The Jewish Annotated New Testament (25 page)

⁴⁰
A leper
^*
came to him begging him, and kneeling
^*
he said to him, “If you choose, you can make me clean.”
⁴¹
Moved with pity,
^*
Jesus
^*
stretched out his hand and touched him, and said to him, “I do choose. Be made clean!”
⁴²
Immediately the leprosy
^*
left him, and he was made clean.
⁴³
After sternly warning him he sent him away at once,
⁴⁴
saying to him, “See that you say nothing to anyone; but go, show yourself to the priest, and offer for your cleansing what Moses commanded, as a testimony to them.”
⁴⁵
But he went out and began to proclaim it freely, and to spread the word, so that Jesus
^*
could no longer go into a town openly, but stayed out in the country; and people came to him from every quarter.

The geography of the Gospel of Mark.

2
When he returned to Capernaum after some days, it was reported that he was at home.
²
So many gathered around that there was no longer room for them, not even in front of the door; and he was speaking the word to them.
³
Then some people
^*
came, bringing to him a paralyzed man, carried by four of them.
⁴
And when they could not bring him to Jesus because of the crowd, they removed the roof above him; and after having dug through it, they let down the mat on which the paralytic lay.
⁵
When Jesus saw their faith, he said to the paralytic, “Son, your sins are forgiven.”
⁶
Now some of the scribes were sitting there, questioning in their hearts,
⁷
“Why does this fellow speak in this way? It is blasphemy! Who can forgive sins but God alone?”
⁸
At once Jesus perceived in his spirit that they were discussing these questions among themselves; and he said to them, “Why do you raise such questions in your hearts?
⁹
Which is easier, to say to the paralytic, ‘Your sins are forgiven,’ or to say, ‘Stand up and take your mat and walk’?
¹⁰
But so that you may know that the Son of Man has authority on earth to forgive sins”—he said to the paralytic—
¹¹
“I say to you, stand up, take your mat and go to your home.”

IMPURITY AND HEALING

A central issue in Mark is the relation of the followers of Jesus to the purity rules of Judaism, rules that helped to define Jewish identity. The rules distinguished several categories: the Temple was sacred (Heb
qodesh
, Gk
hagios
), while in relation to that, most people, places, and things were “common”—neutral or mundane (Heb.
hol,
Gk
bebēlos, koinos
). On the other end of the spectrum, certain things were “unclean” or polluting (Heb
tame’,
Gk
akathartos
), such as a corpse, and in relation to that most people or things were “clean” (Heb
tahor,
Gk
katharos
). The two sets of opposites can be superimposed in this way:

This system, spelled out in Lev 10.10–11, was simplified in Mark’s usage by combining the categories on one spectrum:

Many apocalyptic texts, such as the War Scroll from Qumran, assume a parallel between the conflicts in this world and conflicts on a cosmic level. Mark, more than many other early Christian texts, characterizes the spirit world in terms of a distinction between the
holy
spirit and
unclean
spirits. (Cf. Zech 13.1–2, both in the Heb and Gk texts;
1 En
. 10.17–11.2; 38.2; 1QS 4.20–21; 9.3). In rabbinic Judaism it was believed that a purification could occur near the altar (
m. Zeb
. 9.1); in the apocalyptic texts it was assumed that this cleansing could fall on the saved community away from the Temple as well. (Cf. also Paul’s discussion, 1 Cor 7.14.) In Mark, Jesus may not be erasing the Jewish distinctions of impurity as much as
defeating
impure spirits through the end-time actions of the Holy Spirit. It is part of the transformations at the end of time; purity codes are not set aside, but people are cleansed of their impurities.

PHARISEES AND TAX COLLECTORS

On the Pharisees, see “Jewish Movements of the NT Period,” p.
526
, but note here and in a number of passages in Matthew, Mark, and Luke, the Pharisees are contrasted specifically with tax collectors. This aspect is crucial for understanding the Gospels’ view of both Pharisees and tax collectors: they are both presented as symbolic as well as real. As a lay movement outside of the Temple administration, the goal of the Pharisees was to renew and extend the observance of Jewish practice in society. But while Mark and Matthew could allow for the existence of good scribes (Mk 12.28–34; Mt 13.52), they do not recognize the possibility of a good Pharisee (contrast Acts 15.5). The conflict between the Jesus of the Gospels and the Pharisees, as representatives of Judaism in daily life, has therefore set up an opposition that has been perpetuated in Christian attitudes toward Judaism to this day.

The tax collectors, on the other hand, enjoy a special role, even a favored status in Matthew, Mark, and Luke. Yet if Jesus himself engaged them, it is odd that they should be totally absent in Paul, John, and in most early Christian texts. Not collectors of Roman direct taxes or of the Jewish Temple tax, tax collectors in the New Testament belonged to that group of functionaries responsible for local duties and tolls: in some cases they controlled local monopolies, such as the sale of salt. Since they kept as their own income whatever was in excess of the amount they had agreed to supply to the Roman administration, they were easily portrayed (Justly or not) as extortionists. Contrary to some scholarly speculation, they were not likely slaves or poor, but low-level entrepreneurial figures. In both rabbinic and Christian texts, tax collectors are depicted as morally questionable, unsavory types who are the least likely to engage in heartfelt repentance and lead a good life (Lk 3.12–13; 7.34; Mt 5.46; 21.31;
m. Hag
. 3.6;
m. Ned
. 3.4;
m. B. Kamma
10.1–2).

But aside from our understanding of the Pharisees and tax collectors separately, they must be understood together. The role of the tax collectors—
in both the Gospels and in rabbinic sources
—is generally as a foil to the Pharisees. In early rabbinic traditions, the Pharisees and their likely allies, the
ḥaverim
or “comrades” are particularly condemning of tax collectors, since they were viewed as lax about observance of the law and unscrupulous in terms of business practices. The tax collectors are thus likely favored in the gospels precisely because they were maligned by the Pharisees.

¹²
And he stood up, and immediately took the mat and went out before all of them; so that they were all amazed and glorified God, saying, “We have never seen anything like this!”

¹³
Jesus
^*
went out again beside the sea; the whole crowd gathered around him, and he taught them.
¹⁴
As he was walking along, he saw Levi son of Alphaeus sitting at the tax booth, and he said to him, “Follow me.” And he got up and followed him.

¹⁵
And as he sat at dinner
^*
in Levi’s
^*
house, many tax collectors and sinners were also sitting
^*
with Jesus and his disciples—for there were many who followed him.
¹⁶
When the scribes of
^*
the Pharisees saw that he was eating with sinners and tax collectors, they said to his disciples, “Why does he eat
^*
with tax collectors and sinners?”
¹⁷
When Jesus heard this, he said to them, “Those who are well have no need of a physician, but those who are sick; I have come to call not the righteous but sinners.”

¹⁸
Now John’s disciples and the Pharisees were fasting; and people
^*
came and said to him, “Why do John’s disciples and the disciples of the Pharisees fast, but your disciples do not fast?”
¹⁹
Jesus said to them, “The wedding guests cannot fast while the bridegroom is with them, can they? As long as they have the bridegroom with them, they cannot fast.
²⁰
The days will come when the bridegroom is taken away from them, and then they will fast on that day.

²¹
“No one sews a piece of unshrunk cloth on an old cloak; otherwise, the patch pulls away from it, the new from the old, and a worse tear is made.
²²
And no one puts new wine into old wineskins; otherwise, the wine will burst the skins, and the wine is lost, and so are the skins; but one puts new wine into fresh wineskins.”
^*

²³
One sabbath he was going through the grainfields; and as they made their way his disciples began to pluck heads of grain.
²⁴
The Pharisees said to him, “Look, why are they doing what is not lawful on the sabbath?”
²⁵
And he said to them, “Have you never read what David did when he and his companions were hungry and in need of food?
²⁶
He entered the house of God, when Abiathar was high priest, and ate the bread of the Presence, which it is not lawful for any but the priests to eat, and he gave some to his companions.”
²⁷
Then he said to them, “The sabbath was made for humankind, and not humankind for the sabbath;
²⁸
so the Son of Man is lord even of the sabbath.”

3
Again he entered the synagogue, and a man was there who had a withered hand.
²
They watched him to see whether he would cure him on the sabbath, so that they might accuse him.
³
And he said to the man who had the withered hand, “Come forward.”
⁴
Then he said to them, “Is it lawful to do good or to do harm on the sabbath, to save life or to kill?” But they were silent.
⁵
He looked around at them with anger; he was grieved at their hardness of heart and said to the man, “Stretch out your hand.” He stretched it out, and his hand was restored.
⁶
The Pharisees went out and immediately conspired with the Herodians against him, how to destroy him.