Mark 16 vv 1 8
•Download as PPTX, PDF•
0 likes•272 views
Slides to accompany the video on the y GRWP Youtube channel and WelshRev podcast on Buzzsprout on Mark 16:1-8 ... The Pastorally Purposeful (broken?) Ending of Mark
Recommended
Recommended
More Related Content
What's hot
What's hot (19)
Viewers also liked
Viewers also liked (7)
Similar to Mark 16 vv 1 8
Similar to Mark 16 vv 1 8 (20)
More from Grace (Rural Wales) Partnership - Y Grwp
More from Grace (Rural Wales) Partnership - Y Grwp (20)
Recently uploaded
Recently uploaded (20)
Mark 16 vv 1 8
- 1. The fear of the LORD is the beginning of wisdom, and knowledge of the Holy One is understanding. Proverbs 9:10
- 3. • Introduction • Why are we finishing here?
- 4. • Long ending • Short ending • No ‘ending’
- 5. • Introduction • Why are we finishing here? • The women’s intention, vv. 1-3 “When the Sabbath was over, Mary Magdalene, Mary the mother of James, and Salome bought spices so that they might go to anoint Jesus’ body. 2 Very early on the first day of the week, just after sunrise, they were on their way to the tomb 3 and they asked each other, “Who will roll the stone away from the entrance of the tomb?”
- 6. • Introduction • Why are we finishing here? • The women’s intention, vv. 1-3 • The women’s discovery, vv. 4-5 “But when they looked up, they saw that the stone, which was very large, had been rolled away. 5 As they entered the tomb, they saw a young man dressed in a white robe sitting on the right side, and they were alarmed.”
- 7. • Introduction • Why are we finishing here? • The women’s intention, vv. 1-3 • The women’s discovery, vv. 4-5 • The angel’s message, vv. 6-7 • “Don’t be alarmed,” he said. • “You are looking for Jesus the Nazarene, who was crucified. • He has risen! He is not here. See the place where they laid him. • 7 But go, tell his disciples and Peter, ‘He is going ahead of you into Galilee. • There you will see him, just as he told you.’”
- 8. • Introduction • Why are we finishing here? • The women’s intention, vv. 1-3 • The women’s discovery, vv. 4-5 • The angel’s message, vv. 6-7 • Mark’s BIG main point, v. 8 “ Trembling and bewildered, the women went out and fled from the tomb. They said nothing to anyone, because they were afraid …”
- 9. • Introduction • Why are we finishing here? • The women’s intention, vv. 1-3 • The women’s discovery, vv. 4-5 • The angel’s message, vv. 6-7 • Mark’s BIG main point, v. 8 • Conclusion
Editor's Notes
- So, I began a series in Mark’s Gospel with different people in a different setting in April last year by pointing out that this Gospel was written for persecuted believers in Rome with the pastoral purpose of strengthening them to live faithfully for God in a hard, hostile, persecuting world. And today we conclude that series in Mark’s Gospel, with Mark making his point to that specific context (time, place circumstances & people) in a completely astonishing way. Let me try to show you the point he has to make to such horribly persecuted people, then we’ll see what we have to gain from this today … but first we have to get a very important question out of the way: why are we finishing here?
- You look to the notes at the bottom of your page and you’ll see a little bit in italics that says something like ‘the best and oldest manuscripts don’t have vv. 9ff. And already you may be getting concerned that I’m about to go of onto some long-winded technical red herring?! I promise you I really am not … I just need to show you what’s going on in your footnotes, because the message of Mark hangs on this! The options on the ending of Mark look like this …
- The Long ending of Mark has verses 9-20 in it. This is to be found in the majority of mss we have – but they are the majority because they are the youngest ones too! The content of the long ending is found in other Gospels, seems to be derived stylistically from those other Gospels and there is some evidence to suggest that the way the verse ends in v. 8 led later believers to feel the need to ‘finish off’ Mark’s (as it were) ‘Unfinished Symphony’ It is in fact impossible to end a sentence in Greek let alone a book with the last words there: ‘ἐφοβοῦντο γάρ’ means ‘they were afraid because …’ So the long ending – it seems – was developed by those who saw an anomaly that they wanted to correct. There was another attempt to achieve the same sort of thing known as the shorter ending and it is found in the Codex Bobbiensis. Wikipedia entry: Codex Bobiensis (k) is a fragmentary Latin manuscript of the Bible. Specifically, it is an example of a Vetus Latina Bible, the type used from the 2nd century until Jerome's Latin translation, the Vulgate, was written in the 4th century. The text contains parts of the Gospel of Mark (Mk 8:8-"shorter ending") and Gospel of Matthew (Mt 1:1-15:36). The order of books was probably: John, Luke, Mark, and Matthew.[1] It is from North Africa, and is dated to the 4th or 5th century. Later, it was brought to the monastery in Bobbio in northern Italy. It was traditionally assigned to St. Columban, who died in the monastery he had founded there, in 615. No ending As we’ve already said, the fact is that the text just ends suddenly and abruptly in v. 8 in the best mss we have available to us … Codex Sinaiticus andCodex Vaticanus … and early church fathers like Clement of Alexandria and Origen don’t know of any verses beyond the broken-off sentence in v. 8 Eusebius and Jerome state that the content of ‘vv. 9-20’ were not in the best mss known to them and the earliest form of the Eusebian Canons (dating from the earkly 3rd century) make no provision for readings in Mark beyond v. 8. The text itself of vv. 9-20 is very different in style from the rest of Mark’s Gospel, and in content is derived from the other three Gospel accounts. Neither the short nor long ending actually flow from the broken verse in v. 8 so that R. T. France“the almost unanimous conclusion of modern scholarship is that both the Shorter and Longer Endings, in their different ways represent well-meaning attempts, probably some time in the second century, to fill the perceived gap left by the ‘unfinished’ ending at 16:8” My contention is that this is a bad move, because it doesn’t recognise exactly what Mark is up to in breaking off his Ghospel so abruptly like this and as a result misses the point this Gospel is trying to stress. (Yes – as bad as that!) So let’s look at the events in the run up to Mark’s power-punch!
- Let’s just check in first with the intention of these faithful female followers of Jesus … Which women are we dealing with? Mary Magdalene has GREAT reason to be grateful to Jesus … he set her free from a terrible entanglement with evil spirits that oppressed her, and she’d been following Him faithfully ever since. These women were singled out for mention in the last chapter at the foot of the Cross: “when the centurion, who stood there in front of Jesus, saw how he died,[a] he said, “Surely this man was the Son of God!” 40 Some women were watching from a distance. Among them were Mary Magdalene, Mary the mother of James the younger and of Joseph,[b] and Salome. 41 In Galilee these women had followed him and cared for his needs. Many other women who had come up with him to Jerusalem were also there.” Salome was apparently absent from the burial, but she’s named as being back with them now. They had cared for his needs in life, what were they going to do now? They were with Him through thick and thin. The days are now DARK, but they are still with Him. They are seeking to honour Jesus Now, you remember the woman who came in to Jesus at the feast in the home of Simon the Leper in Mark 14? She was an immoral woman, apparently, or at least spiritually unacceptable to those who thought themselves religious, but her heaert’s desire was to HONOUR the Lord Jesus, to do something BEAUTIFUL for Him. And what are these women doing here? They were clearly conscious that Joseph of Arimathea and old rabbi Nicodemus had been able to do only a rushed job the evening before the Sabbath as they’d sought to do the decent thing with the body of Jesus. So as the Sabbath ended that Saturday night they bought spices and ointments – the words used tend to suggest that it was dry herbs the men used and wet ointment and anointing oils that these women brought … Gk. ἄρωμα. The Jews did not practice embalming, so these materials were used to cover the stench of decay and slow decomposition. These spices were used not to preserve the body, but as an act of love, and to mask the growing stench of a corpse. So they brought things you could pour on (they intended to ‘anoint’ - ἀλείφω – the body with these things). Given that the body would now have entered into the first rapid stages of decomposition in that climate … or so they’d have thought … this makes sense. And early that Sunday, just around dawn, they set out, as soon as it was practical, for the tomb. They’d seen Jesus laid there, but whilst they’d thought about the ointments and potions that would make the body smell nicer, they hadn’t thought about the graveyard furniture and its practicalities. This was NO small job to roll the heavy stone back up its sloping channel to give access to the doorway of the tomb. It’s fair to say they were going to face more challenges. They’d no idea how they were going to overcome them. But they were on the road EARLY in their attempt to honour Jesus. They had HEARD His passion predictions that He would rise again, but they simply aren’t taking them seriously. Please remember, this book is written for believers in Rome who were being actively persecuted and who NEEDED to be reminded of such lessons as these.
- Now, these women knew their way to the right tomb because at the end of the last chapter they’d followed the leading Jewish guys and their servants to this particular tomb, seen Jesus laid in it and the big stone rolled up against the door. Things were different when they arrived there AFTER the Sabbath in the early morning light. The stone was rolled away. Mark does not attribute agency to this act of rolling away the stone … it’s just a passive tense that indicates it had been done … but it’s a tough job for 15-20 men by some reckonings to achieve this! So they press on into the entrance ‘tunnel’ to the rock-hewn tomb to the place where the bodies would be placed into shelves or little tunnels hewn into the rock. There’s a bigger surprise coming, because someone else is in there. Mark does not explicitly identify the young man dressed in a white robe as an angel (though the white robe suggests this), but Matthew does (Matt 28:2). Of COURSE they would be thoroughly alarmed, piling into a pothole looking for a corpse and coming slap bang face to face in that small cave with an angel? Scary stuff! And in the fine old Biblical tradition of humans meeting angels, this young man’s first recorded words are ... ?
- Don’t be alarmed There are FIVE things here that this angel says – five short, staccato, seemingly disconnected utterances. μὴ ἐκθαμβεῖσθε ἐκθαμβέω 1) to throw into terror or amazement 1a) to alarm thoroughly, to terrify 2) to be struck with amazement 2a) to be thoroughly amazed, astounded 2b) to be struck with terror You don’t need a dictionary … if you know someone’s run into a burst tomb looking for a corpse and run into an ANGEL … well, you get the idea. He’s got more to say … You seek Jesus the crucified Nazarene Whoever they think this young man is, he KNOWS them, speaks to their concerns and understands their problem … you are looking for the crucified Nazareth man, Jesus … and you are UNDERSTANDABLY alarmed that having secured His body against the odds, it seems now to have gone missing. He’s about to tell them that this is not the setback they suppose! He is risen None of the Gospels describe the actual resurrection – only the finding of the empty tomb, which has happened in the previous 48 hours or so. The emphasis is placed firmly on the disciples, their witnessing His resurrection and glory and the effect that this has on them. Here the young man uses a passive form of the verb … Jesus has been raised from the dead. But this is no passive body that has been removed – they are being told to expect a living, moving, travelling Jesus … this is a bodily resurrection which results in continuing earthly life and activity. On the basis of that, there is an urgent message for the disciples … Get yourselves rapidly away into Galilee because the Master needs to meet with you there! The disciples and Peter The women receive the young man’s message, but the focus of it is ‘His disciples and Peter’ … It’s never really been about just Jesus throughout Mark. A strange thought this one … but from 1:16 ff. where He first called His followers … yes it’s been Jesus but it’s been Jesus AND HIS DISCIPLES at the heart of the action. Because the Kingdom of God is at hand, Jesus has come to call followers to repentance, faith and following Him in His Royal procession. Now they must be called together to Him again. Why? Because for Mark’s story to have finished with one of them a traitor, ten of them deserters and Peter (of all people) blasphemously dissociating himself from the Lord altogether would have completely undone all that Mark intended to do. Life, discipleship, the work of the Kingdom of God … this stuff must go on, in fact the point of all that’s happened up until this point is that they should. It’s time the Kingdom of God got proclaimed throughout the world. Notice Peter gets picked out for good reason we’re aware of. It’s not because he was pre-eminent amongst the apostles, it’s because he’d been a pre-eminent failure by denyig his loyalty to Jesus!
- Grk “they began to have trembling and bewilderment.” They stopped their quest (they went out) They fled They disobeyed the Heavenly vision: they said nothing to anyone. They’ve just been given a message of supreme importance to deliver by the angel, but they simply ran and said nothing to anyone … Why? BIG ‘WHY?’!! They had been TOLD everything that would happen, by Jesus. He had linked that to Biblical prophecy for them so clearly at the time. The first stuff had happened … delivered into the hands of the Gentiles, mocked, spat on, flogged, crucified. Then the Heavens darkened, the Temple veil was torn and the centurion saw Him as truly the Son of God … and He was laid amongst the rich in His death. So the bit about defeating death, rising and going ahead of them into Galilee … Even when they got it again in an empty tomb from an angelic messenger of God … ? They fled. ‘because they were afraid’. Jesus has just triumphed over death … and they said nothing because they were afraid. Of WHAT? Jesus holds the keys of death and Hades! Why are we being told this utterly ignoble, discouraging story? Well come with me to Rome. Come with me to a secret late night meeting in the catacombs or wherever with persecuted, downtrodden, disadvantaged members of that society who love Jesus … meeting to hear this Gospel read the first time. (I don’t know that’s the way it happened or where this was first read, but I’m trying to reconstruct the SORT of situation Mark addressed). This damaging anti-climax can’t be the end?! The sentence just breaks off half way and HANGS there … It doesn’t say ‘because they were afraid.’ The word order can’t work like that in this Greek sentence. What Mark writes is, ‘they were afraid, because …’ We’re supposed to realise the absolutely irony of that ‘…’ Why on EARTH would these women be afraid? The Jesus Who loved them to death was the risen Lord of life, victor over the worst anything can do to you, holding the keys of death and hell in His hand
- The big point Mark’s Gospel then is this … and it’s a point made to people undergoing persecution for the faith that they have in the Saviour. The Kingdom of God is at hand. Repent and believe the Good News – which shows itself in following Him to become fishers of men, just as He is. Jesus is the King over the Kingdom. But He suffers as the coming King Messiah … it’s a suffering Messiah we FOLLOW so EXPECT that! And it is the religious who persecute Him the most … persecuting Him to His sin-atoning death on the Cross. Don’t betray, desert and deny Him as those first followers did, for fear of their lives as He followed His Father, because He’s the One Who (when you DO follow Him wherever He leads you, to live and to die in His service) holds decisively the victory over death and sets free from the worst men can do to you. The message of Mark comes from the example of these women who were told to go and speak up but who shrank back illogically given Who they should speak out for … A point MAXIMISED by the broken ending that poses the question in a way that makes it look ridiculous. They kept quiet about the message they’d been given. Explanation? ‘They were afraid because …’ Of what could they rationally be afraid? The point of this Gospel for these persecuted believers who received it is thoroughly well made in Hebrews 13:6 (quoting Psalm 118:6-7) Don’t be silenced, however much persecutors threaten you. Why? “So we say with confidence, “The Lord is my helper; I will not be afraid. What can mere mortals do to me?”