Lecture #4: Synoptic Gospels (Part 2)

COURSE: New Testament

Lecture #4: Synoptic Gospels (Part 2)

The Aims of Mark

• Most importantly, Mark's narrative was concerned to show Jesus as teacher, prophet and divine man and to provide a concrete base for the three-fold role of Jesus in the faith of the church
• second, it tried to encourage people to hang on for salvation would come
• Third, it was written to forewarn those who were falling away or indifferent because of the delay of the Parousia (sometimes called the second coming).
• Finally, it was a mediator of the church's worship of God-this provided materials that could be used in worship of the early church.
  
  
• It is probable that the synoptic tradition could be as early as Paul's writings (the earliest we have) but was not written down till there was a threat to the church’s existence by the death of the original eyewitnesses and the fact the Parousia had not Occurred.
  
  
• Mark – writing from Rome and would have known both Paul and Peter (Note Paul was beheaded by Nero in Rome in the year CE 64; and Peter who was preaching in Rome and was crucified upside down by Nero probably in CE 64). Mark attempts to answer the following questions.
• There had to be a reason for Jesus' shameful death on the cross–what was it?
• Where did authority for his re-interpretation of the law of Moses come from?
• Where did he derive power to perform miracles and exorcisms?
• How does the New Covenant relate to the old, and how could his followers claim him to be the fulfillment of Jewish scripture?
• How has God prepared the chain of events leading up to Jesus being disclosed as the vindicated and vindicating son of Man?
  
  
• Mark begins with Jesus' baptism by John in the Jordan and says nothing about his birth or pre-existence.
• Jesus is just one of the crowd coming to John and hearing the voice of God is a private experience, in keeping with the messianic secret.
  
  
• Mark 1:24 begins his ministry by performing an exorcism at the synagogue at Capernaum. this is to show first off, his power over Satan
  
  
• By teaching, Mark means far more than merely the message of Jesus: it encompasses the whole of his public activity.
• Its chief characteristic is that it is authoritative, not in the sense that it carries the sanctions of the appropriated religious officials, since it is the opposite of this, but that it brings its own conviction.
• In healing the paralytic (Mark 2:10 – read), Mark shows that Jesus has the power to forgive sins, which is the eschatological power of the son of man even before the New Age has fully come.
  
  
• There are many places in Mark that are more concerned with what was happening in the church in 68 or following, when Mark was written than with what Jesus actually said.
• One example is fasting (2:18-22 – read) where there is justification for why Jesus' disciples didn't fast but why the church did, because the bridegroom had been taken away from them, an interpretation that was probably added by Mark.
  
  
• In 3:28 Mark is dealing with questions in the church about which sins are forgivable? and how does the Church regard someone who attributes to Satan what is in fact the work of the Holy Spirit?
  
  
• Mark 4 deals with Jesus calming the storm on the sea of Galilee.
• Mark wants his readers to know that Jesus is the agent of God's rule over the whole cosmos, not merely over human needs
• But his question "have you no faith?" is addressed to the church of Mark's day as well as the disciples.
• Feeding the 5000 and walking on water (mark 6:30-56) are intended to attribute cosmic power to Jesus.
  
  
• Starting with Mark 8:31 there are three increasingly detailed predictions of the suffering, death and resurrection of Jesus. (9:31 and 10:33-34 are the others.)
• There is no direct logical significance assigned by Mark to suffering but it is rather inevitable if the redemptive outcome is to occur.
  
  
• Two questions concerned the church Mark was part of about life in the age to come.
• Mark 10 Marriage and divorce to this Mark has Jesus reply that God intended man and woman to be inseparably united so divorce is concession to human weakness, not a divine provision.
• Mark adds further (10:10) the arguments against man or woman taking the initiative in divorce.
• He used the Roman rule that either could initiate divorce, which women could not in Judaism while Matthew, the Jewish gospel, kept with the Jewish understanding that only the man could initiate divorce.
  
  
• The second question had to do with riches and the kingdom.

It became the occasion for the denunciation of riches on the ground that man cannot differentiate between what he has acquired and his own self-esteem.

It is not how a man ranks on the achievement scale of the divine commandments or in the acquisition of wealth that is the essential question, but the intensity of his commitment to the work of preparing men for the Kingdom of God (10:17-31)

• Passion nowhere with long introduction
• Mark, unlike the later two gospels dependent on him, has Jesus proclaimed as one who comes in the Lord's name based on Psalm 118:26, which was quoted in Jesus’ day as the eschatological hope of the establishment of God's Kingdom.
• Matthew has Jesus proclaimed as King when he enters Jerusalem on Palm Sunday (Mt. 21:9) as does Luke (Lk 19:28-44)

The Little Apocalypse Mark 13 (read)

• The editorial hand of Mark is seen in the shift from the public pronouncement of the Temple's impending destruction (13:1-2) to the private explanation to the disciples.
• Marks key to when the end will be is the desecration of the Temple (13:14).
• Although there is no way of knowing when the end will come, the new covenant people can be sure that it will occur within the life of the first generation of its members. (13:30)
• it is the responsibility of the community to be ever faithful and watchful (13:35-37)
  
  
• The language and view of this discourse is heavily dependent on Daniel.
• The other synoptic writers have expanded this part of Mark, drawing largely from the Q material but the basic structure and place of the discourse in the overall picture of Jesus' Career is Mark's contribution.
• Mark wants his readers to draw a parallel between the desecration of the temple in Daniel's (Maccabean) destruction of the Temple predicted by Jesus.
• Mark is saying that what was expected in Daniel didn't occur but that it is now about to take place.
• This destruction of the temple is the best clue to the historical circumstances for the writing of Mark.
• Just as the Maccabean crisis in the days of Antiochus IV led to the writing of Daniel, so the Roman invasion of Palestine beginning in 66 CE led to the writing of Mark.

Last Supper and New Covenant

• Mark 14:25 (look at) clearly implies that the church recalled the last Supper as first an analogy between the Jewish Passover and the death of Jesus and second, the concept of Jesus death as the sacrifice that sealed the New Covenant promised in Jeremiah 31.
• Mark's interpretation was not a full developed theological explanation of the death of Jesus; it declares only that the life he offered up ("blood" was equivalent to life in Hebrew) was linked with the (new) covenant and was to the benefit of "many" (14:24)

Condemnation and death

• It is at his trial that Mark has Jesus (Mark 14:62) for the first time state that he is the Son of God, but goes on to define that title by a combination of scriptural quotations, one of which refers to the Davidic King at God's right hand.
• he also paraphrases Dan 7:13 where he is the Son of Man
• This is Mark's central point in understanding Jesus as Messiah.
• He combines the kingly role of the Son of David, with its title, Son of God, and the eschatological role of representative of the "saints of the most high" in Daniel to whom the Kingdom of God is assigned.
  
  
• Mark ends his gospel at 16:8 (look at), though many endings were tacked on later, one of which appears in most bibles today.
• It is thought that he intended it to end with the women seeing a young man dressed in white (later gospels have an angel or two) who tells them that he has risen and that the disciples will him in Galilee as he told them.
• the women go away astonished (afraid)
  
  
• It is possible that there was a closing to Mark that was lost but that is not known.
• but the oldest and best manuscripts end at 16:8.
• Mark had Jesus instruct the reader what the final outcome will be several times so it is possible he leaves this to their own faith.

Gospel of Matthew

• We have already mentioned some things about Matthew's gospel, but I want to cover some more.
• Christianity is for Matt. the divinely disclosed fulfillment of the Law and of the Jewish hopes.
• He cannot comprehend that those who stand in the tradition of the Law could fail to discern the truth as it is in Jesus.
• a fitting characterization of the book is it is a manual of church instruction and administration comparable to the Manual of Discipline found in the dead sea scrolls
• There seems to be a conscious fivefold construction of the central section of the book, perhaps a conscious imitation of the five books of the torah.
• seems to be showing that it is precisely the Law and the prophets that have their fulfillment in Jesus.
• Matthew reproduced nearly all of the miracle stories found in his sources Mark and Q.
• often, he heightens the miraculous element and having the ruler's daughter dead, not just near death as in Mark.
  
  
• For the most part, the changes in the miracle stories serve his theological purpose by concentrating on the faith of the person healed, or on the authority of Jesus, or on the demands of discipleship.
• For example, at the resurrection Mark soberly describes the stone as already rolled back and a young man present who announces that Jesus has been raised from the dead.
• Mat. reports a great earthquake, an angel descending from heaven, and terror that strikes down the guards.
  
  
• Matt. attitude toward the law can be seen in two passages. (read 5:17)

Think not that I have come to abolish the law and the prophets, I have come not to abolish them but to fulfill them. for truly, I say to you, till heaven and earth pass away, not an iota, not a dot, will pass from the law until all is accomplished.

And in the series of antithesis "you have heard that it was said to the men of old… but I say to you.”

• Matthew is convinced that what has been wrong with the nation that called itself Israel is that it has not in the proper and complete way expected the Law to be fulfilled;
• Now the new community for which he is the spokesman looks forward to the true and total accomplishment of everything promised and commanded in the law.
  
  
• Matthew sees the role of the members of the community as twofold,; doing and teaching. Unlike the Pharisees who teach but do not live rightly, the true child of the Kingdom teaches rightly and lives rightly.
  
  
• The bottom line is one must be perfect as your heavenly father is perfect (Matt. 5:48)
• This does not mean the absence of moral perfection but the wholeness and single mindedness by which God goes about fulfilling his purposes and by which standard man is called to obey him.
  
  
• Luke 6:36 (look at) has toned down the force of this demand in his parallel form of this saying by substituting the word "merciful". but Matt is closer to what was likely the original intent of Jesus' word.

The Way of Righteousness

• A characteristic term of Matthew is righteousness.
• This is laid down at the beginning of Jesus' ministry when he tells John that he must baptize him to fulfill all righteousness. Jesus is presented throughout the gospel as the embodiment of righteousness.
• In 6:33 the kingdom of Heaven and righteousness are linked only when God's goals are fulfilled in history when the kingdom has come in its fullness- will the "way of righteousness" reach its divinely determined end…
  
  
• Matt: 25:31-46 (look at) in the parable of the last judgment shows Matt. blending of eschatology and ethics. Human behavior is the prime criterion in God's action to affect the consummation of history.
  
  
• The way of righteousness is not a path of legalism, by which the commandments are obeyed in order to "keep the rules". It is a way of life according to which the commandment is put into concrete action.
  
  
• It is not the one who says Lord, Lord (Mat. 7:21 – look at) but the one who does the Father's will who enters the kingdom

Expectations of The End

• Only Matt. has John the Baptist proclaim the nearness of the kingdom of heaven, and only Matt. among the synoptics has John aware of Jesus' sonship at the moment of his baptism (Matt. 3:16)
• From various parts of Mark and Q Matt. has brought together a series of sayings which he has modified in order to point up one of his major themes, themes, the coming (Parousia) of the son of Man (Matt. 24)
• He does hint that the interval between the first and second coming may be a long period. Meanwhile, the followers of Jesus are to preach the gospel and instruct all people of the world.
• There are some very vindictive pronouncements against the Pharisees and Israel which reflect the situation of direct conflict between Israel and the growing church and with Rome and the Church.
• These tell us more about Mathew and his attitudes than about Jesus.
  
  
• The irony in Matt. view is not that he denounces the Jews but that he expects the church to take over so much of the Jewish institutions and practice: scribal interpretations, ceremonial requirements, alms, fasting and so on.
• The church is for him the true Israel which takes the place of the nation which did not see in Jesus God's Messiah.

Gospel of Luke

• Matthew did not set forth a theory of the whole sweep of history by which the church could understand itself and its reason for existence in the interim before the coming of the end of the age. Howey, Luke did so
• In Luke's view the establishment of the church was as much a part of the fulfillment of the divine plan as the act of consummation itself.
• The church is the midpoint in the whole drama
• Luke's understanding is an ambitious one. He wants to place the ministry of Jesus and the work of the church in the context of the universal purpose of God.
  
  
• There are three epochs for Luke:
• The First Epoch is from ancient Israel to John the Baptist.

For Matthew, John the Baptist marks the beginning of the new era but for Luke, John marks the end of the epoch of the Law and the prophets

"The law and the prophets were until John; since then, the good news of the kingdom of God is preached, and every one enters it violently (Luke 16:16).

Luke is also careful to show that the ministry of Jesus is in fulfillment of scriptures. (Look at Lake 4:16-30)

• The Second Epoch is the earthly ministry of Jesus which is divided into three phases:

Phase 1: the launching of his ministry in Galilee, gathering his disciples there – the 12 disciples, representing the 12 tribes of Israel. This concludes in Luke 9:49.

Phase 2: was the ministry to those outside of Galilee – in which Jesus sends out the 70 which represents all the nations then known so the number is symbolic.

Phase 3: takes place in Jerusalem which is central in Luke's thinking to the whole redemptive purpose of God

The resurrection appearances take place in Jerusalem while Matthew and Mark have them in Galilee (Note: in Mark, only alluded to).

• The Third Epoch is from the ascension to the return of Christ.

The ascension is reported only by Luke In Acts 1 and marks the transition to the third epoch.

It does not matter then how long the Last Day may be delayed; the ground of redemptive activity has been laid in the work of Jesus Christ in fulfillment of the Law and the prophets.

• Thus, Luke is much more open than the other synoptics to women, the poor, the outcast.
• Not only is God willing to accept those who are estranged from him and to forgive those who are grievous sinners, but that he is actively seeking out those who are far from him, whether Jews who were excluded from the life of the covenant or gentiles who never had a part in the covenant.
• Luke underscores this in 15:1-32 (look at) in three parables, the lost sheep, coin and boy.
• Luke, of the synoptics, is by far the most inclusive.

End of Lecture – Synoptic Gospel Part 1 in separate lecture notes