content symbolized in the image of Jesus “going before” his disciples “in the way” ( ). This leader-and-followers image occurs in relation to each passion prediction, as does the metaphor of the way: The theme of following Jesus is introduced in 8:34 in the call to follow after him. The notion that his disciples were following after him is implicit within 9:33, where Jesus asks his disciples what they had been discussing “on the way”: if he could not hear what they were talking about as a group, he had probably enacted this teaching by going ahead of them. And the image of Jesus going before his disciples becomes explicit in 10:32, where this gesture and the amazement and fear it provokes become the stimulus for an explanation of where he has been leading them (v. 33). The imagery of the way enters these teaching moments at 8:27; 9:33, 34; and 10:32. It is also mentioned before the encounter with the rich man (10:17) and is what Bartimaeus “followed him in” at the end of the central section (10:52). The leader-and-followers imagery of 10:32 thus dramatizes the message in 8:34: Jesus goes before his disciples as a model to be emulated, for the road to Jerusalem is the way to life through selfless suffering and death.

Mark’s Other Gospel: Rethinking Morton Smith’s Controversial Discovery

This study analyses the role of the house motif in Mark's Gospel since in the tradition, Jesus healed, forgave sin, taught and shared meals as well as the Last Supper in the house. It is argued that Mark was composed for a Gentile, Hellenist Christian house group in Rome and written soon after Nero's persecution (64-65 CE) of the Christian house-church communities and prior to the destruction of the temple in 70 CE. Though other studies support alternate sites in Galilee, Southern Syria and the Transjordan as the source of the Gospel, the traditional arguments favouring Rome indicate that Mark is a Hellenist Gospel written for the majority Law-free Christian household groups in Rome as Paul's letter attests in 58 CE. The Gospel offers hope in following the way of the secret of the kingdom. In Mark's terms, the secret is Jesus' servant dedication to his messianic ministry, climaxing in his crucifixion and resurrection. There is no description of Jesus' resurrection in the Gospel; in part unnecessary since, from its opening, the Gospel presumes the power and authority of the crucified, risen Son of Man, the Lord. As Lord, he calls disciples to follow him along the way of eschatological servant dedication in the spatial context of the typical, urban house-church. Consequently, within the house motif, Mark sets out the minor characters' response in faith and hope to the Lord's authoritative call, healing, forgiveness and Eucharistic unity in the house. In contrast, the narrative synagogue groups first react only with astonishment to Mark's messianic Jesus. But, under the authorities' leadership, the Jewish response hardens into total rejection of Jesus as Mark's gradually enlarges Israel's negative response to Mark's symbolic visitation, judgment and rejection theme of the temple due to the opposition of the Jewish authorities and their abuse of the Law and the temple liturgy. Mark has no pastoral interest in a remote Jerusalem or its temple.;From the Gospel's 's viewpoint, his real aim is the visitation of Rome's house-church groups through the living Word of the risen Jesus of Nazareth. Israel's negative narrative response acts as a literary backdrop to the faith responses in the house. As a result, through its misused Law and temple traditions, Israel ensures its symbolic visitation and rejection. Concurrently, in house-churches sustained by faith, and the authoritative Word of the risen Son of Man, challenges Christians in Rome to a renewed fidelity in way, covenant service. Therefore, under the mantle of the house motif, the Gospel offers 'the secret of kingdom of God' - Jesus' life as the selfless servant - as the basis for individual and communal hope. Christians live in the aftermath of severe persecution. These house groups are challenged to live the paradox of faith in life through death, gain through loss, in following a crucified/risen Lord in servant dedication. This appears to be particularly Mark's aim in his close linking of the two motifs, the house and the way, during the journey of Jesus and the disciples on the way to Jerusalem from Galilee. Throughout, he accents eschatological house-churches; their members live the secret of the kingdom in faith, hope and mutual selflessness. Thus, as Lord of the House, Jesus goes before Rome's Christian groups in his ever-present living and dying in his glorified humanity. By following Jesus of Nazareth in servant discipleship in a house community, Christians blend their existential human becoming with that of the glorified Lord. Hence Mark clearly expects Christians to see the 'things of God' as their Spirit-inspired servant charity. In this way, they daily deepen their Christian unification with Jesus' own dedication as the Beloved Servant/Son in his obedience to his Father's will. This is the gift that Mark points to 'now in this time'.;Mark stresses this sense of the victorious, fruitful presence of the glorified Son of Man, the Lord, from the opening of the Gospel. The superscription and the fact that he addresses Christians, who already know Jesus as the triumphant Lord, allow him to write from a post resurrection viewpoint. So, within the scope of the house motif, Mark encourages a deeper faith and hope in the efficacy of Christian self-identification with Jesus in his victorious way of the cross

The role of the house motif in the Gospel of Mark

This study investigates the procedural techniques, significance and the tangible effects of the laying on of hands in the New Testament. The introductory chapter reviews critically previous contributions to the subject of the laying on of hands in the New Testament and establishes the purpose and delimitations of this study and the methodology used. The next two chapters are devoted to a study of the background of the New Testament practice of the laying on of hands. The investigation is conducted in the Old Testament and contemporary Judaism (Chapter Two) and in the Graeco-Roman and Near-Eastern literature (Chapter Three). Chapters Four through Seven are exegetical, each discussing a particular use of the laying on of hands in the New Testament. Chapter Four examines the function of the gesture in healing. Special attention is given to the inner process of transfer of power through physical contact. A comparative study of Jesus' method of healing with similar practices of his contemporaries challenges the idea that the origin of the healing touch is Hellenistic. The custom of blessing with the laying on of hands, as practised by Jesus, is examined in Chapter Five in terms of origin, significance and the form of the gesture. The next chapter is devoted to the use of the laying on of hands for the reception of the Holy Spirit. In addition to the exegetical analysis of the relevant pericopes, an attempt is made to explain the circumstances which led to the birth of this distinctive Christian practice. Chapter Seven examines the use of the laying on of hands in ordination and commissioning. It discusses the significance of the gesture, argues for the Jewish origin of the Christian rite and opposes the view that in the post-Pauline period charismata are tied to an office and thus institutionalised. In the final section of the thesis, an attempt is made to gauge the possibility of any uniformity in the significance of the various New Testament uses of the laying on of hands.

The laying on of hands in the New Testament

That blindness should be a theme in the Johannine literature need cause no surprise; with the dualism of light and darkness and with the emphasis on what has been seen, witnessed and believed, the surprise is rather that the theme is not more prevalent. Only at two places in the Gospel and one in the Epistles is the language of blindness explicitly used, in John 9, John 12. 40 and 1 John 2. 11. However, since each of these can be seen as a focal point or interpretative key to the Johannine tradition the theme could be held to present in microcosm the history of the Johannine community. Chapter 9, the healing of the blind man, has played a central role in recent reconstructions of that history, while the reflection on the effects of Jesus's public ministry in 12. 37–50, before he turns away to address ‘his own’, invites similar treatment. Finally, the redirection towards internal opposition of language originally aimed outwards has long been seen as a mark of 1 John and as central to its interpretation. The exploration of the theme may serve in the same way to test in microcosm the presuppositions and results of such reconstruction. It also does more than this, for the imagery of blindness is by no means unique to John and raises clearly the question of the origins as well as of the context of Johannine thought.

Blindness in the Johannine Tradition

.............................................................................................................................................................................................................vii ABBREVIATIONS AND SYMBOLS......................................................................................................................................ix CHAPTER ONE INTRODUCTION...............................................................................................................................................................................................1 PROLOGUE......................................................................................................................................................................................................................................1 SITUATING THE PRESENT READING ................................................................................................................................................5 THE RHETORICAL FUNCTION OF MARK’S CHARACTERIZATION OF THE DISCIPLES.................7 The Markan Disciples as Serving a Polemical Function....................................................................................7 Theodore J. Weeden ...........................................................................................................................................................................7 Werner H. Kelber................................................................................................................................................................................10 Richard A. Horsley............................................................................................................................................................................13 The Markan Disciples as Serving a Pedagogical or Pastoral Function.........................................16 David J. Hawkin....................................................................................................................................................................................16 Robert C. Tannehill .........................................................................................................................................................................18 Ernest Best....................................................................................................................................................................................................20 Elizabeth Struthers Malbon....................................................................................................................................................21 MARK’S CHARACTERIZATION OF THE DISCIPLES...............................................................................................................23 Mary Ann Tolbert ..............................................................................................................................................................................23 Jack Dean Kingsbury.......................................................................................................................................................................27 Suzanne Watts Henderson......................................................................................................................................................29 CONCLUSION ....................................................................................................................................................................................................................32 THE PLAN FOR THIS STUDY.........................................................................................................................................................................34 CHAPTER TWO THE RHETORIC OF REPETITION......................................................................................................................................35 NARRATIVE CRITICISM .......................................................................................................................................................................................35 NARRATIVE CRITICISM — BASIC PERSPECTIVES ................................................................................................................36 NARRATIVE CRITICISM — KEY ELEMENTS .................................................................................................................................38 Narrative Structure — Story and Discourse.................................................................................................................38 Narrative Communication — Authors, Texts, and Readers....................................................................40 The Implied Author and the Narrator .....................................................................................................................41 The Implied Reader — The Authorial Reader vs. The Narrative Reader..................42 The Implied Reader as a Rereader.................................................................................................................................43 CONSTRUCTION GRAMMAR .....................................................................................................................................................................44 SEMANTIC FRAMES AND NARRATIVE FRAMES......................................................................................................................46 Semantic Frames ..............................................................................................................................................................................................46 Narrative Frames..............................................................................................................................................................................................49 Conclusions.............................................................................................................................................................................................................51 CASE FRAMES...................................................................................................................................................................................................................52 Case Frame Analysis — The Basics .........................................................................................................................................53 Semantic Functions ..........................................................................................................................................................................54 Syntactic Functions ..........................................................................................................................................................................55 Lexical Realization.............................................................................................................................................................................55

Incomprehension or resistance? : the Markan disciples and the narrative logic of Mark 4:1—8:30

L'A. traite d'abord de la tradition et de la redaction de 22a, 26, 22b-25 et de leur place dans l'Evangile de Marc. Puis il examine la terminologie se rapportant a la cecite et a la vue, et sa signification pour Marc et son Eglise: la myopie des disciples, devenant parfaite vision lors de leur seconde rencontre avec Jesus (lors de la resurrection) peut s'appliquer aux chretiens de l'Eglise.

https://www.cambridge.org/core/services/aop-cambridge-core/content/view/S0028688500004987

E. J. Johnson

Papers

Mark VIII. 22–26: The Blind Man from Bethsaida