Mark's „animal“ John and „vegetable“ Jesus

[Kunigunde Kreuzerin]

1)

First: This is not a thread about vegetarism.

Mark 7:18-19 „ Do you not see that whatever goes into a person from outside cannot defile him, since it enters not his heart but his stomach, and is expelled?' Thus he declared all foods clean.“

Second: This is not a thread about diet ethics.

Mark 2:19 „And Jesus said to them, 'Can the wedding guests fast while the bridegroom is with them? As long as they have the bridegroom with them, they cannot fast."

2) Besides that

The animal John

Mark 1:6; 6:28	The animal John
John was clothed with camel’s hair	camel
and wore a leather belt around his waist	ζώνην δερματίνην - zōnēn dermatinēn (of leather or skin)
and ate locusts	Lev 11:22 „Of them you may eat: the locust of any kind, the bald locust of any kind ...“
and wild honey.	made by bees
"and brought his head on a platter"	a cynic meat dish for Herod's birthday banquet

Note also the pigs and the Legion of uncleaned spirits, the slander of the Syrophoenician woman as a little dog, Peter's denial at cockcrow ...

The vegetable Jesus

Mark 15:46; 14:22-24	The vegetable Jesus
And Joseph bought a linen shroud, and taking him down, wrapped him in the linen shroud and laid him in a tomb ...	linen
And as they were eating, he took bread, and after blessing it broke it and gave it to them, and said, “Take; this is my body.”	a body as a cereal product - note that a lamb is not mentioned in Mark 14: they offer the "Pascha", they eat the "Pascha", they prepared the "Pascha", but a lamb is not mentioned
and he said to them, “This is my blood of the covenant, which is poured out for many. Truly, I say to you, I will not drink again of the fruit of the vine	blood as wine

Note also the parable of the sower, the vineyard, the figtree ...


3) The big problem is the fish

Feeding of the 5000 and 4000

Mark 6:41 And taking the five loaves and the two fish he looked up to heaven and said a blessing and broke the loaves and gave them to the disciples to set before the people. And he divided the two fish among them all.
Mark 8:7 And they had a few small fish. And having blessed them, he said that these also should be set before them.

4) questions

Based on Paul I assume that we can make a good explanation with the „fleshly“ Jews and Jesus as the „vegetable“ firstfruit. But I wonder whether other aspects play a role here?

What is with the fish?

Any thoughts on this?

[JoeWallack]

Animal

3) The big problem is the fish

Feeding of the 5000 and 4000

Mark 6:41 And taking the five loaves and the two fish he looked up to heaven and said a blessing and broke the loaves and gave them to the disciples to set before the people. And he divided the two fish among them all.
Mark 8:7 And they had a few small fish. And having blessed them, he said that these also should be set before them.

4) questions

Based on Paul I assume that we can make a good explanation with the „fleshly“ Jews and Jesus as the „vegetable“ firstfruit. But I wonder whether other aspects play a role here?

What is with the fish?

Any thoughts on this?

JW:
Others have guessed, and this is my guess, that "the five loaves" represent "The Five Books of Moses" (Torah) and "the two fish" represent "The Prophets" and "The Writings" thus comprising The Tanakh. Note especially here "he looked up to heaven and said a blessing" before "gave them to the disciples to set before the people", as if he was in a Temple preparing to read from the Tanakh.

Bonus material for Solo = Note the likely underlying source here for "Mark" (author), 1 Corinthians 15, where Paul is working out his theology that flesh, represented by meat, is bad, and that Jesus as fleshy Passover meat, sacrifices the flesh for the benefit of the spirit.



Joseph

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