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St. Mark 13

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  02 February 2009

Extract

Jesus' answer, which takes up the rest of the chapter, falls quite naturally into three divisions: vv. 5–23, 24–27, and 28–37.

It is very hard to find an altogether satisfactory single title for this section. We might call it The End is not yet; for Jesus is certainly warning His disciples that much has still to happen before the consummation of all things. They were, apparently, like people who ‘wish to reap the harvest before the season arrives’, inclined to ‘confound the perfection of Christ's reign with the commencement of it’. So they needed to be warned that ‘the end is not yet’ (v. 7) and that they must resist the deceivers who would be only too ready to play on their impatience. Or we might with equal fairness entitle this section The Characteristics of the Last Times, i.e., of the time between the Incarnation and the Parousia; for that is what we have here. Jesus warns His disciples what they are to expect during the time before the End. Or again, we might call it, as Roux does, The Signs of the End; for these characteristic marks of the time before the End are also signs which point to the End. Though not to be mistaken for the End, they are nevertheless eloquent of it.

The first of these signs of the End is the presence of deceivers and the possibility of the disciples of Jesus being led astray. Throughout the last times they will be liable to seduction.

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Articles
Copyright
Copyright © Scottish Journal of Theology Ltd 1953

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References

page 287 note 1 Calvin, op. cit., p. 118.

page 287 note 2 op. cit., p. 280, with reference to the Matthew parallel.

page 287 note 3 We must distinguish carefully between phrases, on the one hand, which refer to the last times: ‘the beginning of travail’ (v. 8), ‘those days’ (vv. 17, 19, 24), ‘the days’ (v. 20), with which cf. ‘the last days’ (Acts 2.17, 2 Tim. 3.1, 2 Pet. 3.3. and probably Jas. 5.3), ‘at the end of these days’ (Heb. 1.2), ‘the end of the ages’ (Heb. 9.26), ‘at the end of the times’ (1 Pet. 1.20), ‘the last time’ (Jude 18), ‘the last hour’ (1 John 2.18), and, on the other hand, phrases which refer to the End itself: ‘the end’ (v. 7), ‘that day’ (singular) (v. 32), ‘that hour’ (v. 32), ‘the time’ (v. 33—καιρ⋯ς), the actual arrival of the lord of the house (vv. 35 f), ‘then’ (in vv. 26 f but not in vv. 14 or 21), with which cf. ‘thy coming and the end of the world’ (Matt. 24.3), ‘that day’ (Matt. 7.22, etc.), ‘the day of the Lord, that great and notable day’) Acts 2.20), ‘the day of the Lord’ (2 Thess. 2.2), ‘the day’ (Rom. 13.12), ‘the last time’ (I Pet. 1.5—καιρ⋯ς), ‘the end of all things’ (I Pet. 4.7), ‘the last day’ (freq. in John).

page 288 note 1 would most naturally mean (a) ‘appealing to me as their authority’, ‘claiming to be sent by me’, but it could also mean (b) ‘arrogating to themselves the title of Messiah which by right belongs to me’ (the interpretation of most commentators, including Schniewind, and supported by Bietenhardt in TWzNT, V, p. 276, n. 224—article on ⋯νoμα). According to (a) the many are false teachers claiming to speak in Jesus' name; according to (b) they are false claimants to the Messiahship. The words λ⋯γoντες ⋯τι ⋯γώ εἰμι are also ambiguous. They could mean (α) ‘saying, “I am” ’—i.e. claiming to be Messiah (cf. John 4.26 and Matthew's addition of ⋯ Xριστ⋯ς here), with probably also the idea of claiming divine authority (cf. Exod. 3.14; Deut. 32.39; Isa. 41.4, 43.10). Perhaps the sense of Zeph. 2.15 might also be included; (β) ‘saying, “It is I” ’—similar to above, but stress on idea of the Messiah's presence; (γ) ‘saying that it is I’—i.e. saying that I (Jesus) am come, or as Dr W. Manson puts it, ‘the Christ is come, the Parousia has arrived’ (‘The EΓΩ EIMI of the Messianic Presence in the New Testament’ in JTS, 48, pp. 137–45). Professor Manson appeals to 2 Thess. 2.2 for support; (δ) ‘saying that I (Jesus) am (the Christ)’—ruled out, because to say this would not be deceiving; (ε) ‘saying that it is I’—in the sense that the false ones will claim actually to be Jesus. Of these meanings some are certainly most unlikely. We judge the most probable combination to be (b) and (α); but it is with reluctance that we reject Professor Manson's combination of (a) and (γ) on the ground of the doubtful possibility of (γ) and the presence of the Matt, gloss. Lohmeyer (op. cit., p. 270) combines (a) and (α), which Dr Manson regards as mutually exclusive, but which Lohmeyer explains as meaning that the deceivers will preach themselves under cover of preaching Christ—an attractive suggestion but probably not as likely as the combination (b) and (α). See further Dr Taylor's useful note (p. 503 f): his conclusion ‘that is a “Christian” addition to a Jewish or Jewish-Christian source’ we judge to be unnecessary.

page 288 note 2 op. cit., p. 283.

page 289 note 1 For parallels to the reff. to wars, earthquakes, famines, see Taylor, op. cit., p. 505, and Str.-B., I, 949 f, IV, 977 if (Excursus: Vorzeichen und Berechnung der Tage des Messias).

page 289 note 2 On see Taylor, op. cit., p. 505.

page 289 note 3 Cf. W. Grundmann's enlightening article on in TWzNT, II, pp. 21–5, and also Schniewind, op. cit., p. 168.

page 289 note 4 τ⋯λoς is the equivalent of qets, which in Dan. 12.4, 13 is rendered by συντελεια in the LXX. Strack-Billerbeck, I, p. 949 f, point out that pre-Christian Judaism expected the Messiah to bring in the aeon of final fulfilment, or, to use the later terminology, identified the days of Messiah with the ‘age to come’, so that ‘the end’ means the end of the present age and the breaking in of the ‘age to come’; whereas later Judaism distinguished between the days of Messiah and the eschatological age to come, so that ‘the end’ then referred to the coming of Messiah, but no longer to the breakine i" nf the final age to come.

page 289 note 5 op. cit., p. 130.

page 290 note 1 Schlatter, Der Evangelist Matthäus, p. 699. Strack-Billerbeck, I, 950, think that the Rabbinical term ‘the birth-pang of the Messiah’ was already current in the time of Jesus. It means not sufferings of the Messiah, but sufferings preceding His coming. The origin of the expression is to be seen in such passages as Isa. 27.17; 66.8; Jer. 22.23; Hos. 13.13; Mic. 4.9 f. With one doubtful exception, the word for birth-pang is always in the singular in this expression, but the Greek ὠδ⋯ν is mostly used in the plural. For the use of this image in NT cf. John 16.21; 1 Thess. 5.3; Rev 12.2. The first of these well illustrates the meaning here. For the general meaning cf. Luke. 21.28.

page 290 note 2 op. cit., p. 123 f.

page 290 note 3 Cf. Schlatter, op. cit., p. 338, who refers to Deut. 25.2 f and jNedar 37b; also Die Evv. nach Markus und Lukas, p. 129. For the punctuation of παραδώσoυσιν … δαρ⋯σεσθε see Taylor, op. cit., p. 506.

page 290 note 4 Though it is possible that under the Romans the Jewish authorities did have the right to condemn to death. See Schniewind, op. cit., p. 192, Strachan, R. H., The Fourth Gospel (3rd edn.), p. 312 fGoogle Scholar.

page 291 note 1 op. cit., p. 507. He thinks that ‘looks secondary and rather like an attempt to prepare the way for the insertion of 10’. As to the question of punctuation, Lohmeyer (p. 272) is probably right in thinking that the introduction of δ⋯ or γ⋯ρ after ἔθνη, so as to connect κα⋯ εἰς π⋯ντα τ⋯ ἔθνη with v. 9 ‘ist deutlich Glättung’.

page 292 note 1 Strathmann supports his argument by two quotations from Ignatius (Trail. 12.3; Philad. 6.3) in which εἰς μαρτ⋯ριoν occurs (p. 509, n. 77).

page 292 note 2 Der Evangelist Matthäus, pp. 339, 702; Die Evv. nach Markus und Lukas, p. 130. Lohmeyer (p. 272) also takes the original meaning to be ‘Zeugnis wider sie’—‘Das Leiden für Ihn ist gleichsam das offenbarende Gottesurteil über ihre Gottlosigkeit’. But he thinks that by adding v. 10, which according to him breaks the continuity between vv. 9 and 11, Mark has altered the sense of the last three words of v. 9, so that now μαρτ⋯ριoν is made to signify the preaching of the Gospel.

page 293 note 1 op. cit., p. 124 f.

page 293 note 2 Swete, op. cit., p. 301.

page 293 note 3 We argue for an inclusive rather than exclusive interpretation in Mark 13.9 and Matt. 10.18, but that is without prejudice to the interpretation of the other passages mentioned by Strathmann.

page 293 note 4 For the suggestion that τ⋯ κατ⋯χoν and ὁ κατ⋯χων in 2 Thess. 2.6 f are to be explained by reference to Mark 13.10 see Cullmann, O., Christus und die Zeit, pp. 138147Google Scholar.

page 294 note 1 op. cit., p. 272. He goes on to say: ‘Wenn Mk den Spruch hier eingefügt hat, so kennt er sichtlich nur die Art der Evangeliumsverkündung, die in dem μαργ⋯ριoν vor Gericht besteht und in den Reden des Petrus Act 4.8–21 oder des Stephanus Act 7.1–53 dargestellt ist. Noch lebt die Gemeinde wie verborgen und harrt in Stille des kommenden Herrn; erst die Wehen des Endes reissen sie zur offenen Verkündung heraus.’

page 294 note 2 But on 14.9 see Jeremias, J., ‘The Gentile World in The Thought of Jesus’ in Bulletin III of the Studiorum Novi Testamenti Societas, 1952, p. 21 fGoogle Scholar.

page 295 note 1 Cf. G. Friedrich in TWzNT, II, 726.

page 295 note 2 NB how the Matthaean ‘and then shall the end come’ interprets the Markan ‘first’.

page 295 note 3 Exod. 4.12.

page 296 note 1 Jer. 1.9.

page 296 note 2 Cf. Matt. 10.34–36; Luke 12.51–53. Based on Micah 7.6. See also Str.-B. I, 951 for Jewish parallel. This and also the hatred referred to in the next verse are features of Jewish Vorzeichen of the Messianic age.

page 296 note 3 Cf. Matt.5.11f, 10.22; John 15.18–20, 16.33; I John3.13; I Pet. 4.12. The late Archbishop Temple said wisely: ‘Not all that the world hates is good Christianity; but it does hate good Christianity and always will’ (Readings in St. John's Gospel, complete edn., p. 271 f).

page 296 note 4 His Greek is: . Lagrange, op. cit., P. 339.

page 297 note 1 The word τελoς is used here in a different sense from that which it has in v. 7. It does not mean here the End in the eschatological sense, and this verse must not be cited in support of the idea that Jesus or the early Church expected the End to come before the first generation of believers had died. The word here is rather the equivalent of aus- in the German ausharren or ‘out’ in the phrase ‘stick it out’, and the reference is to the end of a particular disciple's life rather than to the End. Taylor says it ‘describes an endurance which is complete’. He agrees that it is improbable that it is used of ‘the End’ (p. 510).

page 298 note 1 Hennig's, K. phrase ‘das Doppelte der Schau’ (Das Markus-evangelium, Stuttgart, 1948, p. 112)Google Scholar.

page 298 note 2 Taylor, op. cit., p. 642.

page 298 note 3 Cf. W. Foerster in TWzNT, I, p. 599.

page 299 note 1 Cf. G. Kittel in TWzNT, II, p. 657.

page 299 note 2 Cf. Schlatter, , Der Evangelist Matthäus, p. 703Google Scholar. He adds: ‘In dieser Deutung war Jesus mit dem Rabbinat eins und die zelotische Bewegung arbeitete vermutlich ebenfalls stark mit Daniel.’

page 299 note 3 ibid.

page 300 note 1 ibid. Cf. his Das Evangelium nach Matthäus, p. 355. And reference may also be made back to pp. 189–93 of this vol. of SJT.

page 300 note 2 Cf. 2 Thess. 2.6 f, where we have, on the one hand, ‘the mystery of lawlessness doth already work’ and, on the other, ‘that he may be revealed in his own season’.

page 300 note 3 Die Königsherrschaft Gottes (Stuttgart, 1948), p. 55 fGoogle Scholar.

page 300 note 4 For reasons of space we shall not attempt to discuss the details of these verses here. Some of them will have to be discussed in Part II. For the rest, the present writer hopes at a later date to produce a commentary on this Gospel.

page 301 note 1 Vv. 21–23 and 5 f are perhaps variants of the same saying.

page 301 note 2 See Matt. 4.5–7; Mark 8.11 f; Matt. 12.39; 16.4; Luke 11.29; Mark 15.32.

page 301 note 3 In v. 22 the A.V. translation, ‘if it were possible’ might give the impression that it is implied that they will necessarily fail. The R.V. more correctly suggests a real danger.

page 301 note 4 Cf. SJT, 5, p. 65 f.

page 302 note 1 Strack and Billerbeck (I.955) compare 4 Ezra 4.51 ff; Apoc. Bar. 25.1 ff; Orac. Sib. 3.796 ff; Enoch 80.2 ff, 102.2. They say: ‘In der rabbinischen Literatur scheinen trotz alttestamentlichen Vorlagen wie Jes. 24.23; Joel 3.4, 4.15 [EVV: 2.31, 3.15] Veränderungen in der Sternenwelt nicht als Vorzeichen des Endes gedeutet zu werden.’ Taylor (518) cites in addition Ass. Mos. 10.5.

page 302 note 2 Calvin, op. cit., p. 146.

page 302 note 3 ibid., p. 145.

page 302 note 4 ibid., p. 147.

page 302 note 5 Heim, op. cit., p. 61.

page 302 note 6 2 Cor. 5.7.

page 302 note 7 Cf. 1 Cor. 13.12.

page 302 note 8 Der Evangelist Mätthäus, p. 710. He says: ‘Die Beschreibung der Parusie besteht fast ausschliesslich aus Schriftworten. Jesus schuf nicht eigene Bilder für den Moment, in dem er sich in der Herrlichkeit Gottes der Welt zeigen wird. Er gründete die Hoffnung der Jünger einzig auf die prophetischen Worte, in derselben Weise, wie er im Blick auf sein Kreuz sich dadurch stärkte, dass die Schrift das Leiden mit der Beauftragung durch Gott verband.’ In the face of our Lord's example Calvin's words ‘the chief part of our wisdom lies in confining ourselves soberly within the limits of God's word’ (op. cit., p. 153) gain force.

page 303 note 1 Heim, op. cit., p. 62 f.

page 303 note 2 op. cit., p. 517.

page 303 note 3 It will include the dead, for this will be the time of the resurrection. Strack and Billerbeck (I, 959) point out that according to ancient Jewish literature the gathering of the elect who have been scattered is accomplished either by God or Messiah or Moses or Elijah. In Enoch 61.1, 5 they find a hint at the co-operation of the angels.

page 303 note 4 op. cit., p. 148.