Re: SHMEION TOU UIOU ANQRWPOU

From: WINBROW@aol.com
Date: Wed Sep 13 1995 - 14:00:57 EDT


Carl Conrad wrote,
>I don't really understand this conception of "the manifestation of the
risen Christ to the church to aid them in their one task that consumes
Mark, the proclamation of the gospel to the nations starting in Galilee
(14:28 & 16:7)."
It seems to me, after considerable reflection, to be based upon the way in
which Matthew's gospel has interpreted Mark's indications about Jesus
meeting the disciples in Galilee--i.e., Matthew presents in chapter 28 an
account of a mountaintop Galilean meeting of disciples with the
risen-and-ascended Christ who commissions them for their task. Perhaps I've
misunderstand Carlton here and that's not what he has in mind, but if it
is, I have to say that I'm not convinced that such a meeting is what Mark's
texts was pointing to. Then what is he pointing to in 14:28 and 16:7?
Marxsen thought, and I think Kelber and Perrin thought that Galilee was a
symbolic term for the world-at-large and the confrontation to take place
there would in fact be the parousia.<

What convinces me that Mark saw Galilee as the jumping off place for
preaching to the nations is 14:28 & 7 coming in the dramatic moments in which
they are placed by Mark. You are right about Perrin, Kelber, & Marxsen (tho
their theses are very different in some ways) and I also see Galilee holding
some symbolic meaning (Seppori excavations very interesting). What I am
suggesting is that for Mark the vindication of the Son of Man is in whatever
convinced the early Christians that he was raised and exalted. For Mark this
in not PAROUSIA. That is still to come and all that can be known about it is
that no one knows and that it places on disciples the responsibility to
"watch" (be involved in the proclamation = be disciples). It seems to me
that Mark may well have been afraid that disciples would become involved in
defending Jerusalem/Palestine. Marxsen places the writing on the eve of the
Jewish/Roman war. If it was written after then the situation changes and
Mark would have been justifying the disciples' abandonment of Jerusalem.

"The Kingdom of God having come with Power" (9:1) and "This generation will
not pass away until all these things happen" 13:30 do not have to refer to
the same thing, but certainly would refer to things that Mark conceived were
close at hand. the reference in 9:1 refers to the realization by the
disciples beyond the cross of the true nature of the Kingdom. The
resurrection means that the Kingdom of God is present in a way that it cannot
be stoped by the threat od death. In 13:30 followed as it is by 31 is a
prophetic declaration that the fall of Jerusalem will surely happen and
cannot be stopped.

I differ from Jan Haugland in that I think Mark sought to separate the
destruction from Parousia which he thought was to be at an unknown point in
the future.

Man, this is an involved question!

Carlton Winbery
Fogleman Prof. NT & Greek
LA College, Pineville, LA
(318) 487-7241 Fax (318) 487-7425 off. or (318) 442-4996 home
Winbrow@aol.com or Winbery@andria.lacollege.edu



This archive was generated by hypermail 2.1.4 : Sat Apr 20 2002 - 15:37:27 EDT