Mark ~ musing some more on the gospel
This blog will be notes on things I noticed ~
1) As I read and re-read --this time -- I am reading Mark through the filter of my mental picture of Mark and Peter traveling, ministering together ~ Mark listening to the story of Jesus from Peter's memories. I noticed something interesting. From chapter 1 to the middle of chapter 3, Mark calls Peter "Simon"
Mark 1:16-18
As Jesus walked beside the Sea of Galilee, he saw Simon and his brother Andrew casting a net into the lake, for they were fishermen. "Come, follow me," Jesus said, "and I will make you fishers of men." At once they left their nets and followed him.
Mark 1:29-31
As soon as they left the synagogue, they went with James and John to the home of Simon and Andrew. Simon's mother-in-law was in bed with a fever, and they told Jesus about her. So he went to her, took her hand and helped her up. The fever left her and she began to wait on them.
Mark 1:35-37
Very early in the morning, while it was still dark, Jesus got up, left the house and went off to a solitary place, where he prayed. Simon and his companions went to look for him, and when they found him, they exclaimed: "Everyone is looking for you!"
Mark 3:16
These are the twelve he appointed: Simon (to whom he gave the name Peter);
Now, as soon as Mark tells us in Mark 3:16 that Jesus gave Simon the name Peter ~ from that point on in the gospel, Mark only calls "Simon Peter" "Peter". Even an interesting verse where Jesus calls Peter "Simon", but Mark refers to him still as "Peter".
Mark 14:37-38
Then he returned to his disciples and found them sleeping. "Simon ," he said to Peter, "are you asleep? Could you not keep watch for one hour? Watch and pray so that you will not fall into temptation. The spirit is willing, but the body is weak."
Now I do not know what this means or why Mark did this...but it is interesting. By the time Mark wrote this gospel, Peter is referred to mostly (at least it seems from scripture) as "Peter" -- Paul sometimes refers to him as "Cephas" which is the Hebrew for "Peter". So it seems that in his gospel, before he is called to be one of the 12, to Mark he was still Simon. After that, he is Peter. Hmmmm
2) There are stories in Mark that are part of other gospels -- lots of them. In fact some of the commentators say that Mark used the writings of Matthew and Luke -- like he 'copied' them. The wording is in several of them THE SAME, so . . . maybe. However, there are a couple of stories where Matthew and Luke tell a story where Peter figures prominently in the event . . . but Mark leaves Peter OUT of the telling. Two come to mind.
A) The calling of the first disciples.
Matt 4:18-20
As Jesus was walking beside the Sea of Galilee, he saw two brothers, Simon called Peter and his brother Andrew. They were casting a net into the lake, for they were fishermen. "Come, follow me," Jesus said, "and I will make you fishers of men ." At once they left their nets and followed him.
Mark 1:16-18
As Jesus walked beside the Sea of Galilee, he saw Simon and his brother Andrew casting a net into the lake, for they were fishermen. "Come, follow me," Jesus said, "and I will make you fishers of men ." At once they left their nets and followed him.
I have noted the differences...hardly worth noting, right? As a teacher ... if I read these, I would have thought, "OK, who wrote and who copied?" So that means what ever that means...and I do not know what that is. What IS interesting to me, is the part of the story that Luke includes: Jesus filling Peter's boat with fish. It is a GREAT story. To summarize:
One day Jesus is walking by the lake of Gennesaret and he sees Peter's (Simon) boat and asks if Peter will take him out a ways from shore so he can teach. After the teaching, Jesus tells Peter to go out to the deep part of the lake, and once there, to let down his nets into the water to catch some fish. I can see Peter: rough and rugged fishermen (have you ever met any ... have you seen "Deadliest Catch" on TV?) struggling to be polite to this rabbi. Peter is a fisherman -- Jesus is a rabbi who had been a carpenter. Don't you know Peter wanted to laugh in Jesus' face and say, "What the @#&$$*(#!!% ~ you are a #^%%$!* carpenter, Rabbi, and you don't understand @$&&^(@!%%^ about fishing!" Can't you see the self-control he exerted tightening Peter's jaw as he says, "OK...if you say so..." Can't you see Jesus' eyes full of mischief and passion? So Peter does it and he lets the nets and "When they had done so, they caught such a large number of fish that their nets began to break." (Luke 5:6-7) This was, as I see it, a money miracle : that many fish was who knows how many days' income...especially when the night before they had caught nothing. But for Jesus to have asked such an odd thing -- fish during the day, after a night when they had caught nothing...No, Jesus had to have been making some 'other' point beyond the provision to a fishing business. Peter "gets it" immediately ~ he TURNS HIS BACK ON THE FISH and falls at Jesus' feet, full of the conviction of his own sin in the charged air of this miracle. In this context "I will make you fishers of men" (or as Luke puts it, "you will catch men") makes so much sense. So! Why would Mark leave THIS story out? Surely Peter told him...or maybe one of the days at home in Jerusalem in the very, very early days of the church someone -- Andrew maybe -- brought it up. I don't get it...
Then
B) Jesus walking on water.
Again Matthew and Mark tell stories that begin with VERY similar wording. (you can check it out starting in Matthew 14:22 and respectively in Mark 6:45.) Both writers tell the story of the disciples in the boat in the middle of the night, straining at the oars because the wind was "against them"; both tell of the fear, the terror, when they see Jesus walking on the lake, and think it is a ghost they are seeing. However Matthew ~ and NOT Mark ~ includes the story of Peter calling out to Jesus, "Lord, if it's you, . . . tell me to come to you on the water." How Peter does in fact get out of the boat and walk on water. Again, why would Mark delete this amazing story of Peter? Don't get it.
3) One more interesting thing I noticed in Mark. Mark, unlike Matthew or Luke, includes very few parables of Jesus in the recounting of his gospel. But there is one very significant parable that Mark does include, that is not found in any other gospel. Mark does, in Mark 4, include the parable of the Sower that is found also in Matthew and Luke : the one about the sower who sows seed, but depending on where the seed lands, on the type of soil, and on what happens to the seed, the seed either grows, has healthy roots and flourishes, or is weak or dies. (You can ~ and should ~ read the parable in Matthew 13, Mark 4 and Luke 8) BUT in the gospel of Mark, that parable is followed by this very different parable:
Mark 4:26-29
He also said, "This is what the kingdom of God is like. A man scatters seed on the ground. Night and day, whether he sleeps or gets up, the seed sprouts and grows, though he does not know how. All by itself the soil produces grain — first the stalk, then the head, then the full kernel in the head. As soon as the grain is ripe, he puts the sickle to it, because the harvest has come."
I think this parable is SO interesting!! In contrast to the more common Sower parable, in this one, the seed grows, kind of 'no matter what'. Jesus uses the phrases : "whether he (the Sower) sleeps or gets up" and "all by itself the soil produces grain". Jesus has given explanation of the images in the other Sower parable just a few verses above ... so, we know, the seed is the Word. This parable seems to indicate the incredible power of the Word (the gospel message? all of scripture?) will be effective without regard to the "work" of the one who sows or to the conditions where the seed is planted. That is a strong theological statement. Isn't it saying, as it were, "Just get the seed -- the word, the gospel -- into soil -- men's hearts -- and it will cause growth and continue to grow until the end -- the time of the harvest." What it reminds me of, actually, is a verse in Romans :
Rom 1:16-17
I am not ashamed of the gospel, because it is the power of God for the salvation of everyone who believes: first for the Jew, then for the Gentile.
We know Mark spent time with Paul...is this one of the 'Paul' influences?
Makes me muse and ponder. Just find it all so interesting!
1) As I read and re-read --this time -- I am reading Mark through the filter of my mental picture of Mark and Peter traveling, ministering together ~ Mark listening to the story of Jesus from Peter's memories. I noticed something interesting. From chapter 1 to the middle of chapter 3, Mark calls Peter "Simon"
Mark 1:16-18
As Jesus walked beside the Sea of Galilee, he saw Simon and his brother Andrew casting a net into the lake, for they were fishermen. "Come, follow me," Jesus said, "and I will make you fishers of men." At once they left their nets and followed him.
Mark 1:29-31
As soon as they left the synagogue, they went with James and John to the home of Simon and Andrew. Simon's mother-in-law was in bed with a fever, and they told Jesus about her. So he went to her, took her hand and helped her up. The fever left her and she began to wait on them.
Mark 1:35-37
Very early in the morning, while it was still dark, Jesus got up, left the house and went off to a solitary place, where he prayed. Simon and his companions went to look for him, and when they found him, they exclaimed: "Everyone is looking for you!"
Mark 3:16
These are the twelve he appointed: Simon (to whom he gave the name Peter);
Now, as soon as Mark tells us in Mark 3:16 that Jesus gave Simon the name Peter ~ from that point on in the gospel, Mark only calls "Simon Peter" "Peter". Even an interesting verse where Jesus calls Peter "Simon", but Mark refers to him still as "Peter".
Mark 14:37-38
Then he returned to his disciples and found them sleeping. "Simon ," he said to Peter, "are you asleep? Could you not keep watch for one hour? Watch and pray so that you will not fall into temptation. The spirit is willing, but the body is weak."
Now I do not know what this means or why Mark did this...but it is interesting. By the time Mark wrote this gospel, Peter is referred to mostly (at least it seems from scripture) as "Peter" -- Paul sometimes refers to him as "Cephas" which is the Hebrew for "Peter". So it seems that in his gospel, before he is called to be one of the 12, to Mark he was still Simon. After that, he is Peter. Hmmmm
2) There are stories in Mark that are part of other gospels -- lots of them. In fact some of the commentators say that Mark used the writings of Matthew and Luke -- like he 'copied' them. The wording is in several of them THE SAME, so . . . maybe. However, there are a couple of stories where Matthew and Luke tell a story where Peter figures prominently in the event . . . but Mark leaves Peter OUT of the telling. Two come to mind.
A) The calling of the first disciples.
Matt 4:18-20
As Jesus was walking beside the Sea of Galilee, he saw two brothers, Simon called Peter and his brother Andrew. They were casting a net into the lake, for they were fishermen. "Come, follow me," Jesus said, "and I will make you fishers of men ." At once they left their nets and followed him.
Mark 1:16-18
As Jesus walked beside the Sea of Galilee, he saw Simon and his brother Andrew casting a net into the lake, for they were fishermen. "Come, follow me," Jesus said, "and I will make you fishers of men ." At once they left their nets and followed him.
I have noted the differences...hardly worth noting, right? As a teacher ... if I read these, I would have thought, "OK, who wrote and who copied?" So that means what ever that means...and I do not know what that is. What IS interesting to me, is the part of the story that Luke includes: Jesus filling Peter's boat with fish. It is a GREAT story. To summarize:
One day Jesus is walking by the lake of Gennesaret and he sees Peter's (Simon) boat and asks if Peter will take him out a ways from shore so he can teach. After the teaching, Jesus tells Peter to go out to the deep part of the lake, and once there, to let down his nets into the water to catch some fish. I can see Peter: rough and rugged fishermen (have you ever met any ... have you seen "Deadliest Catch" on TV?) struggling to be polite to this rabbi. Peter is a fisherman -- Jesus is a rabbi who had been a carpenter. Don't you know Peter wanted to laugh in Jesus' face and say, "What the @#&$$*(#!!% ~ you are a #^%%$!* carpenter, Rabbi, and you don't understand @$&&^(@!%%^ about fishing!" Can't you see the self-control he exerted tightening Peter's jaw as he says, "OK...if you say so..." Can't you see Jesus' eyes full of mischief and passion? So Peter does it and he lets the nets and "When they had done so, they caught such a large number of fish that their nets began to break." (Luke 5:6-7) This was, as I see it, a money miracle : that many fish was who knows how many days' income...especially when the night before they had caught nothing. But for Jesus to have asked such an odd thing -- fish during the day, after a night when they had caught nothing...No, Jesus had to have been making some 'other' point beyond the provision to a fishing business. Peter "gets it" immediately ~ he TURNS HIS BACK ON THE FISH and falls at Jesus' feet, full of the conviction of his own sin in the charged air of this miracle. In this context "I will make you fishers of men" (or as Luke puts it, "you will catch men") makes so much sense. So! Why would Mark leave THIS story out? Surely Peter told him...or maybe one of the days at home in Jerusalem in the very, very early days of the church someone -- Andrew maybe -- brought it up. I don't get it...
Then
B) Jesus walking on water.
Again Matthew and Mark tell stories that begin with VERY similar wording. (you can check it out starting in Matthew 14:22 and respectively in Mark 6:45.) Both writers tell the story of the disciples in the boat in the middle of the night, straining at the oars because the wind was "against them"; both tell of the fear, the terror, when they see Jesus walking on the lake, and think it is a ghost they are seeing. However Matthew ~ and NOT Mark ~ includes the story of Peter calling out to Jesus, "Lord, if it's you, . . . tell me to come to you on the water." How Peter does in fact get out of the boat and walk on water. Again, why would Mark delete this amazing story of Peter? Don't get it.
3) One more interesting thing I noticed in Mark. Mark, unlike Matthew or Luke, includes very few parables of Jesus in the recounting of his gospel. But there is one very significant parable that Mark does include, that is not found in any other gospel. Mark does, in Mark 4, include the parable of the Sower that is found also in Matthew and Luke : the one about the sower who sows seed, but depending on where the seed lands, on the type of soil, and on what happens to the seed, the seed either grows, has healthy roots and flourishes, or is weak or dies. (You can ~ and should ~ read the parable in Matthew 13, Mark 4 and Luke 8) BUT in the gospel of Mark, that parable is followed by this very different parable:
Mark 4:26-29
He also said, "This is what the kingdom of God is like. A man scatters seed on the ground. Night and day, whether he sleeps or gets up, the seed sprouts and grows, though he does not know how. All by itself the soil produces grain — first the stalk, then the head, then the full kernel in the head. As soon as the grain is ripe, he puts the sickle to it, because the harvest has come."
I think this parable is SO interesting!! In contrast to the more common Sower parable, in this one, the seed grows, kind of 'no matter what'. Jesus uses the phrases : "whether he (the Sower) sleeps or gets up" and "all by itself the soil produces grain". Jesus has given explanation of the images in the other Sower parable just a few verses above ... so, we know, the seed is the Word. This parable seems to indicate the incredible power of the Word (the gospel message? all of scripture?) will be effective without regard to the "work" of the one who sows or to the conditions where the seed is planted. That is a strong theological statement. Isn't it saying, as it were, "Just get the seed -- the word, the gospel -- into soil -- men's hearts -- and it will cause growth and continue to grow until the end -- the time of the harvest." What it reminds me of, actually, is a verse in Romans :
Rom 1:16-17
I am not ashamed of the gospel, because it is the power of God for the salvation of everyone who believes: first for the Jew, then for the Gentile.
We know Mark spent time with Paul...is this one of the 'Paul' influences?
Makes me muse and ponder. Just find it all so interesting!
If Mark is writing Peter's perspective on Peter's time with Jesus then he is taking his cues from Peter, therefore the emphasis on Simon until the actual change when he became Peter. This would be important to Peter because he sees himself as two different men, a before and after.
ReplyDeleteWhy would Mark leave the fishing story out. One answer might be that Peter was getting to, got interrupted, they went to bed, and in the morning the moment was over and the story never got told.