Kindle Notes & Highlights
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October 28 - December 13, 2024
The commandeering of a beast of burden was the prerogative of a king in ancient times, and this, too, suggests Jesus’ kingly role.
according to the Mishnah (m. Sanh. 2:5) no one else may ride a king’s horse.
The spreading of cloaks and branches before Jesus is, of course, suggestive of the ceremonious welcome of a king, as in the inauguration of Jehu: “They hurried and took their cloaks and spread them under him on the bare steps. Then they blew the trumpet and shouted, ‘Jehu is king!’” (2 Kgs 9:13).
The acclamations of vv. 9-10 were thus probably less specific than later Christian readers have tended to understand them;
Like that of countless other Passover pilgrims to Jerusalem, Jesus’ entry was apparently regarded by the masses as a pilgrimage rather than as a messianic triumph.
object of Jesus’ triumphal procession is not Jerusalem in general but specifically the temple.
Mark’s account is noteworthy for what does not happen. The whole scene comes to nothing.
Jesus is not confessed in pomp and circumstance but only at the cross (15:39).
Mark’s placement of the cursing of the fig tree and Jesus’ action in the temple in an A1-B-A2 sandwich pattern signifies that he intends readers to see in the fate of the unfruitful fig tree the judgment of God on the unfruitful temple.
The tree in v. 13, however, turns out to be deceptive, for it is green in foliage, but when Jesus inspects it he finds no paggim; it is a tree with the signs of fruit but with no fruit.
from Josephus (War 6.422-27) that in A.D. 66, the year the temple was completed, 255,600 lambs were sacrificed for Passover!
More than one-third of the uses of skeuos in the LXX refer to sacred cult objects related to the tabernacle, altar, or temple.
If the term is used similarly here, then v. 16 refers to Jesus’ stopping the flow of sacrifices and thus impeding the temple sacrificial cult in yet another way, which is entirely consistent with the context of vv. 15-18.25
The Messiah was popularly expected to purge Jerusalem and the temple of Gentiles, aliens, and foreigners (see Pss. Sol. 17:22-30). Jesus’ action, however, is exactly the reverse. He do...
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The passage that Jesus quotes in the temple, in other words, includes the very people that the Messiah, according to Psalms of Solomon 17, would exclude! In itself, this reveals that Jesus is a very different kind of Messiah than the one epitomized in Jewish expectation.
that Jesus “went out of the city” should be granted its full symbolic force that he has parted ways with the temple cult.
On his second night in Jerusalem, according to Mark’s chronology, Jesus again (v. 11) separates himself from the Holy City.
Mark’s following the fig tree-temple sandwich with a call to faith signifies that Jesus, and not the temple, is the object of faith.
Until 11:27-33, however, Mark has not divulged the source of Jesus’ exousia.
it was at the baptism by John that the heavens were parted, the Spirit of power descended into Jesus (Gk. eis auton, 1:10), and the voice from heaven declared him God’s Son.
The Greek word for “discussed,” dialogizesthai, appears seven times in Mark, always in contexts of people trying to evade the force of Jesus’ word or claim on them.
they answer, “‘We don’t know.’” That, of course, is not entirely true.
they are unwilling to know.
the landowner takes vengeance not on the vineyard but on the tenants of the vineyard. That is, the parable cannot be interpreted as a blanket judgment on the Jewish people, but rather on their leaders, particularly the Sanhedrin.
Jesus’ judgment on the Sanhedrin and Jewish leadership for confiscating the things of God.
it is because they do know him that they kill him.
There is some irony in the fact that the inquirers possess the requisite coin for the tax, whereas Jesus does not. They apparently share more complicity in the tax system than their question suggests.
If coins bear Caesar’s image, then they belong to Caesar. But humanity, which bears God’s image, belongs to God!
The Pharisees believed in divine sovereignty, while the Sadducees affirmed human free will alone;
That Son of David and Messiah were correlated in the first century is strongly suggested by the fact that every early Christian writer who mentions Psalm 110 interprets it messianically.
Psalm 110, the most frequently quoted OT text in the NT.
The opening line in Hebrew reads “‘The LORD (Yahweh) declared to my lord (adonai).’”
The Psalm thus originally referred to God and the king of Israel. With the destruction of the monarchy in 586 B.C., Psalm 110 was reappropriated, with the rights of the king frequently being transferred to the Messiah, whose kingdom would not fail as had the Davidic monarchy.
the first Lord refers to God and the second to the Messiah.
The quotation from Psalm 110 is used here, as it was later used throughout Christian writings, ultimately not as a description of Jesus’ purpose and work, but as a description of his transcendent status, sitting at God’s honored and authoritative right.
For Jesus, the value of a gift is not the amount given, but the cost to the giver.
Psalm 110 is quoted or alluded to thirty-three times in the NT, and an additional seven times in early Christian authors.
It is most reasonably and fruitfully seen as the culmination of Mark’s polemic against the temple begun in chap. 11.
A1 1-13 End of the temple and fall of Jerusalem B1 14-27 Tribulation and Parousia A2 28-31 End of the temple and fall of Jerusalem B2 32-37 Parousia and watchfulness
it symbolizes Jesus’ final and definitive break from the temple.
Perhaps the unnamed disciple is Judas, who elsewhere is identified by his materialism
The magnitude of the temple mount and the stones used to construct it exceed in size any other temple in the ancient world.
Beginning in v. 5 and continuing throughout the chapter, there is a running admonition against future speculation at the expense of present obedience.
Once again the sufferings and persecutions of believers are not signs of the end, but signs that attend authentic preaching of the gospel!
The breakup of families thus attacks and jeopardizes life and faith at the most intimate and formative level.
Mark 13:6-13 describes the experience of the church following the ascension of Jesus.
The “‘“abomination that causes desolation”’” alludes to the destruction of the temple in A.D. 70, but it is not exhausted by it. The “abomination” is a mysterious (2 Thess 2:7!) double referent, a historical medium that anticipates an ultimate fulfillment in the advent of the Antichrist and the final tribulation before the return of the Son of Man.
The cataclysm described here obviously exceeds in horror any known human event, although the fall of Jerusalem is a prototype.
The true Messiah is reluctant to perform signs and wonders so as not to coerce people’s allegiance; false prophets, by contrast, exploit every means to gain a following (v. 22), as they have since the founding of Israel (Deut 13:1-5).
Jesus saw himself as the fulfillment of Israel’s history
