The Messiah of Peace

A Performance-Criticism Commentary on Mark’s Passion-Resurrection Narrative

Thomas E. Boomershine

• Publisher: Cascade Books
• Year: 2015
• Print ISBN:
  9781625645456
  9781498236096
• eBook ISBN:
  9781498236089
• Topic: Theology & Religion
• Subtopic: Biblical Studies

The telling of Mark's story of Jesus as the Messiah of peace in the decades following the Roman-Judean war announced a third way forward for Diaspora Judeans other than warfare against or separation from "the nations." Mark's Gospel was the story of the victory of a nonviolent Messiah who taught and practiced the ways of a new age of peace and reconciliation in contrast to the ancient and modern myth of redemptive violence. The Messiah of Peace is a performance-criticism commentary exploring a new paradigm of biblical scholarship that takes seriously the original experience of the Gospel of Mark as a lively story told to audiences rather than as a text read by readers. The commentary is correlated with the Messiah of Peace website, which features video recordings of the story in both English and Greek. Critical investigation of the sounds of the Markan passion-resurrection narrative reveals the identity of its original audiences as predominantly Judean with a minority of Gentile nonbelievers. Hearing the passion-resurrection story was an experience of involvement in the forces that led to the rejection and death of Jesus--an experience that brought on the challenges inherent in becoming a disciple of the Messiah of peace.

1

The Day before the Passover (14:1–11)➲

The three stories in this first section of the story are linked together by the plot of the chief priests and scribes in which Judas becomes a key conspirator. This is a further instance of Mark’s “sandwich” stories in which a related story is inserted into the middle of another story. Mark does this earlier when he surrounds the story of the woman who touched Jesus’ garment by the story of Jairus’ daughter (5:21–43), when the execution of John the Baptist is told in the context of the mission of the twelve (6:7–31), and when the debate about Jesus being possessed by Beelzebul is inserted into the story of Jesus’ family looking for him because they thought he was out of his mind (3:20–35). In each instance, this interlacing of stories links the two stories together and encourages the listeners to explore that relationship. The story of the woman and Jairus’ daughter are linked by the common motif of Jesus breaking the law—by disregarding the uncleanness of being touched by an unclean woman, and by taking a presumably dead girl by the hand. The linking of the highly successful mission of the twelve and John’s execution implies that Jesus is grieved and troubled. The implication is that he wants to withdraw with the twelve after the disciples’ successful mission makes it clear that he may share John’s fate. And Jesus’ denunciation of the scribes’ charge that he is possessed by Beelzebul establishes the basis for his refusal to see his family when they come to get him. Thus, the weaving together of these two stories creates a connection between the plot of the priests and Judas, and the woman anointing Jesus with precious ointment in Bethany.

The Conspiracy of the Chief Priests and Scribes (14:1–2)➲

Sound Map

1Ην δὲ τὸ πάσχα καὶ τὰ ἄζυμα μετὰ δύο ἡμέρας.

καὶ ἐζήτουν οἱ ἀρχιερεῖς καὶ οἱ γραμματεῖς πῶς αὐτὸν ἐν δόλῳ

κρατήσαντες ἀποκτείνωσιν.

2ἔλεγον γάρ,

Μὴ ἐν τῇ ἑορτῇ, μήποτε ἔσται θόρυβος τοῦ λαοῦ

Translation

1Now the feast of Passover and Unleavened Bread was the next day.

And the chief priests and the scribes were looking for a way

to arrest him by a conspiracy and kill him.

2For they had been saying,

“Not during the feast or there will be a riot of the people.”

Notes on Details and Translation

14:1: the next day / μετὰ δύο ἡμέρας

This phrase has been the subject of controversy and misunderstanding. It is usually translated as “two days before” (NRSV) or “two days away” (NIV). When the Greek phrase, literally translated “after two days,” is used, the first of the two days referred to is the current day and the second day is the next day. This holds for Jesus’ prophecy that he will be killed and rise again “after three days” (μετὰ τρεῖς ἡμέρας—8:31; 9:31; 10:34). The day he is killed is day 1 (Friday), day 2 is Saturday, and day 3, the day on which he will rise, is Sunday. It is important to be clear about this detail. Mark is implying that the execution of the plot is urgent. The authorities want to arrest and kill Jesus before the Passover festivities begin the next day—when the crowds with whom Jesus has been popular are gathered, and there is potential for political explosion. Thus, the implication is that they have to arrest him today.

In the first century, the celebration of Passover had been integrated into the seven-day feast of Unleavened Bread. The Passover lambs were sacrificed on the first day of the feast of Unleavened Bread. This was an elaborate and time-consuming process in which thousands of lambs were slaughtered, each in an elaborate ritual that involved the laying on of hands, prayers, and the complete draining of the animal’s blood. The Passover feast was prepared during this first day of the festival. The feast was then eaten during the evening of the second day of the festival of Unleavened Bread after sundown. (Days among Israelites ended at sundown rather than midnight as among Romans.)

Mark’s story indicates that the day of the plot, anointing, and betrayal is Wednesday (Nisan 13). The correlations between the days (sundown to sundown) and Mark’s story are as follows:

Sunday (Nisan 10): the triumphal entry and first day in the Temple (11:1–11)

Monday (Nisan 11): the cleansing of the Temple (11:12–19)

Tuesday (Nisan 12): the conflicts with the Judean authorities and Jesus’ conversation with the four disciples (11:20—13:37)

Wednesday (Nisan 13): the plot, anointing in Bethany, and Judas’ betrayal (14:1–11)

Thursday (Nisan 14): the preparations for the Passover (14:12–16)

Friday (Nisan 15): the Last Supper, the arrest, the trials, the crucifixion, the death, and the burial of Jesus (14:17—15:47)

Saturday (Nisan 16) the Sabbath (Friday sundown through Saturday sundown)

Sunday (Nisan 17) the women’s purchase of the spices, the discovery of the empty tomb, the speech by the young man in white, the flight and silence (16:1–8)

by a conspiracy / δόλῳ

The NRSV translates the Greek word δόλος as “stealth,” and the RSV renders it as “treachery.” The authorities are looking for a way to arrest and kill Jesus on the day before the festival begins, with its large crowds and potential for rioting. The implication of their plot is that they are engaging in a conspiracy to commit murder, which is regarded as a capital crime now, though it was not legally a crime in antiquity, when only the deed itself constituted a crime. Mark is describing a state-sponsored crime in which the government itself is engaging in criminal behavior for the sake of preventing further defection from the government’s policies in regard to the Temple, the law, and the Roman empire. Secrecy, treachery and stealth (NIV “sly way” is too cute) are dimensions of their strategy, but these words do not adequately convey the seriousness of their crime. An indication of this seriousness is that Jesus includes δόλος in his list of the acts that defile a man—equating it to a crime against God (7:22–23). The term conspiracy more adequately names the authorities’ defection from the ways of the righteous.

Comments on the Meaning and Impact of the Story

14:1: The time

The PRN begins with an introductory comment by the storyteller to the audience, naming the time: “the feast . . . was the next day.” The tone of this comment is ominous. Never before in Mark’s story has time been the sole subject of the opening period of a story. The contextual information is that this is Wednesday, and the festival begins tomorrow.

The fulfillment of Jesus’ prophecies

An implication is that the time has come for Jesus’ prophecies of his suffering and death to be fulfilled....

Table of contents

• Title Page
• Preface
• Abbreviations
• Introduction
• Chapter 1: The Day before the Passover (14:1–11)
• Chapter 2: The Passover Meal (14:12–25)
• Chapter 3: The Night in Gethsemane (14:26–52)
• Chapter 4: The Trials at the High Priest’s House (14:53–72)
• Chapter 5: The Handing Over to the Gentiles (15:1–20)
• Chapter 6: The Crucifixion of Jesus (15:21–32)
• Chapter 7: The Death and Burial of Jesus (15:33–47)
• Chapter 8: The Resurrection (16:1–8)
• Chapter 9: The Messiah of Peace
• Appendix 1: The Historical Context of Mark and His Audiences
• Appendix 2: A Sound Map of Mark’s Passion-Resurrection Narrative
• Appendix 3: The Pronunciation of Koine Greek in the Roman Period
• Appendix 4: The Rhetorics of Biblical Storytelling
• Appendix 5: Markan Terminology
• Appendix 6: The Audiences of Mark
• Appendix 7: The Pronunciation of Jesus’ Cry of Abandonment and the Bystanders’ Mishearing (Mark 15:34–35)
• Appendix 8: The Mocking of Jesus and Samson and the LXX A Text of Judges
• Bibliography