Mark 6:3 --- This Is Not the Carpenter

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robert j
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Mark 6:3 --- This Is Not the Carpenter

Post by robert j »

Mark clearly laid out the Isaian framework for his story in his opening line ---
Beginning of the announcement of the good news of Jesus Christ, as it has been written in Isaiah the prophet." (Mark 1:1-2a).
I’ve written before that Mark painted a picture worth a thousand words just with this opening line. The following example provides some of those words.

Mark 6:2-6
Isaiah 40:18-22 (LXX)
Interpretation
“… many hearing were astonished, saying, "From where has this man these things, and what is the wisdom having been given to Him, even the miracles such as are done by his hands?” Mark inserts an astonished crowd asking how a man could be so wise and perform such miracles.
“Is this not the tekton (τέκτων), the son of Mary, and brother of James and Joses and Judas and Simon? And are not his sisters here with us?" “To whom have you likened the Lord … a tekton (τέκτων) chooses wood that will not rot … wisely … set up his image … that it will not topple …”

“… Has it not been declared to you from the beginning? Have you not known the foundations of the earth?”
Mark answers the questions from the crowd:

Jesus is like the tekton from Isaiah, in human form, in the flesh, with a mother and brothers and sisters even.

Jesus crafts images that will never rot and never topple --- crafting the very foundations of the earth.
“And they took offense at Him.”

"... And He was amazed because of their unbelief."
“… Will you not know? Will you not hear? Has it not been declared to you from the beginning? Have you not known the foundations of the earth?” By pairing his work with the passage in Isaiah --- Mark chided the non-believers --- reinforcing his polemic against those failing to understand the significance of Jesus being like the tekton of Isaiah --- those applying a common connotation rather than a spiritual one.
“It is he who holds the circle of the earth, and those who dwell in it are like grasshoppers, who has set up heaven like a vault and stretched it out like a tent to live in …” The tekton of Isaiah, and of Mark, at work on the foundations of the earth --- and of heaven.

Just prior to the above verses about the tekton in Isaiah (40:18-22), are these passages in Isaiah (LXX):
A voice of one crying out in the wilderness: “Prepare the way of the Lord; make straight the paths of our God. (40:3)

Then the glory of the Lord shall appear, and all flesh shall see the salvation of God, because the Lord has spoken.” (40:5)

… the word of our God remains forever. Go up on a high mountain, you who bring good news to Sion; lift up your voice with strength, you who bring good tidings to Jerusalem; lift it up; do not fear; say to the cities of Judah, “See, your God!” See, the Lord comes with strength, and his arm with authority; see, his reward is with him, and his work before him. He will tend his flock like a shepherd and gather lambs with his arm and comfort those that are with young. Who has measured the water with his hand and heaven with a span and all the earth by handful? Who has weighed the mountains with a scale and the forests with a balance? Who has known the mind of the Lord… (40:8-13). (Most LXX from NETS)
One can see the tekton in Isaiah at work in this last passage --- measuring heaven and earth and weighing the mountains and the forests --- crafting the very foundations of the earth.

Surely Mark's Jesus --- possessed and driven by the spirit of the tekton of Isaiah --- could handle a few miracles.


And Paul plays a role here too ---

Paul, in his hubris and predilection to apply scriptural typologies to himself, took on the mantle of the tekton in Isaiah --- just like he represented as himself (Gal 1:15-16) the one predetermined from birth, and called by God sometime later, to bring the word to the nations as in Jeremiah (1:4-7, LXX).

Paul used the mantle of the tekton (and also Isaiah 28:16) to represent his earthly accomplishments. Paul claimed to have crafted a foundation on earth --- a foundation “which is Jesus Christ” (1 Cor 3:11) --- upon which his congregations are “God's building” (1 Cor 3:9).

In trying to win back authority away from the popular Apollos, Paul’s co-worker who stayed behind in Corinth when Paul left, Paul wrote ---
I planted, Apollos watered … and each will be rewarded according to his own labor. For we are God's fellow workers; you are God's field, God's building. According to the grace of God having been given to me, as a wise master builder (archi-tekton, ἀρχι-τέκτων) *** I have laid the foundation, but another is building upon it. But let each one take heed how he builds upon it. For no one can lay a foundation other than the one already laid, which is Jesus Christ. (1 Cor 3:6-11)
I can’t help but think that the author of gMark felt Paul had gone too far. Mark restored the divine nature of the Isaian tekton as the one who crafted the waters, and the earth, and the heavens --- the very foundations of the earth. And it was Jesus, possessed and driven by the divine spirit, to whom Mark placed the mantle of the tekton operating in the realm of both the human and the divine.

robert j

*** The Greek prefix, ἀρχ-, is often translated here as master- or skilled- (as in master-builder). But the prefix carries the connotation of being the chief of something. I think Paul’s intention was to emphasize his priority over Apollos, both in time and authority.
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