Mark

...is a Greco-Roman biography of Jesus. For a defense of date and authorship, see this general article with a link inside. For matters relating to Marcan priority and Q, go here. On Mark's "Messianic Secret" motif see here. For Apologetics Bible Study, see here.

Mark 1:2: Is this an attribution error?

Mark 1:4: Does Mark contradict Josephus on the purpose of John's baptism? -- part of a larger article on the faith/works question.

Mark 1:13: Could Jesus have sinned?

Mark 1:23-4: An unclean spirit? Confessing Jesus?!?

Mark 2:1-12: Rudy's Screwy Chop Shop -- how Bultmann's exercises in form criticism are confounded by social insights in this passage
Does Jesus forgive sins, or the Father?

Mark 2:15: "And it came to pass, that, as Jesus sat at meat in his house..." Skeptic Dennis McKinsey clams that this verse indicates "prevarication" in that Jesus has his own house, while later telling others to give up their possessions. He is aware that the answer is that the house is Levi's, but only says that "one need only read the comment in context to see that this defense won't stand the light of scrutiny." What this context is, we are not told, but the parallel stories in Matthew and Luke indicate that the house is Levi's. This critique is merely borrowed uncritically from Remsburg.

Mark 2:18-20: Did Jesus actually break the OT law?

Mark 2:26: Is Mark confused about the name of the high priest?
What men were with David?

Mark 3:16-19: Who are the real twelve apostles?

Mark 3:29: Is all sin forgivable, or not?

Mark 3:33-4: Was Jesus insulting or cruel to his mother and brothers?

Mark 4:11-12: Is this passage "anti-reason"? See here as well.

Mark 4:31: Is Jesus wrong about the mustard seed?

Mark 5:1: Does this verse contain a geographical error?

Mark 5:1-20: How do we reconcile the accounts of the healing of the demoniac?

Mark 5:22-23

Articles
- Jairus' daughter: dead or alive?
- Is Mark wrong about multiple synagogue rulers?

Mark 5:39: Jairus' daughter: dead or sleeping?

Mark 6:5-6: "Jesus is just like a modern faith healer!"

Mark 6:8: Could they have a staff, or not? [Off Site] -- further defense here

Mark 6:10: "Wheresoever ye enter into a house, there abide till ye depart hence." Dennis McKinsey plays with the archaic language of the ASV, saying "What else could you do except remain in a house until you depart from it?" The Greek word (meno) indicates residence (cf. Luke 1:56), not merely going in and out.

Mark 6:14: Does Mark call Herod a "king" wrongly?

Mark 6:17-29: Does Mark contradict Josephus on the death of John the Baptist?

Mark 7:15: Did Jesus actually break the OT law?

Mark 7:26: The woman was a Greek, a Syrophenician by nation; and she besought him that he would cast forth the devil out of her daughter. Is this true, or was the woman of Canaan (Matt. 15:22)? The latter is the term used for someone who was a native of Gentile Palestine. "Syrophenician" is a more specific referent distinguishing her from other Canaanite locales, such as the Cathaginian Phoenicians [Keener, 414]. "Greek" refers to the woman's membership in the Hellenized citizen class of Tyre or Sidon. The classifications vary in specifity (as in, "American", "Floridian", "Miamian") but are not contradictory. Bauckham (Gospel Women, 42-3) suggests that Matthew uses the "Canaanite" designation so to make her connnected to the two Canaanite women in his geneaology (Tamar and Rahab). See also Why was Jesus harsh with the Syro-Phoenician woman? and a look at the matter in cultural terms showing Jesus was actually treating the woman as an equal when he did this. [Off Site]

Mark 7:31: Does this verse contain a geographical error?

Mark 8:10: Does this verse contain a geographical error? For more comments see here.

Mark 8:11-12: Is there contradiction about the giving of signs?

Mark 8:27-8: Do these verses support reincarnation?

Mark 8:29: When did Peter know Jesus was the Christ?

Mark 8:34: Is reference to the cross anachronistic? -- part of a reply to C. Dennis McKinsey

Mark 8:35: "For whoever wants to save his life will lose it, but whoever loses his life for me and for the gospel will save it." McKinsey declares this anachronistic in that there was "no gospel during (Jesus') lifetime." The word here, however, is euangelion, and it refers to any good message and thus applies to what Jesus proclaimed in the coming of the Kingdom of God. McKinsey is confusing the use of the word "gospel" as it applies to the later message of salvation with the more general usage of the word (used throughout the Greek language to connote any sort of good news or message), which he seems to be unaware of.

Mark 9:1: Is this a false prophecy?

Mark 9:2: Did the Transfiguration involve a wait of six days, or eight, per Luke? An interesting note is that Matthew and Mark use says "after six days" only whereas Luke specifies "about an eight days after these sayings..." Not only is Luke estimating where Mark and Matt are not -- but in light of Peter's words about building shacks for Elijah and Moses, the "six days" referred to means "after the six days between the Day of Atonement and the Feast of Tabernacles". Luke the Gentile writer does not use this method of reckoning time; it would have no meaning for his readers.

Mark 9:13: Was John the Baptist Elijah, or not?

Mark 9:25-6: "You deaf and mute spirit," he said, "I command you, come out of him and never enter him again." Dennis McKinsey asks how the spirit can be deaf and dumb if it made the boy speak and it heard Jesus talk. The boy actually did not speak; the word used, krazo, refers to a scream, or a cry or "croak" like that of a raven, or a shreik. Even the mute can make such sounds. The word for "deaf" is kophos, and it refers also to an inability to speak, not lack of hearing (Matt. 9:34 "And when the devil was cast out, the dumb spake..."; the word "dumb", alolos, is used only by Mark and is a synonym.)

Mark 9:29: If all things are possible, why did a demon require prayer and fasting to be cast out?

Mark 9:50: Was Jesus in error about salt losing its savour?

Mark 10:1: Does this verse contain a geographical error?

Mark 10:2-12: On divorce and adultery in the NT

Mark 10:11: Does Matthew contradict Mark on divorce?

Mark 10:12: "This verse makes no sense -- Jewish women couldn't divorce their husbands!"

Mark 10:17-18: Did Jesus deny being good -- and therefore divine?

Mark 10:19: Is Mark misquoting one of the Ten Commandments?

Mark 10:29-30: ...There is no man that hath left house, or brethren, or sisters, or father, or mother, or wife, or children, or lands, for my sake, and the gospel's, but he shall receive an hundredfold now in this time, houses, and brethren, and sisters, and mothers, and children, and lands...
Skeptic C. Dennis McKinsey asks where Jesus' followers got all of this wealth they were promised, but did not get. The answer is that it is obtained by common property of the community of believers. (This is also how, in answer to his question, one may "receive retrospective motherhood in wholesale quantities" - by adoption into the community of believers!) Also, McKinsey claims that this is a form of bribery and an appeal to greed, but anyone who approaches out of greed rather than for the sake of the gospel (which is the whole point behind the passage!) hardly qualifies.

Mark 10:40: Is Jesus contradictory about his ability to grant thrones?

Mark 11:1ff

Articles

Mark 11:13-14: Was Jesus being unreasonable when he "zapped" the fig tree? Also looks at the matter of chronology.

Mark 11:17: Isn't the Temple cleansing incident an example of violence? [Off Site]

Mark 11:23: Does this mean we can get anything we pray for?

Mark 12:25: Is this "anti-sex"?

Mark 12:30-2: Did Jesus misquote the Shema?

Mark 13:2: Is this a fase prediction because of the Wailing Wall? No. The Western Wall is part of the foundation structure of the courts, not the Temple itself. "The Western Wall in the midst of the Old City in Jerusalem is the section of the Western supporting wall of the Temple Mount which has remained intact since the destruction of the Second Jerusalem Temple (70 C.E.)." (See here.) "When Rome destroyed the Second Temple in 70 C.E., only one outer wall remained standing. The Romans probably would have destroyed that wall as well, but it must have seemed too insignificant to them; it was not even part of the Temple itself, just an outer wall surrounding the Temple Mount." (See here.)

Mark 13:32: If this is true, what about the Holy Spirit?

Mark14:3ff: Are the "anointing women" stories copies of each other?

Mark 14:7: Will Jesus always be with us, or not?

Mark 14:12-16

Articles
- Do the Gospels disagree on the date of Jesus' crucifixion?
- Is Mark wrong in depicting a man doing women's work?

Mark 14:21: Judas: Better off not born?

Mark 14:22: Did Jesus eat leavened bread?

Mark 14:30, 68, 72: Do the Gospels disagree on how many times the cock crowed?
Were roosters not permitted in Jerusalem? {off Site]

Mark 14:35: How did the author know what Jesus prayed if eveyone was asleep?

Mark 14:36

Articles
- Does Jesus' asking for the cup to be taken from him show he cannot be a savior?
- "Abba" as a claim to divinity

Mark 14:61: Did Jesus really ommit blasphemy?

Mark 15:17: Was Jesus' robe scarlet as here, or purple as in Mark and John? "Purple" actually refers generically to a type of dye (cf. Acts 16:14) used to make cloth that ranged in color from scarlet to what we call purple.

Mark 15:23: What was Jesus given to drink on the cross?

Mark 15:25: Do the Gospels disagree on the time of Jesus' crucifxion?

Mark 15:34

Articles
- Does Jesus' cry from the cross show he cannot be a savior?
- Do the Gospels disagree about Jesus' last words on the cross?
- Does Jesus actually say, "Why hast thou sacrificed me?"
- If Jesus and the Father are one, who is Jesus talking to?" -- part of a secondary article on the relation of Jesus and the Father, with foundations laid here.
- Did Jesus cry out to a pagan deity? [Off Site]

Mark 15:42: Is Mark confused about the time in this verse?

Mark 15:46: Would Joseph of Arimathea buy linen on the Sabbath?

Mark 16:1, 5: Do the Gospels contradict about who was at Jesus' tomb, or the angels?

Mark 16:9-20: Have a question about something in these verses? Forget it! [grin] As I show here, they don't belong in the text.