Kata Markon

[JFAlward AT aol.com]

JOE ALWARD

I offer here some late-night thoughts on the sleeping disciples story.  In 
addition to the many other reasons I have offered in support of the view that 
Jesus was asking his disciples to pray for the strength to stay awake, I have 
one which is related to continuity.


"[Jesus] said to them. "Stay here and keep watch."...Then he returned to his 
disciples and found them sleeping...Could you not keep watch for one hour? 
Watch and pray so that [fill in the blanks]. The spirit is willing, but the 
body [flesh] is weak." Once more he went away...When he came back, he again 
found them sleeping, because their eyes were heavy"

The story goes like this:  

1.  Jesus says, do not fall asleep

2.  Jesus goes away.

3.  Jesus returns and finds them asleep.  

4  Jesus tells them to pray that God give them the strength

    a.  not to fall asleep, again  
    b.  not to test God.

5.  Jesus returns and finds them asleep, again.


Which does common sense and context tell you makes more sense, 4a, or 4b? 

With the second choice, the one Jeffrey Gibson advocates, the story line is 
suddenly interrupted.  Mark was talking about sleep before and after the 
prayer request.  Are we to believe that the prayer was about not testing God, 
rather than not sleeping?  Such a break in the story line is almost 
incomprehensible.  

Futhermore, in Gibson's scenario we have the son of God asking that God be 
prayed to avoid God being tested. Does that make more sense than praying for 
help to stay awake?  Does it even make any sense at all?

Too much emphasis I think has been paid to the esoterica of Greek grammar, 
and this has allowed some members, in my opinion, to pay less attention to 
context and obvious surface meaning than I believe they deserve.  

I do not think we should imagine that the translation committees of dozens of 
different Bible versions were all wrong about the context.  They all made it 
clear that they believed that Jesus was asking the disciples to pray for the 
strength to stay awake until Jesus returned from his prayer, and I have a 
hunch that most members of this forum have a strong inkling that they were 
correct, no matter whether it is possible to see in the syntax and grammar 
alone the completely different meaning Gibson is proposing.

I think that if one doesn't let grammatical construction (using Sid's words 
here) be a tail wagging a dog, and instead lets common sense and context 
rule, then just on the basis alone of the outline I have presented above, I 
think we have no choice but to choose the first one, never mind all of the 
other reasons I mentioned elsewhere.


Joe Alward
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Joseph F. Alward, PhD
Assistant Professor
Department of Physics
University of the Pacific 
Stockton CA 95201
email:  JFAlward AT aol.com

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