One Man's Web

In Mark 3:1-6 it is clear that Jesus will be killed. The Pharisees went out and plotted with the Herodians to destroy him. The remainder of Chapter 3 is of a piece: How do we respond in the fear and violence of the world, where always the holders of power seek to lord it over people? At the centre of this is a short yet profound statement about Satan, who proves not to be the little red man with a tail and pitchfork which modernity imagines.... Read on >>>>

Today, I've been working in Mark 3, looking at the translation of the disciples' names. According to NRSV, Jesus renamed Simon to Peter, but the Greek is uncompromising. He called him Rock. Until Rock, Cephas; that is, Peter,1 was not a proper name in Jesus' society. Names serve two functions in our society, and this applied in the time of Jesus, too. Sometimes, a name is just a label. When you say Andrea it is merely to signify that you are talking to me, or about me, rather than Fred. Andrea had a meaning, once. It meant manly, derived from the Greek aner, which is a bit ironic in my case. But mostly we have forgotten that. Andrea is just an identifier.

But there are also times when a name is loaded with meaning. In our Australian society, this is particularly clear in nicknames. In the generation before mine, to mention Blue was to reference a particular person, but the name always carried within it the fact that their hair was red, and maybe it also had a local hint of racial disparagement, because most red-haired people were of Irish stock... Read on >>>>

The back wall of the toilet proclaimed

FXXX RACISM
FXXX SEXISM
FXXX HOMOPHOBIA
FXXX TRANSPHOBIA.

I'm not sure what the author considered said fxxxing might actually entail, but did appreciate their disavowing of such prejudices. I then noticed the inscription on my left... Read on >>>>

Mark 2:23-28 and Mark 3:1-6 are artificially divided by the versification used in modern bibles. They occur one after the other. On the one Sabbath day, Jesus is followed into a synagogue by the same Pharisees who were criticising him in the grain fields. By the end of 3:1-6, although the Basileia Culture of God has been announced and is at hand; (Mark 1:14-15) although the Holy One of God is among us, (Mark 1:24) and the huios tou anthropou is here, (Mark 2:10, 28) and his healings point to the fulfilment of Creation; even so, at this very early point of Mark, he is rejected, and his death is decided. The disciples know nothing of this until Peter proclaims that Jesus is the Messiah, and recoils from the notion that the Messiah will be killed. That story in Mark 8:27-33 is also a central turning point in Mark, but Jesus' fate has been decided by Chapter 3 verse 6.... Read on at Mark 2:23 >>>>