part of a *present and active* battle with the 
Synagogue. Thus I have tended to see Mark as the least "anti-Judaic" 
of the gospels. This seems to be against the grain of how many see 
Mark.
--
Steve Black
Vancouver School of Theology
Vancouver, BC
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Once in a while you can get shown the light
in the strangest of places if you look at it right...

-Robert Hunter From SCARLET BEGONIAS