Book contents
- Frontmatter
- Dedication
- Contents
- EDITOR'S PREFACE
- PREFACE
- ABBREVIATIONS
- INTRODUCTION
- I The first group of conflict-stories
- II The Twelve-source
- III Jesus and the devils
- IV The book of parables
- V Books of miracles
- VI Nazareth and John the Baptist
- VII Corban and miscellaneous incidents
- VIII A book of localized miracles
- IX The ‘Central Section’
- X The entry to Jerusalem
- XI A second group of conflict-stories?
- XII The warning against the scribes
- XIII The ‘Little Apocalypse’
- XIV The Passion story
- XV The Resurrection story
- SUMMARY
- INDEXES
VIII - A book of localized miracles
Published online by Cambridge University Press: 05 July 2014
- Frontmatter
- Dedication
- Contents
- EDITOR'S PREFACE
- PREFACE
- ABBREVIATIONS
- INTRODUCTION
- I The first group of conflict-stories
- II The Twelve-source
- III Jesus and the devils
- IV The book of parables
- V Books of miracles
- VI Nazareth and John the Baptist
- VII Corban and miscellaneous incidents
- VIII A book of localized miracles
- IX The ‘Central Section’
- X The entry to Jerusalem
- XI A second group of conflict-stories?
- XII The warning against the scribes
- XIII The ‘Little Apocalypse’
- XIV The Passion story
- XV The Resurrection story
- SUMMARY
- INDEXES
Summary
The next section (Mark vii. 31—7) at first sight looks like another isolated incident. It stands between the Syrophoenician woman and the doublet version of the miracle of feeding with a very clumsy Marcan introduction. The difficulty of returning from the borders of Tyre and Sidon to the Sea of Galilee via Decapolis (on the eastern shore of the lake) can hardly be explained with Rawlinson ad loc. as due to Mark's desire to locate the second miracle of feeding on Gentile territory; apart from the seven loaves and the seven baskets of remnants, which might or might not suggest the seventy nations of the world, there is nothing to indicate that this miracle is regarded as happening on Gentile ground. The obvious explanation is that the miracle of healing the deaf man was located at Decapolis; the abrupt introduction of viii. 1 and its assumption of a multitude mark it as a miracle story which has no organic connection with its present context. It would seem that Mark's journey is a mere editorial link to bring Jesus from the scene of the healing of the preceding section to the healing of the deaf man for the simple reason that this miracle was in the tradition located in Decapolis.
The story has obvious affinities with two others, the blind man of Bethsaida (viii. 22—6) and Bartimaeus (x. 46—52).
- Type
- Chapter
- Information
- The Sources of the Synoptic Gospels , pp. 59 - 62Publisher: Cambridge University PressPrint publication year: 2011