Here, I discuss the Gethsemane scene in the Gospel of Mark. (I did not discuss it in my book, The Two Gospels of Mark: Performance and Text.) I continue to assume that the Gospel of Mark was originally a performed play; the text we know is Mark’s narrative rewrite of the script. The Gethsemane scene…
Category: Gospel of Mark
“Jericho” in the Gospel of Mark: A new explanation
Summary Did Mark write a scene set in Jericho, now missing (Mk 10:46)? In my book, The Two Gospels of Mark: Performance and Text, I assumed that he did. I’ve changed my mind. There was never a scene set in Jericho in the Gospel of Mark. The audience saw a large crowd (the Chorus) carrying…
Why I think Mark wrote a play
Here I will defend my theory that Mark wrote a play that was performed on a stage, and a narrative text that condensed the play. This post supplements the case I made in my book, The Two Gospels of Mark: Performance and Text. The genre of the Gospel of Mark is still open The Gospel…
The Carmignac Challenge, Part II of III: Semitisms in the Gospel of Mark and the Gospel of Matthew
Summary In the Abbé Jean Carmignac’s short book, The Birth of the Synoptic Gospels (Chicago: Franciscan Herald Press, 1983), he identifies and classifies Semitisms in the synoptic gospels. He evaluates the value of the listed Semitisms as supporting evidence for his theory that the synoptic gospels were originally written in a Semitic language (GMark and…
The Carmignac Challenge, Part I of III: Yes, a Hebrew Gospel of Mark
Executive Summary The Abbé Jean Carmignac was a learned translator of the Dead Sea Scrolls. When he translated the Gospel of Mark from Greek into Qumran Hebrew, Carmignac noticed that the translation was “extremely easy.” He also noticed many Semitisms—linguistic features of the Greek that seemed to have been translated from a Semitic language—in the…
What is the meaning of “Boanerges”?
In Mk 3:17 Jesus gives two disciples the nickname “Boanerges”; the text explains that the meaning of “Boanerges” is “Sons of Thunder.” The problem is that “Boanerges” is not good Aramaic. As Wikipedia says, “Given the Greek translation that comes with it (‘Sons of Thunder’), it seems that the first element of the name is…
Flavia Domitilla’s children in Mark’s play
Summary At the time of Mark’s play c. 95 CE, Flavia was in her late twenties or early thirties. She had borne seven children, with the maximum age of 16. (We don’t know if all survived infancy). Here, I identify the roles for children in Mark’s play, propose that Flavia Domitilla’s children did play those…
The Bethsaida section, Part III: The editing
Summary In my book, The Two Gospels of Mark: Performance and Text, I discuss the Bethsaida section in the Gospel of Mark (Mk 6:45-8:26). I review the staging of each scene in Mark’s original performed play, and explain why I think some scenes in the narrative text are original and some are by an editor….
The Bethsaida section, Part II: The original sequence
Summary In Part I of this series on the Bethsaida section of the Gospel of Mark, I argued that the role of the blind man of Bethsaida was played by Titus Flavius Clemens. Mark wrote the scene ot honor Clemens. Here, I build on Part I. I discuss the second feeding miracle in the Gospel…
The Bethsaida section, Part I: The blind man of Bethsaida scene
Summary This post builds on the discussion of the blind man of Bethsaida scene in my book, The Two Gospels of Mark: Performance and Text. Here, I imagine how the scene (Mk 8:22-26) was staged. I conclude that the scene was intended for the world of the audience. I argue that Mark wrote the blind…