Re: Let the reader understand... Again
Posted: Mon Feb 19, 2018 7:05 pm
Ernst Haenchen in Der Weg Jesu, pp 447-48, on how Mark 13:19 can be understood as the worst time ever . . .
After depicting a situation where Christians will be required to flee for their lives without warning whenever the emperor's representative comes in to set up the image of the emperor and requiring sacrifice. The "day x" is unpredictable. The stress is therefore constant. The escape must be made immediately, no matter if pregnant, in winter, etc. "Today we know only too well the experiences of refugee treks, how such an escape can look."
V. 19 touches so closely with Daniel 12:1 that it becomes clear: With all of this happening the Daniel prophecy will be fulfilled for Mark. V. 20 indirectly describes how terrible will be this time of persecution: If God had not for the sake of his chosen ones shortened the number of days nobody would have been saved, none of the chosen would be saved.
Of course that's illogical. An elected person who is not saved is a contradiction in terms. But the expression is just to describe the magnitude of the tribulation, and the author succeeds well.
If you imagine that in such a case the Christians' lives is subject to change from one minute to the next, without having time to prepare, to the mountains or the wilderness, exposed to the rigors of the weather, possibly hunted by the pagans of the pagan state, then the conviction of Mark, that they could not stand it long, is not at all fantastic but quite realistic. And you cannot make preparations because "day x" of the persecution is not known, "undefined".
After depicting a situation where Christians will be required to flee for their lives without warning whenever the emperor's representative comes in to set up the image of the emperor and requiring sacrifice. The "day x" is unpredictable. The stress is therefore constant. The escape must be made immediately, no matter if pregnant, in winter, etc. "Today we know only too well the experiences of refugee treks, how such an escape can look."
Google translation with minimal human assistance:V.19 beruhrt sich so eng mit Dan 12,1, daß deutlich wird: mit diesem Geschehen wird sich fur Mk die danielische Weissagung erfullen. V.20 beschreibt indirekt das Furchtbare dieser Verfolgungszeit: wenn Gott nicht - seinen Erwählten zuliebe - die (Zahl der) Tage verkurzt hätte, würde niemand gerettet werden - auch keiner der Erwählten! Das ist freilich unlogisch: ein Erwählter, der nicht gerettet wird, ist eine contradictio in adjecto. Aber der Ausdruck soll eben die alles Maß übersteigende Größe der" Trübsal" schildern, und das gelingt ihm gut.
Wenn man sich vor Augen stellt, daß die Christen in solchem Falle von einer Minute zur andern, ohne alle Vorbereitung fluchten mussen, im Gebirge oder in der Einöde den Unbilden der Witterung ausgesetzt, womöglich von Häschern des heidnischen Staates gejagt, dann ist die Überzeugung des Mk, daß sie das nicht lange aushalten könnten, keineswegs phantastisch, sondern durchaus realistisch. Und Vorbereitungen kann man nicht treffen, weil der "Tag x" der Verfolgung eben nicht bekannt ist, sondern völlig unbestimmt!
V. 19 touches so closely with Daniel 12:1 that it becomes clear: With all of this happening the Daniel prophecy will be fulfilled for Mark. V. 20 indirectly describes how terrible will be this time of persecution: If God had not for the sake of his chosen ones shortened the number of days nobody would have been saved, none of the chosen would be saved.
Of course that's illogical. An elected person who is not saved is a contradiction in terms. But the expression is just to describe the magnitude of the tribulation, and the author succeeds well.
If you imagine that in such a case the Christians' lives is subject to change from one minute to the next, without having time to prepare, to the mountains or the wilderness, exposed to the rigors of the weather, possibly hunted by the pagans of the pagan state, then the conviction of Mark, that they could not stand it long, is not at all fantastic but quite realistic. And you cannot make preparations because "day x" of the persecution is not known, "undefined".