LXX borrowing explains most minor details in the gospels

Discussion about the New Testament, apocrypha, gnostics, church fathers, Christian origins, historical Jesus or otherwise, etc.
Post Reply
Beverly Devry-Smith
Posts: 16
Joined: Wed Jul 11, 2018 6:54 pm

LXX borrowing explains most minor details in the gospels

Post by Beverly Devry-Smith »

MARK 6:5-6= "And he could there do no mighty work ... And he marveled because of their unbelief."

Mark’s bizarre reuse of a fragment from the Sodom story in Genesis 19 is very surprising=

-Genesis 19:21= God (or an angel speaking for him) tells Lot that he “admired” [εθαυμασα] (or: “was amazed by”) the advice he’d given earlier at Genesis 18 about sparing the inhabitants if there were any righteous ones among them. Here it seems he is confusing Lot (=the person he is addressing) with Abraham (=the one who actually gave the advice mentioned) here or the editor of the Torah has mixed up something, for it was not Abraham’s nephew who made this suggestion! (Or, all humans might look similar to divinities?)
-Mark 6:6a = Jesus “marveled/was amazed” [εθαυμαζα] by the unbelief of those around him.
-Genesis 19:22 an angel says to Lot: “I won’t be able to do the work (=of destroying the Cities of the Plain) until you go there.” (=that is, arrive at Zoar). [ου γαρ δυνησομαι του ποιησαι πραγμα εως ελθειν σε εκει]
-Mark 6:5 = Jesus “wasn’t able to do any powerful work there” [ουκ ηδυνατο εκει ουδεμιαν δυναμιν ποιησαι ει μη] (in his “fatherland”)

Mark’s way of borrowing these phrases and then reworking them into something so fantastically new never fails to be breathtaking. Once readers allow themselves to see what is occurring just below the surface of these texts, the literary genius at work here appears as miraculous as the events it purports to describe.
Post Reply