Mark 7

"This 'Jesus': the one who controls the weather and raises the dead and can out-Elijah Elijah. The one the King thinks is a beheaded man come back to life and the People think is a Celestial Prophet come back to earth. What did he do next? The whole 'walking on the water' thing must have been a hard act to follow."

"Oh: pretty much what you would expect. He met up with some religious lawyers and had a pedantic argument about dietary restrictions and the canonical status of oral tradition."

"Oh... right."

When you find something odd or troubling in a text, the best thing to do is focus on it. The oddness or troublesomeness is probably the point. Some people might look at this passage and say "Aha. So here we see the True Historical Jesus -- the reforming Rabbi who had some controversial ideas about ritual ablutions. The miracle stuff in the other chapters is just silly folklore we can ignore." And other people might look at it and say "Aha. For some reason, and way after the fact, someone has looked at a lot of stories about a cosmic world-saviour and rather clumsily added some Jewish stuff to make it look a bit more historical." 

But Mark was a human being and a story teller. If there are contradictions and clashes of register in the text, they didn't get there by magic: Mark put them there. If something seems odd, it is highly likely that he meant it to seem odd.

So let's keep both sides of the story in our heads. Jesus is accumulating titles like "Son of Man" and "Holy One of God". God (literally God) called him "my one-and-only Son." How does Mark want us to picture this One And Only Son of God?

Apparently, as a religious expert, having a pedantic argument with other religious experts.

then came together unto him the Pharisees 

and certain of the scribes 

which came from Jerusalem. 

and when they saw some of his disciples eat bread with defiled, 

that is to say, with unwashen, hands, 

they found fault. 

for the Pharisees, 

and all the Jews, 

except they wash their hands oft, eat not, 

holding the tradition of the elders. 

and when they come from the market, 

except they wash, they eat not 

and many other things there be, 

which they have received to hold, 

as the washing of cups, and pots, brasen vessels, and of tables. 

then the Pharisees and scribes asked him 

"why walk not thy disciples according to the tradition of the elders 

but eat bread with unwashen hands?" 

he answered and said unto them 

"well hath Esaias prophesied of you hypocrites, 

as it is written 

'this people honoureth me with their lips, 

but their heart is far from me. 

howbeit in vain do they worship me 

teaching for doctrines the commandments of men.' 

for laying aside the commandment of God 

ye hold the tradition of men 

as the washing of pots and cups 

and many other such like things ye do" 

and he said unto them, 

"full well ye reject the commandment of God, 

that ye may keep your own tradition. 

for Moses said, 'honour thy father and thy mother' 

and, 'whoso curseth father or mother, let him die the death' 

but ye say, 

'if a man shall say to his father or mother, 

"it is Corban (that is to say, a gift)

by whatsoever thou mightest be profited by me" he shall be free' 

and ye suffer him no more to do ought for his father or his mother; 

making the word of God of none effect through your tradition, 

which ye have delivered

and many such like things do ye."

So. We have a debate between two approaches to religious law. In this corner, the pedantic, literalist approach which says that you achieve a state of holiness by rigorously following the Word as it is laid down in the holy texts. And in this corner, the more dynamic approach, which says that the law is a living thing and you must perpetually adapt it to the real life circumstances you find yourself in.

No surprise there. The awkward thing is that Jesus appears to be taking the rigorous, literalist approach; the Pharisees the more lenient, interpretative one.

The story has three different components. There is what Jesus said to the Pharisees; what Jesus said to the Multitude; and what Jesus said to his own Disciples. And then, cunningly concealed by the King James translators, there is Mark's comment about what Jesus meant, which, when we get to it, will make our jaws drop to the floor and our minds boggle in amazement.

We have to keep reminding ourselves that there is a regional conflict going on. Jesus is from Galilee in the North; he has not so far gone more than half a days ride from the lake. The Pharisees come from Judea in the South. The last time we heard from them they were conspiring with Herod's faction to have Jesus killed.

If we keep this in mind we can avoid a massive textual heffalump trap. Mark says that the Jews insist on all kinds of ceremonial ablutions. This suggests to some readers that he must be directing his Gospel at pagans, who may not know about Jewish beliefs. Some would take the as evidence that there is a racist element creeping into Christianity even at this early stage: "the Jews" are already seen as an alien tribe. But this leaves us with a text that makes no sense: a text which says that the Jesus who attends synagogue and talks about Moses is not a Jew; that Jesus at some level considered the prophet Isaiah to be not a Jew. If, on the other hand, when Mark talks about "the Jews" he means not "the Jews as opposed to the Christians" but "the Judeans as opposed to the Galileans" then everything falls into place. The Scribes have come up specially from Jerusalem to complain that Jesus's students don't wash up before meals. Mark points out that the Pharisees -- and indeed, all the Judeans -- have got a lot of cleanliness rules we Galileans in the North don't bother with.

The Pharisees, as we have seen, believe in an oral Torah which can modify and interpret the written Torah. Jesus treats "what Moses said" and "what God said" as synonymous. The Ten Commandments and Leviticus are "the word of God" and "the commandments of God"; the Pharisee's teachings are merely "the commandments of men" "the traditions of men" and "your own traditions". 

Christians have tended to see this passage as making a distinction between a purely internal, spiritual orientation towards God and a preoccupation with external cleanliness. But Jesus accepts the authority of the law of Moses. His complaint against the Pharisees is that they are operating a double-standard. They use their supplementary traditions to add obligations to the law when they want to find fault with Jesus's students; but they use those same traditions to subtract obligations from the law when they find them inconvenient.

It's a very lawyerly argument; and Jesus's language, at least in translation; has the whiff of the courtroom about it. "Thus do you make the law of null effect by your teaching..."

"Your disciples do not follow our Traditions, thus excusing themselves from certain onerous tasks!"

"Yeah! Well look at the way your lot use the same Traditions to excuse yourselves from onerous tasks when it suits you!"

The word for hypocrite is "hypocrite" which in English generally means hypocrite. But it literally means a person who wears a mask: an actor. The accusation is not "you don't practice what you preach" but "you are only playing at religion". ("You are nothing but show offs!" says the Contemporary English Bible.")

and when he had called all the people unto him, 

he said unto them, 

"Hearken unto me every one of you, and understand: 

there is nothing from without a man, 

that entering into him can defile him 

but the things which come out of him, 

those are they that defile the man. 

if any man have ears to hear, let him hear." 

and when he was entered into the house from the people 

his disciples asked him concerning the parable. 

and he saith unto them, 

"are ye so without understanding also? 

do ye not perceive, 

that whatsoever thing from without entereth into the man, 

it cannot defile him; 

because it entereth not into his heart 

but into the belly, 

and goeth out into the draught, 

purging all meats?" 

and he said, 

"that which cometh out of the man, 

that defileth the man. 

for from within, 

out of the heart of men, 

proceed evil thoughts, 

adulteries, 

fornications, 

murders, 

thefts 

covetousness 

wickedness 

deceit 

lasciviousness 

an evil eye 

blasphemy 

pride 

foolishness: 

all these evil things come from within 

and defile the man"

"You don't put anything disgusting into your body; the disgusting stuff is what comes out." We would probably not regard this saying as a parable; but the disciples do. Jesus has stated an obvious fact about the world: if anything, earthy and a little bit vulgar. Food is nice; puke is disgusting. Smells good going in but bad coming out. The disciples are not being willfully stupid. They are saying "That much is obvious, Lord: but we do not see the application."

Jesus's explanation does not quite follow from the parable. Jesus says, in effect "When I was talking about yukky stuff which comes out of you, I wasn't talking about excrement. I was talking about what comes out of you: yucky behaviour." 

And now we come to a rather fascinating textual crux.

King James says that Jesus said that what you put in your body can't pollute you "because it entereth not into the heart, but into the belly, and goeth out into the draught, purging all meats." The King writes "draught" or "drain" to protect our embarrassment, but aphedrona definitely means "toilet" (literally "the place where you go to sit by yourself"). Now, the English Bible runs the sentences together: "out into the sewer, purging all meats". That makes it sound like the sewer is doing the purging; which makes fairly good sense. "Food just goes through your body and down the toilet where we get rid of all the yucky stuff." At least one modern paraphrase takes "purged" to mean "flushed".

But katharizon panta ta bromata means "purifying all the food." When Jesus healed the leper a few chapters ago he said katharistheti. English Bibles render that as "be cleansed!" or "be purified!". Maybe we should imagine the Leper saying "If you will, you can flush and disinfect me." Maybe the world is a great big smelly latrine and Jesus has come to pull the chain.

Most translators now agree that "purging all meat" is an authorial interjection: Mark's words, not Jesus's. I am sure they are correct: but they have to use an awful lot of words to convey this in English. The Good News Bible has "In saying this Jesus declared that all foods are fit to be eaten". The New English Bible goes with "This means all foods are clean." And the Message, as ever, just makes something up: "That put an end to dietary quibbling." But a literal translation would have to run along the lines of " '...It goes into your tummy and then down the drain' (purifying all food)".

Mark wasn't a disciple. He didn't hear Jesus say any of this. But since the third century at least, Christians have said that Mark got his material from Peter. We know that Peter gave up the Jewish cleanliness laws only with great reluctance; he and Paul have a stand-up row over the issue. Is it possible that we should imagine Peter chiming in with the "purging all the food" comment?  In these confused and confusing passages, it is very easy to imagine the rambling voice of the old, old fisherman who perhaps still has problems with this aspect of his Master's teaching. "There was that time he walked on water. And then he had a big debate with the lawyers. Food makes no difference, he said. It just goes down the loo. (So everything's clean.) It's what we're like on the inside he cares about..."

When the Pharisees asked why Jesus' disciples weren't fasting, he said "they don't have to fast as long as I am here." When they asked why his disciples were breaking the Sabbath, Jesus said, in effect, "The Sabbath is whatever I say it is." Here again, the Pharisees think they have caught Jesus out. Jesus points up their hypocrisy and inconsistency; and then, in a parenthesis, wipes out the entire kosher system. Mark doesn't say that Jesus revealed that the idea of ritual purity was based on a terrible error which he could no fix. He certainly doesn't say that God has changed his mind. It's just "Jesus made all the food pure." 

Yesterday pig-meat was dirty: today it isn't. Because I said so. The godsplainers have been trying to quibble about the Law with the person who wrote the book. Jesus has indeed just done something more god-like than walking on the sea.

and from thence he arose,

and went into the borders of Tyre and Sidon,

and entered into an house,

and would have no man know it:

but he could not be hid

for a certain woman,

whose young daughter had an unclean spirit,

heard of him,

and came and fell at his feet:

the woman was a Greek, a Syrophenician by nation

and she besought him that he would cast forth the devil out of her daughter.

but Jesus said unto her,

"let the children first be filled:

for it is not meet to take the children's bread,

and to cast it unto the dogs"

and she answered and said unto him,

"Yes, Lord:

yet the dogs under the table eat of the children's crumbs"

and he said unto her,

"for this saying go thy way;

the devil is gone out of thy daughter"

and when she was come to her house,

she found the devil gone out,

and her daughter laid upon the bed.

You know what I said above, about odd and troubling passages? Well, here is one of the oddest and most troubling of all.

Tyre is about 30 miles from Capernaum; in what we would now call Lebanon. Sidon is about a further 20 miles up the coast. This is the furthest Jesus has traveled from home-base. A Syro-Phoenician means a Syrian who was born in Phoenicia. Greek probably just means foreigner: Greek as opposed to Jewish. Probably we don't need to worry too much about the lady's triple nationality. For Mark's purposes, what matters is that she is foreign and we are a long way from home.

A foreigner asks Jesus for healing. Jesus doesn't want to heal her because she isn't Jewish. Instead of calling him a racist and challenging the whole idea of Jewish exceptionalism, she repeats her request, humbly and with wit. Jesus relents because of the way the question was asked. 

Moral: Little girls with clever mummies get healed. The rest of them carry on suffering.

We can soften the passage in a couple of ways. "Cast it to the dogs!" may have sounded milder to Mark's listeners than it does to us. Kunarion is "little dog" or even "puppy". He isn't saying "doing miracles for non-Jews is like throwing good food on the rubbish tip." It's more like "We aren't going to feed the puppies until we are sure the kids have had enough." And he doesn't say that the gentiles won't be fed, only that they won't be fed yet.

The Jews are God's People. This isn't in question. God has a special relationship with Jewish people; and the Nations don't know the Law. The God of Israel, in the person of Jesus, has walked into gentile country. One of them comes and asks him a favour. His first answer is the one you would expect. The Jews are the special ones; God's children's. Everyone else -- well they can wait. They have lessor status. Not filthy hounds, but little doggies: less important than the kids. 

Very well: says the woman -- but little doggies do in fact get the kids' leftovers.

So she gets a little bit. A little crumb. Whatever the kids didn't want. Specifically a crumb of bread. Which pulls us right back to the crucial and unexplained story of the Loaves and the Fishes. The disciples gathered up the crumbs which were left; and what did they get? Loads and loads. Tons. Basketfulls. More than they could possibly want.

The foreign lady gets her crumb: and that crumb was precisely the very thing she most wanted; her daughter healed of an incurable affliction.

So the message is clear. We modern readers are universalists. We are surprised that there would even be a question about whether Jesus would refuse to help someone on the basis of their ethnicity. But Mark and Peter were Jews. They belonged to the chosen people. God's special favourites. They expected Jesus to say "no; definitely not". Not "okay; just this once."

We say "Only the crumbs? That's a bit mean." 

They say "The crumbs! That's incredibly generous"

God has plenty. Even his leftovers are more than you could possibly want. 

That is what I think this passage means. I think that my reading is superior to Mrs Govey's, who thought that Jesus said "let the children first be fed" with a "twinkle in his eye", a twinkle which the Greek woman immediately understood and played along with.

But it is still a very troubling passage.

and again, 

departing from the coasts of Tyre and Sidon, 

he came unto the sea of Galilee, 

through the midst of the coasts of Decapolis.

and they bring unto him one that was deaf

and had an impediment in his speech

and they beseech him to put his hand upon him

and he took him aside from the multitude

and put his fingers into his ears

and he spit

and touched his tongue;

and looking up to heaven, he sighed

and saith unto him, Ephphatha, that is, Be opened.

and straightway his ears were opened

and the string of his tongue was loosed

and he spake plain.

and he charged them that they should tell no man

but the more he charged them, 

so much the more a great deal they published it

and were beyond measure astonished, 

saying, 

"He hath done all things well: 

he maketh both the deaf to hear, and the dumb to speak."

There is near-universal agreement that this passage demonstrates that Mark can't have been Jewish, and certainly can't have been a Galilean, since going from Tyre to Galilee via Decapolis makes about as much sense as going from London to Edinburgh via Truro. 

To which my response is "Yes: he didn't go the obvious way, but took an indirect route. That is why Mark bothered to mention it." 

Similarly everyone tells me that this story is called "The Healing of the Deaf Mute in the Decapolis" even though the text says that Jesus went through Decapolis and ended up back at home in Galilee. I sometimes wonder if I am over-subtle, or a complete block-head.

This passage puzzles me. There is no twist or moral message and nothing unusual about the healing. Jesus has been curing hundreds of people every day -- they are literally lining the roads with them. What gives this fellow a story in his own right? 

"Because, in a very real sense, many thousands of people were healed but one of them is described in the Bible; because in a very real sense we are not just a crowd; we all matter to God and Jesus would have cured this one man of his stammer even if he had in a very real sense been the only stammerer in the world." 

That might make a good sermon. But it is not very good literary criticism. We are going to have to wait until the end of the next chapter to work out what is really going on. 

I'm Andrew. I write about folk music, God, comic books, Star Wars and Jeremy Corbyn. I have no political opinions of any kind.

If you are enjoying my essays, please buy me a "coffee" (by dropping £3 in the tip jar)

Or consider supporting me on Patreon (by pledging $1 for each essay)

You Told Me So

A few minutes ago I cancelled my Labour Party membership. 

I have at no point in the last four years been an active member of the Labour Party and I do not want a vote in the forthcoming leadership election. I am still a member of a Trade Union. I forget if my membership of Unison allows me to vote for Jeremy's successor, but if it does I will not exercise it. 

If I had a vote I would vote for the socialist candidate. But if Corbyn is succeeded by another socialist, there will be a further decade of sectarian strife between the right-wing (or "moderate") parliamentary party and the socialist (or "hard left") leadership. This would not, in fact deliver a future socialist government. The person who defeats Johnson or his successor in 2029 will be a Centrist -- someone very far to the right of Blair or even Obama, but still slightly to the left of Johnson and Trump. I could not possibly vote for such a person to be leader of the Labour Party, although he is the kind of leader the Labour Party clearly needs. So the honourable thing to do is to waive my right to cast a vote. 

I urge other socialists and Momentum supporters to do the same; we have done enough damage already. I think that we are rather in the position of evangelicals in the Church of England: we are, as a matter of fact, in the right, but it makes more sense to go away and be in the right in our own church rather than spend the next hundred years fighting for control of an institution which is working perfectly well on its own terms. 

I voted for Thangam in Bristol on Thursday and she was deservedly returned with a massive, albeit reduced, majority. She occasionally holds her surgeries in my place of work, and she shows every sign of being a charming and empathic person who relates well to her constituents. Her open letter during the last leadership campaign was one of the few honest and honourable criticisms of Jeremy Corbyn I read during the whole sorry episode. 

However, I wish to be free to vote tactically against Johnson's far-right English nationalists in any future election and tactical voting is incompatible with party membership. I would be strongly in favour of Momentum breaking away from the Centrist Labour party and offering a socialist alternative but I would not personally wish to become a member of such a party.

People are going to come up with a lot of reasons for last night's extreme English nationalist landslide. Hardly any of them will be right. 

Corbyn might have been a better leader and he might have been worse. Some of us found his understated well-meaning geography-teacher what-you-see-is-what-you-get personality refreshing after the fake sincerity of t.c Blair. Some people found it weak and uninspiring. Some of the same people who found him uninspiring accused his followers of being in thrall to his personal charisma; some of those who found him weak also said he was dangerously authoritarian. Nigel Farage should never have been allowed to manipulate David Cameron into calling a referendum; but once the referendum had been lost, Corbyn's policy of a second vote with a straight choice between a known deal and cancelling the whole show seemed to me to be the best way of playing a very poor hand. 

A lot of people said that a strong anti-Brexit position would have won Corbyn the election, yet the Liberals fought an election on a fantasy Revoke platform and were annihilated. Obviously a Lib-Lab coalition could have kept Johnson out of Downing street, but the Liberal party hates the Labour party and the Labour party hates coalitions and everyone hates the Greens. 

Corbyn's reluctance to explain to Ken Livingstone why you don't put the words "Hitler" and "Zionist" in the same sentence even if it's true was clearly an example of weak leadership. Anyone who takes seriously the idea that a Corbyn government would have threatened the existence of British Judaism or would have ushered in a second Holocaust is simply in thrall to myth-making by an over mighty billionaire press. We discovered, late in the election, just how far the Sun is prepared to go in spinning conspiracy theories. The imaginary lines from The Political Correctness Brigade and the Liberal Media and the Social Justice Warriors lead directly back to the Frankfurt Group, a covert organisation of Jewish intellectuals who are secretly working for the downfall of civilization as we now know it. But that obviously isn't even a little bit anti-Semitic. Ed Miliband -- then a dangerous Red, now the greatest Prime Minister we never had -- was vilified by those same papers for a disagreement with a rasher of bacon. 

Corbyn's weak leadership and Corbyn's anti-Semitism are excuses. So, in fact, is the Parliamentary Labour Party's relentless under mining of him, although I am sure that didn't help. 

Jeremy Corbyn lost the election because Jeremy Corbyn is a socialist and the British People do not want a socialist party in government. 

There: I have said it. 

Put another way: Corbyn was unelectable. 

Not because of his jumpers or his jam or his bicycle. Because of his politics. 

I am not the kind of Marxist who is prepared to say "Those are my principles: if you don't like them, I have others." I don't think it is the job of politicians to find out what people believe in and then to pretend to believe what the people believe. I think it is the job of politicians to believe in the right things and persuade other people that those things are right. I agreed with Jeremy Corbyn's ideas yesterday and I still agree with them today. 

I believe in "from each according to his ability to each according to his need". But I am prepared to settle for "an honest day's pay for an honest day's work." My belief that people who have done the honest work ought to also get the honest pay is by today's standards monstrously radical. I think that everyone with a job ought to get paid enough to feed, clothe and house themselves and their family; to educate their children; to go to the doctor if they get sick; and to have a little bit left over for beer and comic books. I don't mind how we achieve that. We can make the beer so cheap that even the poor can afford it; or we can pay the poor a lot more so they can afford the expensive beer. We can set wages so high that everyone can afford books; or we can lower the price of books so everyone can afford them.  We can drop books on slum districts out of Zeppelins, or we can have free libraries on the ground. I think the best approach would be for the workers (by hand or by brain) to have a general strike and demand a living wage. I think the second best approach would be for the government to tax the rich and use the money to pay for hospitals and schools and libraries. 

Yesterday; I still thought that democratic socialism was on offer. Literally until 10 o'clock I honestly thought Johnson would get a very small majority and that a Corbyn led Liberal-Labour-Green coalition would form the government. This morning, I don't think that democratic socialism is a possibility: not in my lifetime. (I am not about to collapse due to advanced senility. but I'll be doing well if I cast 5 more votes.) The alternative then -- the only other way on offer of securing an honest day's pay for an honest days work -- is to kill all the rich people. This I put in the category of eating a whole box of Maltesers in one go or spending the entire weekend looking at certain very tasteful adult websites. It's in the category of things "one would like to do, but feels one mustn't". I would probably regret it in the morning. Neither democratic socialism nor revolutionary socialism are on the table. So I suppose I am not a socialist any more. 

So: you told me that Corbyn was unelectable; you were right. 

You told me that a party leader needed to be a handsome young guy in a smart suit; you were right about that as well. 

You told me that the people didn't want socialism; you were right about that too. 

You told me that we should concentrating on electing a leader marginally less wicked than Johnson. You are probably right about that. Like the entomologist trying to decide which bug to put in his collection, it is probably sensible to choose the lessor of two weevils. 

Probably the best we can hope for is that 2029 gives us a Prime Minister who is Slightly Less Evil Than Boris. I wish you good luck; I will very probably vote for you. But excuse me if my support is less than enthusiastic. 

I am sending my £5.99 a month to the Trussell Trust. There are probably all sorts of clever reasons why that is not the charity which most deserves my support, and I look forward to ignoring them. I will ask my accountant to work out how much of my champagne money would have gone in income tax had Jeremy been elected and add that to my standing order in due course. 

I have not looked at any news media since midnight last night and I don't envisage restarting any time soon. I am going to largely abstain from Facebook and Twitter for the next several weeks at least.

I will stay as far away from politics on this blog as I possibly can: but I have lots of interesting articles on other subjects up my sleeve. Come back on Monday and find out what euphemism Jesus Christ employed to refer to the lavatory, and why this is actually Quite Interesting from a religious point of view.

I'm Andrew. I write about folk music, God, comic books, Star Wars and Jeremy Corbyn. I have no political opinions of any kind.

If you are enjoying my essays, please buy me a "coffee" (by dropping £3 in the tip jar)

Or consider supporting me on Patreon (by pledging $1 for each essay)

Mark 6 30-56

and the apostles gathered themselves together unto Jesus
and told him all things
both what they had done
and what they had taught
and he said unto them
"Come ye yourselves apart into a desert place,
and rest a while"
for there were many coming and going
and they had no leisure so much as to eat.
and they departed into a desert place by ship privately
and the people saw them departing
and many knew him
and ran afoot thither out of all cities
and outwent them
and came together unto him
and Jesus, when he came out
saw much people
and was moved with compassion toward them
because they were as sheep not having a shepherd
and he began to teach them many things
and when the day was now far spent
his disciples came unto him
and said,
"this is a desert place
and now the time is far passed.
send them away
that they may go into the country round about
and into the villages
and buy themselves bread
for they have nothing to eat."
he answered and said unto them
"give ye them to eat."
and they say unto him
"shall we go and buy two hundred pennyworth of bread
and give them to eat?"
he saith unto them
"how many loaves have ye? go and see"
and when they knew
they say, "five, and two fishes"
and he commanded them to make all sit down by companies 

upon the green grass
and they sat down in ranks
by hundreds, and by fifties
and when he had taken the five loaves and the two fishes
he looked up to heaven
and blessed
and brake the loaves
and gave them to his disciples to set before them
and the two fishes divided he among them all
and they did all eat
and were filled
and they took up twelve baskets full of the fragments
and of the fishes.
and they that did eat of the loaves were about five thousand men

Nazareth is ten miles from the lake: I think that the disciples must have reconvened in Capernaum after their missionary trip. Jesus sets out in the boat to find a lonely place where they can all have a rest. We aren't talking about a literal desert: just somewhere a bit secluded. He can't have traveled far, because the crowds on land are able to follow the boat and get their first.

Some people say that eremos, "desert", specifically refers to the wild places around a town where shepherds could graze their flocks: in which case it makes sense that when Jesus sees the people he thinks of abandoned sheep. In the fourth century, Christians picked a place called Tabgha, about two miles from Capernaum, as the site of the miracle, which fits with the story well enough. 

* 

This is the most famous of all Jesus-stories. It is in Matthew, Luke and John as well as in Mark. And everyone knows what it means. 

Miss Govey who taught R.E at my infant school knew what it meant. It is about sharing. There didn't seem to be enough food to feed the huge crowd. But a little boy went to Andrew (who was the nicest and most approachable disciple) and offered to share his packed lunch. This made everyone else feel bad; so they shared their lunches as well, and there was enough to go round. (Mark doesn't mention the little boy; neither do Matthew or Luke. He's only in John's version of the story.)  

A.N Wilson the novelist and acrostic-fan knows what the story means. It is about peace. Jesus told the crowd to sit down before the picnic started. And this is one of the most profound things anyone has ever said. Make the people sit down! The fighting men of Israel must sit down! The different sects, the sparring partners, the sectarians must sit down! Make the people sit down! (And so on, for pages and pages.)

John Wimber, the charismatic preacher knew what the story meant. It is about the gifts of the spirit. Jesus tells the disciples to feed the crowd. They have a ridiculously small amount of food -- literally just a crumb or two -- but because they trust Jesus the bread multiplies in their hands. And they get to take home what was left over -- a whole basket for each disciple! ("You know why most preachers get that wrong? It's because they have never experienced bread multiplying in their hands! They're only theoreticians!") 

Bible commentators know what the story means. It's about the Church. The twelve baskets represent the twelve sons of Jacob. So when the disciples gather up the fragments, they are really showing that God is going to gather together the Remnant of Israel. (Obviously.) 

And of course, with a lot more authority, John, the writer of the fourth Gospel, knows what the story means. It's really all about the Eucharist. Jesus feeding the crowd in the lonely place is a lot like God sending manna to feed the Jews in the wilderness. Jesus feeds the crowds with bread: but he himself is really the bread; and Christians are going to feed on his flesh; through faith or through the Mass, depending on your denomination. 

And none of that is remotely present in Mark's Gospel. Mark just recounts an amazing miracle. The crowds are hungry; the disciples only have a tiny amount of food; Jesus blesses the bread; a huge amount of food is left over. But although, so far as I can see, Mark does not provide us readers with any interpretation, he does make it pretty clear that it is a story which needs interpreting. A bit later, Mark will tell us that the disciples couldn't believe that Jesus had really walked on water because they hadn't understood the miracle of the loaves. Later, Jesus reminds them of the miracle: "When I fed all those people, how much food was left over?" he asks. "Twelve baskets", they reply. "But you still don't understand, do you?". 

There is something about this miracle which needs to be understood: a hidden truth to unpack. 

The Old Testament, the book of Kings, tells a story from a thousand years before Jesus, about Elijah: 

and there came a man from Baal-shalisha 

and brought the man of God bread of the first fruits 
twenty loaves of barley 

and full ears of corn 

and the husk thereof 

and he said 

"Give unto the people that they may eat" 

and his servant said 

"What should I set this before an hundred men?" 

he said again 

"Give the people, that they may eat 

for thus saith the Lord 

they shall eat, and shall leave thereof" 

so he set before them 

and they did eat 

and left thereof 

according to the word of the LORD

The two stories are clearly parallel: the people are hungry; the holy man has only a small amount of bread; he tells a servant to distribute it anyway; everyone has enough; there is some left over. I am not entirely sure how miraculous Elijah was being: a fifth of a loaf per person is a perfectly good snack. 

We have just been told that there is a tale going round to the effect that Jesus himself is Elijah, come back to earth. So there is one possible Secret Meaning. Jesus does the same tricks as Elijah; only more so. Elijah fed a hundred with twenty, and there was some left over; Jesus fed five thousand with five; and there was loads left over. The Old Testament passage suggests that it's the "some left over" which is the point. The feeding illustrates the oracle that "The people shall eat and shall leave thereof."

But I am not sure that this helps me to understand Mark's story any better. The disciples did not believe that Jesus had walked on water, because they did not understand...that he was an even greater prophet than Elijah?  

I have said that we shouldn't infer connections between stories which do not exist: when Mark says "after this happened, that happened" he is probably not implying any meaningful sequence of events. But in this case, Mark does draw a direct link between the mission of the Twelve and the feeding of the five thousand. Jesus has taken the disciples to a lonely spot because they are tired after their journey. So we can reasonably think of the two stories together. 

Once you put the two stories side by side, the meaning of the loaves and the fishes starts to look a little less obscure. The feeding of the five thousand and the mission of the twelve are the same story, told in two different ways. I was surprised that Mark showed the disciples going off on their journey, but told us very little of what happened while they were away. I think that was a deliberate dramatic decision: he holds off showing what happened in each individual village because what happens in the wilderness is a much better example of the same principle. The mission to preach the word and the mission to hand out the bread are two aspects of the same mission; the one is a picture of the other.

Jesus and the disciples are supposed to be having a rest, but instead, they spend the day teaching. At the end of the day Jesus asks the disciples if they have any bread. No, of course we don't. You told us not to take any food with them. Money to buy bread? No: you told us to leave our wallets at home. (I suppose this is why John introduces the little boy with the five loaves: not to make a trite moral point about sharing, but to underline the fact that the disciples are mendicants: they have nothing of their own, not even half a dozen bread rolls.) So Jesus tells them to go ahead and give the food out anyway. And there is plenty. Everyone gets what they want, and a ton of leftover food bounces back for the presumably famished disciples.  

Jesus sent his apostles out to preach with nothing -- not even a clear understanding of his message -- and they came back saying that they have preached and healed and performed exorcisms. Jesus sends his apostles to feed the crowd with hardly anything -- just a few crumbs of bread -- and everyone is full of food and the disciples get a doggy-basket to take home for supper. And that's a bit like what happened to Elijah, when it looked like there was only three slices of bread per person, but actually there was as much as anyone could eat.

So, there's your secret message. You think you have nothing. Actually, you have much more than you need.

and straightway he constrained his disciples to get into the ship
and to go to the other side before unto Bethsaida
while he sent away the people
and when he had sent them away,
he departed into a mountain to pray
and when even was come,
the ship was in the midst of the sea,
and he alone on the land.
and he saw them toiling in rowing
for the wind was contrary unto them
and about the fourth watch of the night he cometh unto them
walking upon the sea
and would have passed by them.
but when they saw him walking upon the sea,
they supposed it had been a spirit,
and cried out:
for they all saw him,
and were troubled.
and immediately he talked with them, and saith unto them,
"be of good cheer
it is I;
be not afraid."
and he went up unto them into the ship;
and the wind ceased
and they were sore amazed in themselves beyond measure, and wondered.
for they considered not the miracle of the loaves:
for their heart was hardened.

It is already early evening when the feeding starts. It must have taken some time to distribute the food—each disciple had 416 people to serve. I suppose "when evening came" means "when it got dark". For no immediate reason, Jesus sends the disciples—who only returned from their preaching engagement that morning, and still haven't had a rest—over the lake to Bethsaida. 

No-one knows where Bethsaida is. I don't know whether we should assume that because Mark says that the disciples have gone "to the other side" that it is on the East bank of the Lake (where Capernaum and Tabgha are on the West). Perhaps "on the other side" just means "somewhere you can get to by boat".

Before the invention of digital watches "an hour" did not have a fixed length. Day was divided into twelve hours and night was divided into twelve hours and the hours got longer or shorter depending on the time of year. (This was presumably a lot more trouble than just putting the clocks back in October.) The night hours were divided into four vigils, each lasting for three variable hours. "The fourth watch of the night" means the tenth hour; just before dawn; three in the morning. The disciples have spent nine hours rowing against the wind. 

There is an absurdity, a comic element, to this story. Jesus tells the disciples to take the boat to the other side of the lake, and they dutifully row off, and row all night without getting anywhere. And Jesus follows them—on foot! He walks past them, walking on the sea, and pretends that he hasn't seen them, or that he is going to ignore them. They don't call out to Jesus: I think we have to imagine them screaming. "Yikes! It's a ghost". The word is specifically phantasma : they aren't mistaking Jesus for something "spiritual" or for one of the unclean spirits. Jesus tells them not to be scared; comes on board; and the weather changes. 

There is a temptation to spiritualize this passage. (Matthew will turn it into a full-blown gnostic parable.) "You may feel that you are being tossed and turned in a very real sense by the vicissitudes of the world but once Jesus comes on board into the ship of your life everything will be calm." But I am trying to keep focused on the narrative. The disciples really didn't ought to be amazed that Jesus is walking on the water: but something is preventing them from seeing what is going on. If only they could work out the secret meaning of the loaves and the fishes they would understand. But they can't. 

The word "miracle" is King James' addition, incidentally: Mark simply says that they were boggled by Jesus walking on the water because they "didn't understand the loaves". 

and when they had passed over,
they came into the land of Gennesaret,
and drew to the shore.
and when they were come out of the ship, straightway they knew him,
and ran through that whole region round about,
and began to carry about in beds those that were sick,
where they heard he was
and whithersoever he entered,
into villages,
or cities,
or country, they laid the sick in the streets,
and besought him that they might touch if it were but the border of his garment
and as many as touched him were made whole

Genneserat was a city about 4 miles south of Capernaum, and the area around it. The sea of Galilee was sometimes referred to as Lake Genneserat; so it is possible that "the region of Genneserat" just means Galilee. Jesus has resumed his mission on his old stumping ground. 

The chapter begins with Jesus going home and finding that he can't do many miracles there; it ends with him moving into a new part of the country and everyone flocking to him for healing. Perhaps the feeding of the five thousand has pushed his reputation as a miracle worker to the next level; perhaps the people flocking to Genneserat are coming from the villages where the Twelve preached. They seem to be mainly interested in Jesus as a healer: he is now turning up in towns and finding the streets lined with sick-beds; and people chasing him to touch his clothes. At the most superficial level, this must be why Jesus doesn't want stories about his healing powers to be spread too widely: the more people know, the more his miracles will be in demand. 

Jesus has walked on the water and reproduced Elijah's trick with the loaves. The disciples have been out preaching and word has got back to the King. And I think at this point Mark takes a step back. We're in a new town. There are crowds. And Jesus is healing everyone. And so it goes on ...

Pull back. Aerial shot of cripple-lined streets. Jesus walking slowly through streets. Deserts beyond the city walls; maybe slow aerial pan to Jerusalem in the far distance, with ominous music in the background. Some pharisees packing their books and getting on the horses. And...fade. 

FUN FACT: 

King James translates the Greek denaria as "a penny". In the pre-decimal English currency "one penny" was abbreviated to 1d where the d stood indeed for denaria. But a Biblical penny is worth a lot more than 1d. It seems that "one penny" was a fair wage for a day's agricultural labour. That means (based on the present minimum wage) that two hundred pence would be worth about £10,000 in today's money.  So the disciples are budgeting at a very reasonable £2 a head. 

I'm Andrew. I write about folk music, God, comic books, Star Wars and Jeremy Corbyn. I have no political opinions of any kind.

If you are enjoying my essays, please buy me a "coffee" (by dropping £3 in the tip jar)

Or consider supporting me on Patreon (by pledging $1 for each essay)

The statistical likelihood is that other civilizations will arise. There will one day be lemon soaked paper napkins. Til then, there will be a short delay.

12.12.2019

Mark 6: 7-29

and he went round about the villages, teaching

and he called unto him the twelve

and began to send them forth by two and two

and gave them power over unclean spirits

and commanded them that they should take nothing for their journey save a staff only

no scrip, 

no bread, 

no money in their purse 

but be shod with sandals

and not put on two coats. 

and he said unto them, 

"in what place soever ye enter into an house

there abide till ye depart from that place

and whosoever shall not receive you, nor hear you, 

when ye depart thence, 

shake off the dust under your feet for a testimony against them. 

verily I say unto you, 

It shall be more tolerable for Sodom and Gomorrah in the day of judgement, 

than for that city" 

and they went out, 

and preached that men should repent

and they cast out many devils

and anointed with oil many that were sick

and healed them 

Again, lets be wary of assuming that the mission of the twelve follows chronologically from the rejection at Nazareth. It might be that Jesus has temporarily uprooted himself from Capernaum; that he has gone on a circular tour of the villages near his home-town, and then sent the Twelve out from Nazareth. But "he went round the villages teaching" could just as well be another general statement. "Jesus used to travel around from village to village, preaching a lot. One time he came to Nazareth, that was the only place which rejected him. Another time he sent his disciples out by themselves." 

* 

I am trying to read the Gospel of Mark as a story. And I don't know what to do with passages like this. We have been told that Jesus picked out twelve students and called them his Sent-Out-Ones; so I suppose we need to see them being Sent-Out. And we need to be shown that Jesus's mission is spreading out. He's like that sower, scattering seeds at random.

Jesus appoints twelve envoys. Jesus sends the twelve envoys out to preach on his behalf. Jesus becomes even more famous. Even the King gets to hear about him... 

Mark gives the mission of the Twelve a big build up. Jesus calls them together, makes them pair off in twos, and tells them that they are allowed to take nothing with them. A "scrip" is a bag; a "coat" is a tunic: so Jesus is saying something like "don't bother with a suitcase or even a change of underwear". He says that they have to stay in the house of the first person who offers them hospitality; and that each town only gets one chance of hearing the message. I don't know if "day of Judgement" is as apocalyptic as it may sound. Is Jesus really saying "at the end of the world, the villages which aren't nice to my envoys over the next few weeks will be destroyed with fire from heaven"? Or is it more like "in the future, these places are going to have a really really bad reputation." The sin of Sodom was inhospitality, as opposed to, you know, Sodomy. 

I have many questions.

Like: how well did the hardhearted disciples cope with this mission? They don't yet know who Jesus is; they keep missing the point of his message; they have to have even the most basic parables explained to them. So what was their preaching like? Were they giving personal testimonies? "Let me tell you about this fella Jesus. We admit we don't understand everything he says: but I can tell you that since I met him I've totally quit the tax-collecting." Or are we to think more of Jesus franchising his teaching out? "We are here on behalf of Jesus. And he bids us say the following: 'A sower went forth to sow...'" Is the preaching of the disciples, like the preaching of Jesus, couched in riddles, to make absolutely sure that hardly anyone understands? And what about the miracles? The miracles that Jesus doesn't want anyone to talk about under any circumstances? And what about the demons? The demons who blurt out the big secret unless specifically told not to?

And who had to pair up with Judas Iscariot? 

Imagine you are Peter. Or actually, imagine you are Andrew. He probably did most of the talking. You repeat one of Jesus's parables. The person you are talking to doesn't understand it. You know the secret meaning, because Jesus has told you: but you aren't allowed to pass it on. 

"I can't tell you that. It's a secret. The Master says you have to work it out for yourself." 

Very well: but why should I trust this Master of yours with his obscure teaching? 

"Because he controls the weather. But I'm not allowed to tell you about that. Because he purifies lepers. But I'm not allowed to tell you about that either. Because he can literally raise the dead. But I'm definitely not allowed to tell you about that. You just have to, trust him, okay? And if you don't you are literally no better than a sodomite." 

Tough crowd. 

There are no answers to these questions in Mark's Gospel. And (so far as I know) there is nothing about it in the apocryphal literature or the traditional lives-of-the-saints. It's a blank. Jesus sends the disciples out, telling them to preach and heal and do exorcisms. But there is no pay-off to the story. Mark adds, in effect, "so they did". And then moves on to a different story. 

What this probably proves is that I am doing the wrong thing in trying to read Mark "as a story". Very possibly, it is a piece of Christian symbolism back-projected into Jesus's lifetime. Quite possibly, the-Jesus-of-History never sent twelve apostles out to proclaim that men should repent. And if he did it doesn't matter. What Mark wants us to see is a picture of what Jesus says to all his followers, every day. Go out: leave everything behind: tell people that they should repent: and don't worry if they ignore you, just go onto the next place, and keep on preaching. Remember the one about the silly farmer? 

But even on that view; what do you do with the passage? Are you to be completely literal, like St Francis, and say that the only true practice of Christianity is monasticism; renouncing all worldly possessions and dedicating yourself completely to the service of the poor? Or can the passage be moralized? "When it says 'take no bread' it doesn't literally mean that the Vicar can't take a sandwich with him when he goes on a preaching engagement out of town. It means 'don't worry too much about merely physical needs.' When it says 'don't take a spare under-shirt' it means 'don't be over-concerned about comfort'. When it says 'don't take a purse' it doesn't mean that the church can't have a treasurer; it means that you mustn't be too attached to money. Going out in pairs means 'trust your friends rather than your clothes or your cash'. Taking a staff means 'I know you feel you aren't adequate to this task; but it's okay, you will always have something to lean on.'" 

Which seems only to take a forceful passage ("go out and do an unpopular task and take absolutely nothing with you") with some platitudes ("Don't cling too hard to your possessions. Live more simply.") The aforementioned Eugene H Peterson is pretty clear that it applies to modern preachers. I rather like his paraphrase: "Don't think that you need a lot of extra equipment for this. You are the equipment. No special appeals for funds. Keep it simple. And no luxury inns. Get a modest place and be content there until you leave." But it is only a paraphrase. "No special appeals for funds" is a lot softer than "you aren't even allowed to take your wallet." 

My weak answer is that the popular and widespread fame of Jesus is taken for granted in the next story; so Mark needs us to know that Jesus's disciples are taking the message further than one individual could carry it by himself. And that last verse is another example of a narrative space which we have to fill in for ourselves. "And they went out, and preached that men should repent." There are many stories which could be told of the disciples preaching exploits; but Mark is leaving it for us to imagine them. The story doesn't only happen in his text, but also in our imaginations.

and king Herod heard of him; 

for his name was spread abroad 

and he said, that John the Baptist was risen from the dead, 

and therefore mighty works do shew forth themselves in him. 

others said, that it is Elias 

and others said, that it is a prophet, or as one of the prophets. 

but when Herod heard thereof, he said, 

"It is John, whom I beheaded: 

he is risen from the dead." 

This is the first time Mark has taken the spotlight off Jesus and asked us to look at what other people are saying about him.

Like the disciples and like the people in Nazareth, Herod wants to know who Jesus is. He thinks Jesus is a dead guy come back to life. The people think he is Elijah, a prophet from a thousand years ago, come back to earth in a Chariot of Fire or perhaps some other prophet. The Authorized Version gets into a bit of a muddle here, telling us that some people thought that "it is a prophet or as one of the prophets", but the sense is fairly clear. "He is a prophet — like one of 'The Prophets'" 

I don't want to go all Trilemma at this point, but "Maybe he's just some really talented Rabbi" is not one of the options. 

There is a clear structural purpose to this digression. The disciples have gone off on their mission: there is a period of days or weeks where nothing happens. So the spotlight shifts away from Jesus to Herod; there is a long flashback; and we resume the main action after the disciples return.

for Herod himself had sent forth and laid hold upon John,
and bound him in prison for Herodias’ sake,
his brother Philip’s wife
for he had married her
for John had said unto Herod,
"it is not lawful for thee to have thy brother’s wife"
therefore Herodias had a quarrel against him,
and would have killed him
but she could not
for Herod feared John
knowing that he was a just man and an holy,
and observed him
and when he heard him he did many things,
and heard him gladly
and when a convenient day was come
that Herod on his birthday made a supper
to his lords, high captains, and chief estates of Galilee
and when the daughter of the said Herodias came in
and danced
and pleased Herod
and them that sat with him,
the king said unto the damsel,
"ask of me whatsoever thou wilt
and I will give it thee."
and he sware unto her,
"whatsoever thou shalt ask of me,
I will give it thee,
unto the half of my kingdom."
and she went forth,
and said unto her mother
"What shall I ask?"
and she said
"The head of John the Baptist."
and she came in straightway with haste unto the king,
and asked, saying,
"I will that thou give me by and by in a charger the head of John the Baptist"
and the king was exceeding sorry
yet for his oath’s sake,
and for their sakes which sat with him,
he would not reject her
and immediately the king sent an executioner,
and commanded his head to be brought
and he went and beheaded him in the prison,
and brought his head in a charger,
and gave it to the damsel:
and the damsel gave it to her mother.
and when his disciples heard of it, they came
and took up his corpse,
and laid it in a tomb.

This is not the Herod who massacred the babies. That King Herod — Herod The Great — was the Roman-backed King of Israel for 40 years before the birth of Jesus. Babies apart, he is widely regarded as a reasonably Good King. When he died, his kingdom was split between his four children. Herod The Tetrach — Herod The One Quarter of a King — was in charge of Galilee. 

Mark is again being very non-linear, wrapping flashbacks around flashbacks. Way back in chapter one he told us that Jesus started preaching after John had been arrested. Now he tells us that John has been dead for some time. So he has to spend a few verses playing catch-up. 

There is a secular account of John's death outside of the Bible: but Josephus the historian thinks that Herod killed John simply because he was a mischief-maker. The story of the vengeful wife, the unwise oath, and the formula "even unto half my kingdom" feels very much more like a folk-legend than the rest of Mark's Gospel. 

The natural sequence of events is: 

1: Herod marries his brother Phillip's wife, Herodias. (Philip is another of the four quarter-kings who succeeded Big Herod.) 

2: John says that marrying your brother's wife is against the law. 

3: Herod gives the order to have John arrested 

4: Herod is afraid of John but likes to listen to him. 

5: Herodias wants John killed. 

6: Herodias's daughter asks for John's head as a party favour. 

7: John's disciples bury him. 

8: Herod thinks Jesus is John raised from the dead. 

But Mark wraps the text around itself: 

(8) When Herod heard it, he said, “He is John the Baptist! I had his head cut off, but he has come back to life!” (3) Herod himself had ordered John's arrest, and he had him tied up and put in prison. (1) Herod did this because of Herodias, whom he had married, even though she was the wife of his brother Philip. (2) John the Baptist kept telling Herod, “It isn't right for you to marry your brother's wife!” (5) So Herodias held a grudge against John and wanted to kill him, but she could not because of Herod. (4) Herod was afraid of John because he knew that John was a good and holy man, and so he kept him safe…..(6) Finally Herodias got her chance. 

This creates a sense of rambling breathlessness: as if someone were bringing you up to date on a piece of news: or at the very least recounting a story which everyone knows. 

One wonders exactly how stupid Herod must have been. He has had John the Baptist in the dungeons for at least several weeks; he has been listening to his preaching and even getting some comfort from it. And John is the forerunner of Jesus: over and over again, he must have told Herod "this isn't about me — I am only clearing the road for the person who is coming next." And then when John is dead, and word comes to Herod that there is a new preacher, performing exorcisms and healing lepers and raising the dead. And Herod's reaction is not "O.M.G! It must be the guy John was warning us about" but "Hot dang! John isn't dead after all." 

One also has to wonder a bit about John's disciples. Loyalty is a virtue. But if John's whole message was "get ready for the coming of Jesus" then it's a bit late in the day to be still thinking of yourself primarily as John's followers. 

This whole section is incredibly awkward. John is meant only to be the forerunner of Jesus; but here is Jesus being identified as the second coming of John. The resurrection of Jesus is a big mystery which the disciples can't get their heads round: but here is a King talking as if "awakening from the dead" is very much the kind of trick you might think any Top Prophet could pull off. 

I am trying to keep my eyes very firmly on Mark's story. And I think that Mark's story makes far more sense if we assume that John died without ever knowing the Messianic secret; that John carried on preaching "Someone greater than me is coming!" to the day he died, without ever knowing who that someone was. And some of John's disciples continued to faithfully keep John's message going, after he was dead, not realizing that the it was already being fulfilled around lake Galilee. That seems to me to be a fine dramatic irony; consistent with a Messiah who speaks in riddles and keeps his identity secret. (And consistent too with the way Mark's story is going to end.) 

People who search for the Historical Jesus sometimes pay special attention to what they regard as Embarrassing passages: passages which the ancient writers might have preferred to omit or suppress.
It is hard to see why Mark would have invented this story. And this may make us think that the idea that people thought that Jesus was John has a strong element of historical factitutde.

FUN FACT: 

The word "testimony" ("for a testimony against them") is martyrion, from whence our word "martyr". 

I'm Andrew. I write about folk music, God, comic books, Star Wars and Jeremy Corbyn.

If you are enjoying my essays, please buy me a "coffee" (by dropping £3 in the tip jar)

Or consider supporting me on Patreon (by pledging $1 for each essay)