Kata Markon

["Jeffrey B. Gibson" <jgibson000 AT attbi.com>]

Kym Smith wrote:

>
> I agree that it is difficult to imagine someone writing in the midst of
> the Jerusalem siege and then expecting to have much of a readership.

As I noted before, tell that to Daniel. And that an expectation of having 
"much of a readership" is a condition for writing begs the question, doesn't 
it?  Excuse the unintended innuendo, but does size matter?  Would Mark not 
have written if his congregation was 20 instead of 30 (or 500)?

> This
> is particularly so if Mark was written primarily for Christians, most of
> whom had deserted the city back in 66.

What is your evidence that this is the year in which they fled?

And in any case, my suggestion about when Mark was written does not depend 
upon Mark's group being **in** Jerusalem. They only have to be strongly drawn 
towards going there in response to what I have noted, with Josephus backing 
me up, was what finally convinced many Jews, originally in the anti war 
party, to go over to the war party's cause, namely, the "Senacherib like" 
deliverances of the Temple from Roman armies
that confirmed the Zealots claims about divine sanction of the holy war that 
they were carrying out in consonance with their understanding of Daniel 11 
(an understanding which Mark himself acknowledges is working on his readers 
but which he is striving to correct).

Side note: May I ask those who respond to the Kata Markon Digest form of 
messages to replace the subject line that appears when you do so (which is 
simply a reference to the digest's date) into something that tells us what 
the topic you wish to discuss actually is?

Yours,

Jeffrey
--
Jeffrey B. Gibson, D.Phil. (Oxon.)
1500 W. Pratt Blvd.
          Floor 1
Chicago, Illinois 60626
e-mail jgibson000 AT attbi.com
          jgibson000 AT hotmail.com