"Run Into the Hills"

The Gospel of Mark (part 11)

Gentle Reader,

I do apologize for the time that it takes me to post our studies, if things were on a even keel I would be teaching a wee bit each day. However with Marti as sick as she has been and at times all I can do is sit sadly by and watch her suffer as this cursed disease takes its toll. And on the other hand our studies are not for those who are weak kneed, in their faith. As Paul our Apostle to the Gentiles once said Eph 4:13 Till we all come in the unity of the faith, and of the knowledge of the Son of God, unto a perfect man, unto the measure of the stature of the fulness of Christ:"

 And as I have pointed out several times we are looking at the 4 Gospels from the point of view of the 1^st century Believer as if the ink was still wet on the parchments.

This is an new study for me as I wish to push your understanding and mine as far as we may go in this direction.

We might point out the Luke takes "the Defilement that desolates" (to bdelygma tes eremoseos) from Daniel 11:31, 12:11 "And arms shall stand on his part, and they shall pollute the sanctuary of strength, and shall take away the daily sacrifice, and they shall place the abomination that maketh desolate. (Dan 11:31) And from the time that the daily sacrifice shall be taken away, and the abomination that maketh desolate set up, there shall be a thousand two hundred and ninety days. (Dan 12:11) which describes the pollution of the Temple by Antiochus Epiphanes who in 168BCE placed a pagan altar above the altar of sacrifice, which "put a stop to sacrifice and offering (Dan 9:27). This is not parallel to the Romans’ total destruction of the Temple, but it does have a parallel in the Zealots’ seizure of the Temple in 67CE, which escalated the Jewish War. The Zealots maintained their military camp in the Temple until it was destroyed. Josephus, the Jewish historian, calls these Zealots "outlaws" lestai (Jewish War 4.13 ) . The same term Jesus uses in Mark 11:17 " And he taught, saying unto them, Is it not written, My house shall be called of all nations the house of prayer? but ye have made it a den of thieves". For those who abuse their roles in the Temple. Which convinces me that the action of the Zealots in 67 CE and the following years is what prompted the Markan community to "run away in the hills" in Syria, escaping the war that would soon destroy the Temple. The Zealots are the Jews who would have been persecuting the Markan community just as the next wave of Zealots would do under Bar Kakhba in 132 CE.

The nearest hills for the persecuted Christians in Judaea ro run toward were in the Syrian Decapolis, a Gentile area where Paul had been active in his preaching. Mark shows that Jesus visiting Syria twice, crossing the sea of Galilee to reach it. If that indeed was where Mark’s listeners had run from their persecutors, both of the times when Jesus entered that territory would be rich with personal meaning for them, and Mark’s emphasis on the two trips would become more understandable.

Now Gentle Reader, for next time re read the 2 times that Jesus crossed into Syria and think about if you were living in that 1^st century what would you have thought and felt and how close would you have felt to the King of Kings, and Lord of Lords?

Till next time then,

Love,

Denis