The Jewish Annotated New Testament (208 page)

7
:
The
cloud
could evoke either the biblical motif of God as storm god (Dan 7.13), or perhaps more specifically the cloud of the tent of meeting (Ex 40.34–38).
My Son, the Beloved,
Mk 1.9–11n.

9.14
–29: Healing of a possessed boy
(Mt 17.14–21; Lk 9.37–43).

14
:
The argument with the
scribes
is not explained.

17
–19:
The failure of the
disciples
is attributed to lack of faith, as contrasted with the father and with Jesus’ promise (v. 23). An account in the Hebrew Bible (2 Kings 4.11–37) relates a failure of Elisha’s servant, Gehazi, to carry out a healing that Elisha later accomplishes.

18
:
6.7,13.

19
:
Jesus despairs over this
generation
(8.38n.), lumping together both followers and others (cf. Deut 1:34–40; Isa 44.22; Ezek 10–11; 43–44; Zech 13.1–2; 14.20–21; 1QS 9.4,
Gen. Rab
. 30.1).

22
–24:
Central is the role of faith; see 2.1–12n. The father’s cry is an expression of faith in the person present—Jesus—possibly leading to faith in the God of Israel.
All things can be done
, a promise, of seemingly boundless reach, that implicitly presumes oneness of will with God.

9.30
–32: Second Passion prediction
(Mt 17.22–23; Lk 9.43–45). This shorter prediction contains the elements of the first (see 8.27–33n.).

31
:
Betrayed,
Isa 53.8.

9.33
–10.31: Social teachings.
The followers of Jesus, like those in most movements of religious renewal, understood themselves as holding to a superior ethical standard. This unit begins (9.33–35) and ends (10.31) with exhortations or statements that the first shall be last and the last first. See annotation on “inclusio,” 8.22–10.52.

9.33
–50: Receiving disciples
(Mt 18.1–9; Lk 9.46–50).

34
–37:
Servant
, an exhortation to prepare for a lower-status position, followed up by the example. The
child
did not represent innocence but a secondary status, a lesser human. Symbolically, accepting a child
in my name
, as a true human representative, is analogous to receiving Jesus as sent from God (10.13–16).

42
:
Put a stumbling block
in this context means to discourage people, no matter how low their status in the outer world, from staying within the movement.

43
:
Hell
or “Gehenna” (see translators’ note
b
), originally a valley south of Jerusalem. The site of rites condemned in Jer 7.31, it became the term for hell (Mt 5.22; Lk 12.5). The image, like that of being drowned (v. 42), is one of the destruction of the person (drowning, burning, being devoured by worms all destroy the body).

43
–47:
Hand … foot … eye
, in general, the means of carrying out sinful deeds (stealing, coveting, etc.); if sexual sins are meant specifically, there may be allusions to Heb “foot” as euphemism for genitals (Isa 7.20) and of “eye” as transgressing sexual boundaries (Lev 20.17–21).

49
:
Salted with fire
, perhaps preserved (from worse fate) by punishment that is short of destruction.

10.1
–16: Marriage, divorce, and children
(Mt 19.1–15; Lk 18.15–17).

1
:
Jesus’ travels bring him into Judea, the region of Jerusalem.

2
–9:
As in 2.25–26, it appears that after a challenge from the Pharisees (v. 2), the original clever retort (v. 9) was supplemented by a scriptural and legal argument (vv. 3–8). Here a rigor greater than that in Torah is held up for emulation: the
commandment
allowing divorce was given because of
hardness of heart
. Mark insists that the prohibition of divorce (Deut 24.1–4) goes back to creation (Gen 1.27; 2.24), a legal move not unlike Paul’s critique of the law (Gal 3.17). The prohibition of divorce appears in many early texts of the followers of Jesus (Mt 5.32; 1 Cor 7.10–11) and may derive from Jesus himself. Some interpreters argue that it was introduced to protect women from being abandoned without support, but there is nothing in any of these texts to suggest this. Further, the Qumran sect also prohibited divorce with the same scriptural argument as here: marriage was ordained at creation (CD 4.19–5.2). Among his followers the prohibition of divorce might have addressed the situation of those who were separating for celibacy (Mt 19.10–12; Lk 18.29–30; 1 Cor 7.5). The same may be true for the affirmation of children in vv. 13–16 (contrast Wis 4.1–9).

11
–12:
Biblical law allowed only men to initiate divorce (Deut 24.1–4), but in this period Jewish women, in accordance with Roman law, also initiated divorces, as Mark and Paul assumed.

13
–16:
Perhaps the
disciples
spoke
sternly
to those bringing children because they were still concerned with distinctions of status; see 9.34.
Receive the kingdom of God as a little child
, without regard to one’s position in it; perhaps also without insisting that it come to one by merit, but simply as given, just as children “receive” their upbringing.

10.17
–31: Riches and entering the kingdom of God
(Mt 19.16–30; Lk 18.18–30).

17
:
Eternal life
, life with God (the only eternal being); here treated as synonymous with entering the kingdom of God (v. 24).

18
:
Why do you call me good?
Jesus’ reply is going to be based on the Torah that the young man has known all his life; he does not need a new teaching from Jesus, but rather the old teaching from the
God
who is
good
.

19
–20:
The
commandments
here are from the second half of the Ten Commandments (Ex 20.1–17), those concerning relations among people, but the man’s performance of deeds for others has fallen short of the care of the poor (cf. Deut 24.17–22; Am 2.6 and many other passages in the Hebrew Bible; 2 Cor 8,9; Jas 2.1–7; Acts 2.43–47; 4.32–5.11).

21
:
Loved him
, perhaps meaning “wished for his good.”

25
:
Contrary to a commonly cited medieval legend, there is no narrow “Eye of the Needle” gate in Jerusalem. A Talmudic parallel (
b. Ber
. 55b) uses a needle’s eye and an elephant to make the same point.

10.32
–45: Third Passion prediction
(Mt 20.17–28; Lk 18.31–34; 22.24–27).

38
:
Cup
, a metaphor for consequences that must be accepted (Ps 75.8; cf. Isa 51.17,22), usually merited suffering resulting from one’s wrongdoing; Jesus’ use of the metaphor indicates that he is accepting the cup in place of others; see 14.36.
Baptism
, John had predicted (1.8) that Jesus would baptize “with the Holy Spirit”; Jesus here accepts the consequences of that baptism.

42
–45:
Mark provides a concise description of the Roman aristocratic political system. As the previous two chapters indicate, the followers of Jesus are to create an alternative community.

42
:
Great ones,
9.33–37.

45
:
The climax of this middle section: even James and John expect the Son of Man to come in glory, but he will serve and die as a ransom, Gk “lytron,” Heb “‘asham.” Though there has been lengthy discussion among Christian thinkers about how such ransom is deemed to work, and what it accomplishes, there is no settled agreement about the meaning of this phrase,
give his life a ransom for many
. Theories have included the idea that the payment was made to satisfy a penalty for human wrongdoing, to avert divine retribution (see above on “cup,” v. 38n.), or as a sacrifice (like the Temple sacrifices) to cleanse the followers of Jesus from their sins. The phrase
for many
may indicate an expiatory sacrifice (see 14.24n.; Isa 53.12), but only in the eleventh century did this notion come to dominate western Christian theology.

10.46
–52: Blind Bartimaeus
(Mt 20.29–34; Lk 18.35–43).

46
:
Bartimaeus
means
son of Timaeus
.

47
:
Son of David, have mercy on me
was likely a standardized form of words in a petitionary prayer. Some Jewish healers healed in the name of Solomon, the original son of David (
Ant
. 8.42–49). In
Pss. Sol
. 17.21, the coming king will be the son of David: “See, O Lord, and raise up for them their king, the son of David / at the time which you choose, O God, to rule over Israel your servant.” In both Matthew (1.6–7) and Luke (1.27; 3.31) Joseph is given a genealogy that includes David, but Mark does not have any such information.

11.1
–16.8: Last major section.
Passion and death.

11.1
–11: Entry into Jerusalem
(Mt 21.1–9; Lk 19.28–38; Jn 12.12–19).

1
:
Mount of Olives
or Olivet is the site of the final battle against the nations according to Zech 14.4. A contemporary prophet-leader, the so-called Egyptian prophet, had also announced that God would appear on the Mount of Olives (
Ant
. 20.168–72).

2
:
The apocalyptic vision of Zech 9.9 prophesies the need for a colt, but the coronation of a king in Israel also included the colt (Gen 49.11), as well as including the garments of v. 8 (2 Kings 9.13).

8
:
Leafy branches
, see 1 Macc 13.51.

9
:
Hosanna,
“save, we pray!” in Aramaic, not Hebrew. The quotation is from Ps 118.25–26, sung at the pilgrimage festivals of Passover, Shavuot (Weeks), and Sukkot (Booths).