Mark 14
Mark 14 | |
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Book | Gospel of Mark |
Category | Gospel |
Christian Bible part | New Testament |
Order in the Christian part | 2 |
Gospel of Mark |
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Mark 14 is the fourteenth chapter of the
Having 72 verses, this is the longest chapter in Mark's Gospel. The Gospel of Matthew's chapter which covers the same material, Matthew 26, has 75 verses. This chapter's material is presented somewhat differently in Luke 22, which has 71 verses. Jesus' arrest at Gethsemane, his trial, and Peter's denials are found in John 18:1-27.[1]
Text
The original text was written in Koine Greek.
Textual witnesses
Some early manuscripts containing the text of this chapter are:
- Codex Vaticanus (325-350; complete)
- Codex Sinaiticus (330-360; complete)
- Codex Bezae (~400; complete)
- Codex Alexandrinus (400-440; complete)
- Codex Ephraemi Rescriptus (~450; complete)
Old Testament references
Timescale
Mark states at the beginning of this chapter that the
The plot to kill Jesus and his anointing in Bethany
Mark states that the
An unnamed woman, who has a very expensive jar of
Why are you bothering her? She has done a beautiful thing to me. The poor you will always have with you, and you can help them any time you want. But you will not always have me. She did what she could. She poured perfume on my body beforehand to prepare for my burial. I tell you the truth, wherever the gospel is preached throughout the world, what she has done will also be told, in memory of her.
This story may originally have had a setting independent of the passion narrative:
The anticipation of widespread audiences might mean the book was intended for wide distribution and not written solely for a single community.[citation needed]
This begins the final section of Mark, which probably originally ended at
Jesus foreshadows his death and this is the last anointing, an expensive one at that, that he will receive. Mark states in
According to
Judas then leaves and goes to the priests and gives up Jesus. The priests are so grateful that they pay Judas for his service. Mark then says that Judas looked for the right time to betray Jesus. The planning for Judas' betrayal of Jesus "is told starkly and briefly here. It is elaborated considerably in the other gospels".[4] According to Matthew, the payment was thirty silver coins. Mark does not state Judas' reason for betraying Jesus, but has this occur immediately after the anointing, perhaps showing a causal link.[according to whom?]
According to Luke's account,
The Last Supper
The next day (Holy Thursday), Jesus' disciples ask him where they should go to eat the Passover feast. Passover is the celebration of God passing over the houses of the Israelite slaves but killing the firstborn son of every Egyptian house in Exodus 12:29 during the Ten Plagues. It was celebrated in tandem with the feast of Unleavened Bread
Mark says this is on the first day of the Feast and the day the Jews
He tells two unnamed disciples to go to the "city": although Mark does not state which city, it was clearly Jerusalem, about two miles from Bethany,
Jesus tells them they will be met by "a man carrying a jar of water" (13) and that he will lead them to another man's house. They are to ask the house's owner where "the teacher" has a guest room and that the man will show them the upper room in the house and that is where they are to have dinner. They do as he said and everything happens as he said it would and they "...prepared the Passover." (16) This episode shows Jesus' power over the situation. The owner of the house seems to know Jesus as "teacher", perhaps indicating that he was an unnamed disciple.
Jesus and the
No passage of the
Later Jesus takes some
This might be related to
During the Passover meal the wine was usually consumed during the eating of the bread, but here it occurs after, probably the third cup of wine, known as the "Cup of Blessing", which the head of the household handed round to each person.[19] Brown suggests this might indicate this is not the official Passover dinner and more in line with John's chronology.[20]
On the Mount of Olives, Jesus predicts his abandonment by the Apostles: "'You will all fall away,' Jesus told them, 'for it is written: 'I will strike the shepherd, and the sheep will be scattered.' But after I have risen, I will go ahead of you into
Peter, "ardent and impulsive as ever", then says he will not desert Jesus, even if all the others do.
Mark only has the straightforward, unexplained, eucharistic section sandwiched between two predictions of betrayal. This simplicity might indicate Mark's audience already knew the story of the Last Supper in greater detail than Mark relates. (Miller 47) Matthew has almost the same details, but Luke and John give longer accounts of the meal.
John has the longest account of the Last Supper in chapters 13–14. John also has Jesus' predictions of his betrayal and Peter's denials but no eucharistic ritual and has Jesus washing his disciples feet and much more of what he told them at dinner. John then has a lengthy prayer and discourse after the dinner in John 15, 16, and 17.
The garden of Gethsemane
They travel to
He asks God to grant him a reprieve from what he is about to undergo. "'
He goes back and finds the three asleep and asks them why they could not even stay awake an hour and tells them to pray to avoid "temptation". Temptation might be tempted to fall asleep. In Matthew 6:13 during the Sermon on the Mount he speaks of the temptation of evil, which might be what he is referring to here. He goes back and asks God the same thing, then returns to find them asleep again. They wake up, say nothing, and Jesus leaves for a third time and returns and tells them to get up because the "hour has come" for him to be betrayed.
The number
Judas arrives along with a crowd sent by the priests, teachers, and elders. Who exactly this crowd is Mark does not say, but the Sanhedrin did have a Temple police force (Kilgallen 271). According to John, Judas came with soldiers and men from the Sanhedrin. Judas comes and kisses Jesus, which Mark says was a prearranged sign between Judas and the others. A kiss was a traditional greeting given to a teacher (Brown et al. 626) All the other Gospels have Jesus respond to Judas.
The men grab Jesus and an unnamed person there takes his sword and attacks one of the high priests' men and cuts off his ear. Matthew and Luke say it was done by an unnamed disciple. According to John, Peter was the one who cut off the man's ear, who John says was a servant of the high priest Caiaphas named Malchus. According to Luke Jesus healed the man. All the other Gospels, but not Mark, have Jesus telling his disciples to stop resisting his arrest.
- "Am I leading a rebellion", said Jesus, "that you have come out with swords and clubs to capture me? Every day I was with you, teaching in the temple courts, and you did not arrest me. But the Scriptures must be fulfilled." Then everyone deserted him and fled. (48-50)
Despite the fact that all the disciples swore to never leave him, they all quickly abandon him here. Mark (alone among the
Judas is not mentioned again by Mark. According to Matthew 27:5, Judas hanged himself after trying to give back the money to the priests but then putting it in the Temple. According to Acts of the Apostles 1:18 Judas took his money and bought a field, where he "fell" and died, which might or might not be hanging.
Trial before the Sanhedrin
Jesus is taken to the chief priests, elders, and teachers. This body was not fixed during Jesus' time, but usually an ad hoc gathering of aristocrats and important religious officials (Brown 146). This occurs in Mark at the high priest's house. There were about eight chief priests and several more elders and teachers and scribes. (Kilgallen 255) Peter follows from a distance and goes into the high priest's courtyard and stands around the fire with the guards.
According to Mark, this is a secret trial at night, a rarity, and the high priest's house must have been exceedingly large to house the entire ruling body. Daniel J. Harrington argues that it was more likely that this was a small first preliminary hearing and not a full trial. He also argues that Mark might be trying to increase the perception of Jewish involvement in Jesus' death and lessen the responsibility of Rome. (Brown et al. 627)
Matthew also reports this as a full trial at night. John also has this at the high priest's house, though he is questioned by the high priest's father-in-law, Annas, first and whether Caiaphas led a trial of him or not is not stated, only that Caiaphas took Jesus to Pilate. Luke records Jesus being beaten at the high priest's house and the trial starting the following morning.
The Sanhedrin tries to find evidence against Jesus but according to Mark does not, only false testimony, including that Jesus claimed he would destroy the Temple building. Mark says that the witnesses did not agree with each other. Multiple witnesses to a crime are required under Jewish law according to
The high priest, unnamed in Mark but surely Caiaphas, asks Jesus himself about what people have said about him but he does not answer. He then asks Jesus directly if he is the "...Christ, the Son of the Blessed One?" "'I am', said Jesus, 'and you will see the
) According to Matthew, Jesus answered "Yes, it is as you say"; according to Luke, he said "You are right in saying I am".The high priest tears at his clothes and declares that this statement is
Jesus has predicted all this will happen so Mark might be using this ironically to have Jesus condemned as a false prophet at the same moment his prophecies are coming true (Brown et al. 627) Mark states the entire group condemned Jesus, but states in 15:43 that Joseph of Arimathea, a member of the council, was perhaps a secret disciple and took possession of Jesus' body. Did he condemn Jesus as well? Luke 23:51 states that he did not.
Jesus finally declaring he is the
The main accusations against Jesus center around the Temple, not Jesus' disagreements with Jewish law. Many scholars believe that it was the
Peter's denials
Peter is in the courtyard below. According to John he was there with another unnamed disciple. One of the high priest's servant girls walks by him and says that Peter too had been with Jesus. He says he does not know what she is talking about. According to John he denied he knew Jesus to her to gain entry to the courtyard. He walks away to the entryway but she yells to those around him that he is one of Jesus' followers, which he denies. The people around him seem to know he is from Galilee and assume he's with Jesus and start to curse him. According to Matthew, they recognized his
According to John, he was recognized by a man who was in the garden earlier, who John says was a relative of Malchus. This occurs at the same time as Jesus' proclamations of being the messiah, contrasting Jesus' faithfulness with Peter's lack of it. Peter's denial's, since Jesus had predicted them, only show Jesus' power even more clearly.
See also
- Anointing of Jesus
- Arrest of Jesus
- Judas Iscariot
- Last Supper
- Naked fugitive
- Sanhedrin Trial of Jesus
- Simon Peter
References
Notes
Citations
- ^ John 18:1–27
- ^ Kirkpatrick 1901, p. 838.
- ^ Bengel, J. A., Gnomon of the New Testament on Mark 14
- ^ a b c Tuckett 2001, p. 915.
- ^ Meyer, H. A. W. (1880), Meyer's NT Commentary on Mark 14, translated from the German 6th edition, accessed 23 March 2023
- ^ Alford, H., Greek Testament Critical Exegetical Commentary - Alford on Mark 14, accessed 23 March 2023
- ^ Mark 14:2: Geneva Bible wording
- ^ Mark 14:1: New International Version
- ^ See range of translations at BibleGateway.com
- ^ Augustine, see Alford, H., Greek Testament Critical Exegetical Commentary - Alford on Mark 14, accessed 23 March 2023
- ^ The Voice translation, cf. Miller 13
- ^ Catholic Online, Life of Jesus Christ, accessed 9 December 2017
- ^ Pixner 1990, p. 16.
- ^ Kilgallen, 264
- ^ Brown et al. 625
- ^ Barnes' Notes on Mark 14, accessed 9 December 2017
- ^ Mark 14:26
- ^ Kilgallen 265
- ^ a b c Cambridge Bible for Schools and Colleges on Mark 14, accessed 23 June 2017
- ^ Brown et al. 626
- ^ Barnes, A., Barnes' Notes on Mark 14, accessed 10 December 2017
- ^ Wright, T., (2001) Mark for Everyone, p. 200
- ^ Miller, 48
- ^ Brown et al. 626
- ^ Schanz, P., Commentary on the Gospel according to St. Mark, quoted in Expositor's Greek Testament on Mark 14, accessed 10 December 2017
- ^ Jewish Encyclopedia: Galilee: "But it is for their faulty pronunciation that the Galileans are especially remembered: 'ayin and alef, and the gutturals generally, were confounded, no distinction being made between words like '"amar" (="ḥamor," uss), "ḥamar" (wine), "'amar" (a garment), "emar" (a lamb: 'Er. 53b); therefore Galileans were not permitted to act as readers of public prayers (Meg. 24b)."
Sources
- Brown, Raymond E. (1997). An Introduction to the New Testament. Doubleday. ISBN 0-385-24767-2.
- Brown, Raymond E. (1990). ISBN 0-13-614934-0.
- Kilgallen, John J. (1989). A Brief Commentary on the Gospel of Mark. Paulist Press. ISBN 0-8091-3059-9.
- Kirkpatrick, A. F. (1901). The Book of Psalms: with Introduction and Notes. The Cambridge Bible for Schools and Colleges. Vol. Book IV and V: Psalms XC-CL. Cambridge: University Press.
- Miller, Robert J., ed. (1994). The Complete Gospels. Polebridge Press. ISBN 0-06-065587-9.
- Pixner, Bargil (1990). "Church of the Apostles Found on Mt. Zion". Biblical Archaeology Review. 16 (3).
Tuckett, C. (2001). "57. Mark". In Barton, J.; Muddiman, J. (eds.). The Oxford Bible Commentary. Archived from the original on 2017-11-22. Retrieved 2021-07-03.
External links
- Mark 14 King James Bible - Wikisource
- English Translation with Parallel Latin Vulgate
- Online Bible at GospelHall.org (ESV, KJV, Darby, American Standard Version, Bible in Basic English)
- Multiple bible versions at Bible Gateway (NKJV, NIV, NRSV etc.)
Preceded by Mark 13 |
Chapters of the Bible Gospel of Mark |
Succeeded by Mark 15 |