The Gospel of Mark Discussion

The Gospel of Mark Discussion Transcript

Shirley Paulson:

Welcome everyone to the November 2019, [Bible and Beyond Discussion]. I am your host, Shirley Paulson of Early Christian Texts, and our presenter this evening is Dr. Hal Taussig.

In this study, we’ll be talking about the Gospel of Mark. This gospel doesn’t get studied that much by itself, but it deserved to be taken seriously for the creative and very different picture it draws of Jesus, and for its serious challenge to Roman imperial hegemony. It has a lot to offer 21st century spiritual and social strategies.

And just a gentle reminder that donations supporting the creation of these textual study archives are greatly appreciated. Five to ten dollars per person, per session, helps us provide these conversations and their archives. The donation link and the archived recordings are easy to find on the Early Christian Texts website. Click the button on the homepage that says, [The Bible and Beyond Discussions].

So, now Hal, it’s your turn here.

Hal Taussig:

Thanks so much, Shirley.

Yes, it’s interesting, in this setting to be looking at the Gospel of Mark, because I want to say that reading Mark tonight, is going to be an experience I think that will make us feel as if we hadn’t read it before, because it never gets studied or rarely gets studied on its own. We often don’t really see, as you said, Shirley, what it’s up to as a story.

So, I gave you a whole bunch of texts that you could read from Mark. We’ll get a little ways into it and then I’ll have us look at some texts together. And then maybe some of you will have looked at some in the meantime also.

And you might want to ask for some of the other texts that I’ve listed. We won’t be able to read all the ones that I listed as possibilities.

Let me just say a very little bit about the background to the Gospel of Mark. And remember that what I’m now going to say is dubious, because we don’t know a lot of these pieces of information about any gospel and anything from the ancient world. But most scholars think that the Gospel of Mark was written in the seventies. That is 70 CE, right between 70 and 80. And the reason, mainly, that this is the thought for people is that it seems like it’s relating to a lot of well, not tragedy, but a lot of really bad, painful things in the story.

And that has made scholars think that this might be right after the Romans came back into Israel and recaptured Israel and killed thousands of people in the process.

One of the things that some of you heard me say that the Jewish historian of that era, Josephus says that when Rome came back in, in 70 to retake Israel, he crucified people all the way from Cephrus to Jerusalem. That is the road from Cephrus to Jerusalem, which is Cephrus in Galilee. There’s a long road from there down to Jerusalem, it’s about 70 some miles. So if you walk on that road, it would take you a couple of days at least, and the Romans crucified people on each side of the road the entire way.

So, you would’ve had 70 miles of people crucified on both sides of the road. So that’s why we think Mark was written sometime after this very violent retaking of Israel by the Romans. We really don’t know who wrote Mark. The word, ‘Mark’ isn’t in the gospel Mark. And the gospel never says anything about the person who’s writing it. So most authors in an ancient world don’t say who they are in any case. So this is not abnormal, but again, we basically don’t know who Mark is. So, since Mark isn’t even in the gospel itself, I always say, I kind of put quotation marks around Mark.

Some people think it was written in Israel itself. Some people think it was written in Syria, and some people think it was written in Rome. And I have no clue. I’ve thought about this for a long time and I just don’t know. I would tend to think Syria, which would be very close to the tragedy that had happened when Rome came back in. But, that’s a close call, I think. So, let me see right now if anybody has any other basic questions about Mark before we look at a couple passages.

So, let’s look, then, at some passages at the very end of Mark. And I think this gives us, in some ways, a real feel for it.

So the scene of Mark (with Jesus on the cross) is very unusual in that, as you may remember, many gospels have Jesus talking from the cross. ‘Into your hands. I commend my spirit. It is finished. Behold, your mother, behold, your friend.’ All of these are things Jesus says in different gospels. In Mark, Jesus only says one thing, and that is, ‘my God, my God, why have you forsaken me?’ That’s all he says. And then he screams and dies. So, that’s different than other pictures of Jesus dying, right? So this is basically, a screaming at God for abandoning him, and then he died. Let me just stop there and see what you all think.

Karla:

Hi, this is Karla. You’re talking about Mark 16, right?

Hal Taussig:

Yes. And thank you, Karla, because that reminds me to say one other thing. About the end of… no, excuse me, that’s not Mark 16, it’s Mark 15:33 to 36.

Karla:

Okay, thanks.

Hal Taussig:

And so that’s basically what I justs said. Let’s see if anyone else has any response to thinking of a story in which Jesus only says that.

Shirley Paulson:

Well, so are you referring to his quoting of Psalms? Does he quote that same psalm in all four gospels, or just Mark?

Hal Taussig:

That’s just Mark and Matthew.

Shirley Paulson:

Mark and Matthew. Okay.

Hal Taussig:

But that’s a curious and interesting thing for you to remind us of. “My God, my God, why have you forsaken me” is in another part of the Bible.

Shirley Paulson:

So, I just know that that’s quoting Psalm 22. And so you make me curious about where these stories come from? Why would it be Mark, Matthew, but not the others? And, why was he quoting Psalms? Or was he quoting Psalms. Just talk to us about the relationship.

Hal Taussig:

Yes, sure. Thank you. So, let’s just think out loud about this together. So if you are being crucified, which would this be in the story? Would this be somebody quoting Bible verses? Or would this be someone screaming out in pain?

Shirley Paulson:

Well, an idealized picture of him might be that he’s completely composed and he’s thinking about the Bible and he’s quoting for the Bible (laugh).

Hal Taussig:

And why would he quote that thing just to get into the Bible?

Shirley Paulson:

I suppose he sounded like he’s been pretty forsaken, and that’s the thing that he’s relating to at the moment, (laugh). That’s the way I’ve always thought of it. Anyway,

Hal Taussig:

Yeah. And that’s because you’re such a scholar.

Shirley Paulson:

Oh, I think…

Peggy:

Doesn’t it also go on to describe the crucifixion scene in that Psalm?

Hal Taussig:

A little bit. A little bit. People are yelling at him and mocking,

Peggy:

Gaping hole.

Hal Taussig:

They’re mocking him and they’re yelling at him. In other words, it’s not going well in the story. So, I want to say that, Shirley, I have put an either/or in this conversation, to tease you all a little bit. But, I would want to say that, Mark is such a clever author. That the answer is not either, that Jesus means something like, ‘I hate you, God, you left me.’ It’s not either that or Jesus is quoting the Psalm in Psalm 22, but it’s sort of both. But I think it’s really on the drama level. It’s really the first. In other words, you have the picture of Jesus being tortured to death.

I mean, we don’t say that, but that’s what crucifixion is. It’s a system of killing people that’s designed to torture them. So it feels to me as if the first level that we receive the story very well, especially if they’re not, necessarily a scholar like you are, Shirley that knows that this very sentence is also in Psalm 22. This is what scholars know. But basically if you just want to read the story, you think, oh, yes, this guy is being killed, and he’s yelling at God about it. In other words, I would want to say, “don’t think of the other Jesus as, you know, let this be this Jesus’s story.” So Mark, I think, is wanting to paint that picture of Jesus’ agony and not give Jesus any other things to say that are reassuring, like, ‘into your hands I commend my spirit.’

Or deciding when it’s finished and when it’s not. Or taking care of his mom and his friend. This is a very stark Jesus. But it’s almost completely sure that Mark meant both. Mark meant for some people to hear a faint echo of another piece of the Bible. So Mark isn’t in the Bible when this is being written. Right. Some people who hear this story might know that about Psalm 22. Now, what is Psalm 22? Psalm 22 is a story about someone who has lost all his money and he’s in debt. And, this person is yelling at God saying, “you took care of my mom and dad and my family, but you’re not taking care of me. And you’ve abandoned me.”

The end of the psalm is in another voice. What most of us think is the first half of the psalm is this is simply a praying to God about being in agony and having everything taken away. The last part of the psalm probably refers, in other words, there’s a really good chance that a lot of people went broke and lost all their money in Israel’s farm country because it was a great farm country. And we know that a lot of people borrowed a lot of money to stay alive in that time. So this is a psalm that’s being quoted of somebody in that kind of trouble. The last part of the psalm is a little bit different. And it’s about that psalm, but it’s in the third person. And there, what it says is, “God is gonna take care of the poor people. God will never forget the poor people.”

But that’s in the third person. So in other words, when this psalm got so popular, it probably was put in the psalm collection at the temple, and they didn’t want to write such a down, complaining prayer in the psalmnody… so they made it a somewhat happier ending. But of course, Mark is clever. Mark wants to give a picture of Jesus in horrible pain, dying, being tortured, and wants some people to know, oh, that’s the same thing that the guy in Psalm 22 said when he was losing all his money.

So let’s see if other people wanted talk about that. So we jumped back into the Psalm thing, and we were going to talk about that later. But it’s good that we got it now. I’ve got some other really very interesting stuff for us to read in the latter part of Mark, as well. But let’s see what we’re thinking about Jesus being tortured to death and yelling at God.

Speaker 5:

I got a question. So, you think that Mark is using the reference to Psalm 22 to say, “Yes, Jesus is dying, he’s being tortured to death.” And yet at the end of the psalm, “the ends of the earth shall remember and turn to the Lord.” That somehow that he’s foreshadowing that story, that somehow Jesus will triumph in the end by quoting that psalm.

Hal Taussig:

That’s a really good thing to mention. So it is a kind of a third person, happy ending. We don’t get the person who’s yelling at God doesn’t get happy, but, it’s a promise for that person. And then it gets echoed. Well, it doesn’t get echoed in Mark, but some people will know it, right? Some people won’t, and some people will. Yes. That’s very important.

Speaker 5:

“Still remember and turn to the Lord.”

Hal Taussig:

Right? Yes. So that’s not only good news for some being tortured to death or someone losing all their money. It’s saying that about the whole, the everybody.

Speaker 5:

Right? It’s not saying that Jesus is not going to die, but that in the end, that -inaudible – will be remembered. God will.

Hal Taussig:

Yes. That’s good. Other comments?

Joy:

This is Joy. I think that this is really an opposite to what we normally celebrate Christmas about. Because Mark really does seem to be saying, “It’s going to be tough following me. You’re going to have to take up a cross and you’re gonna have to. It’s not going to be easy. But I went through this too.” It really humanizes Jesus, this story. But it’s not a celebration kind of thing. Like our Christmas celebrations of the birth of a baby and all that.

Hal Taussig:

Or Easter.

Joy:

Yes. I think it’s written to people who have been, are in, are committing to following, but are having just the same kind of experiences. And he’s saying, it happened to me. Hang in there.

Hal Taussig:

Yes. And so, remember also, as we were saying earlier, we think this was written for people who were completely tortured as an army came in and took their country. Now let me scoot on to the next chapter. But the next chapter is 16, and it’s the last one. And here is the thing I want to say, quickly, before I recount it and maybe read it. There are different endings of the Gospel of Mark. Matter of fact, if some of you are looking at your Bible, most Bibles will say there are three or four different endings to Mark. Anybody see that?

And so, the endings are different. But we’ve been able to study this enough. So we’re looking at different manuscripts, and because of carbon dating we’re able to look at the different manuscripts with different endings. And there’s one ending which ends in verse eight. I don’t want you to look at it quite yet. So the shortest version is also the earliest version. So of the manuscripts that are the oldest, they all end with verse eight.

So we’re pretty sure that verse eight is the real end to the Gospel of Mark as more or less originally written. So then, look at that. And what you have is, the women coming to Jesus’ tomb to bring spices. And they run into, at the tomb itself, they run into this young man and this young man… (And pay attention to the way this works. Because you don’t want to think about how Matthew or Luke or John did this, but how Mark did it.) … so, they see the stone rolled away. They go in, they see the young man, and the young man says, “Don’t be dismayed. You’re looking for Jesus of Nazareth who has been crucified. He has been raised, he’s not here. Look, here is the place where they laid him. But go and say to his followers and to Peter, he ‘is going before you into Galilee.’ There you’ll see him as he told you.”

Now we’re, now we’re up to verse seven. So, in other words, okay, Jesus has been risen and according to the young man, you can go see him. And the main thing you need to do is tell the disciples.

Then, we have verse eight, which I think is the best punchline in all of ancient literature. “The women went out and fled from the tomb where they were trembling and bewildered, and they did not say a word to anyone for they were frightened.” So that would be the last line in Mark.

So, let’s just sort of walk through that for a minute. In other words, as we know in the story, we know that things aren’t all lost, even though the story says nobody learned about Jesus’ resurrection, right? In this story, the women are afraid and they run away and say nothing. End of story. But we as readers know that the young man said to the women, “He’s risen.” What kind of end is this?

Speaker 7:

I see it as open-ended. I can’t help but wonder what’s going to happen when they get to Galilee. I can’t help but wonder if the women go to Galilee and leave the men behind. You know?

You know. I see it as an open ending. I see it as they were afraid, but they’ve got information. And so the story’s not over, and they end here for Mark, but the story’s not over.

Hal Taussig:

Well, so that’s interesting, isn’t it? It sounds like it’s over.

Speaker 8:

To me. It’s like an ellipsis.

Hal Taussig:

Say more.

Speaker 8:

To me it’s like an ellipsis in a sentence. You know, the dot, dot, dot.

It says, “to be continued.” I mean, you know, it’s like a novel ends today, and you know, somebody’s going to go out the door and say something. But you have to think, it sort of puts us into it to think, “What’s going to happen now?” What would you do if you were one of those women?

Speaker 7:

Right? My niece is taking a writing class. And she came home and taught me, “Auntie, do you know what a cliffhanger is?” And so, to me, this is what it is, like a cliffhanger. Like, you know, there’s more to come.

Peggy:

I don’t normally agree with the King James version use of gender, but in this particular one, it says, “neither said they anything, to any man.” I think, they talked plenty among themselves!

Speaker 7:

Right, right.

Peggy:

And tried to figure it all out.

Karla:

Right. Right.

Hal Taussig:

Well, one thing we can say about what you all are saying is that you don’t think this is the end. Why would the gospel writer make it the end?

Peggy:

Interrupted, thrown in jail?

Hal Taussig:

Mm-hmm. Mm-hmm.

Speaker 7:

But also, you know, because Mark is clever, he may want you to think. I mean it’s just like Jonah is an open-ended story. And so Mark, being the first gospel, it may be, “I want you to think.” Because the story doesn’t end.  And so that’s how I see it.

Hal Taussig:

Okay. Let me say another thing that some of you kind of know about Mark, but you sort of don’t. So Jesus, throughout the Gospel of Mark, is very predictable on two fronts. One is when someone calls him something like the ‘Son of God’ or the ‘holy one of God’ or the ‘Messiah’, do you remember what, In Mark, Jesus says? “Don’t tell anyone.”

Speaker 7:

Right, right, right, right, right, right.

Hal Taussig:

When Jesus heals people, and before anybody else is around, Jesus says to the people were healed. What? “Don’t tell anyone.”

Speaker 7:

But they did.

Hal Taussig:

Well, and they did. Yes. And every time in those stories, they go tell other people. In other words, in all of those stories, you have this really interesting thing happening. Really good things are announced and Jesus says, “Don’t tell anybody.” But they do anyway. Now if you remember that in Mark, look again at this last story, because I want to say that Mark sets us up, but not for what most of you all are talking about. Lisa, I think this is a better setup. So why wouldn’t one say, “Finally someone obeyed him?”

Hal Taussig:

Okay. Good. You’re supposed to be laughing. In other words, this is the guy who says, “Don’t tell anyone,” and nobody obeys him. And now in the crucial moment of the entire story, people do what he had been saying all along, and it doesn’t make us feel good.

Speaker 7:

They weren’t talking. Jesus didn’t give the instruction. The angel gave the instruction. Thank you. Yes.

So, Jesus didn’t give the instruction. The angel gave the instruction. They didn’t get it to tell people from Jesus. They got it from the angel in the tomb. And so maybe they didn’t say anything because they needed to hear it from Jesus as opposed to somebody who could be just like everybody else who doesn’t really listen.

Hal Taussig:

Okay. But, let me just ask you, where do you find the angel in this story?

Speaker 7:

Well, the young man. Sorry. You’re right. Okay. The young man.

I think Mark is really careful not to say it’s an angel.

Right. And so that, that solidifies what I’m saying even more. If it’s just a regular guy in the tomb, giving instruction, should we say anything when Jesus, himself, is telling us never to say what he’s doing. And so the women may be waiting to hear it from the horse’s mouth.

Peggy:

Karla, I think you bring up a question about who is the young man, because they didn’t recognize Jesus on the walk to Emmaus either.

Speaker 7:

Right.

Hal Taussig:

Yes. And Mark gives us a funny little thing there. I don’t think we know who the man is. There’s no name, but there is of course, that funny other little young man in only Mark, and that’s when they arrest Jesus. And the young man tries to save Jesus and they grab him and he runs away naked – the streaker.

And just to show you how amazing Mark is in storytelling, what does Mark have the young man in the tomb sit beside? Clothing. Yes. In other words, I want us to just hold on to see if this, as I tend to say Mark is, as clever and complex and creative as Shakespeare. You know how Shakespeare, you’ll always know that it means three different things all at once. So here, I want to say this is all just composition so tight.

And so that’s why I want to push back a little bit on you guys wanting to add another story or two. Now, what I want you to notice is that’s what happened. You know why there are three extra, endings to Mark? They needed a happier ending.

And then the next thing I would want is to just sort of think out loud about, and this is mostly about what… some of you know, that I am a pastor as well as a scholar. So I spent a lot of my first five years as a pastor and I felt like I had a lot more people dying than I deserved. And so I was a young pastor and I had so many parents come to me with dead kids. And you know what I did every time. I said, “It’s going to be alright.” I told them things will be fine. See, when I did that, I could see them, their eyes glazing over because they didn’t want me to tell them it was going to be alright. They knew it wasn’t alright. When you lose a baby after five days, you’re really mad and really sad and you really feel abandoned. And so it took me a good five years to stop telling people things are going to be fine. And to just sit there and cry with them or be angry with them and maybe say nothing, but just hold hands.

In other words, I am pretty sure that I screwed up a whole bunch of people’s lives. I know I did that, but in this regard, in receiving people who had horrendous things happen to them.

Speaker 8:

Maybe Mark wants us to be bewildered. Maybe he wants us to be totally surprised with the idea. I mean, what if … what if we’d been there and seen that? We would’ve reacted the same way? And maybe he wants us to cry and be afraid with them. Like you’re saying you did with these people you’ve talked to.

Hal Taussig:

Yes. Well, and still remember also, what he said on the cross. So in other words, it feels to me this is very tightly composed.

John:

And I think it’s important to look at this text beyond just being a historical narrative, but also speaking to the condition of Mark and what was going on in this area around 70. So if I was a family that was hearing this story and my relative had just been crucified on that long road, then this ending would actually make a lot of sense. It would speak to the experience because things seem to be hanging in the balance. You know, there’s so many powerful stories of healing, but in that moment, things could go either way. And to me, that would actually be more inspiration to pick up my cross than the standard resurrection narrative that we know has been often interpreted as Jesus has done all the work. Now we can just sit back and chill.

Hal Taussig:

And thanks, John, for bringing up what one of you also mentioned earlier. That it’s only in Mark that we have the starkest picture of when, in chapter eight and nine, when Jesus says, “Who am I?” Peter comes up with the answer, “You are the anointed one.” Or “You’re the Messiah.” And remember what Jesus says to him? “Don’t tell anybody.” And then Peter says, “What do you mean?” Peter reproaches him. And then, you know what Jesus says back to him? “Get away from me, Satan.” He doesn’t… there is not one tiny… saying, “Peter, you got it right.”

Speaker 5:

You know, I’m struck by you’re telling us that the road to Galilee was lined with crucifixions at this time. Yes. The young man says, “Go ahead to Galilee. You’ll see him there.” Well, are they going to see him in those others who are crucified?

Hal Taussig:

(laugh) Very interesting. And let’s remember that. That one of the things that happens to, I think many of us, when really horrible things happen, is that we have two, (I think our, our society has taught us to hope for) to think two thoughts. One is, “It’s tragic.” “My life is now tragic.” And the other is “I’m going to triumph.” And I want to say it’s neither tragedy nor triumph. Mark’s story is that the crucifixion happened, right? As a record, but that nobody knew about it except you, the reader.

Speaker 7:

Right.

Hal Taussig:

So, in other words, I think this is a rejection of triumph as a lifestyle in the middle of pain and loss. And it’s a rejection of triumph, but it’s not cynical. It’s not as bad as Jesus said it was.

Speaker 7:

I think when we read this gospel it’s important because we should not be okay with the crucifixion.

Hal Taussig:

Yes. Yes. Well, But the gospels teach us that… And they don’t let us know. Well, it’s not true. They let us know, but we don’t know what crucifixions are like. Yes. That’s really important. So I’m pushing my luck with you all. So I want to stop for a moment if there’s some other ways of thinking about it or some other protests about what I’m hoisting on you.

Karla:

I like what everybody’s saying. But I’m just wondering what would’ve happened if Mark was the only gospel that survived. And that was the only story we had. So we’re thinking of it in terms of the context of the other gospels and of centuries of Christianity. But could that… and again, you guys might know more history than I do. Is that something that could have happened? That that would’ve been the only narrative of the story that survived?

Speaker 2:

Yes. Because we’re pretty sure that Mark is the first one.

Karla:

Right. That’s why I’m wondering, I mean, to, to look at it, it would’ve been extremely stark. If that was it. That was the only story that we knew.

Hal Taussig:

Yes. I think that’s a great question, Karla. So I guess what I would want to suggest is that all the gospels, not only around the crucifixion and resurrection, but in general, the four canonical gospels as well as the 15 others, they all are different from one another. In other words, none of the gospels are written to be put in the Bible. They’re written for specific people. And this is why it seems to be very possible that this is a gospel written for a bunch of people who’ve about lost it all.

What I want to do is talk a little bit about other parts of Mark where Mark is also very clear about being written for people who are in the middle of thinking that their life is a tragedy or wishing for their life to be triumphal. So for instance, you may remember the man in chapter five, the beginning of chapter five, who is often called the Gadarene demoniac. He’s this guy who has gone crazy, and the people put him in the cemetery and tied him with chains. But he is so crazy that he can rip the chains off, pick up rocks and start hitting himself.

And then Jesus and he meet, and Jesus says, “Hey, who’s got ahold of you making you do this?” Meaning “Who’s the demon inside you?” And he says, very clearly, “It’s legion.”

Now, it’s so funny. I mean, it took me like 50 years to realize what’s right in front of our eyes. And some of you have worked with me on this. So what is a legion? A legion is an army unit. It’s an army unit between 2 and 5,000 soldiers. And so just going back over that, Jesus says, “What’s got a hold of you that’s making you hit yourself and not be able to do anything, and be on the edge of real craziness?” And he says, “It’s the army that captured my country and that crucifies people regularly. That’s what’s inside me.”

And then Jesus says, “We’re going to fix that.” And here, I want you to just listen to how Mark treats loss and pain and suffering. So there, Jesus says in the mall. You probably know most of this. He says, “Oh, look, there’re, those 2000 pigs over there on the hill. I’m going to send the Army. I’m going to send a legion into them, and you’ll be free of them.” So Jesus does that. And then what happens? When the evil or the unclean demon goes into the pigs, they run off the cliff and kill themselves. Now, I shouldn’t be laughing, maybe, about animals dying, but what you have in the story is a man being cured because Jesus puts the demon in the army and the army kills itself. Now, there’s no historical record of that. And I want to say the teller of the story is smiling anyway. Because the teller of the story knows that Israel never won the war, and the Romans kept killing them. So that story takes care of the man, but about as well as the resurrection does at the end. In other words, they’re underwhelming good news.

Speaker 1:

Is it a fantasy wish? Fulfillment?

Hal Taussig:

Yes. Yes. Well, but it’s much more clever because it’s anti-military. It’s not just anti-military. It’s anti the people who were snuffing out the life of thousands of people.

So, I know we’re almost done, but I want to remind you of the woman with the hemorrhage. This this was written almost certainly by Mark. And she’s been bleeding for twelve years, and she goes up and touches Jesus and her bleeding stops. And Jesus says “Your confidence made you whole.” The word that’s translated often ‘your faith’ means mostly in Greek ‘confidence’. So in other words, he doesn’t even say, “I healed you.” He said, “You healed you.” (laugh)

And then there’s the Syrophoenician woman, which is also Markan, in which there she wants Jesus to heal her daughter. And he says, “No, I’d rather stay with the children and not the dogs.” And what that means is that, that’s the bad word. That’s the B word for all women in Greek and that’s the word for foreigners. So he calls her a dog and knows that it’s an insult, and then she comes back with her resources and says, “Wait a minute. Even the dogs get the crumbs.” And Jesus said, “Yes, okay.” So, in other words, you look at so many parts of Mark and it’s all so raw. And none of it’s tragic and none of it is a great triumph.

Shirley Paulson:

Hal, can you talk to us about the women who were in the tomb really fast? Or is it too much to do that in this last period?

Hal Taussig:

Let’s talk about it. I mean we did talk about it, right?

Shirley Paulson:

Well, I guess what I’m curious about is they were told to go, and they wouldn’t go. But do we have any sense of who they were or why were the women there and nobody else? And what are they doing with the message?

Hal Taussig:

Well, that’s a such a wonderful question.

What I want to say about all five stories we’ve just read in Mark, these are just stories. These are beautiful, powerful stories that mean to heal us. But to mean to heal us in relationship to real life.

In other words, I don’t care to argue whether the crucifix or the resurrection really happened. I think that resurrection happens all the time. But I want to say that in this story, that those women are calibrated to be the most real things the story has. People who are coming to help the guy who got killed. And to bring something good to smell. And people who discover the young man who knows the resurrection and then mess up. So, in other words, I can say that happened. But then, that’s the point. The point is, when we read this story, what does it do for us? And it feels to me like it is like the best news for so many millions of people. Somebody finally takes them way more seriously than I took the people that I screwed up.

Thank you so much.

Did I hear what you wanted?

Shirley Paulson:

Yes, very much so. I appreciate that so much. I started throwing the big question at the end there, but I just thought it would be helpful to hear a little bit about that. And do you have any kind of concluding ideas you’d like to leave us with before we wind up?

Hal Taussig:

Well, I want to say, oh yes, I can’t believe that I had my act this much together. So, one of the other amazing things about Mark is the last command is, “Go back. Go to Galilee.” Now, where do you find Galilee in Mark — at the very beginning! In other words, I think what Mark says is, go read this story again. (laugh)

Shirley Paulson:

Okay.

Hal Taussig:

And I think, in other words, I think Mark wants to claim that this is the story you get up in the morning to read for the people. And you better… it’s probably best if you just read it all the way through.

Shirley Paulson:

Well, I have a feeling that that’s what you’ve done for us is make us go back and read it again. Absolutely.

Thanks everybody for your participation. This was the November 2019 [Bible and Beyond Discussion] on the Gospel of Mark, led by Dr. Hal Taussig. Once a month from 8:00 to 9:00 PM Eastern time on Monday nights, generally the fourth of the month, the Tanho Center sponsors a discussion of one of the early Christian texts. Each session is led by a scholar who shares a well framed overview of the particular text and allows discussion participants time to share their insights as well. Five to ten dollar donations supporting the creation of these textual study archives are greatly appreciated. To donate. Simply click on [The Bible and Beyond Discussions] button on the early Christian Text Home page. Thanks so much, and we hope to see you next month.