Why Mark is called Mark? A suggestive hypothesis...

Discussion about the New Testament, apocrypha, gnostics, church fathers, Christian origins, historical Jesus or otherwise, etc.
Post Reply
Giuseppe
Posts: 13732
Joined: Mon Apr 27, 2015 5:37 am
Location: Italy

Why Mark is called Mark? A suggestive hypothesis...

Post by Giuseppe »


And when the multitudes were gathering thick together,
he began to say,
This is an evil generation: it seeketh a sign;
and there shall no sign be given it .
Panarion 42
[ - vv.30-32]


33 No man, when he hath lighted a lamp,
putteth it into a secret place,
neither under the bushel, but on the lampstand,
that they which come in may see the light

http://gnosis.org/library/marcion/Gospel3.html

The "evil generation" are the Jews, for Marcion. They want a "sign", a "Mark" !

I believed, before now, that the "sign" wanted by the people of Nazareth had to be a visible, public miracle just in Nazareth by Jesus. The exact contrary of a Messianic Secret et similia.


But the verse 33 claims clearly that a sign can't be given in Nazareth since it would be similar to waste the light of a "lamp" under the "bushel", Nazareth being so irrelevant (not existing?) that a possible sign given in Nazareth would be itself irrelevant, too.


It is evident that this sign required by the Jews to accept Jesus has to be hidden, implicit, secret, just as it is hidden, implicit, secret the demiurge's will that only the Jews are the Chosen People.

If Jesus has to give a sign, a "Mark", then this sign will be given for all the gentiles, not only for the Jews.

So in this light the anti-marcionite goal of "Mark" (both as Gospel and as name for the author of a Gospel) is too much evident: Mark's Gospel was designed to give for the Jews in a invisible manner the SIGN (="Mark"!!) that, in Marcion, Jesus didn't want to give only for the Jews.
Nihil enim in speciem fallacius est quam prava religio. -Liv. xxxix. 16.
User avatar
Ben C. Smith
Posts: 8994
Joined: Wed Apr 08, 2015 2:18 pm
Location: USA
Contact:

Re: Why Mark is called Mark? A suggestive hypothesis...

Post by Ben C. Smith »

Giuseppe wrote: Mon Dec 10, 2018 9:59 amThe "evil generation" are the Jews, for Marcion. They want a "sign", a "Mark" !
This is either a new low for you or an embarrassingly early April Fools' Day joke.

Etymology of mark: https://www.etymonline.com/word/mark, https://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/mark#English.

Etymology of Marcus: https://www.etymonline.com/word/marcus, https://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/Marcus#Latin.
Last edited by Ben C. Smith on Mon Dec 10, 2018 5:58 pm, edited 1 time in total.
ΤΙ ΕΣΤΙΝ ΑΛΗΘΕΙΑ
Giuseppe
Posts: 13732
Joined: Mon Apr 27, 2015 5:37 am
Location: Italy

Re: Why Mark is called Mark? A suggestive hypothesis...

Post by Giuseppe »

It is an error, thanks for correction.

But please note: even if the post doesn't explain the name "Mark", it gives a plausible explanation to explain the alone of secrecy in Mark as an anti-marcionite sign of the Jewishness of Jesus. The apparent paradox is Mark was able to give a secret sign for the Jews by correcting a previous Gospel that denied precisely that sign.
Nihil enim in speciem fallacius est quam prava religio. -Liv. xxxix. 16.
perseusomega9
Posts: 1030
Joined: Tue Feb 04, 2014 7:19 am

Re: Why Mark is called Mark? A suggestive hypothesis...

Post by perseusomega9 »

Even when he's wrong he's right!
The metric to judge if one is a good exegete: the way he/she deals with Barabbas.

Who disagrees with me on this precise point is by definition an idiot.
-Giuseppe
User avatar
MrMacSon
Posts: 8798
Joined: Sat Oct 05, 2013 3:45 pm

Re: Why Mark is called Mark? A suggestive hypothesis...

Post by MrMacSon »

The apparent paradox is Giuseppe was able to give a secret sign for the mistake by correcting a previous Gospel that denied precisely that sign.
Secret Alias
Posts: 18362
Joined: Sun Apr 19, 2015 8:47 am

Re: Why Mark is called Mark? A suggestive hypothesis...

Post by Secret Alias »

Andrew has suggested it could have something to do with his being a military deserter. Ephrem does a faux etymology for the related name Marcion from maroq = to polish, to perfect.

mrwq (mārōq, mārōqā) nom.ag. cleanser; recompense


1 cleanser, polisher Syr. ISSW 7:35 : ܐܽܘܡܵܢܵܐ ܡܵܪܽܘܩܸܗ ܕܲܟܝܵܢܲܢ ܘܲܡܚܲܕܬܵܢܸܗ‏ O artisan, purger of our nature and its renewer.

2 recompense Sam.
“Finally, from so little sleeping and so much reading, his brain dried up and he went completely out of his mind.”
― Miguel de Cervantes Saavedra, Don Quixote
Post Reply