The Jewish Annotated New Testament (207 page)

7.24
–30: Syrophoenician woman
(Mt 15.21–28).

26
:
Gentile
, lit., “Hellenis,” i.e., “Greek,” here used as a general term for non-Jew.
Syrophoenician
refers to Phoenicians from Syria as opposed to North Africa. Those nations who inhabited the land before Israel’s arrival—Canaanites, Moabites, and so on—were viewed as inherently wicked and dangerous, but there were surprising exceptions, such as Ruth the Moabite, Achior the Ammonite, or the craftsmen of Tyre and Sidon, Phoenician (Canaanite) cities (1 Kings 5.1–12). Elijah and Elisha had also healed Gentiles (1 Kings 17.8–16; 2 Kings 5.1–14), and at Isa 56.1–8 foreigners (and eunuchs) are accepted. The Syrophoenician woman is another such surprising example; she may represent Gentile converts among the early followers of Jesus in general.

27
–29:
Dogs
, a highly insulting name, dogs were regarded as shameless and unclean (the term is still used in a derogatory way in Rev 22.15). Jesus’ first meeting with Gentiles was not successful (5.17), but after this episode his attitude becomes more open (8.1–10).

7.31
–37: Healing a deaf man
(Mt 15.29–31). In rabbinic sources a deaf person, “heresh,” is often considered similar to being a minor, “qatan,” or mentally ill, “shoteh”; that is, such a person is not considered responsible for observing the law (
b. Yebam
. 99b).

33
–34:
Spat … touched … sighed,
on the physical aspects of healings in this period see Introduction.
Ephphatha,
Aramaic, another indication (see 5.41n.) of the original Aramaic-language versions of Gospel narratives.

36
:
The ironic contrast between the messianic secret and the thronging of followers is emphasized.

37
:
Isa 35.5–6.

8.1
–10: Feeding of four thousand
(Mt 15.32–39). A second feeding miracle, this time in a predominantly Gentile area (see 6.30–44n.). There were two instances of feeding in the wilderness during the Exodus (Ex 16; Num 12).

5
:
Seven
may be a symbolic number for completeness, as it is in the days of creation (Gen 1) or the fullness of praise (“seven times a day,” Ps 119.164).

8.11
–13: Pharisees demand a sign
(Mt 12.38–39; 16.1–4; Lk 11.16,29).

11
:
Sign,
Gk “sēmeion,” Heb “‘ot,” is the action of the prophet that verifies that he has been sent from God, commonly used for the end-time prophets that Josephus describes (
Ant
. 20.167–70). Mark characterizes Jesus’ miracles in different terms by calling them “acts of power,” “dunameis,” rather than signs; see 13.22, and contrast Jn 2.11; 4.54. In the Hebrew Bible signs are sometimes ignored (e.g., Ex 4.8,9); God provides them as indications of promise (Judg 6, where Gideon is given three signs; Isa 7.11–14, where the king demurs and is given a sign anyway).

8.14
–21: Leaven (yeast) of the Pharisees and Herod
(Mt 16.5–12; Lk 12.1).

15
:
Pharisees
…
Herod,
see Introduction.
Yeast
or leaven (Heb “ḥamets”), dough made of wheat, barley, spelt, rye, or oats, mixed with water and allowed to stand until soured. It is not eaten on Passover (Ex 12.39), and anyone who does consume it then is considered to be cut off (Ex 12.19). It is not allowed as part of the meal offering (Lev 2.11).

18
:
Eyes … see … ears … hear
, proverbial for failure to heed the word of God (Isa 6.9–10; Jer 5.21) but also characteristic of idols (Ps 115.3–8).

8.22
–10.52: Second major section: Passion predictions and social teachings.
This section begins and ends with miracles of people who are blind but then are able to see. At the center are three nearly identical predictions of the suffering and death of Jesus, associated with the concept of “way” (8.27–33; 9.30–37; 10.32–34), and social teachings. The literary practice employed here—circling back to the beginning of a passage by echoing it at the end—is called “inclusio,” and in the absence of chapter breaks and other such visual indicators was a means of showing where a unit in an ancient narrative was completed. By using this device, Mark emphasizes true understanding into the meaning of Jesus’ role—and lack thereof.

8.22
–26: Healing of a blind man
(Jn 9.1–7).

22
:
Bethsaida
was located at the upper end of the Sea of Galilee, in the territory of (Herod) Philip, one of Herod the Great’s sons, who ruled from 4 BCE to 34 CE. Philip rebuilt the city and renamed it “Bethsaida Julias” after Julia, one of Caesar’s daughters. Both Matthew and Luke omit this episode, perhaps because it depicts Jesus’ inability to heal immediately. This depiction of a two-stage healing may anticipate the two-stage reception of Jesus’ messianic identity: the disciples have lack of clear vision (they understand Jesus is the “messiah,” but they don’t know what the term means) and they only grasp the full reality later, after Jesus’ death (and after the close of Mark’s Gospel; see 16.8n.).

8.27
–33: Peter’s confession and Jesus’ first Passion prediction
(Mt 16.13–23; Lk 9.18–22). Mark subordinates the expectation of a future Son of Man coming in power to the Son of Man suffering and being crucified. Although up to now Jesus has been opposed by Pharisees, on only one occasion (3.6) was there a suggestion that they wanted to kill him. From this point on it is the
elders, chief priests, and the scribes
who will reject Jesus and turn him over to the Roman governor to be
killed
. The Pharisees drop out of the Passion narrative.

27
:
Caesarea Philippi,
originally Panion after the god Pan, to whom there was an important cult site, was re-founded under Herod’s son Philip, who renamed it in honor of the emperor and himself. A major temple, probably dedicated to the emperor, has been discovered nearby. Perhaps because it was situated near a spring, a source of the Jordan River, and below a sacred mountain (Mount Hermon), it became a sacred site. The ancient Israelite shrine of Dan was near here, and this was the site of the revelations to Enoch (
1 En
. 13.7) . Not only Peter’s confession but also the Transfiguration (9.2–10) are located at this center, important to Jews and non-Jews alike. The mountain of the Transfiguration is not named, but the geographical indications in the text indicate that the mountain was likely to have been Mount Hermon: after the Transfiguration and the healing in 9.14–29, Jesus and his disciples went into Galilee and ended up at Capernaum (9.35), on the northwestern shore of the Sea of Galilee and not far from the border with Philip’s tetrarchy.

27
–28:
The disciples say that Jesus has been associated with prophetic figures, but now Peter articulates a different identity, that of the messiah (see 1.1n.).

30
–32:
The messianic secret is most explicit here;
quite openly
clearly applies only to Jesus’ discourse with his disciples. Peter’s fuller confession is found at Mt 16.16–22.

31
:
Must undergo
expresses the determinism of God’s plan, similar to apocalyptic texts like Daniel,
4 Ezra
, and
1 Enoch
. However, from the audience’s perspective, this “future” is already in the past and confirmed by history.

32
–33:
Peter cannot imagine a messiah who suffers and dies. Cf. Zech 3.2 where in the presence of Joshua the high priest—Jesus in Greek!—God rebukes Satan with similar language. Jewish tradition often turned to the question of the suffering of good people (Prov 3.12, “the LORD reproves the one he loves,” and
b. Sanh
. 101a–b), but here the discrepancy in understanding appears to concern the role of the messiah and Son of Man. Later Christian tradition understood the suffering of the messiah by referring to Isa 52.13–53.12.

8.34
–9.1: On discipleship
(Mt 16.24–28; Lk 9.23–27; cf. Mt 10.32–33; Lk 12.4–9).

8.34
–38:
Mark emphasizes the high stakes, necessity of decision, and the potential for persecution; the greater the eternal danger, the greater the salvation, and the greater the necessity of being part of the elect community. The turbulent events and interparty strife of the period leading up to the Jewish War and afterwards would make this language even more compelling.

35
:
Save … lose … lose … save
, self-preservation cannot be the highest value.

38
:
This adulterous and sinful generation,
like those who murmured against Moses (Deut 32.20). Adultery, as in the Hebrew Bible, is a stand-in for sin generally, especially the sin of idolatry (e.g., Jer 3.1–5). The
Son of Man
is the figure who will carry out the divine judgment.

9.1
:
Some standing here
, depending on how readers understood this promise, it can mean the crucifixion (the
power
of the
kingdom of God
as the expression of sacrificial love) or the beginning of the eschatological age (perhaps seen as the destruction of the Temple in 70 CE). See 13.30–33 for a different expression of the promise followed by an absolute expression of ignorance about its timing.

9.2
–13: Transfiguration of Jesus and prophecies about Elijah
(Mt 17.1–13; Lk 9.28–36). Mark’s Gospel lacks a depiction of the resurrected Christ (16.8n.), and some scholars argue that the Transfiguration was originally a resurrection appearance (like those in Mt 28, Lk 24, and Jn 20), but one that was placed back into the narrative of the life of Jesus before the crucifixion—a representation of the glorified, resurrected Jesus within the human life of Jesus. Although it lacks the commissioning motif typical of the other Gospels’ resurrection appearances (see e.g., Mt 28.18–20), that element would be omitted had the scene been moved. Further, this passage is similar to the “departures” of Moses (Deut 34.6) and Elijah (2 Kings 2.11), and to Roman depictions of the ascension of the emperor to heaven (Livy 1.16).

2
:
The
mountain
is likely Mount Hermon (see 8.27n.).

4
:
Moses
,
Elijah
, these figures represent the covenant of Torah and the prophetic denunciations of corruption and idolatry, respectively. Moses, who spoke with God face to face, died, but his burial place was unknown (Deut 34.6); Elijah was taken up in the whirlwind to heaven by the chariots and horses of fire (2 Kings 2.1–12). Both therefore can represent those who stand in God’s presence and communicate God’s word.

5
:
The
dwellings
may suggest Sukkot. There were prophets who believed God would intervene at one of the pilgrimage festivals, usually Passover or Sukkot (Zech 14.16).