tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9987513.post3168128585699258017..comments2024-03-17T11:05:22.464+00:00Comments on The Life And Opinions of Andrew Rilstone: Mark 14 1-11Unknownnoreply@blogger.comBlogger2125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9987513.post-22058335871434640302020-08-16T21:40:21.864+01:002020-08-16T21:40:21.864+01:00Up to a point. To say "Christians vs Jews&quo...Up to a point. To say "Christians vs Jews" is an anachronism: "followers of Jesus" become "the Way" for the first pages of the book of Acts; and the term "Christian" is coined part-way through. I was making the rhetorical point -- leading into my comments about the probable meaning of Judas's name -- that the whole conflict of Jesus versus temple, sacrifice system, priests, pharisees and law is problematic and rather shocking. That complex temple/sacrifice/priests/pharisees/Torah is to a great extent what we mean by "Judaism". (I didn't mean to imply a conflict between racially Jewish people and racially non-Jewish people, of course, although that comes in Paul and Acts, to some extent, arguably.) It might have been better if I'd said "Christianity against Judaism" or "Nascent Christianity against Judaism" or even "The followers of Jesus' new Way against the followers of Moses and the Torah and his interpreters". <br /><br />Mark's Jesus, the character I'm talking about, didn't "take a long hard look at the religious practices of his day"; he was possessed or visited by the Spirit of God and proceeded to act and behave as if he was God. It is hard to know if he (the character in the book) intended to start a new "religion": he certainly proclaims a new Covenant; and certainly sets up the Eucharist as a new ceremony -- replacing Passover? Mark doesn't give us many clues about what he thinks happened after the Resurrection. Indeed it's pretty hard to see how Mark's story can possibly dove-tail into Luke's. Obviously there are a lot of ideas about who The Historical Jesus who lies behind Mark's story was. Jewish reformer and Jewish apocalyptic prophet are two very popular ones. I am not in any way opposed to or uninterested in Quests for the Historical Jesus (although I am pretty ignorant about them) but I am trying to stay as focussed as I can on Mark's Version. <br /><br />Thanks for your comments and for taking me seriously, by the way! Andrew Rilstonehttps://www.blogger.com/profile/05786623930392936889noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9987513.post-85937372561711525772020-08-16T21:03:57.711+01:002020-08-16T21:03:57.711+01:00"And, for the first time, Jesus, inside the s..."And, for the first time, Jesus, inside the story, looks forward to the time when the story will be told."<br /><br />Jesus did make an earlier reference to the Gospel existing in the future, in Mark 13: "and the Gospel must first be [made public] among all nations." Obviously, this is Mark talking from his own perspective. By <i>euangelion</i>, he means the oral tradition existing in his lifetime, and his book is an extension of that tradition.<br /><br />"The story is focussing down. Jesus versus the priests. The bearer of the holy dove against the temple. God against religion. And therefore, of course, Christians against Jews."<br /><br />That last one is a false dichotomy. The people around Jesus are mostly Jewish themselves. The distinction is between Jews-following-Jesus and Jews-following-the-Old-Religion, with the understanding that the Old Religion with the Temple as its focal point would cease to exist in that form. The destruction of the Temple is indeed central to an understanding of the Gospel in its historical context. (As I've come to realize while reading all of this!)<br /><br />Jesus didn't set out to start a new religion. Jesus took a long, hard look at religious practices in his lifetime and proclaimed that people should mend their ways. He may have been subversive, but he was still a religious Jew operating within a Jewish context.<br /><br />(Honestly, I don't think that I can add anything that you wouldn't know already.)Thomashttps://www.blogger.com/profile/18113204783597409765noreply@blogger.com