March 16th, 2024

In these writings we are moving forward in the Gospel according to Mark, as it was laid out by its writer. And we are looking at a few paragraphs each time, with a goal of reading the end of the account near the end of the church year. And we currently at the point of finishing up with what is usually called chapter seven.

This Sunday is the Fifth Sunday in Lent, and the next Sunday will be the start of Holy Week, Palm Sunday. In the Gospel according to Mark, Palm Sunday is in chapter eleven, but this gospel account is known for an early tension between Jesus and his enemies. And you will see things getting much worse.

In the first part of chapter seven, the Pharisees and scribes were connected to one of the historical presents (where a past-tense verb is expected, but a present tense is given). In the translation below, that literary device is attached to a ‘Greek’ woman, a Gentile, more specifically, a Syrophoenician. And when Jesus is in the Decapolis, a non-Jewish area, the people who come to him are also connected to historical presents. This emphasizes the wide variety of people who are interacting with Jesus. And one could say that such a variety continues to this day.

The following is an attempt at a ‘somewhat-literal’ translation of the end of Mark 7(:24-37; and you may wish to look at other translations or even a study bible to aid your understanding of the text; and the historical presents are in bold):

Now from there, having risen, he came away into the regions of Tyre. And having entered into a house, no one, he was wanting to know, and not, he was able to be hidden. But on the contrary, immediately, having heard, a woman, about him; of whom, she had, the little daughter of her, a spirit, an unclean one; having come, she fell down toward the feet of him. Now the woman was a Greek, a Syrophoenician in race; and she was asking him that the demon he would throw out, out of the little daughter of her. And he was saying to her, “Allow first, to be fed, the children; for not it is good to take the bread of the children and to the dogs, to throw.”

Now the one answered, and she says to him, “Yes, Lord, and the dogs, under the table, they eat from the crumbs of the children.”

And he said to her, “On account of this, the word, go away; it has come out, out of the little daughter of you, the demon.” And having come away into the house of her, she found the child, having been laid upon the couch, and the demon, having come out.

And again, having come out, out of the regions of Tyre, he came through Sidon, into the Sea of the Galilee, in midst of the regions of Decapolis.

And they bring to him a deaf one, and one hardly talking, and they exhort him that he would lay upon him the hand. And having taken aside him from the crowd, according to their own, he threw the fingers of him into the ears of him, and having spit, he touched the tongue of him, and having looked up into the heavens, he sighed, and he says to him, “Ephphatha,” which is, “Be opened.” And immediately they were opened, of him, the ears, and it was loosed, the bond of the tongue of him, and he was speaking rightly.
And he ordered them that to no one they say. Now as much as them, he was ordering, the more abundantly, they, themselves, were proclaiming. And beyond measure they were struck out, saying, “Well, all things, he has done, and the deaf ones, he makes to hear, and the mute ones, to speak.”

It is interesting when you compare the reactions of the people in the different places at the different times. This last miracle happened in the Decapolis, the ten cities that were known to be non-Jewish. Earlier in this account, Jesus healed a man who had many demons, and he went back to his home in the Decapolis, and the reaction of that is that people ‘marveled’ (5:20). Near the end of the text above is an even greater reaction, that of ‘beyond measure they were struck out.’ Just the reaction of being ‘struck out’ also happens at the beginning of the account, by the Jews in the synagogue, at the teaching of Jesus, at 1:22. This is obviously something much greater than that.​

To say, “He has done all things well,” that is a good thing. But to say it in the opposite order, as it is in the text above, now that is something REALLY good. “Well, all things, he has done.” This is most certainly true.