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Revolt In The Desert?

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  05 February 2009

Hugh Montefiore
Affiliation:
Cambridge, England

Extract

The task of the critic who attempts to pierce behind the written Gospels to the events which they record is notoriously hazardous and, in the opinion of some scholars, unrewarding and futile. In the case of the Feeding of the Multitudes the difficulties are particularly acute but not necessarily insuperable. Usually the debate has centred on the miraculous nature of the feeding, but it is the aim of this paper to show that the real importance of the historical incident underlying this tale lies elsewhere.

Type
Articles
Copyright
Copyright © Cambridge University Press 1962

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References

page 135 note 1 A short study read at the St Andrews meeting of S.N.T.S. on Wednesday, 6 September 1961.

page 135 note 2 For example, Wellhausen, Branscomb, Bultmann, Klostermann.

page 135 note 3 Lagrange held that vv. 30–44 are a single unity: V. Taylor prefers 31–44. Rawlinson suggested that the Feeding Story began at V. 33, while Wellhausen, Klostermann, Schmidt, Bultmann and C. G. Montefiore believe that vv 34–44 was the original unit.

page 135 note 4 Taylor notes for δεύTgr;Ε v. i. 17; κγ'Ιδīαν iv. 34; εīς éρηνον τόπον i. 35; όλīγον i. 19 (of space); ήΣαν γάρ i. 22; ύπάγω 44; and for the statement that they had no leisure to eat cf. iii. 20 (The Gospel according to St Mark (London, 1953), p. 319).Google Scholar

page 135 note 5 Cf. εīς τό őρος (Mark, vi. 46;Google ScholarJohn, vi. 3).Google Scholar The R.S.V. translation ‘into the hills’ is improbable. őρος means a mountain and can signify the desert, but only rarely ‘hill country’ (cf., Arndt–Gingrich (Preuschen–Bauer), A Greek English Lexicon of the New Testament (Cambridge, 1957), p. 586).Google Scholar Here it seems to refer to a well.known locality (cf., Matt. v. 1; viii. 1;Google ScholarLuke, vi. 12). This should probably be distinguished from the mountain of the Transfiguration.Google Scholar

page 136 note 1 In Acts iii. 11 it is used to describe a popular demonstration, while in I Peter iv. 4it denotes high excitement.

page 136 note 2 Manson, T. W., The Servant Messiah (Cambridge, 1953), p. 70.Google Scholar

page 136 note 3 According to Numbers, Moses prayed that the Lord would appoint a man over the congregation ‘who shall go out before them and come in before them, who shall lead them out and bring them in; that the congregation of the Lord may not be as sheep which have no shepherd’ (Num. xxvii. 17). It may be noted that according to Numbers this incident took place in the wilderness, and that there is a reference to the coming and going of the people, and that the name of the man appointed was Joshua (Jesus).

page 136 note 4 When Jesus followed up Peter's confession of faith with an explanation of the true nature of Messiahship, ‘he began to teach them that the Son of Man must suffer many things …’ (Mark, viii. 31).Google Scholar

page 136 note 5 If John's mention of barley loaves is a genuinely historical detail (and not merely due to the influence of II Kings iv. 42), I. Abrahams was probably right in pointing out that the incident should be dated after and not before the Passover, ‘for the new barley would not have been available for a few weeks after the Passover, and the poor would not have possessed a store of the old barley as late as the spring’ (Studies in Pharisaism and the Gospels (Cambridge, 1917), 1st series, p. 11).Google Scholar

page 136 note 6 Cf., A. Edersheim, The Life and Times of Jesus the Messiah (E.T., London, 1887), 1, p. 171.Google Scholar

page 136 note 7 Cf. the insurrection at Passover in which Barabbas had been involved.

page 137 note 1 Cf., Moulton–Milligan, Vocabulary of the New Testament (London, 1933), p. 598. There is no reference here to an έρανος cult.Google Scholar

page 137 note 2 Moulton–Milligan, , op. cit. p. 533.Google Scholar

page 137 note 3 Winer, G. B. (Grammar of New Testament Greek, ed. Moulton, W. F. (London, 1877))Google Scholar called the phrase ‘properly Hebraistic’, while Blass wrote more cautiously: ‘after the Semitic and more colloquial manner’ (Grammar of New Testament Greek (E.T., London, 1905 2, p. 145)).Google ScholarMoulton, J. H., however, pointed out that this iterated usage with a distributive sense is found in Greek writers, and claimed that ‘the co-incidence with Hebrew (idiom) is a mere co-incidence’ (A Grammar of New Testament Greek, vol. 1, Prolegomena (London, 1906 3), p. 97).Google Scholar

page 137 note 4 Cf., Expos. VIII. VII. 89 f.Google ScholarKraus, S. had drawn attention to a passage in j. Ber. 63 aGoogle Scholarand claimed that the rabbis exercised their preceptorial activities in the open fields and gardens. He showed that the expression ‘in single rows’ referred to the assemblies of rabbis in a vineyard, sitting in rows being the natural consequence of the choice of locality (Die Versammlungsstätte der Talmudgelehrten, Lewy-Fes⃛chrjft (Breslau, 1911), p. 22). In a further article Kraus adduced from an old Midrash on Cant.Google Scholar viii. 13 that a similar phrase ηℸℸ∐ ηℸℸℸ∐ (which is closer to Mark's ηρασιαι πρασιαι ) was used to describe the members of a Chaburah sitting in rows as they studied the Torah (J.Q.R.,, n. s. IV (1913), 111 ff.).Google Scholar

page 137 note 5 An Idiom Book of New Testament Greek (Cambridge, 1953), pp. 59 f. Professor Moule continues: ‘the κagr;γά will then be equivalent to our at in the idiom: “one side of the rectangle was reckoned at a hundred, the other at fifty”.’Google Scholar

page 137 note 6 It is not found, for instance, in the list of technical Greek words and phrases in Heath, T. L., The Thirteen Books of Euclid's Elements (Cambridge, 1908), pp. 529–35.Google Scholar

page 137 note 7 πρασις means not a leek but a leek plot, and the plural use suggests more than one group.

page 137 note 8 A rectangle of such a size seems a pointless formation in which to assemble men for a meal. Lagrange comments on a similar suggestion by Schanz: ‘Ce serait bien mathématique!’ (Evangile selon Saint Marc (Paris, 1929), p. 161).Google Scholar

page 137 note 9 This is the suggestion of Gould, E. P., The Gospel according to Mark (Edinburgh, 1896), p. 119.Google Scholar

page 137 note 10 Num., xviii. 21;Google ScholarDeut., i. 15.Google ScholarCf., IQM iv. 2; vi. 11.Google Scholar

page 137 note 11 Matt., xiv. 21. Professor Dodd has suggested to me that χωρλς γυναικών και παιιων may be intended to mean ‘without any admixture of women and children’.Google Scholar

page 138 note 1 The wilderness wai a popular place in which to initiate an uprising. Cf., Acts XXI. 38;Google ScholarJosephus, , Antiq. XX. 8. 6.Google Scholar

page 138 note 2 T. W. Manson writes: ‘It is difficult to resist the impression that he thought it would be easier to persuade the crowd to go home if the disciples were not there; which suggests that perhaps the real sympathies of the disciples were with the hopes and wishes of the five thousand rather than with the purposes ofJesus’ (op. cit. p. 71).Google ScholarCf., M. Goguel, Life of Jesus (E.T., London, 1933), p. 377. Man. son's point might seem to be confirmed by the Johannine version of Peter's confession (John vi. 66 if.) which, like the Marcan account, follows after a miraculous feeding in the wilderness. John records that from this point many of.Jesus’ disciples forsook him.Google Scholar

page 138 note 3 Cf., Matt. iv. 3 ff.;Google ScholarLuke, iv. 3 ff. Is this perhaps the historical occasion of this temptation?Google Scholar

page 138 note 4 Of the nine points of detail which have been noted in the Marcan narrative, Matthew includes only Jesus' dismissal of his disciples and his departure alone to pray, while Luke has in addition that the multitude sat down by companies of fifty.

page 138 note 5 For example, Matthew records that Jesus healed the sick in the wilderness (Matt, . xiv. 14)Google Scholar and Luke states that Jesus spoke to the multitudes about the Kingdom of God (Luke, ix. 11).Google Scholar

page 138 note 6 Some of these betray the Fourth Evangelist's tendenz, for example, ‘This he said to prove him: for he himself knew what he would do’ (vi. 6). Others may be based on reliable tradition. Thus it is not impossible that there was a lad with the crowd of insurrectionaries: the example of David comes to mind. John portrays Philip and Andrew in a way consonant with their characters elsewhere in his Gospel: Andrew the introducer (cf., i.41; xii. 22),Google Scholar and Philip helpless and incompetent (cf., xii. 22; xiv. 8 f.).Google Scholar

page 139 note 1 Gardner-Smith, P., Saint John and the Synoptic Gospels (Cambridge, 1938), pp. 32 f.Google Scholar

page 139 note 2 A strong manuscript tradition has φύγεī here instead of άνεχώρησεν (ℵ* acffa g 1 syrcur Aug10th 25/1).

page 139 note 3 Boobyer, G. H. (‘The Eucharistic Interpretation of the Miracle of the Loaves in St Mark's Gospel’, J. Th.S. n.s. 111 (1952), 161 ff.) has made out quite a strong case against such an interpretation.CrossRefGoogle Scholar

page 139 note 4 For the significance of the miracle in the Fourth Gospel cf. Dodd, C. H., The Interpretation of the Fourth Gospel (Cambridge, 1953), pp. 333–45.CrossRefGoogle Scholar

page 139 note 5 This interpretation, which is at least as old as Johannes Weiss, does not necessitate the complex theories based on Mark, viii. 1721Google Scholar which Dr Farrer has suggested (St, Matthew and St, Mark (London, 1954), pp. 57 ff.).Google Scholar

page 139 note 6 Possibly in addition to those mentioned earlier ήμέραι τρεīς (Mark, viii. 2)Google Scholar should be included. It may be a detail influenced by thc ‘three days’ journey into the wilderness’ at the Exodus (Exod. iii. 18; v. 3; viii. 27; xv. 22). A. G. Hebert's suggestion should be noted that Mark may have been influenced by Ps. xxii (LXX), where there occurs the theme of the Lord as shepherd. Δεύτε ʘμεīς αуτολ καρ' ίδίαν είς έρημον καί άναπάνσασθε όλιυον (Mark, vi. 31 a)Google Scholar may be influenced by είς τόπον χλόης … έπί όατος άναπανσεως (Ps., xxii. 2(LXX)).Google Scholar

page 140 note 1 As H. Sahlin points Out, Christian thought had been much influenced by the events of the Exodus period before Mark's Gospel had been written (‘The New Exodus of Salvation according to S. Paul’, The Root of the Vine, A. Friedrichsen and others (London, 1953), pp. 81 ff.);Google Scholar for the importance of the Desert Assembly cf., L. Cerfaux, The Church in the Theology of S. Paul (E.T., London, 1959), pp. 100 ff.Google Scholar

page 140 note 2 Cf., D. E. Nineham, ‘Eyewitness Testimony and Gospel Tradition’, J. Th.S. n.s. n.s. IX (1928), 22.Google Scholar

page 140 note 3 The question is too large to be discussed here, and no certainty can be attained. A purely mythical explanation would hardly explain the provenance of the tale, nor is it easy to believe that the story had its origin in Jesus’ encouragement of the crowd to share their food with one another. More probably the meal was an ‘eschatological sacrament’, a foreshadowing of the Messianic Feast. If so, this would explain the crowd's attempt to proclaim Jesus as the Messiah at this juncture.

page 140 note 4 απήγγειλαν αύτω πάντα όσα έποίέσεν καί έδίδαζεν.

page 140 note 5 I owe this illuminating suggestion to Dr E. Bammel. Is this perhaps the explanation of Herod's change of attitude towards Jesus (Luke, ix. 7; xiii. 31)?Google Scholar It seems probable that the βιασταί of Matt. xi. 12 are not the Essenes, nor the Scribes and Pharisees, nor the publicans and harlots, but rather the followers of John the Baptist with their revolutionary tendencies (cf., Josephus, Antiq. XVIII. 5. 2).Google Scholar

page 140 note 6 The healing at Bethsaida (Mark, viii. 22 ff.)Google Scholar may have been inserted at this point because of Mark's ‘desire to symbolize the gradual process of the unstopping of the disciples’ ears, and the opening of their eyes’ (Richardson, A., The Miracle Stories of the Gospels (London, 1942), p. 84). I can see no valid reason why Mark should not have mingled topical with historical order in this way.Google Scholar

page 141 note 1 The Teaching of Jesus (Cambridge, 1945), p. 210.Google Scholar

page 141 note 2 Cf., Goguel, M.: ‘As we read the Synoptic narratives we feel that something must have happened at this point and that this unknown element must have exercised a direct influence on the following course of events’ (op. cit. p. 369).Google Scholar

page 141 note 3 Op. cit. p. 201.Google Scholar