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Document Details : Title: Mark 7 Subtitle: Outsiders Who Came to Insight in the Message Author(s): BROESTERHUIZEN, Marcel Journal: Louvain Studies Volume: 36 Issue: 4 Date: 2012 Pages: 337-355 DOI: 10.2143/LS.36.4.3019240 Abstract : This article situates the story about Jesus meeting the deaf man in Mark 7 within the context of the entire 'bread section' of the Gospel of Mark (Mark 6:30–8:23). It analyses the narrative structure of this section, and using the LXX as a bridge, it relates the text to word use in the Hebrew Bible. The concepts retrieved in this analysis are compared with texts in the Mishnah, which was in full development at the time. The conclusion is that the story about the deaf man is not about healing, but that Mark 7 should be seen as a whole. Mark 7 is a provocative story, in which Jesus, after a dispute about the Oral Law and purity, travels through Gentile territory. There he shows how a heathen woman and a deaf man, two persons who were irrelevant outsiders to religious culture, prototypical of a lack of insight, and certainly impure, are examples of insight in his message, and to be admitted to the table of the Lord. The stories of Mark 7 are on a crucial place between the two feeding stories in the Gospel of Mark. |
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