Kata Markon

[HStaiti AT aol.com]

Isn't Mark 3 a Christian polemic for believers? Doesn't it record in narrative form the friction and controversy between the Jewish synagogue and the emerging Christian church after the destruction of the temple? Isn't the passage reflecting the mutual rejection and exclusion between the two groups. It does come on the heels of Mark's "conflict stories" arranged neatly in chapters 2-3. It appears these stories were used by early believers to define themselves and their beliefs above and beyond those of the synagogue groups which led the Jewish people after the destruction of the temple.

 

Mark narrates Jesus as victorious in each one of these encounters and then on to define Israel in a new and different way:

 

Israel defined:

3.20-21: Jesus' family

    3.22-30: Jesus Demonizing of Israel's Leaders

3. 31-35: Jesus Defining the New Family

 

This inclusio seems to narrate how the church of antiquity defined themselves apart from ties to the Jewish scribes and Judaism of their day.

 

On an ending note, this may have been how Christians created an identity for themselves in antiquity, but it now Christianity has a 2000 history in which to define itself with its own victories and horrors.

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Harry Staiti
My Yahoo! 360° and Blog

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