Mark 1:29-39. Jesus Went Off to a Deserted Place.

The reading for the fifth Sunday in Ordinary time continues our narrative of the first chapter of Mark’s Gospel. The first chapter of Mark is somewhat hurried, with Mark compressing a number of different events into a single introductory chapter. In verses 29 to 39, Jesus visits the house of Peter with his closest disciples. Then he heals those who are ill or possessed by spirits. Finally, Jesus goes off to pray alone, and then he continues preaching.

Jesus Prays Before He Engages in Ministry

A number of themes repeat in chapter one. There is a recurring cycle of preaching and healing in chapter one. In this passage, we note (Mk 1:35) that Jesus rose very early, went to a solitary place, and prayed. Previously (Mk 1:12-13), Mark also mentioned that the Spirit sent Jesus into the desert, where he was tempted, but at the same time, the angels ministered to him. Mark’s is an abbreviated account of Jesus’ “forty days” in the desert, where he was tempted by the devil three times (Mt 4:1-11; Lk 4:1-13). As Mark mentions Jesus going off to pray in a solitary place twice in the course of one chapter, he is making the case that prayer is an important foundation for ministry.

"Jesus in the Wilderness." Charles de La Fosse, 1690. The Hermitage, St. Petersburg. The large crowd of attendants are actually angels.

Peter has a Mother-in-Law?

The story of Jesus healing Peter’s “mother-in-law” is common to Mark, Matthew (8:14-15) and Luke (4:38-39). In Greek, the term used is πενθερά  (Strong’s 3994, penthera) which means mother-in-law.  In fact, we only find penthera used in the Gospels, in the context of this story. Clement of Alexandria says that Peter had both a wife and children, and that his wife was martyred in Rome before he was. Either way, Jesus heals the mother-in-law of Peter in the presence of Andrew, James and John.

Jesus Heals. What Does This Say About Who He Is?

In verses 32 to 34, Mark tells us that the people brought to Jesus all the sick and demon-possessed.  Mark then tells us, matter-of-factly, that he healed these people. This is the second of four instances in chapter one where Jesus heals the sick or casts out demons. Mark regards these accounts as important to establish, early in his Gospel account, that Jesus is a special individual.

Mark uses the works of healing to substantiate the claims, also made in chapter one, about who Jesus is. John the Baptist says, After me will come one more powerful than I. The spirits that Jesus drive out exclaim, in fear, that Jesus is the Holy one of God. When Jesus is baptized, a voice from heaven is heard saying, You are my Son, whom I love; with you I am well pleased.  Most importantly, the author Mark quotes the prophet Isaiah and says, prepare the way of the Lord. In chapter one, Mark implies through the testimony of others, that Jesus is “the Lord,” “the Son of God,” and “the Holy One of God.”

Mark 1:29-39

On leaving the synagogue

Jesus entered the house of Simon and Andrew with James and John.
Simon’s mother-in-law lay sick with a fever.
They immediately told him about her.
He approached, grasped her hand, and helped her up.
Then the fever left her and she waited on them.

When it was evening, after sunset,
they brought to him all who were ill or possessed by demons.
The whole town was gathered at the door.
He cured many who were sick with various diseases,
and he drove out many demons,
not permitting them to speak because they knew him.

Rising very early before dawn, he left 
and went off to a deserted place, where he prayed.
Simon and those who were with him pursued him
and on finding him said, “Everyone is looking for you.”
He told them, “Let us go on to the nearby villages
that I may preach there also.
For this purpose have I come.”
So he went into their synagogues,
preaching and driving out demons throughout the whole of Galilee.

Mark 1:14-20. I Will Make of You Fishers of Men.

Our Gospel reading for the third Sunday in ordinary time comes from the first chapter of Mark. This reading picks up where the reading for the Second Sunday in Advent (Mark 1:1-8) left off.  Last week, we had an account from John’s Gospel of the call of Peter. This week, we have an abbreviated account of the calling of Peter & Andrew, and James & John.

Fishers of Men

The image of the disciples as fisherman is evident in all four Gospel accounts.  But Luke’s account of the call of Peter is slightly different than that in Matthew or Mark.  In the Lucan account, Jesus tells Peter to put our his net, and Peter doubts that the advice will work.  Then Peter does as Jesus asks, and Peter pulls in a large haul.  The fourth evangelist shifts this Lucan scene to the final chapter of John.  In John 21, Peter declares that he intends to go fishing, and the other disciples follow him. After a night with no luck, a man on the shore appears and tells them to put out their net, and they catch a great haul of fish. Only then do they realize that the man on the shore is Jesus.

"Fishers of Men," Adriaen Van de Venne, 1614. Rijksmusem, Amsterdam. Van de Venne's painting is a humorous comment on the competition for souls between Reformed and Catholic clergy in the Netherlands.

But it is only in the Gospels of Matthew and Mark that Jesus coins the term fishers of men  (ἁλιεῖς ἀνθρώπων – haleis anthropon).  The writers of Matthew and Mark tell us that Jesus expoits the imagery and symbolism of their careers.  Peter and Andrew are fishermen.  Jesus implicitly tells them, forget about the fish, I need disciples to assist me in my ministry.  

“Fishers of Men” in Mark and Matthew

Matthew the Evangelist is a crackerjack scholar of the Old Testament. He may have been a tax collector, but he was also a good Jew who studied the Tanakh and referred to it liberally in his own Gospel.  Anyone who has read this blog knows that I have been insisting that Mark’s Gospel is theologically dependent on Matthew.  In other words, Matthew wrote his Gospel first, and then Mark consulted with Peter as to the creation of a second Gospel based on Matthew’s.  If this is so, what is the Old Testament imagery that jumped out at Matthew?  If Matthew had heard the story from Peter or Jesus that Jesus said, come after me, and I will make you fishers of men, did this statement ring true in his very Jewish ears as fulfilling a prophecy?

The Parallel with the Prophet Ezekiel

The answer is, very possibly.  On the one hand, there are very few references to fishermen in the Old Testament. Yet fishermen figure in Ezekiel’s eschatological vision of the New Jerusalem. When Ezekiel describes his vision of the New Jerusalem, he tells us that fishermen will line the banks of the river that flows out from the Holy City.  Oh, and by the way, the Sea of Galilee (where the Apostles were called) empties into the River Jordan (from whence the Messiah is to come), which is the river that runs closest to the historic city of Jerusalem.

In Ezekiel 47:5-10, we are told that a stream of water that flows from the Temple in Jerusalem will eventually become a great river.  This river is a source of life, and those fisherman who fish these waters will prosper:

Again he measured a thousand (cubits), and it was a river that I could not pass through, for the water had risen; it was deep enough to swim in, a river that could not be passed through. And he said to me, “Son of man, have you seen this?” Then he led me back along the bank of the river. As I went back, I saw upon the bank of the river very many trees on the one side and on the other. And he said to me, “This water flows toward the eastern region and goes down into the Arabah; and when it enters the stagnant waters of the sea, the water will become fresh. 

And wherever the river goes every living creature which swarms will live, and there will be very many fish; for this water goes there, that the waters of the sea may become fresh; so everything will live where the river goes.  Fishermen will stand beside the sea; from En-ge’di to En-eg’laim it will be a place for the spreading of nets; its fish will be of very many kinds, like the fish of the Great Sea. 

In Matthew and Mark’s account of the call of the first Apostles, we can see that Jesus is saying, “yes you will be fishermen,” and “yes, you will be successful in your vocation,” and “yes, the source of your success will be the waters that flow from the side of the Temple.”

But the waters in which the Apostles are called to work are not the waters of the Sea of Galilee:

After John had been arrested,

Jesus came to Galilee proclaiming the gospel of God:
“This is the time of fulfillment.
The kingdom of God is at hand.
Repent, and believe in the gospel.”

As he passed by the Sea of Galilee,
he saw Simon and his brother Andrew casting their nets into the sea;
they were fishermen.
Jesus said to them,
“Come after me, and I will make you fishers of men.”
Then they abandoned their nets and followed him.
He walked along a little farther
and saw James, the son of Zebedee, and his brother John.
They too were in a boat mending their nets.
Then he called them.
So they left their father Zebedee in the boat
along with the hired men and followed him.

Come and See. John 1:35-42

The Gospel reading for the Second Sunday in ordinary time (John 1:35-42) for 2012 gives us an account of the calling of Peter and the first Apostles. It is somewhat unique: see Matthew 4:18-22 or Luke 5:1-11.  In the synoptic accounts, Peter is called by the Sea of Galilee (I will make you fishers of men - Mt 4:18; c.f. Lk 5:10). In John’s Gospel, there is no association of the calling of Peter and the Sea of Galilee.

"The Calling of Peter and Andrew." Caravaggio, 1602. Queen's Collection, Buckingham Palace.

The Gospel of John suggests to us that John the Baptist introduced the first disciples to his cousin, Jesus.  It would not be surprising that John the Evangelist would remember events not known to Matthew or Luke.  Because John the Baptist is not the only person in this story who may be related to Jesus. Scripture tells us that the mother of John the Evangelist (Mt 27:56), named Salome (Mk 15:40), is also the sister of Mary (Jn 19:25), the mother of Jesus.  Some scholars and early Fathers of the Church conclude, therefore, that John the Evangelist and Jesus are also cousins.

John the Evangelist tells us that both he and Andrew accompanied John the Baptist, and that Andrew found his brother Peter and introduced him to Jesus.  The account seems a bit stylized: John and Andrew very precociously say, we have found the Messiah, before Jesus even performs his first miracle.

The Divine Call of the Apostles and the Inconstancy of Peter

The differences in the Gospel accounts regarding the call of Peter might suggest to us that Peter’s call required a little persistence.  All of the Gospel accounts of Peter suggest that he is a bit of a hard-headed, stubborn man. Luke’s Gospel (5:8) tells us that Peter exclaimed, Go away from me Lord, for I am a sinful man!   Peter is the one who leaps out of the boat on Lake Galilee to meet Jesus, only to falter among the waves (Mt 14:30).  When Jesus tells the disciples that he must go to Jerusalem to suffer, it is Peter who replies, This shall never happen to you! (Mt 16:22)  Given what we know of Peter, it should come as no surprise that Jesus may have had to call him on more than one occasion.

Come! See!

The accounts in John’s and Luke’s Gospels have one thing in common, though.  The calling of Peter is associated with an act of faith and with the witness to the mighty works of God.  In Luke’s Gospel, Peter is told to put out into the deep.  When Peter objects, Jesus tells him where to drop his net and Peter catches a large haul.  In other words, it is Jesus who wills the success of the fisherman’s (Peter’s) work.

In John’s account, Jesus simply tells his Apostles, come, and you will see (John 1:39; John 1:46). But this challenge is not merely idle conversation.  Jesus warns his disciples (twice) that they will see the mighty works of God made manifest through Him.  They will witness the seven great miracles in John’s Gospel, and the Transfiguration as well.  And of course, they will come to know of the Resurrection, and encounter the risen Christ in the Upper Room.  The author of the Fourth Gospel attributes to Jesus, six times, the phrase  ὄψεσθε: you will see. 

The Lost Painting.

Caravaggio’s original painting of Jesus, Peter and Andrew was thought to have been lost.  In 2004, a restoration of a painting in the possession of Queen Elizabeth II established that the painting was an original Caravaggio, purchased by Charles I in the 17th century.   The painting is now thought to be worth far in excess of $50 million, though it cannot be sold as the monarchy’s art is held in public trust.  In 1688, a commentator noted that the painting “is one of the finest in the King’s possession.”

ἔρχεσθε καὶ ὄψεσθε. Come and See!

John was standing with two of his disciples,
and as he watched Jesus walk by, he said,
“Behold, the Lamb of God.”
The two disciples heard what he said and followed Jesus.
Jesus turned and saw them following him and said to them,
“What are you looking for?”
They said to him, “Rabbi” – which translated means Teacher -,
“where are you staying?”
He said to them, “Come, and you will see.”
So they went and saw where Jesus was staying,
and they stayed with him that day.
It was about four in the afternoon.
Andrew, the brother of Simon Peter,
was one of the two who heard John and followed Jesus.
He first found his own brother Simon and told him,
“We have found the Messiah” – which is translated Christ -.
Then he brought him to Jesus.
Jesus looked at him and said,
“You are Simon the son of John;
you will be called Cephas” – which is translated Peter.

The Church Fathers Were Right: Matthew Wrote His Gospel First, Mark Afterwards.

As anyone who has followed my blog knows, I’ve been arguing for a long time that the historical-critical argument that Mark wrote his Gospel first needs to be re-visited.  Or to be more direct, this theory is probably wrong. My initial blog on this subject (The Earliest of the Four Gospels) considers the scholarship.

Who Cares?

Why is this debate even relevant?  Well, most people assume that the authors of the four Gospels – Matthew, Mark, Luke and John – wrote their stories about Jesus independently. However, we run into a serious difficulty with this assumption when we read the three synoptic Gospels side-by-side. The first three Gospels (Matthew’s, Mark’s and Luke’s) have a lot of very similar material.

The Synoptic Gospels

These three Gospels are known as the “synoptic” Gospels because they see “with the same eye.” Thus, the term synoptic.  But what, exactly, is common to the synoptic Gospels? First, they contain the parables of Jesus. There are about 33 to 37 parables, and eight are common to all three of the synoptics.  The author of John’s Gospel decided not to report the parables of Jesus, because he wanted to emphasize the seven miracles or signs of Jesus in a format that entailed longer narratives, rather than brief snippets of parabolic material.

Secondly, the account of the passion of Jesus is quite similar across the synoptic Gospels.  The differences between Matthew, Mark and Luke are minor. John’s account of the Gospel differs most in detail. Finally, the synoptic Gospels are similar because certain passages mirror each other almost word-for-word. Scholars in the 18th and 19th century found this word-for-word similarity among the synoptic Gospels puzzling, to say the least.

Common Language between Matthew and Mark

Take the following example of similarities between Matthew’s and Mark’s Gospel. They don’t just describe the agony in the Garden of Gethsemene in a similar fashion. These two passages employ nearly the same language. We might say that Mark “redacted” the account found in Matthew’s Gospel. Mark made modest, barely noticeable changes to the original material in Matthew (or vice-versa):

Matthew 26:36-46	Mark 14:32-42
Then Jesus went with his disciples to a place called Gethsemane, and he said to them, “Sit here while I go over there and pray.” He took Peter and the two sons of Zebedee along with him, and he began to be sorrowful and troubled. Then he said to them, “My soul is overwhelmed with sorrow to the point of death. Stay here and keep watch with me.”	They went to a place called Gethsemane, and Jesus said to his disciples, “Sit here while I pray.” He took Peter, James and John along with him, and he began to be deeply distressed and troubled. “My soul is overwhelmed with sorrow to the point of death,” he said to them. “Stay here and keep watch.”
Going a little farther, he fell with his face to the ground and prayed, “My Father, if it is possible, may this cup be taken from me. Yet not as I will, but as you will.”	Going a little farther, he fell to the ground and prayed that if possible the hour might pass from him. “Abba”, Father,” he said, “everything is possible for you. Take this cup from me. Yet not what I will, but what you will.”
Then he returned to his disciples and found them sleeping. “Could you men not keep watch with me for one hour?” he asked Peter. “Watch and pray so that you will not fall into temptation. The spirit is willing, but the body is weak.” He went away a second time and prayed, “My Father, if it is not possible for this cup to be taken away unless I drink it, may your will be done.”	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.” Once more he went away and prayed the same thing.
When he came back, he again found them sleeping, because their eyes were heavy. So he left them and went away once more and prayed the third time, saying the same thing. Then he returned to the disciples and said to them, “Are you still sleeping and resting? Look, the hour is near, and the Son of Man is betrayed into the hands of sinners. Rise, let us go! Here comes my betrayer!”	When he came back, he again found them sleeping, because their eyes were heavy. They did not know what to say to him. Returning the third time, he said to them, “Are you still sleeping and resting? Enough! The hour has come.Look, the Son of Man is betrayed into the hands of sinners. Rise! Let us go! Here comes my betrayer!”

So this begs the question: who wrote first, Matthew or Mark?  

The Fathers of the Early Church asserted that Matthew wrote his Gospel first. These include Papias (130), Irenaeus (c. 130-200), Origen (c. 185-254), Eusebius (c. 260-340) Jerome (c. 340-420), and Augustine of Hippo (c. 354-430).  As I mentioned in an earlier post, Heinrich Holtzmann and Christian Weisse rejected this tradition.  According to these two nineteenth century scholars, the Gospels of Matthew and Luke took material from Mark and another source – the so-called “Q” source.

I pointed out the serious flaws in their work in my previous post. However, I’ve been wondering if there were structural issues in regard to Mark’s Gospel that would indicate that Mark is not our original Gospel.  The answer, in my view, is “yes.”

The Gospels of Matthew and Luke, for instance have highly intentional opening chapters that tell us of the nativity of Jesus Christ. The content is not even common. Though both Luke and Matthew have geneologies, Matthew’s Gospel gives us the visit of the Magi, the flight into Egypt, and the massacre of the infants.  Luke’s Gospel, by contrast, gives us the annunciation and the visitation; the birth of John and the canticle of Zechariah.

Structurally, Matthew inaugurates the ministry of Jesus with the Sermon on the Mount. This spans three chapters.  Matthew then concludes the ministry of Jesus with the Sermon in the Temple. This spans five (!) chapters.  In other words, Matthew’s Gospel is structurally intentional, from beginning to end. The Gospel of Matthew is not a “subsequent edition.” It is not a “Reader’s Digest” version, nor a redaction, nor a summary. It is an original work.

Take, by contrast, the first chapter of Mark. Mark barrels through the preaching of John the Baptist in seven brief verses, jumps to the baptism of Jesus (covered in three verses), and speeds through the temptation of Jesus in the desert in two verses.  In other words, Mark compresses what were 30 verses in Matthew and 30 verses in Luke into 13 verses.

Nor does Mark let up this frenetic pace in the second half of chapter one. Here is a summary of Jesus’ activities: he calls the disciples (five verses, from Mt 4:18), he preaches (two verses), he casts out a demon (six verses, see Luke 4:31-37), he cures of Simon’s mother-in-law (six verses, from Mt 8:14-16), he performs additional cures and exorcisms (three verses), he retires to pray (two verses, see Luke 4:42-43), he preaches and drives out more demons (two verses, see Luke 4:44), heals a leper (five verses, from Mt 8:1-4), and finally retires to pray again (one verse).

Note that the larger pericopes (call of the disciples, the cure of Simon’s mother-in-law, healing of the leper) come from Matthew’s Gospel. If you look closely at Mark chapter one, you’ll note that he summarizes a lot of material so that he can move on to what he regards as important: the ministry of Jesus (as opposed to his birth, or the preaching of John the Baptist). Mark’s Gospel is the work of a redactor of a previous Gospel. Matthew did not borrow material from Mark. On the contrary, Mark summarized Matthew’s Gospel, and added his own reflection based on the memory of Peter and the community of Mark, where he found it to be necessary.

John 1:1-18. And the word became flesh…

The reading for Christmas day is John 1:1-18 (or John 1:1-14).  This first few lines are known as a prologue in John’s Gospel because they contain an introduction that is unrelated to the story of Jesus.   Instead, John the Evangelist offers us some theology in verses one to five:

In the beginning was the Word,
and the Word was with God,
and the Word was God.
He was in the beginning with God.
All things came to be through him,
and without him nothing came to be.
What came to be through him was life,
and this life was the light of the human race;
the light shines in the darkness,
and the darkness has not overcome it.

The Word

John the Evangelist gives us a lesson in Christology with his first few verses.  He tells us that the Word was with God and was God. The term “word” is dabar in Hebrew, and it is a term known to the Jews of the Old Testament. The variants of dabar occur more than a thousand times in the Old Testament.  The meaning of the term dabar in the Old Testament is worthy of a doctoral dissertation. As we don’t have that much time, I’ll be very brief and present two usages that clearly refer to Jesus in the Old Testament:

The Book of Isaiah, written in the sixth or seventh century before Christ, speaks of the Word going forth from God’s mouth in Isaiah 55:11:

So shall My word be that goes forth from My mouth;
It shall not return to Me void,
But it shall accomplish what I please,
And it shall prosper in the thing for which I sent it.

In the book of the Prophet Micah, we have this very well known passage:

It shall come to pass in the latter days that the mountain of the house of the LORD shall be established as the highest of the mountains, and shall be raised up above the hills; and peoples shall flow to it,  and many nations shall come, and say: “Come, let us go up to the mountain of the LORD, to the house of the God of Jacob; that he may teach us his ways and we may walk in his paths.” For out of Zion shall go forth the law, and the word of the LORD from Jerusalem.

John the Evangelist continues with his lesson in Christology in verses 6 through 18:

A man named John was sent from God.

He came for testimony, to testify to the light,
so that all might believe through him.
He was not the light,
but came to testify to the light.
The true light, which enlightens everyone, was coming into the world.
He was in the world,
and the world came to be through him,
but the world did not know him.
He came to what was his own,
but his own people did not accept him.

But to those who did accept him
he gave power to become children of God,
to those who believe in his name,
who were born not by natural generation
nor by human choice nor by a man’s decision
but of God.
And the Word became flesh
and made his dwelling among us,
and we saw his glory,
the glory as of the Father’s only Son,
full of grace and truth.
John testified to him and cried out, saying,
“This was he of whom I said,
‘The one who is coming after me ranks ahead of me
because he existed before me.’”
From his fullness we have all received,
grace in place of grace,
because while the law was given through Moses,
grace and truth came through Jesus Christ.
No one has ever seen God.
The only Son, God, who is at the Father’s side,
has revealed him.

The Sacred Author tells us several things. He tells us that John the Baptist testifies to the light.  The author of the fourth Gospel tells us that John the Baptist plays the exact same role in his Gospel as John the Baptist does in the other Gospels: he is the Herald or Forerunner of the Messiah.  The Sacred Author also tells us that those who accept the light are children of God. And a child of God is neither selected nor born into that postion: a child of God is chosen by God.

And the Word Became Flesh.

Theologians refer to the conception of Jesus as the “incarnation” because, as John tells us, “the Word became flesh.”  In other words, the spirit of the Word, which existed since the beginning of time along with God the Father, took the form of a human.  The author of the fourth Gospel uses some unusual terminology in John 1:14.

Καὶ ὁ λόγος σὰρξ ἐγένετο καὶ ἐσκήνωσεν ἐν ἡμῖν, καὶ ἐθεασάμεθα τὴν δόξαν αὐτοῦ, δόξαν ὡς μονογενοῦς παρὰ πατρός, πλήρης χάριτος καὶ ἀληθείας.

Using a literal translation, which might be confusing, we would have this:

And the word became flesh, and set a tent among us, and we discerned his glory, as one-of-the-same-kind as the father, full of grace and truth.

Now, just to compare the literal with the bible translations, here is the NAB translation:

And the Word became flesh, and made his dwelling among us, and we saw his glory, the glory as of the Father’s only Son, full of grace and truth.

And here is the NIV version:

The Word became flesh and made his dwelling among us. We have seen his glory, the glory of the One and Only, who came from the Father, full of grace and truth.

He Set His Tent Among Us

 The Sacred Author tells us that the Word set his tent among his people. This is an allusion to various Old Testament traditions.  Moses set a meeting tent (outside the camp of the Israelites) where Moses alone could consult with God.  Though Moses could speak to God and look at him (Ex 33:11), he could not see God’s face (Ex 33:20), as it was likely veiled by the smoke of the shekinah.    In the Book of Exodus, the Israelite’s experience of God was remote and impersonal – they could not approach the meeting tent.  We have no expectation that, one day, God will become man and freely walk among his chosen people.

In the Book of Amos (9:11), God speaks through Amos and tells us in that day, I will restore David’s fallen tent.  Amos language is very cryptic, since he speaks of the House of David, and says he will restore neither a building nor a family line, but his tent.  In Acts 15:16, the Apostle Peter invokes Amos 9:11 and tells us that it is Jesus who fulfills the prophecy of David’s tent being restored.