Mark’s Audience: The Literary and Social Setting of Mark 4.11-12 9781474266444, 9781474231237, 9781441158611

Table of contents :
Cover
Editorial Board
Title
Copyright
CONTENTS
Preface
Introduction METHOD AND THE INTERPRETATION OF MARK 4.11-12
Chapter 1 MARK'S SOCIAL SETTING 1: READER RESPONSE AND GRAECO-ROMAN CULTURE
Chapter 2 MARK'S SOCIAL SETTING 2: THE USE OF THE GOSPEL
Chapter 3 SURVEY OF SCHOLARSHIP
Chapter 4 ELEMENTS SIMILAR TO MARK 4.11-12 IN THE GOSPEL
Chapter 5 MARK 4.11-12
Chapter 6 THE LITERARY FUNCTION OF MARK 4.11-12
Chapter 7 MARK 4.11-12 AND THE SOCIAL SETTING OF THE GOSPEL
CONCLUSION
Appendix 1 ‘RELIABLE COMMENTARY' IN MARK
Appendix 2 DISCIPLESHIP IN MARK
Notes
Bibliography
Index of Biblical References
Index of Authors

Citation preview

library of new testament studies

Mark’s Audience The Literary and Social Setting of Mark 4.11-12

Marry Ann Beavis

JOURNAL FOR THE STUDY OF THE NEW TESTAMENT SUPPLEMENT SERIES

33

Executive Editor, Supplement Series David Hill

Publishing Editor David E Orton

JSOT Press Sheffield

MARK'S AUDIENCE The Literary and Social Setting of Mark 4 . 1 1 1 ^

Mary Ann Beavis

for the Study of the New Supplement Series 33

Copyright © 1989 Sheffield Academic Press Published by JSOT Press JSOT Press is an imprint of Sheffield Academic Press Ltd The University of Sheffield 343 Fulwood Road Sheffield S10 3BP England British Library Cataloguing in Publication Data Beavis, Mary Ann Mark's audience: the literary and social setting of Mark 4.1112 1. Bible. N.T. Mark-Critical studies I. Title II. Series 226'.306 EISBN 9781850752158

CONTENTS Preface Introduction METHOD AND THE INTERPRETATION OF MARK 4.11-12

7

Chapter 1 MARK'S SOCIAL SETTING 1: READER RESPONSE AND GRAECO-ROMAN CULTURE

13

Chapter 2 MARK'S SOCIAL SETTING 2: THE USE OF THE GOSPEL

45

Chapter 3 SURVEY OF SCHOLARSHIP

69

Chapter 4 ELEMENTS SIMILAR TO MARK 4.11-12 IN THE GOSPEL

87

Chapter 5 MARK 4.11-12

131

Chapter 6 THE LITERARY FUNCTION OF MARK 4.11-12

157

Chapter 7 MARK 4.11-12 AND THE SOCIAL SETTING OF THE GOSPEL

167

CONCLUSION

175

Appendix 1 < RELIABLE COMMENTARY' IN MARK

177

Appendix 2 DISCIPLESHIP IN MARK

181

Notes Bibliography Index of Biblical References Index of Authors

183 233 251 257

PREFACE Mark's Audience is a slightly altered version of my 1987 Cambridge Ph.D. dissertation. The original topic was 'the use of the scriptures in Mark'. As my research progressed, the focus of the study narrowed to a single passage, Isa. 6.9-10, the basis of the famous 'mystery-saying' (Mk 4.11-12), which seemed to pervade the Gospel in many subtle ways. The result was this study, in which a reader-oriented approach is used to explicate the literary and social setting of the Gospel and its audience. The dissertation, and the resulting book, would have been impossible without funding from the following sources: Overseas Research Award (U.K.); Colin Inkster Memorial Award (St John's College, University of Manitoba); Catholic Biblical Association Memorial Stipend; Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council of Canada Doctoral Fellowship. I would like to thank my thesis supervisor, Professor Morna D. Hooker, for her many helpful comments and criticisms; Dr Larry W. Hurtado, for reading and commenting upon an early draft; and Dr Mary Ann Tolbert, for reading and commenting on a version of Chapter 1. Special thanks to the women (and others) at Tyndale House who provided friendship and support as the project neared completion, and to Ruth Otway, who assisted in the proofreading. Professor David J.A. Clines kindly checked the Greek. Mary Ann Beavis Institute of Urban Studies University of Winnipeg

INTRODUCTION METHOD AND THE INTERPRETATION OF MARK 4.11-12 The 1970s and 1980s have witnessed many new departures in Marcan studies.1 This period has been typified by a preoccupation with method. Not only has redaction criticism supplemented earlier historical and form critical approaches, but insights have been borrowed from other disciplines. This has resulted in, for example: purely literary readings of Mark,2 and redaction critical studies which borrow literary methods;3 a rhetorical critical study;4 sociological studies;5 a socio-rhetorical interpretation;6 and even a materialist reading.7 The literary studies have drawn attention to the unity of the Gospel narrative, and the contribution of the evangelist. The rhetorical analyses regard Mark as a product of Graeco-Roman culture, and suggest that the evangelist should be taken seriously as a Greek author. The sociological approaches have brought out the question of the relation of the Gospel to the community for which it was written, and of the place of the Marcan community in GraecoRoman society. A Marcan passage that has received a large share of the attention of interpreters is Mk 4.11-12: KCU eteyEv auroi0eY|iaca) and instructive anecdotes (xpeiai) which, at the secondary level (the school of the grammaticus [ypajifiariKO^]), formed the basis of simple exercises in composition.72 Fewer children reached secondary school.73 At this level (ages twelve to fifteen), the main object of study was the classics, especially Homer.74 Children were taught to analyze texts in four stages.75 The first stage, the criticism of the text (8iop0(ooi|iiv TO |um