BEMA 85: Mark — Roman Gospel

Transcription Status

20 Jun 23 — Initial public release

7 Dec 22 — Transcript approved for release

Mark — Roman Gospel

Brent Billings: This is the BEMA podcast with Marty Solomon. I’m his co-host, Brent Billings. Today, we examine the Gospel narrative of Mark, noting his distinct audience and the intentional methods he used to communicate the euangelion to them.

Marty Solomon: The euangelion—means we need to go back and do this little bit of review. Where have we been in Session 3? Let’s see. Started talking about Hellenism—what was Hellenism, Brent? Remind us.

Brent: It is the gospel idea of, “Everything will be provided for you. We’ll give you all of the things that you need.”

Marty: There’s a lot in your explanation there.

Brent: Yes.

Marty: What is the overarching—and it comes from which worldview?

Brent: It comes from Greek.

Marty: From the Greeks. What was the driving tenet? How did they get to this point where it was all about you and your?

Brent: Previously the gods had been at the center of everything and now man is at the center of everything.

Marty: Perfect. Would you imagine that we have some issues with a biblical worldview with this new Greek understanding?

Brent: It doesn’t really mesh very well together.

Marty: Or at least with many people as they view it. We had to look at the different responses that they had to this arrival of Hellenism on the scene. We spent a bunch of podcasts at the beginning of this session talking about Herodians. Let’s review the groups. Who are the Herodians, Brent?

Brent: The Herodians actually did find a way to make the Greek worldview mesh with the biblical worldview.

Marty: Yes, this is great. The Herodian said, “I’ll take a little bit of theater, I’ll take a little bit of luxury, I’ll take a little bit of leisure, I’ll take a little bit of plumbing, I’ll take a little bit of healthcare, and I’ll have my synagogue and my God worship.” I guess maybe next to them we can put the Sadducees, who were they?

Brent: They were the priests. Basically, the same idea but they had this call to priesthood and they were completely corrupt.

Marty: Corrupted this priestly system that had God established centuries and centuries before. Let’s see. Then we had the Essenes? Who were the Essenes?

Brent: They were the few, proud priests who broke off and said, “We will not do this.” They went and hid in the desert. They didn’t really hide, I guess, but they were effectively hidden because nobody wanted to be out there. They devoted themselves to learning the Text and copying the Text and walking the Text.

Marty: Excellent. Then we had two groups we called the Hasidim. One group would be the Zealots, who were they? What was their response?

Brent: They said, “We are going to do the right thing and we’ll kill the Romans who get in our way.”

Marty: That’s right. Then there was one group that said, “We’re going to take that same approach but—” I’m flipping the script here. “We’re going to take the same approach, but we’re not going to use the sword, we’re not going to use physical violence, but we’re going to take that same zeal and devotion.” Which group was that?

Brent: The Pharisees.

Marty: Pharisees. Excellent. Then after that, we talked about this idea of euangelion. What did we say euangelion was?

Brent: It is the gospel or the good news of a new kingdom on the scene.

Marty: A new king and a new kingdom. The euangelion was this announcement of a new king and a new kingdom. “Everything is about to change, I have good news,” the messenger would say. The courier would stand out on his little—not the courier. What’s the word I’m looking for, Brent? The person that stands out and—the herald.

Brent: Herald, yes.

Marty: He’d stand out on his—we actually found places that presented his herald box where he would stand. He would stand up and he would pronounce the good news, the euangelion. There’s a new king and a new kingdom and your life is about to get great. The Gospel writers take this idea of euangelion, a good news of a new King and a new Kingdom, and they write their own Gospels. Last podcast we looked at Matthew, what’d we say that his agenda was?

Brent: His agenda is the mamzer. The outsider or the set-aside, the ones that society doesn’t care about.

Marty: Particularly religious society because his audience is who?

Brent: The Jews.

Marty: The Jews. So, he writes this Jewish Gospel to a Jewish audience and says, “We really are used to and we value this religious system but this religious system has forced some people to the margins. Some of us are more guilty of it than others, but all those people that we think because of our religious system are on the outside, God is inviting them on to the inside and we need to be very careful about where we find ourselves.”

Brent: We’ve talked a lot about alien, orphan, and widow. Obviously, it would be in this but I’m assuming it’s a broader context at this point?

Marty: Yes. Let me think about that. They would have a hard time associating the commands of the foreigner, the alien, because they would feel like they are the oppressed ones. Yet I think Matthew had challenged that and said, “Wait a minute, I think there are outsiders.” Maybe there are aliens, they just don’t look the same as they would have back in the Levitical system. Orphans, in their culture—they’re not doing the worst job in their history of taking care of the AOW.

Matthew’s point is just what you’re saying, “We might be taking care of aliens, orphans, and widows. (Maybe, maybe not.) We’re doing a somewhat decent job of that, but we’re missing a whole other subset of people. A group of people that we have made aliens, orphans, and widows just because of the way that we treat them and the way that we see the world and read the Bible.” There we go. Let’s dive into Mark today. Mark is our second Gospel. Many people would say Mark is the first Gospel written.

Definitely some shared material. In the last podcast, did I talk about Q material, Q source, source Q? A lot of just verbatim quotes that overlap Matthew and Mark and just the exact same wording. A lot of people think there had to have been some source material. Either one Gospel writer wrote first and the other one just deliberately copied it, or there’s some source material that has been circulated or exchanged. I’m fond of that form of opinion that there’s some kind of Q source out there.

Brent: Perhaps one of those disciples you never really hear about other than in the list of the disciples. It’s like guys in the back writing down on a…

Marty: Yes, that’s right. Well, and you have to remember, even if we give these Gospels early dates, there’s still a couple of decades between the events themselves and when they penned this Gospel. What do you do for 20 years? At some point, you might not physically be writing down, but I assume even you write them down on some level. You have to have some source of, “What did the Rabbi teach us?” Before a Gospel gets written, “What did the Rabbi say?” That has to be circulated.

We’ll talk a little more about that in the next episode with the Gospel of Luke. Mark, let’s just deal with the immediate context because this is just going to pretty much tell us the whole story for Mark. Mark’s audience is different, who is the audience? To remind ourselves, who was the audience of Matthew?

Brent: The Jews.

Marty: The Jews. Mark’s audience. Now, who is Mark? Is Mark a Jew?

Brent: Mark is, yes.

Marty: Yes, John Mark. John Mark is a—there’s some debate about which Mark we’re dealing with here. Almost all of them would be Jewish, but I believe this is the same John Mark that we had read about in other places in the scriptures. Mark is definitely Jewish and yet, for whatever reason, Mark’s agenda—I don’t know if Mark had a special heart for the Roman-Gentile audience, but Mark’s audience is Romans.

It’s particular that we say Roman, so we don’t say just Greeks or Gentiles because Mark’s audience is a Roman audience. It’s not even going to be a Greek audience. Mark’s Gospel, Mark’s euangelion, is geared towards and targeting a Roman worldview, not even a Greek worldview. So that’s going to make his Gospel totally, totally, totally different.

The first thing that we notice if we read Mark’s Gospel is the pace. Mark’s Gospel is—it’s not just shorter. I think a lot of us like Mark because when we look at the Gospels we’re like, “I’ll take the one with 16 chapters, please.” It’s a quicker read, but it’s not just quicker in that it’s shorter, it’s also quicker because of the pace. When you read Mark it’s, ‘Here’s a story. Then immediately Jesus went there and there’s a story. Then immediately Jesus went here, then immediately after that Jesus went there.’

It’s this fast-paced—

Brent: It’s not even an exaggeration. The word immediately appears in the Text.

Marty: Yes, absolutely. It is one of Mark’s favorite words. Either it’s his personal favorite word or he’s doing it intentionally because of his audience. Romans are Westerners, they’re not Easterners. In Sessions 1 and 2 of our podcast, we’ve been looking at the scripture as an Eastern book, Eastern methods. One of the most common things we talk about is buried treasure. All these literary tools, Chiasms and parables, and there’s all these things that bury meaning and you’re supposed to go dig in and it’s long and—

We talk about the midrash being the long walk around the block when the answer is just right next door. That’s the Eastern way because of the process of—they think learning happens better when you what, Brent? Can you remember?

Brent: When you experienced it yourself.

Marty: When you discover it and experience it. Well, Romans are not that way. Romans want it now. Romans want it efficiently. Romans want the answer. So, you have to keep a Roman audience entertained, you have to keep a Roman audience moving. They are not Easterners who value a treasure hunt buried in the text or an expectation that you would want to work through tough questions in order to unearth amazing truths.

I think we can relate to this, I think we are very Roman as Americans. Part of the angst that we go through and we start listening to BEMA and Sessions 1 and 2, is we have to deconstruct this Roman urge. “Can you just give me the answer? Can you just tell me?” Now, we’re at a place where we’re ready to deconstruct that and we actually enjoy this, but in a Roman world, the truly Roman world Mark knew, that that kind of Gospel is not going to fly, not for that audience.

Romans want you to get to the point and to tickle their fancy and so Mark writes a Gospel that is a fast-paced tale of all the things Jesus did. He bounces from story to story, keeping characters moving, and Jesus very busy. But he also plays to the four pillars of Hellenism. Can we remember the four pillars of Hellenism? Brent, what were the four pillars?

Brent: We had the gymnasium.

Marty: The gymnasium. Okay. I’ll call that education.

Brent: Then we had the Asclepian.

Marty: Okay. We called that what?

Brent: Healthcare?

Marty: Healthcare. Okay.

Brent: We had theater, entertainment.

Marty: Call that entertainment.

Brent: Then we had…

Marty: The one you like to forget all the time.

Brent: Apparently. Sports.

Marty: Yes. Athletics.

Brent: Coliseum, athletic coliseum.

Marty: Romans would call it Circus, but yes. Coliseum athletics. I’ll call it “competition” for our discussion today, so Education, Healthcare, Entertainment, and Competition. What’s interesting if you read the Gospel of Mark is you’ll notice how much Mark plays to these four pillars. It’s like one story. Jesus is this amazing teacher and that plays to which pillar?

Brent: To education.

Marty: Education pillar, and then all of a sudden, and the next he’s a master teacher and then the next story, he’s an incredible healer of all kinds of conditions. What is that?

Brent: Healthcare.

Marty: Healthcare. Then all of a sudden, immediately he goes over here and the crowds are all—and the word usage of Mark is different than that of Matthew or of Luke—the crowds are “amazed.” Not just in fear, not trembling, not perplexed, but amazed.

Brent: They’re entertained.

Marty: They’re entertained because it’s theater and then and just as you walk through this, it’s very obvious that if you compare Jesus to any other human being, Jesus is the winner. He’s the champion. If this is a competition, He’s the one standing on top of the podium at the end of the day. Mark is playing to this Roman agenda and it’s worth pausing here just to note that I think that that’s the reason that so many of us as American Christians prefer the Gospel of Mark. In short, we are Romans, we are Westerners. We are cut from the same cloth.

It’s for the very same reasons that we enjoy the shorter, faster, more entertaining Gospel of Mark, but Mark also has an agenda much deeper that we need to hear. One of the reasons we’re going to do this with Matthew, Mark, Luke, and John in this podcast is we’re going to walk through Matthew to use as our base text. I want us to have the tools so the next time we’re reading Mark or having to study Luke or spending time in John, we have a set of tools to ask a better set of questions, to try to understand and unearth whatever that Gospel writer is doing.

We want to do that with Mark, not just understand why we prefer it, but we also want to understand what Mark’s actual agenda is to a Roman audience. I would also say that this is exactly the reason why we’re not going to use Mark when we walk through. Not only is it the shortest, the briefest, most condensed version of Jesus’s life and ministry, it’s also the one that plays to our fancy. I think the challenge for us—not that the challenge of Mark isn’t going to still provoke us—but I think we need to hear that message of Matthew that we talked about in our last podcast. That’s definitely going to be something, but let’s finish up this conversation with Mark and see where Mark is going.

One of the differences that we can find in the Gospel of Mark is in the crucifixion story. For most of us, I don’t think many of us even notice it, but if you went to Bible college or you’re just an astute Bible teacher, or you love to look at Gospel apologetics or contradictions in the Bible, you may have run across this before. That is the details of the crucifixion. When you compare the Gospels, particularly what you called the synoptic Gospels, last episode. If you compare the Gospels, the details are different. What was the word we used, we’re not going to do what to the Gospels, Brent?

Brent: We’re not going to harmonize.

Marty: We’re not going to harmonize it. If I am trying to harmonize this, this becomes quite a problem. I’m going to show you a good example of why harmonizing actually gets in the way here. Because in Mark, we have one detail that’s quite interesting. Jesus is offered wine mixed with myrrh. Oh man, you didn’t get to come with me to Avdat. When we were in Israel and Turkey, we had to cancel that day on your trip, didn’t we? My most recent trip [participants] got to come to Avdat and Avdat was a place where they sold wine mixed with myrrh.

It was known as some of the best wine in the ancient world, sold by the Idumean-Nabateans, the people who ran the spice trade. They had taken myrrh, mixed it in their wine, and it was some of the most expensive wine you could buy.

To read in the Gospel of Mark, that Jesus is offered on the cross wine mixed with myrrh. Not that it can’t be explained, not that it literally didn’t happen, but that’s a detail that we just read it and read over it. That is, he is being offered super expensive wine that is meant for kings. What is that all about? The other Gospel writers don’t record that, it’s vinegar. It’s very, very cheap wine if you even want to call it wine. It’s given to Him in a different spot, which most of us never—did you ever realize that, Brent? That the wine is offered to Him in a different location? Let me just ask you this. Where was the wine offered to Jesus?

Brent: When He was on the cross.

Marty: When He was on the cross, right? They put it on a hyssop branch, which by the way, hyssop was also used as toilet paper in the ancient world. When you’re reading the crucifixion story and they offer Jesus wine on a hyssop branch, it’s probably used toilet paper, it’s all done to mock him. They’re taking used toilet paper, they’re putting a sponge on it with some nasty wine and they’re offering it to him to drink. However, in the Gospel of Mark, that’s not where the wine is offered. The wine is offered to Jesus before He’s even put on the cross. Now, I remember in Bible college, dealing with that apologetically, harmonizing that if you will, and even taking a notice that this was wine mixed with myrrh.

It had to have been two different instances. That was how we harmonized it. We said Jesus was offered wine mixed with myrrh before He was put on the cross.

Then after He was on the cross, they were offering Him nasty wine, which is a completely legitimate explanation. It’s just completely Western and void of the things that we’ve been talking about in our last two podcasts. Is there something more going in this record of the crucifixion that we need to see here coming from a Jewish author to a Roman audience?

One of the things that we’re going to look at here is what’s called the coronation. When an emperor was crowned, there was a ceremony as they became emperor, as they were crowned emperor, they would have a public coronation. It was one of the ways that they spread their own euangelion. They would spread, I think I even mentioned this a couple podcasts ago. They would spread their euangelion on money, currency. They would spread it using advents. They would spread it using parousias. They would spread it using coronations. This is one of the ways that they would spread their euangelion a big public show of pomp and circumstance. We have a few records of a handful of different coronations from Roman history.

The one that we have the most detailed record of is the coronation of Nero, which by the way, is right around the penning of the Gospel of Mark, depending on how you date it. It would’ve been direct context and Nero would’ve been the emperor to who? Not a trick question.

Brent: To the Romans.

Marty: To the Romans. That’s whose audience? Mark’s audience. This is going to be really relevant in my mind. Context: I want to give you the nine steps. We’re not trying to suggest that every single emperor had the exact same nine steps in all their coronations, but we can say that the coronations followed a typical outline. In Nero’s coronation, we have these nine steps outlined for us in very unique detail. By the way, the scholar who did the work on this, his name is Thomas E. Schmidt. Thomas E. Schmidt, S-C-H-M-I-D-T.

He was a scholar out of Oxford. He’s the one that’s kind of known for this body of work. I heard it from Ray Vander Laan on one of my trips, but he’s the scholar that’s behind the work here. Nine steps to go through here at a typical Roman coronation, like Nero’s coronation. We had step number one, the Praetorian guard gathers in some form of courtyard known as a Praetorian. That’s step number one, the Praetorian Guard gathers. Step number two, the Royal Robes are placed on the emperor. He’s given a wreath as a crown and a scepter and the robe is placed on his shoulders, the crown on his head, the scepter in his hands. Step number three, they lead this new Caesar, the emperor, through a procession down the street, usually lined with incense altars as they walk in that procession.

Step number four, Christ Caesar is followed by a sacrifice. In Nero’s case, it was a bull. Oh, I had the notes and they’re not with me of Vespasian. I cannot remember what his animal was, but they have a sacrifice and they lead that sacrifice behind them and the emperor carries the instrument of death. Whatever that instrument is going to be. Step number five, they arrive at Capitoline Hill. Rome was a city built on what? Brent, what’s the statement? You went to Rome. You’ve been there.

Brent: I have been to Rome.

Marty: We’ve been to Rome. What did they call it? The city built on…?

Brent: I don’t know.

Marty: The City on Seven Hills; there were seven hills. Rome had these small, seven—kind of like a—in many of our urban cities we might have bergs, or what do they call them in the East—all my listeners from the East Coast right now are going, “You’ve got to be kidding us.”

Brent: Boroughs.

Marty: Boroughs. What do they call them in New York?

Brent: Yes, The Five Boroughs of New York.

Marty: Yes, there you go. Okay, so seven hills of Rome and the tallest hill is where they had put all of your central, the temple to Caesar, the temple to Zeus. The temple to Caesar is what eventually stood there, temple to Augustus. That was on Capitoline Hill. It basically means “head hill,” Capitoline Hill. Actually, the myth behind it is that the temple sits there because as they were preparing the ground, they dug up the head of—if I remember correctly, the head of Romulus. As the myth tells it.

It wasn’t just the skull of Romulus, but it was actually a severed head with hair and eyeballs and flesh and head. There’s a word in the Greek, there’s a word in the Hebrew, there’s a word in the Latin to mean “skull,” but that’s not what this is. I can’t remember what it is, but Capitoline comes from that root word of head hill. Caesar is offered wine mixed with myrrh but he refuses it. He pours it out just to show his preeminence, his need for nothing, his absolute preeminence.

Step number six, the bull is killed—or the animal, whatever that sacrificial animal—the bull is killed. Caesar pronounces death or life on a host of prisoners. They’ve taken a bunch of prisoners and they’ve pulled them in front of the crowds and Caesar’s going to walk through this crowd of prisoners. He’s just going to choose some, “You live,” and point to the next one, “You die, you die, you live, you live, you die.” Just to demonstrate that Caesar has the power over life and death.

Step number seven, the emperor ascends the steps of the temple with the high priest of the 24 legal Roman religions on his right and the leading commander of his armies on his left. Step number eight, Caesar is proclaimed lord and god and has people sing his praises. Actually, as he ascends the steps, he gets to the top of the steps of the temple and everybody proclaims him as lord and god. “Hail Caesar, lord and god. Hail Caesar, lord and god.”

Then step number nine, the final step, is everybody waits for a sign. A sign from the heavens. In Nero’s coronation, we know from the history record that there was an eclipse. I can’t remember if it was a full solar eclipse or a lunar eclipse. I can’t remember what kind of eclipse it was, but there was an eclipse that happened. Now all the historians debate, did he get lucky? Obviously, his astronomers probably knew that that was going to happen, but it coincided with this coronation and the crowds went wild. “Obviously this is the man that we want as our king.”

Now we go to Mark’s record of the crucifixion. Now some of these questions, instead of just saying, “Well, maybe he was given wine mixed myrrh before the cross and then other wine on the cross.” Maybe there’s a better explanation here. Brent, you have, before you Mark 15:16-33. That’s the passage that Brent is going to be looking at. We’re not going to read every single verse there, but our listeners will catch on pretty quickly what’s happening here.

I want to walk through those nine steps again and Brent’s going to read me some corresponding verses. Step number one: the Praetorian guard gathers to hail Caesar as lord and god.

Brent: Verse 16, says The soldiers led Jesus away into the palace, that is the praetorium, and called together the whole company of soldiers.

Marty: That’s interesting. They called together the whole company of soldiers, just for a Jewish peasant on trial before Pilate in the middle of the night and yet they’re calling together the whole Praetorian guard? Maybe that happened, maybe that literally happened. Maybe they called together—I don’t have a problem with that—or is Mark playing to his audience that they called together the whole Praetorian guard. Interesting. Step number two: Royal robes, a wreath crown, and a scepter are placed on Caesar.

Brent: Starting verse 17, They put a purple robe on Him, then twisted together a crown of thorns and set it on Him. They began to call out to Him, hail King of the Jews. Again and again, they struck Him on the head with a staff and spit on Him, falling on their knees, they paid homage to Him.

Marty: Step number three: they lead Cesar through a procession lined with incense altars.

Brent: Verse 20, and when they had mocked him, they took off the purple robe and put his own clothes on him. Then they led him out to crucify him.

Marty: Now, Brent, you’re just reading through this passage verse by verse. These steps are being followed in order verse by verse. You haven’t skipped a verse at all yet, right?

Brent: Correct.

Marty: You’re not jumping around to make this case?

Brent: No.

Marty: This is very deliberate on Mark’s part. Let’s see here. Step number five: they arrive at Capitoline Hill. Caesar is—oh, no, no, no. Excuse me, I skipped a step. Step four: Caesar is followed by the sacrifice; in Nero’s case, a bull and he carries the instrument of death.

Brent: Verse 21, A certain man from Cyrene, Simon, the father of Alexander and Rufus, was passing by on his way in from the country and they forced him to carry the cross.

Marty: Excellent. Step number five: they arrive at Capitoline Hill. Caesar is offered wine mixed with myrrh but he refuses it and pours it out.

Brent: Verse 22, They brought Jesus to the place called Golgotha, which means the place of the skull.

Marty: Oh, but it doesn’t, right?

Brent: Yes.

Marty: Brent knew that so he played right into my hands there on purpose.

Brent: Also verse 23, Then they offered him wine mixed with myrrh but he did not take it.

Marty: Verse 22 there, Golgotha does not mean place of the skull, it means—there’s a whole—if you ever go to Jerusalem, there’s a garden tomb and a place called Golgotha where they say—they’ve never made the claim that Jesus was buried there because the tomb is about 200 to 300 years way too old. Every scholar that’s ever stood in there went, “This isn’t the right tomb.” We all know that, but they won’t necessarily tell you that. They’ll play to it like that might be a possible location. It’s not a possible location.

Outside of that is Golgotha, which is a hill that looks like a skull and they use this verse to hype that up. The problem is that it doesn’t mean that, it doesn’t mean it in the Hebrew, it doesn’t mean in the Aramaic, it doesn’t mean it in the Greek. What did we say, Brent? Not place to the skull, but place of the…?

Brent: Head

Marty: Head. It’s very, very particular about that. They’re leading him to head hill. Not the literal Head Hill, but again, Mark is playing to an agenda. He’s trying to make the crucifixion look like a coronation. Let’s see here, let’s go. Next step. Step number six: the bull is killed, Caesar pronounces death or life to a host of prisoners demonstrating that he has the power of life and death.

Brent: Verse 24. They crucified Him. Dividing up His clothes, they cast lots to see what each would get.

Marty: Let’s go. We’re going to probably skip a verse in Mark, but let’s go step number seven. The emperor sends the steps of the temple with a high priest on his right and the commander of his army on his left.

Brent: Verse 27. They crucified two rebels with Him, one on His right, and one on his left.

Marty: How about step eight: Caesar is acclaimed lord and god, as people sing his praises.

Brent: Starting verse 29, Those who passed by hurled insults at him, shaking their heads and saying, “So, you who are going to destroy the temple and build it in three days, come down from the cross and save yourself.” In the same way, the chief priests and the teachers of the law mocked him among themselves. “He saved others,” They said, “but he can’t save himself. Let this Messiah, this King of Israel come down now from the cross that we may see and believe.” Those crucified with Him also heaped insults on Him.

Marty: Finally step number nine: they wait for a sign from the heavens.

Brent: Verse 33. At noon darkness came over the whole land until three in the afternoon.

Marty: It is obvious here that Mark is telling the crucifixion step-by-step as Jesus’s coronation. This shows us that Mark has a problem. If Mark is communicating this Gospel to a Roman audience, the problem that he has is Romans believe in a particular kind of strength. We’ve said that this is always a tale of two kingdoms, right Brent? A tale of what two kingdoms?

Brent: Empire and Shalom.

Marty: Empire and Shalom. Rome, without a doubt, believes in what?

Brent: Empire.

Marty: Empire. What were the words that we used to talk about empire?

Brent: They take everything, they get what they need, they don’t care if someone else doesn’t have what they need.

Marty: When we said Shalom was a voice, we said empire was?

Brent: A stick.

Marty: Stick. When we said a Shalom was trust, we said empire was?

Brent: A mistrust.

Marty: Force, fear. These are the words we use. Rome is all about victory, conquests. You see Mark’s challenge if he wants to give a euangelion to Romans is “How do you convince Romans that the guy that they need to follow and worship was a guy that was crucified and executed by their imperial system?”

To a Roman, that’s not strength, that’s defeat. Mark tells his Gospel in such a way that when you get to Jesus’s defeat, he does not tell it as a defeat, but he tells it as Jesus’s greatest moment of triumph. Not his worst moment of defeat, but His greatest moment of triumph. Mark says, this is where Shalom wins the day. If you read Mark, who’s the first person to actually acknowledge Jesus’s identity as a son of God?

Brent: Is it that Roman Centurion?

Marty: A Roman Centurion. This is the agenda that Mark has. He’s trying to confront—“Listen, Jesus is your guy, Jesus is a great teacher, Jesus is a great healer, Jesus is an incredible entertainer, Jesus is an amazing athlete.” Whatever you want to call it, “An amazing competitor. Jesus is everything you’re looking for.” Jesus, Jesus, Jesus. Fast pace, boom, boom, boom and then you get to His crucifixion. Mark’s whole point is, but this Kingdom doesn’t come like the kingdom that you’re used to. What does this end up provoking? Well, it ends up provoking an incredibly odd ending to the Gospel. If you are in your Bibles and you turn the page to Mark 16 you get a really weird footnote. You read through the first 8 verses of Mark 16 and you get to Mark 16:8. Read Mark 16:8, Brent.

Brent: Trembling and bewildered, the women went out and fled from the tomb. They said nothing to anyone because they were afraid.

Marty: Then Mark goes on, but there’s a big footnote. If your Bible doesn’t have a footnote, throw your Bible away and get a new one. What does your footnote say in what you’re looking at there, Brent?

Brent: “The earliest manuscripts and some other ancient witnesses do not have verses 9–20.”

Marty: Verses 9–20 are not in our earliest manuscripts. You can imagine why, when you look at that and you go, “Man, that’s how the verse ends? The women go away, trembling and afraid? We must be missing something. That can’t be how the Gospel ends.” So somewhere along the way, a century or two in, we add an ending to the Gospel of Mark. In fact, you actually have more footnotes than your standard Bible does. What does the rest of your footnote say, Brent?

Brent: There’s verses 9–20, but there’s also another chunk that is sometimes added between 8 and 9. Sometimes the extra chunk is just the end and the 9–20 isn’t there.

Marty: Okay. Let’s walk through this.

Brent: There are three potential endings.

Marty: There are four potential endings. Our earliest manuscripts end where, Brent?

Brent: At verse 8.

Marty: At verse 8. Read it again. These are our earliest manuscripts that end how?

Brent: Trembling and bewildered, the women went out and fled from the tomb. They said nothing to anyone because they were afraid.

Marty: Then some manuscripts end with…? Read me the section that tags under the end of that.

Brent: “Then they quickly reported all these instructions to those around Peter. After this, Jesus himself also sent out through them from east to west, the sacred and imperishable proclamation of eternal salvation. Amen.”

Marty: Which you made the comment when we were preparing for this podcast sarcastically. Sure doesn’t sound an awful lot like Mark, does it? The language is different. It’s this really awkward—you can tell it’s this tagged on ending.

Brent: Even in English, it sounds like it doesn’t belong.

Marty: The imperishable, which is used by Paul. It is not used by Mark. This is a totally different Greek; it’s just awkward and clumsy and clunky. Then that’s the second possible ending. The third possible ending is that there are manuscripts that have that ending you just read and verses 9–20. Right?

Brent: Yes.

Marty: Then there are some manuscripts that throw out the alternate ending that you had and just go 8 then 9–20. We have four possible endings to this Gospel. It’s important to realize the earliest manuscripts end at verse 8. Even if you read 9–20, it’s a little cleaner than the little chunk you read us. It still has the exact same issues. It’s draped in what I’m going to call Christian ecclesiology, the doctrine of the church.

“Those that aren’t baptized will perish…” It’s not the language of Mark, it’s not the Greek of Mark, it’s not the theology of Mark, it’s not—this is my opinion. I think that footnote about manuscripts is so important in your Bible because 9–20 is not supposed to be in there. 9–20 was not written by Mark. Your Gospel is supposed to end at verse 8. When you understand Mark’s agenda and Mark’s audience it makes sense because if you’re a Roman—

Let me actually read what I wrote here, because I chose my words. I tried to choose my words carefully. Any Roman who reads Mark’s Gospel and accepts it is going to feel just like those women. If they affirm the truth, that Jesus is a better King, their Roman life as they know it is over. They have much to fear. How are the women in that last verse?

Brent: Trembling and bewildered.

Marty: Trembling, and bewildered. That’s exactly how, if you’re about ready to say, “Jesus is Lord, not Caesar. I believe in Jesus’s coronation, not Nero’s.” Remember what Nero did to Christians. You are going to be trembling and bewildered. Much like the story of the prodigal son, Mark leaves this ending open-ended and unwritten, inviting the Roman readers to consider what they believe to be the truest truth about the world and what brings real peace.

This is our great challenge as Roman readers. Do we really want to choose the triumph of Jesus? It runs counter to everything that our worldview says is power. They had to deal with Pax Romana. We have to deal with Pax Americana in our world. It runs to this day, still runs contrary to what we believe is true power. Yet Mark confronts our worldview and invites us to consider. As we possibly sit trembling and bewildered and afraid of the implications, whether or not we’d like to believe this Gospel of a new King and a better Kingdom.

Just having some context allows Mark’s Gospel to come to life for us as we read it, as we understand what he’s trying to accomplish. I love just a little P.S. here. When you were reading, who carried the cross, and what kind of note was made in that first—Can you remember, Brent?

Brent: Simon from Cyrene and he was the father of Alexander and Rufus.

Marty: Listen, in the middle of the crucifixion story, that seems like an odd detail to throw in there.

Brent: I was going to ask about it but it seemed it was not where we were headed with that.

Marty: A little weird, right? If you’re reading Romans, in the greetings, Paul sends out a shout-out to two particular individuals. Just guess who they are Brent?

Brent: It’s got to be Alexander and Rufus.

Marty: Alexander and Rufus (*editor’s note, the biblical text actually only references Rufus, not both). To which letter? The letter to the who…?

Brent: To the Romans.

Marty: To the Romans! Now Mark’s Gospel, a Gospel to the Romans, throws it in. Why? If I read that letter, the Romans Alexander and Rufus are a part of the church in Rome. Can you imagine having this Gospel read for the first time and Mark’s like, “Simon of Cyrene” and Alexander and Rufus are sitting right there, I imagine in tears, like, “Our dad carried the cross.”

And there are people in the room turning to look at them. “That was your dad?” It’s just, so much context comes out of that. It’s not just, “Simon of Cyrene, father of Alexander...” No, Alexander and Rufus are in the Roman crowd. They’re listening to the story! So juicy. Love that little tidbit. That would have been something to have been in the room as Alexander and Rufus when they heard this Gospel for the first time.

Brent: You’re telling me, Mark is not this lazy Gospel for people who just don’t care about anything and want to get through it as quickly as possible? You’re telling me he was actually doing something?

Marty: Yes. I think that this—again, and I’m not trying to throw all these other critical thinkers under the bus—but we always looked at Mark as the first Gospel because it’s the quickest and it’s the shortest. Then Matthew took the same material and wanted to expand on it. Those are totally possible explanations, they’re just totally Western. It’s just totally analytical and we just look at it, we analyze it.

We use our logic rather than using the same hermeneutical principles to ask who’s the author, who’s the audience and what is their agenda? I think Matthew was written first and I think Mark is the one that goes, “Oh, that’s a good Gospel. You’re using all that Q source material, but no Roman is going to listen to that, Matthew.” Matthew’s like, “Sure, I didn’t write it to the Romans. I’m writing it to the Jews.” Mark’s like, “Wow, man, we need to get a Gospel out to the Romans. I’m going to rework your Gospel, I’m going to make it Roman.” Matthew goes, “Man, go for it.” Then Mark does it.

Now we need to think about Luke, next week.

Brent: Would you say that Mark is the most Western book in the Bible?

Marty: That is a really, really good question.

Brent: It certainly is up to this point. I know we’ve got a lot of Gentile audience books coming up.

Marty: You know what? I do. The way you phrase that, without a doubt, I can’t think of anything else that I would say is more Western than Mark. Some people are going to be listening, it’s going, “What about Luke?” Some of these are going to be thinking, “Well, what about Galatians?” There might be maybe more Greek… that would be a trickier one for me to think through, but more Western? No way. This is the most Western book in your Bible.

Brent: The book of Mark is solely written to a Western audience. Whereas so many of the other ones have more of a mixed audience.

Marty: Yes, absolutely.

Brent: Well, sounds good. Fun time in the book of Mark—a couple more Gospels to go, coming up in the weeks to come. If you have any questions, feel free to get a hold of us on Twitter. You can find Marty at @martysolomon. I’m at @eibcb. Check out BEMAdiscipleship.com, it’s got all the information you need to find out more about the podcast or find a discussion group or whatever you need. Thanks for joining us on the BEMA podcast, we’ll talk to you again soon.