Restored, Rescued, and Redeemed by Jesus

Seven Minor-Character Vignettes from the Fourfold Gospel

Amir M. Dinkha

• Publisher: Resource Publications
• Year: 2021
• Print ISBN: 9781666713602, 9781666713619
• eBook ISBN: 9781666713626
• Topic: Theology & Religion
• Subtopic: Biblical Studies

Minor characters, both male and female, heavily populate the fourfold Gospel of Matthew, Mark, Luke, and John. They all come from different socioeconomic strata of society. Some are distinguished by name, while most remain anonymous. Some are taciturn, while others are loquacious. A few are wealthy, while the majority are poor. This book examines seven pericopae of different minor characters, who appear suddenly in different settings and circumstances, interact with Jesus briefly, and then vanish quickly, leaving behind historical memories preserved by the Gospel evangelists as windows into Jesus' identity and his multifaceted charismatic ministry of compassion and redemption within the context of first-century Judaism.

1

“Who Touched My Garments?”

Text

25 Now there was a woman who had been suffering from hemorrhages for twelve years. 26 She had endured much under many physicians, and had spent all that she had; and she was no better, but rather grew worse. 27 She had heard about Jesus, and came up behind him in the crowd and touched his cloak, 28 for she said, “If I but touch his clothes, I will be made well.” 29 Immediately her hemorrhage stopped; and she felt in her body that she was healed of her disease. 30 Immediately aware that power had gone forth from him, Jesus turned about in the crowd and said, “Who touched my clothes?” 31 And his disciples said to him, “You see the crowd pressing in on you; how can you say, ‘Who touched me?’” 32 He looked all around to see who had done it. 33 But the woman, knowing what had happened to her, came in fear and trembling, fell down before him, and told him the whole truth. 34 He said to her, “Daughter, your faith has made you well; go in peace, and be healed of your disease.”

Mark 5:25–34 (NRSV)1

(See also Matt 9:20–22; Luke 8:43–48)

Scholarly Context

The great majority of New Testament scholars accept the basic premises of the Two-Document Hypothesis, which basically asserts the priority of the Gospel of Mark and the posteriority of the Gospels of Matthew and Luke. This simply means that Mark was chronologically the earliest Gospel to have been written in Greek, probably between 67–70 CE, and that the evangelists Matthew and Luke used it as one of their primary sources independently of each other.2 As a result, the Markan passages, which have parallels in the Gospels of Matthew and Luke, are often referred to by scholars as the Triple Tradition (e.g., Mark 4:35–41 || Matt 8:23–27 || Luke 8:22–25; Mark 9:2–8 || Matt 17:1–8 || Luke 9:28–36; Mark 10:17–31 || Matt 19:16–30 || Luke 18:18–30; Mark 12:13–17 || Matt 22:15–22 || Luke 20:20–26). The present pericope of the woman with the flow of blood, found in all three Synoptic Gospels, qualifies as a Triple-Tradition story (Mark 5:25–34 || Matt 9:20–22 || Luke 8:43–48).

The pericope of the woman with the flow of blood, as found in Mark 5:25–34, is quite unique. It is the only healing-miracle story intercalated or woven into the middle of two halves of another miracle, viz., the pericope of the resuscitation of Jairus’s little daughter (Mark 5:21–24, 35–43). How should one explain this phenomenon adequately? There has been an ongoing scholarly debate over whether this intercalation, colloquially known as the sandwich technique, literally reflects original reality and occurrence,3 or is purely a compositional literary device,4 either developed in the pre-Markan tradition,5 or invented by the evangelist Mark himself.6

It is fitting, however, to briefly mention that there exist some stylistic differences between the two intercalated pericopae in Mark 5:21–43. Whereas the pericope of Jairus’s little daughter (Mark 5:21–24, 35–43) mainly uses the imperfect and historical present tenses, is written with short sentences, and has a few participles, the pericope of the woman with the flow of blood (Mark 5:25–34) mostly utilizes the aorist tense and consists of long, participle-filled sentences.7 This may point to the fact that they may have originally been two independent, complete, separate, and self-contained units of oral tradition, intercalated together eith...

Table of contents

• Title Page
• Preface
• Acknowledgments
• Abbreviations
• Chapter 1: “Who Touched My Garments?”
• Chapter 2: “What Do You Desire I Should Do For You?”
• Chapter 3: “Shall I Come Heal Him?”
• Chapter 4: “Do You See This Woman?”
• Chapter 5: “He Received Him Rejoicing”
• Chapter 6: “Do You Desire To Become Healthy?”
• Chapter 7: “Woman, Where Are They?”
• Bibliography