John the Baptists Prepares the Way
Everyone thinks John the Baptist is really awesome, they come from all over the place to get baptized by him and confess their sins to him. He preaches that there is someone coming that is way better than he is. John is not worthy to untie his sandal. John says he will baptize with water but when Jesus comes he will baptize you with the holy spirit. (I should point out that Jesus' name is not used here, I just put it there because pronouns were getting jumbled).
Good start with some prophecy stuff. John predicts that Jesus will come.
Something I find interesting here, it says "Now John was clothed with camel's hair and wore a leather belt around his waist and ate locusts and wild honey."
What is this supposed to be telling me? Is John a high class guy or low class? Is camel hair common or rare? Is it rough and uncomfortable or nice? Eating locust sounds like a bad thing to me, but maybe it's a delicacy?
The Baptism of Jesus
Jesus came from Nazareth to be baptized by John. When he came out of the water the heavens opened up and the holy spirit came to Jesus like a dove. A voice from heaven says Jesus is his son.
The Temptation of Jesus
The spirit drove him out into the wilderness for 40 days to be tempted by Satan.
This is much quicker with fewer details than the temptations in Matthew, probably for the better.
Jesus Begins His Ministry
John gets arrested and Jesus starts preaching in his place
Jesus Calls the First Disciples
Again, when Jesus starts calling disciples, he gets James and John the sons of Zebedee to leave their father in the boat where they were fishing. However, in this version, they don't leave him alone, they instead leave him with their hired servants.
I guess servants are unimportant and Matthew didn't see fit to mention them, but it makes a huge difference to me. They are still bailing on their father, but at least they are not leaving him alone.
Jesus Heals a Man with an Unclean Spirit
They went to Capernaum and started teaching. People liked his teaching because he spoke with authority, the scribes on the other hand did not speak with authority. A man asks what Jesus wants and Jesus sees that his spirit is unclean. Jesus says "Be silent, and come out of him" and the spirit left the man's body. Jesus' fame spreads.
Jesus Heals Many
Title pretty much says it all
Jesus Preaches in Galilee
Early in the morning Jesus went to a desolate place to pray. Everyone wonders where he is and starts looking for him. Eventually they find him and he is like "lets go to the next town". So they go to Galilee and preach and cast out demons there.
Jesus Cleanses a Leper
Jesus cures some guy's leprosy and he tells him not to spread the word. But he does anyway so Jesus can't go anywhere or he gets mobbed.
According to wiki http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gospel_of_Mark and elsewhere, this was the first gospel to be written. I've heard different estimates on the dates, but wiki says about 70CE. Before the books in the bible edition I have, they have what seems to be “study guides.” I think these two short paragraphs are interesting to note.
ReplyDelete“Jesus was clearly born to be the King of the Jews, as Matthew points out. However, the gpspel was not just for the Jews; it was for the whole world. Before Jesus would reign as the King of Kings, He would be servant of all by dying for mankind. Mark writes of the works and the authority of the One who came not to be served but to serve, and to give his life as a random for many.... Mark is a fast paced gospel which emphasizes Jesus' works rather than his teachings. Although Jesus is referred to as a teacher a number of times, Mark shows Jesus' power and authority though the works He does as He goes about His Father's business.” Though I want to point out that in 1 Timothy 2:6, he says a ransom for all
Verses 2-3, “As it is written in Isaiah the prophet,"Behold, I send my messenger before your face, who will prepare your way, the voice of one crying in the wilderness: 'Prepare the way of the Lord, make his paths straight,'" “ I remember this from a song we sang in church a lot as a kid. Mark claims that John fulfilled a prophecy from Malachi 3:1, 4:1,5. http://www.biblestudytools.com/esv/malachi/passage.aspx?q=malachi+3:1;malachi+4:1;malachi+4:5 But he says that God will send Elijah before the “great and dreadful day of the lord” while the world will be consumed by fire. We both know that never happened. I think its one of those cases where since it didn't work literally, someone might now say “it was only a metaphor.” Also, those words were taken from Malachi and not Isiah. (sidebar: My favorite note I have from that book is on 2:3 where God talks about smearing poop on the faces of the people he curses. LoL!)
With the locuts and camel hair, I think that it's him trying to be humble. I never actually really thought about it.
Most of my notes are differences in this chapter. In John (1:28) is is baptized in Bethabara. Also, God addresses the crowd in Matthew (3:17) but here he addresses Jesus.
Immediately after the baptism he goes up to the mountain to be temped by the devil but in John's account (1:35, 43; 2:1) he immediately gathers his disciples and goes to the famous wedding feast in Cana.
Also, here John gets taken into custody before Jesus picks up Andrew and Peter. John has a different order of events. (John 1:40-42; 3:22-24). He says that Jesus picked the guys up before John got put in the slammer.
I was surprised that Simon, who was later known as Peter and eventually the first pope, had a wife. Until I read the bible, I never actually knew this. It sounds like Jesus healed her so she could get back to serving them.
Lastly, when I was reading Ehrman's book, Misquoting Jesus, on pages 133-138 he says that the original text probably said in verse 41 that he reached out in anger instead of compassion.
"sidebar: My favorite note I have from that book is on 2:3 where God talks about smearing poop on the faces of the people he curses. LoL!"
ReplyDeleteI had to go look that up...wow
Not to deviate, but the subject of poop comes up in the bible quite a few times. My favorites are:
ReplyDeleteIsiah 36:12 "But the Rabshakeh said, "Has my master sent me to speak these words to your master and to you, and not to the men sitting on the wall, who are doomed with you to eat their own dung and drink their own urine?""
Song of Solomon 5:4 KJV "My beloved put in his hand by the hole of the door, and my bowels were moved for him."
Ezekiel 4:12-15During a famine through God's mercy, he allows people to not have to eat people poop, but lets them substitute cow poop instead. What a guy! "And you shall eat it as a barley cake, baking it in their sight on human dung." And the LORD said, "Thus shall the people of Israel eat their bread unclean, among the nations where I will drive them." Then I said, "Ah, Lord GOD! Behold, I have never defiled myself.From my youth up till now I have never eaten what died of itself or was torn by beasts, nor has tainted meat come into my mouth." Then he said to me, "See, I assign to you cow's dung instead of human dung, on which you may prepare your bread."""
2 Kings 6:25-29 (this has more to do with cannibalism, but dung is mentioned) " And there was a great famine in Samaria, as they besieged it, until a donkey's head was sold for eighty shekels of silver, and the fourth part of a kab of dove's dung for five shekels of silver. Now as the king of Israel was passing by on the wall, a woman cried out to him, saying, "Help, my lord, O king!" And he said, "If the LORD will not help you, how shall I help you? From the threshing floor, or from the winepress?" And the king asked her, "What is your trouble?" She answered, "This woman said to me, 'Give your son, that we may eat him today, and we will eat my son tomorrow.' So we boiled my son and ate him. And on the next day I said to her, 'Give your son, that we may eat him.' But she has hidden her son.""
Philippians 3:8 KJV God is awesome, but everything else is sh*t, (despite him creating it.) "Yea doubtless, and I count all things but loss for the excellency of the knowledge of Christ Jesus my Lord: for whom I have suffered the loss of all things, and do count them but dung, that I may win Christ,"
Zephaniah 1:17 " I will bring distress on mankind, so that they shall walk like the blind, because they have sinned against the LORD; their blood shall be poured out like dust, and their flesh like dung."
I wonder if God is a Copromaniac..