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Twist family Bible study: the Gospel of Mark

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Wayne:
Mkay so Mark 13. Walking out of the temple in Jerusalem, Jesus predicts that "not one stone will be left upon another." This actually happened in AD 70 when Jerusalem was completely destroyed by Roman armies and the Jews were led out to slavery.

It's not altogether clear whether Jesus was making a supernatural prediction, since the event had probably already occurred at approximately the time when the book of Mark was written down.

This is one of the eschatological bits (though not the biggest one) that gets pointed to in discussions of the "second coming." I don't put too much stock in this particular one because it has already happened, and had already happened even when the book was written.

Wayne:
An interesting linguistic insight on the "abomination of desolation."

Many scholars (Hoffmann, Nestle, Bevan, and others) suggest that the term "abomination of desolation" in Hebrew (šiqqǔṣ šômēm), would have been easily recognized as a play on the usual appellation for Jupiter which was "Baal Shamem" ("lord of heaven").

The event that the prophet Daniel was referring to (in the quotation that Jesus was using) was the placement in 167 BC of an altar to Zeus (Jupiter) in the Second Temple in Jerusalem by the Greek ruler Antiochus Epiphanes. He sacrificed pigs on it.

Jesus (or at least the writer of the gospel of Mark) was recycling the same phrase to refer to the 2nd destruction of Jerusalem and the temple in AD 70. Notice Jesus says the abomination will be "standing where he ought not to be," which sounds consistent with the placement of a statue of Jupiter ("shomem" or "shamem"), which is exactly what happened in 167 BC (though not in 70 AD). So that's what Mark meant by "let the reader understand."

Several passages in the gospels and Paul's letters suggest that the early Christians expected Jesus to return at that time to establish his kingdom. That's what "this generation standing here right now shall not pass away before these events come to pass" sounded like to them at the time.

Wayne:
By the way my userpic is an image of the planet Jupiter as photographed from a satellite orbiting Mars.

I chose it several months ago. It is not intended to represent the abomination of desolation.    ;) :laugh:

injest:

--- Quote from: wdj on December 19, 2007, 02:56:37 pm ---I have learned a few new words lately. One is irenic: conducive to peace

from Luke, Judaism, and the Scholars: Critical Approaches to Luke-Acts By Joseph B. Tyson:

"Canonical Luke is a neutralizing collection of Pauline and Judaistic discourses and narratives. The Pauline elements appear as the basis of the gospel and the Judaistic as the interpolations and additions. The result is an irenic gospel."

--- End quote ---

that made my head hurt...

Jeff Wrangler:

--- Quote from: wdj on December 18, 2007, 12:40:53 pm ---I've gone and got myself all excited about this Lazarus Hypothesis. So even though this is more explicitly relevant to the gospel of John than the gospel of Mark, I want to go ahead and post some relevant websites.

Some of these sites come from a traditional Christian perspective and some from other perspectives, but I think they make a convincing case for two amazing conclusions about Lazarus, the man who Jesus has just raised from the dead:

1. He is the "disciple whom Jesus loved" in the gospel of John

2. He is the author of the gospel of John

To these I would add that the relationship described between Jesus and this disciple is physical. We'll see more of that in John.

--- End quote ---

I hate to seem narrow-minded, but I think I'm stickin' with John as John, the Beloved Disciple.

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