June 15th, 2024

It may be no surprise that this Sunday is called the ‘Fourth Sunday after Pentecost’. And since we are in the ‘B Series’, the Gospel readings this year focus on the Gospel according to Mark.

This Sunday, being termed ‘Proper 6’, has the Gospel reading of Mark 4:26-34. Within the writings of this website, we are trying to go through that same account in the way that it was laid out by the writer.

To help in understanding the larger structure of the work, we are avoiding the use of chapter and verse divisions where it is possible, and in the writing for this week we are giving what may be termed a somewhat-literal translation of Mark 12:35-44. It is, admittedly, a short text, but many things could be said about it.

This text immediately follows the statement that no one dared to ask him any more questions. The word ‘dared’ is strongly connected to the idea of boldness. And it is certainly interesting that Jesus, at the start of the text, has an answer to their ‘silence’. He, himself, asks a question. He has the boldness that his enemies are lacking. And certainly this is causing another rise in the level of tension between Jesus and his enemies.

As promised, here is the text in a somewhat-literal translation [Mark 12:35-44]:

And having answered, the Jesus, he was saying, teaching in the temple, “How do they say, the scribes, that the Christ, Son of David, he is? Himself, David, he said in the Spirit, the Holy: ‘He said, Lord, to the Lord of me: “Sit at right of me, until I put the enemies of you under the feet of you.”’ Himself, David, he says him ‘Lord’, and from where, of him, is he son?” And the much crowd was hearing him gladly.

And in the teaching of him, he was saying, “Look from the scribes, the ones wanting in robes to walk around and greetings in the agoras, and first-seats in the synagogues and first-recliners in the dinners; the ones devouring the houses of the widows and for appearance, macro-praying; these will receive greater judgment.”

And having sat opposite the treasury, he was watching how the crowd throws copper into the treasury; and many rich men were throwing much; and having come, one widow, poor, she threw lepta, two, which is a quadrans. And having called to him, the disciples of him, he said to them, “Amen, I am saying to you that the widow, this, the poor, more than all, she threw, the ones throwing into the treasury; for all, out of the abounding to them, they threw, now this one, out of the lack of her, all things, how many she had, she threw, all the living of her.”
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It should be stated that some of the sentence constructions may be a bit difficult to understand. That is certainly a drawback to having a somewhat-literal translation. Another translation or a study bible may help. But an advantage of such a translation is the making of connections to other sections of the work by the use of similar vocabulary. In such a translation, the importance may be seen in the use of one word over another, and the order of the words is quite an important factor. The earlier the word is in the sentence, generally speaking, the more important the word is.
An interesting use of similar vocabulary may be seen in the description of the crowd above. It was described as a ‘much crowd’, and that phrase appeared a few times before this. (If you would like to see the places, you may wish to check out Mark 5:21, 5:24, 6:34, 8:1, and 9:14.) This is the last time that phrase will appear within this gospel account. We are getting closer to the end.

Even more interesting than the description of a significantly large crowd is the description that this particular crowd ‘was hearing him gladly’. I do not think it is a coincidence that this was the description that was given to Herod regarding John the Baptist. (And, again, you may wish to look up the verse of Mark 6:20.)

It should not be too much of a surprise that both John the Baptist and Jesus are headed to their deaths, even though the people who were involved in their deaths were hearing them gladly. And it could be said that, as John pointed ahead to Jesus, Jesus’ death is the most significant one. It may also be said that, in a sense, the death of Jesus points ahead to us, since all our sins were included with his sacrifice on the cross. Christianity is sometimes a difficult path.