Mark 13.9, 11-13 as an intrusive pericope.

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Ben C. Smith
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Mark 13.9, 11-13 as an intrusive pericope.

Post by Ben C. Smith »

I have argued elsewhere that the material about sin and blasphemy in Mark 2.5b-10 and the material about the spirit, sin, and blasphemy in Mark 3.28-30 may well be Marcan insertions into stories which previously lacked them. (I have since then mentally expanded that second insertion as likely including more than just the three verses I identified at the time, but the exact extent of the insertion is not important here.) I also suggested at that same time that Mark 13.11 at least bore a similar theme, and wondered whether it might not also be an insertion. It is that hunch that I wish to follow up on in this thread.

But I wish to discuss more than that single verse, Mark 13.11. I believe that it belongs, in context, with verses 9 and 12-13. (Verse 10 is so out of place that I have already pinned as a possible harmonization with Matthew; I believe it entered the text later than any of its immediate context.) These verses form their own unit in the Olivet discourse:

Mark 13.5-31:

5 And Jesus began to say to them, "See to it that no one misleads you. 6 Many will come in My name, saying, 'I am He!' and will mislead many. 7 And when you hear [ὅταν δὲ ἀκούσητε] of wars and rumors of wars, do not be frightened; those things must take place; but that is not yet the end [ἀλλ᾽ οὔπω τὸ τέλος]. 8 For nation will arise against nation, and kingdom against kingdom; there will be earthquakes in various places; there will also be famines. These things are the beginning of birth pangs [ἀρχὴ ὠδίνων ταῦτα].

9 But you, watch out for yourselves [βλέπετε δὲ ὑμεῖς ἑαυτούς]; for they will deliver [παραδώσουσιν] you to the courts, and you will be flogged in the synagogues, and you will stand before governors and kings for My sake, as a testimony to them. 10 And the gospel must first be preached to all the nations. 11 And when they arrest you [καὶ ὅταν ἄγωσιν ὑμᾶς], delivering [παραδιδόντες] you up, do not be anxious beforehand about what you are to say, but say whatever is given you in that hour; for it is not you who speak, but it is the Holy Spirit. 12 And brother will deliver [παραδώσει] brother to death, and a father his child; and children will rise up against parents and have them put to death. 13 And you will be hated by all on account of My name, but the one who endures to the end, he shall be saved.

14 But when you see [ὅταν δὲ ἴδητε] the abomination of desolation standing where he should not be — let the reader understand — then let those who are in Judea flee to the mountains. 15 And let him who is on the housetop not go down, or enter in, to get anything out of his house; 16 and let him who is in the field not turn back to get his cloak. 17 But woe to those who are with child and to those who nurse babes in those days [ἐν ἐκείναις ταῖς ἡμέραις]! 18 But pray that it may not happen in the winter.

19 For those days [αἱ ἡμέραι ἐκεῖναι] will be a time of tribulation such as has not occurred since the beginning of the creation which God created, until now, and never shall. 20 And unless the Lord had shortened the days, no life would have been saved; but for the sake of the elect whom He chose, He shortened the days. 21 And then if anyone says to you, 'Behold, here is the Christ,' or, 'Behold, He is there,' do not believe him; 22 for false Christs and false prophets will arise, and will show signs and wonders, in order, if possible, to lead the elect astray. 23 But take heed; behold, I have told you everything in advance.

24 But in those days [ἐν ἐκείναις ταῖς ἡμέραις], after that tribulation, the sun will be darkened, and the moon will not give its light, 25 and the stars will be falling from heaven, and the powers that are in the heavens will be shaken. 26 And then they will see the Son of Man coming in clouds with great power and glory. 27 And then He will send forth the angels, and will gather together His elect from the four winds, from the farthest end of the earth, to the farthest end of heaven.

28 Now learn the parable from the fig tree: when its branch has already become tender, and puts forth its leaves, you know that summer is near. 29 Even so, you too, when you see these things happening, recognize that He is near, right at the door. 30 Truly I say to you, this generation will not pass away until all these things take place. 31 Heaven and earth will pass away, but My words will not pass away."

That these verses form their own little textual unit is clear from two considerations. First, Matthew locates this entire paragraph at a different spot in his gospel: to wit, in Matthew 10.17-22, as part of the mission discourse. In the parallel spot on Olivet he actually inserts 24.9-14, which invokes some of the same themes, but in terms more reminiscent of Didache 16 than of Mark 13. So the pericope is movable. Second, these few verses revolve around the word παραδίδωμι ("to deliver"), which appears no fewer than three times in their brief span but nowhere else on Olivet. The rest of the discourse is eschatological, involving signs (and also false signs) of the times and what to do at the crucial moment; but this pericope exudes normalcy, as it were. Its focus is on how to respond to the everyday persecution that one may expect as a disciple of Christ.

The position in the discourse at which this pericope exudes that kind of normalcy is a bit awkward, as well. The previous pericope (verse 5-8), characterized by hearing ("when you hear") and by distant events ("in various places"), has just listed things which are not specific signs of the end but which are just the beginning of the birth pangs. The next pericope (verses 14-18) after the one under discussion, characterized by seeing ("what you see"), is about when stuff "gets real," so to speak, and the time comes to flee (in "those days"). So what are verses 9-13 doing here? Do they come after the beginning of the birth pangs but before the signal to flee? It honestly does not appear to me that this was the intended effect — namely, that wars, earthquakes, and famines were to be followed by persecutions of Christians — but it is the natural effect; Luke actually adjusts the sequence by adding "but before all these things" in 21.12!

Luke 21.10-19: 10 Then He continued by saying to them, "Nation will rise against nation and kingdom against kingdom, 11 and there will be great earthquakes, and in various places plagues and famines; and there will be terrors and great signs from heaven. 12 But before all these things, they will lay their hands on you and will persecute you, delivering you to the synagogues and prisons, bringing you before kings and governors for My name’s sake. 13 It will lead to an opportunity for your testimony. 14 So make up your minds not to prepare beforehand to defend yourselves; 15 for I will give you utterance and wisdom which none of your opponents will be able to resist or refute. 16 But you will be betrayed even by parents and brothers and relatives and friends, and they will put some of you to death, 17 and you will be hated by all because of My name. 18 Yet not a hair of your head will perish. 19 By your endurance you will gain your lives.

While the hearing of Mark 13.7 is a false sign, if you will, and the seeing of Mark 13.14 is the sign that one now needs to flee, there is another kind of seeing in Mark 13.9-13 which muddies the waters a bit: "But you, watch out for yourselves." Proceeding from nonsigns characterized by hearing and distance to a clear sign characterized by seeing and thus proximity is a strong sequence; adding a bit about watching out for oneself in the middle, in a passage which does not really seem to belong chronologically to the middle of the sequence, weakens the flow in between the "beginning of the birth pangs" and the period referred to thrice as "those days," the period of tribulation.

Finally, there is the matter of antecedents. Greek writers, at least those who are writing as informally as the evangelists, do not always specify antecedents for their pronouns, implicit or explicit, but in a passage which already looks somewhat out of place it piques the suspicions, I think, to find Mark writing in verse 9 that "they will deliver you up," with no contextual antecedent for "they" (implicit in the verb παραδώσουσιν), especially when we find that Matthew's parallel material in his mission discourse provides exactly the antecedent that we would like to see:

Matthew 10.17-22: 17 "But beware of men [ἀπὸ τῶν ἀνθρώπων], for they will deliver [παραδώσουσιν] you over to the courts and scourge you in their synagogues; 18 and you will even be brought before governors and kings for My sake, as a testimony to them and to the Gentiles. 19 But when they hand you over, do not worry about how or what you are to say; for it will be given you in that hour what you are to say. 20 For it is not you who speak, but it is the Spirit of your Father who speaks in you. 21 Brother will betray brother to death, and a father his child; and children will rise up against parents and cause them to be put to death. 22 You will be hated by all because of My name, but it is the one who has endured to the end who will be saved."

Matthew 10.17 strikes me as containing the original introduction of the pericope, but Mark 13.9 has changed "beware of men" to "watch out for yourselves," thus inadvertently deleting the antecedent.

None of these considerations is extremely strong on its own; individually, each one probably admits of other explanations. But in a cumulative sense I think it is at least worth considering whether or not Mark has introduced two of his favorite themes, persecution (8.34-38; 9.12-13; 10.28-31, 39) and the nexus of sin, blasphemy, and the spirit (2.5b-10; 3.28-30; 14.63-64), into a context which was originally all about upcoming eschatological events.

Ben.

ETA: I just noticed another difference between Mark 13.9, 11-13 and its context. Verse 13 concludes the pericope with the promise that the one who endures "to the end" (εἰς τέλος) will be saved; since verse 12 has just mentioned the possibility of being handed over to death, "the end" here seems to be the end of one's life. But "the end" under discussion as of 13.7 is the end of an era in human history, not of an individual life. This is another example of how the contents and themes of this pericope contrast with its immediate surroundings.
Last edited by Ben C. Smith on Mon Feb 19, 2018 2:28 pm, edited 2 times in total.
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Re: Mark 13.9, 11-13 as an intrusive pericope.

Post by toejam »

Makes a lot of sense to me. The claims that "the gospel must first be preached to all the nations", and that followers will be "hated on account of My name", etc., also imply post-Easter language, in my opinion.
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Re: Mark 13.9, 11-13 as an intrusive pericope.

Post by Ben C. Smith »

toejam wrote: Sun Feb 18, 2018 1:19 pm Makes a lot of sense to me.
Thanks.
The claims that "the gospel must first be preached to all the nations", and that followers will be "hated on account of My name", etc., also imply post-Easter language, in my opinion.
I agree, but, to be clear, I also think that (at least most of) the predictions surrounding this passage (the birth pangs and the abomination of desolation) were probably formulated after Jesus' putative career, as well. I think they came into being sometime after the Caligula crisis.
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Re: Mark 13.9, 11-13 as an intrusive pericope.

Post by Ben C. Smith »

In the OP I have Mark 13.13b tagged as part of the intrusive pericope, but it does not necessarily have to be:

Mark 13.5-8, 13b-18:

5 And Jesus began to say to them, "See to it that no one misleads you. 6 Many will come in My name, saying, 'I am He!' and will mislead many. 7 And when you hear of wars and rumors of wars, do not be frightened; those things must take place; but that is not yet the end. 8 For nation will arise against nation, and kingdom against kingdom; there will be earthquakes in various places; there will also be famines. These things are the beginning of birth pangs, / 13b but the one who endures to the end, he shall be saved.

14 But when you see the abomination of desolation standing where he should not be — let the reader understand — then let those who are in Judea flee to the mountains. 15 And let him who is on the housetop not go down, or enter in, to get anything out of his house; 16 and let him who is in the field not turn back to get his cloak. 17 But woe to those who are with child and to those who nurse babes in those days! 18 But pray that it may not happen in the winter.

If this is the case, then "the end" in verse 13b would no longer be governed by the deaths being suffered in verse 12; rather, its principal meaning would more naturally follow that of "the end" in verse 7, and it would be similar to a concept found in Daniel:

Daniel 12.12: 12 How blessed is he who keeps waiting and attains to the 1,335 days!

In this restored (?) context Mark 13.13b is now able to focus purely on the plight of the living, ignoring but not tacitly condemning those who may die in the ordeal (just as Daniel 12.12 ignores but does not condemn them), precisely because the deaths of verse 12 are no longer in the picture.
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Re: Mark 13.9, 11-13 as an intrusive pericope.

Post by Ben C. Smith »

It is well known that Mark has a fondness for the conjunction καί (particularly over and above δέ) as compared with Matthew and Luke, especially as a connector between sections or subsections:

Sir John C. Hawkins, Horae Synopticae, page 151: If we take the sections and sub-sections of Mark, as denoted in WH by fresh paragraphs and by spaces respectively, they amount together to 88. Of these no less than 80 begin with καί, and of the others only 6 have δέ as the second word. But in Matthew out of 159 such divisions only 38 begin with καί, while 54 have δέ as the second word; and in Luke out of the 145 divisions only 53 begin with καί, while 83 have δέ as the second word (including δὲ καί 4 times).

In the following snippet from Mark 13 I have boldfaced in red only those instances of καί which serve to connect clauses. I have not marked instances which simply connect nouns (an analogy in English would be that I have not marked the "and" in "dogs and cats" but I have marked the "and" in "dogs have owners and cats have staff"):

Mark 13.5-19:

A. 5 Ὁ δὲ Ἰησοῦς ἤρξατο λέγειν αὐτοῖς· βλέπετε μή τις ὑμᾶς πλανήσῃ· 6 πολλοὶ ἐλεύσονται ἐπὶ τῷ ὀνόματί μου λέγοντες ὅτι ἐγώ εἰμι, καὶ πολλοὺς πλανήσουσιν. 7 ὅταν δὲ ἀκούσητε πολέμους καὶ ἀκοὰς πολέμων, μὴ θροεῖσθε· δεῖ γενέσθαι, ἀλλ᾽ οὔπω τὸ τέλος. 8 ἐγερθήσεται γὰρ ἔθνος ἐπ᾽ ἔθνος καὶ βασιλεία ἐπὶ βασιλείαν, ἔσονται σεισμοὶ κατὰ τόπους, ἔσονται λιμοί· ἀρχὴ ὠδίνων ταῦτα.

B. 9 Βλέπετε δὲ ὑμεῖς ἑαυτούς· παραδώσουσιν ὑμᾶς εἰς συνέδρια καὶ εἰς συναγωγὰς δαρήσεσθε καὶ ἐπὶ ἡγεμόνων καὶ βασιλέων σταθήσεσθε ἕνεκεν ἐμοῦ εἰς μαρτύριον αὐτοῖς. 10 καὶ εἰς πάντα τὰ ἔθνη πρῶτον δεῖ κηρυχθῆναι τὸ εὐαγγέλιον. 11 καὶ ὅταν ἄγωσιν ὑμᾶς παραδιδόντες, μὴ προμεριμνᾶτε τί λαλήσητε, ἀλλ᾽ ὃ ἐὰν δοθῇ ὑμῖν ἐν ἐκείνῃ τῇ ὥρᾳ τοῦτο λαλεῖτε· οὐ γάρ ἐστε ὑμεῖς οἱ λαλοῦντες ἀλλὰ τὸ πνεῦμα τὸ ἅγιον. 12 καὶ παραδώσει ἀδελφὸς ἀδελφὸν εἰς θάνατον καὶ πατὴρ τέκνον, καὶ ἐπαναστήσονται τέκνα ἐπὶ γονεῖς καὶ θανατώσουσιν αὐτούς· 13a καὶ ἔσεσθε μισούμενοι ὑπὸ πάντων διὰ τὸ ὄνομά μου.

C. 13b ὁ δὲ ὑπομείνας εἰς τέλος οὗτος σωθήσεται. 14 Ὅταν δὲ ἴδητε τὸ βδέλυγμα τῆς ἐρημώσεως ἑστηκότα ὅπου οὐ δεῖ, ὁ ἀναγινώσκων νοείτω, τότε οἱ ἐν τῇ Ἰουδαίᾳ φευγέτωσαν εἰς τὰ ὄρη, 15 ὁ [δὲ] ἐπὶ τοῦ δώματος μὴ καταβάτω μηδὲ εἰσελθάτω ἆραί τι ἐκ τῆς οἰκίας αὐτοῦ, 16 καὶ ὁ εἰς τὸν ἀγρὸν μὴ ἐπιστρεψάτω εἰς τὰ ὀπίσω ἆραι τὸ ἱμάτιον αὐτοῦ. 17 οὐαὶ δὲ ταῖς ἐν γαστρὶ ἐχούσαις καὶ ταῖς θηλαζούσαις ἐν ἐκείναις ταῖς ἡμέραις. 18 προσεύχεσθε δὲ ἵνα μὴ γένηται χειμῶνος· 19 ἔσονται γὰρ αἱ ἡμέραι ἐκεῖναι θλῖψις οἵα οὐ γέγονεν τοιαύτη ἀπ᾽ ἀρχῆς κτίσεως ἣν ἔκτισεν ὁ θεὸς ἕως τοῦ νῦν καὶ οὐ μὴ γένηται.

A and C I am at least provisionally taking as a source incorporated by Mark into his text. B I am provisionally taking as something inserted by Mark into that source as part of the incorporation. The results are as follows:

A: 1 instance of καί connecting clauses in 57 words (1.75%).
B: 7 instances of καί connecting clauses in 90 words (7.78%).
C: 2 instances of καί connecting clauses in 102 words (1.96%).

The conjunction καί as a clause connector is about 4 times as common in the intrusive pericope as in the source pericopes. This difference occurred to me as I was noticing the run-along quality of B: "and... and... and... and...," a quality wholly lacking in A and C, while simultaneously potentially changing my mind about a sentence (verse 13b) which happens to feature a δέ instead of a καί.

I am not likely to press this point, since I am not usually impressed with simple word counts, but the observation was surprising to me, and I thought it might be worth sharing by way of wondering what people think of this kind of argument in general. My instincts scream at me that the word counts are far too meager to allow for anything resembling a meaningful statistical analysis, but I wonder whether they might not be useful as supporting data in a larger pattern. What do you think?
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Re: Mark 13.9, 11-13 as an intrusive pericope.

Post by Ben C. Smith »

The more I try to get a handle on Mark 13, the less this pericope,13.9-13, seems to fit in. I recently posted a study of the phrases "these things" and "all these things" in this chapter, and in my attempt to figure out exactly what "these things" in verse 29 might be referring to I discovered that each pericope in the body of the prophecy gave me an easy response except this one:
  1. Verses 5-8: "These things" in verse 29 are a sign of someone or something being near, right at the gates, but verses 5-8 are expressly said not to be a sign of anything: "that is not yet the end." So this passage is a clear no.
  2. Verses 9-13: ???
  3. Verses 14-23: "When you see these things happening" in verse 29 is a great match for "when you see the abomination of desolation" and the ensuing tribulation. The abomination and tribulation period precede the coming of the son of man (who is "at the gates") both conceptually and textually, with verses 14-23 immediately preceding the coming in verses 24-27. So this passage is a clear yes.
  4. Verses 24-27: This passage describes the coming itself of the son of man himself; it cannot, therefore, also be the sign leading up to the coming of the son of man. So this passage is a clear no.
Verses 9-13, though self-contained on their own, happen to comprise in context a squishy, blobby pericope whose chronological and conceptual boundaries spill over both into the preceding and into the following pericopes. Is the persecution described therein in any way a sign of things to come? Unclear. It neither identifies itself as a false sign like the preceding passage nor stands out as a true sign like the following passage. More and more I tend to think that 13.9-13 (well, 13.9, 11-13, at any rate, with 13.10 possibly coming along only later) was added to the prophecy at some point in order to update it and make it more relevant to the gospel readership. Events in Judea involving troubles which were now over may have pinpointed Jesus as a true prophet, given the proper spin, but they would have meant little beyond that; verses about persecution, however, would never go out of style in Christian circles, at least not until Constantine.
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