Has Mark a problem with Capernaum?

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Giuseppe
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Has Mark a problem with Capernaum?

Post by Giuseppe »

Prof Dennis MacDonald on Mark 1:21-22:

They went into Capernaum, and at once on the Sabbath he entered the synagogue and taught.

22 They were amazed at his teaching, for he was teaching them as one who had authority and not as the scribes.

At this point in the narrative, Mark's readers would know only that Jesus's teaching pertained to the advent of the kingdom of God (1:15). Some interpreters thus have proposed that Mark expected his readers already to know something more extensive about Jesus's message, conceivably from their having read the lost Gospel. Be that as it may, the Evangelist explains why the auditors were amazed: "he was teaching them as one who had authority and not as the scribes". Surely this explanation is secondary.

(From the Earliest Gospel (Q+) to the Gospel of Mark, p. 133, my bold)

In *Ev, the readers don't know even that Jesus's teaching pertained to the advent of the kingdom of God, since the amazement is provoked uniquely by the first exorcism by Jesus.

Mark places the amazement before that Jesus made the exorcism, hence Mark is obliged to have the amazement provoked by a teaching (and one that was not there!), not more by a previous miracle!
Secret Alias
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Re: Has Mark a problem with Capernaum?

Post by Secret Alias »

It's obvious to anyone with discernment that the "antitheses" i.e. the Marcionite version of Matthew 5:17 - 44 - was declared in the house of Jewish worship and caused the congregants to attack him. This is why Marcionite studies are bullshit.
Giuseppe
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Re: Has Mark a problem with Capernaum?

Post by Giuseppe »

I should correct my previous post...
  • In *Ev the sequence of events is:

    descent in Capernaum alone ---> teaching that provokes astonishment ---> exorcism ---> amazement

In Mark the sequence of events is:
  • arrival in Capernaum with disciples ---> teaching that provokes astonishment ---> exorcism ---> amazement
Mark is not able to explain where is the amazement in the mere apocalypticism.
*Ev is not able to explain where is the amazement at all.


The presence of the disciples in Mark seems to be the only other difference between the Mark and *Ev.


The disciples play no role at all.

It seems that Mark is embarrassed by Jesus working alone during all this time.

This is evident by the prayer addressed to Jesus. In *Ev the crowd only is there:

And the crowd was looking for him, and they came to him and they firmly held on to him, so that he would not depart from them.

(*Ev 4:42)

Mark 1:36 adds the disciples:
Simon and his companions went to look for him, 37 and when they found him, they exclaimed: “Everyone is looking for you!”

It remembers the addition of Barnabas to Paul in the second visit to Jerusalem, to decrease the autonomy of the Apostle.

In the case of Jesus, his alien status is surely decreased, if he is followed by disciples (in Mark). The presence of the disciples guarantees, in the eyes of the readers of Mark, that the teaching is not "heretical", i.e. doesn't represent the "antitheses" as described above by Secret Alias.
Giuseppe
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Re: Has Mark a problem with Capernaum?

Post by Giuseppe »

Note how the addition of Barnabas works in Galatians 2.9 just as the addition of the disciples works in Mark 1:21 (and 1:36). Detering is great on this point:


As already HARNACK noticed, meta. Barnaba presumably does not belong to the Marcionite text either. In 2,9, Barnabas is not referred to, either. We may assume that Barnabas was added by the Catholic editor to harmonize the details in Acts to the way Galatians tells the event and in order to play down Paul’s role at the Conference of the Apostles: that Paul was accompanied by Barnabas has the function of showing Paul as emissary of the Church of Antioch and not as taking part in his own right (Acts 9,27; 11,22; 11,30; 12,25; 13,1ff; 15,2.12.22.25.35). Improbable is the assumption that Barnabas was mentioned in the original text and then — lead by the opposed intent — was erased by Marcion. As already HAENCHEN, Apostelgeschichte, 448f, noticed, the author of Galatians quite firmly speaks in 1st pers. sing. in 2,1ff: »The phrases ‘I went up to’, ‘I laid before’, ‘which I preach’, ‘lest I ...in vain’ sound as if they be about a mission achieved by Paul alone or at least with him being in the lead«. In this context there really seems not to have been room for the Barnabas character! Likewise COUCHOUD, 25:

He [the Catholic editor] does not leave Paul in arrogant isolation. At his side he places Barnabas, whom he had already introduced: “gave me and Barnabas the right hand”. To this phrase he adds “of fellowship, koinwni,aj” to create a fellowship between Paul and the Apostles of Jerusalem. By the addition of Barnabas, the phrase “we’ll continue to remember” is incumbent on Paul and Barnabas, it ceases to be restricted to Paul and the notables. The passage has been utterly modified.“


Also the Marcionite Jesus is in "arrogant isolation" in Capernaum.

Possibly the descent from heaven was placed precisely in Capernaum in virtue of the previous tradition that Jesus worked alone in Capernaum. Even in that case, Marcionite priority is more probable than Markan priority.
Giuseppe
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Re: Has Mark a problem with Capernaum?

Post by Giuseppe »

to be honest, who pointed out to me how useless these disciples are in Capernaum (even before that I arrived at the realization of how much they perform the function of a mere theological sentinel (just like Barnabas in Galatians 2:9), has been Dennis MacDonald.

There is something of very malicious in this addition of disciples in Mark 1:21 (and 1:36) and of Barnabas in Galatians 2:9. It remembers me the presence of government's guardians delegated to monitor teachers during their own lessons, in the totalitarian States (emblematic in such sense the presence of a SS monitoring the same Heidegger's lessons).
Paul the Uncertain
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Re: Has Mark a problem with Capernaum?

Post by Paul the Uncertain »

Giuseppe wrote: Wed May 31, 2023 6:54 am Mark places the amazement before that Jesus made the exorcism, hence Mark is obliged to have the amazement provoked by a teaching (and one that was not there!), not more by a previous miracle!
The text says the reaction was to the manner of teaching. That is, teaching with authority, and in favorable comparison with the performance by professional interpreters of the Law.

If you appeal to your wonderment at the order of narrative elements (the doubly emphasized "before"), then you ought to address and refute the possibility that the order reflects the author's aesthetic choices.Further, if the narrator's explanation of the listeners' amazement is "secondary" in your view (or the view of your chosen interpreter of the work), then you ought to explain further, IMO. In what sense is it "secondary," and to what?
Giuseppe
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Re: Has Mark a problem with Capernaum?

Post by Giuseppe »

Paul the Uncertain wrote: Wed May 31, 2023 8:13 am
Giuseppe wrote: Wed May 31, 2023 6:54 am Mark places the amazement before that Jesus made the exorcism, hence Mark is obliged to have the amazement provoked by a teaching (and one that was not there!), not more by a previous miracle!
The text says the reaction was to the manner of teaching.
Have you read my second post?
Giuseppe wrote: Wed May 31, 2023 7:36 am I should correct my previous post...
My point is that, ceteris paribus, Mark added 'disciples' where *Ev had Jesus alone active in Capernaum. For the same reason the Catholic interpolator added 'with Barnabas' in Galatians 2:9. In both the cases, what embarrassed the late authors was a Jesus and a Paul 'in arrogant isolation'.
Paul the Uncertain
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Re: Has Mark a problem with Capernaum?

Post by Paul the Uncertain »

Giuseppe wrote: Wed May 31, 2023 8:21 am Have you read my second post?
Yes.
Giuseppe wrote: Wed May 31, 2023 7:36 am My point is that, ceteris paribus, Mark added 'disciples' where *Ev had Jesus alone active in Capernaum. For the same reason the Catholic interpolator added 'with Barnabas' in Galatians 2:9. In both the cases, what embarrassed the late authors was a Jesus and a Paul 'in arrogant isolation'.
That isn't what I commented upon, nor what I asked about. However, if your intention in the second post was to retract the OP as a whole, then although I didn't read it that way, I am nevertheless delighted to withdraw my remark and question.
Last edited by Paul the Uncertain on Wed May 31, 2023 8:55 am, edited 1 time in total.
Paul the Uncertain
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Re: Has Mark a problem with Capernaum?

Post by Paul the Uncertain »

misposted
Last edited by Paul the Uncertain on Wed May 31, 2023 8:55 am, edited 1 time in total.
Paul the Uncertain
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Re: Has Mark a problem with Capernaum?

Post by Paul the Uncertain »

misposted
Last edited by Paul the Uncertain on Wed May 31, 2023 8:54 am, edited 1 time in total.
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