One Man's Web

Finding a Family

Mark 3:7-12 At the Sea

 ⁷Jesus withdrew with his disciples to the sea, and a great crowd from Galilee followed him; ⁸and from Judea, Jerusalem, Idumea, beyond the Jordan (Perea), and the region around Tyre and Sidon—a great crowd, having heard all that he was doing,  came to him. ⁹He told his disciples to have a boat ready for him because of the crowd, so that they would not mob him; ¹⁰for he had cured many, so that all who had afflictions pressed upon him to touch him. ¹¹Whenever the unclean spirits saw him, they fell down before him and shouted, ‘You are the Son of God!’ ¹²But he sternly ordered them not to make him known.

⁷Καὶ ὁ Ἰησοῦς μετὰ τῶν μαθητῶν αὐτοῦ ἀνεχώρησεν πρὸς τὴν θάλασσαν, καὶ πολὺ πλῆθος ἀπὸ τῆς Γαλιλαίας [ἠκολούθησεν], καὶ ἀπὸ τῆς Ἰουδαίας ⁸καὶ ἀπὸ Ἱεροσολύμων καὶ ἀπὸ τῆς Ἰδουμαίας καὶ πέραν τοῦ Ἰορδάνου καὶ περὶ Τύρον καὶ Σιδῶνα πλῆθος πολὺ ἀκούοντες ὅσα ἐποίει ἦλθον πρὸς αὐτόν. ⁹Καὶ εἶπεν τοῖς μαθηταῖς αὐτοῦ ἵνα πλοιάριον προσκαρτερῇ αὐτῷ διὰ τὸν ὄχλον ἵνα μὴ θλίβωσιν αὐτόν· ¹⁰πολλοὺς γὰρ ἐθεράπευσεν, ὥστε ἐπιπίπτειν αὐτῷ ἵνα αὐτοῦ ἅψωνται ὅσοι εἶχον μάστιγας. ¹¹καὶ τὰ πνεύματα τὰ ἀκάθαρτα, ὅταν αὐτὸν ἐθεώρουν, προσέπιπτον αὐτῷ καὶ ἔκραζον λέγοντες ὅτι σὺ εἶ ὁ υἱὸς τοῦ θεοῦ. ¹²καὶ πολλὰ ἐπετίμα αὐτοῖς ἵνα μὴ αὐτὸν φανερὸν ποιήσωσιν. (NA28)

Translation Notes

Jesus withdrew (vv7) NRSV says in Mark 3:7 that he "departed with his disciples to the lake," but anechōrēsen is mostly used in the New Testament in the context of an escape. (Cf Matthew 2, 14, 22, 4:12, 12:15 etc ) Although Jesus may be prudently removing himself from the place of the Pharisees, his actions at the sea (see below) hardly imply he is fleeing. His departure can also be interpreted as an act of judgement against the synagogue.

The sea (vv7) Thalasa is a sea, not a lake.

A great crowd (vv7, 8 πλῆθος vs vv9: ὄχλον) Πλῆθος is sometimes translated as crowd rather than multitude, and this would see appropriate here (contra NRSV) as Mark emphasises the sheer volume of people, and specifically refers to them as a crowd (ochlon) in vv9.

Mob (vv9) NRSV says he organises the boat so that the crowd would not crush him. Crowd crushes occur when a crowd has begun to panic, so the Scholars Bible translation of θλίβωσιν as mob is appropriate.

Fell upon him (vv10) NRSV correctly translates the crowd pressing upon him, which continues the image of the crush. But there is a pun in the text, which Mark uses to remind us of the equivocal nature of the crowds. Epipiptein auton can be translated as fell upon him. This is clearly Mark's intention, for in the very next sentence, the unclean spirits fell down, which is prosepipton autō.

The Narrative Arc

A first reading of Mark 3:7-35 feels the frenetic pace of the text, and perhaps wonders at its disjointed structure. The calling of the disciples seems to interrupt the ministry of healing, which is again interrupted by criticism from Scribes, and worry from his family. Everything is complicated by the danger of the sheer size of the crowds. But a little refection sees a coherent narrative arc full of promise, prompting a question unspoken here, but surely asked by Mark's community: Why do so few people listen? That question is addressed in Chapter 4.

When Jesus moves to the sea, his "departure/withdrawal" may be a response to the danger from the Pharisees and Herodians. It can also be heard as a judgement implying that the real work of the Basileia takes place outside the synagogue. And it can be seen as a statement of lordship, because rather than fleeing, Jesus takes his ministry to the wild chaotic place of the sea which will later seek to overcome him and fail. (Mark 4:35ff) And there he heals the afflicted: all Israel comes to him. The crowds in Mark, for all their danger are, first of all, Israel seeking salvation.¹

Following hard upon the healing, Jesus begins to model a new synagogue/gathering, a new family, in his calling of the apostles. While Israel gathers at the base of a mountain, "like sheep without a shepherd" (Mark 6:54) this new greater Moses ascends the mountain. And there, God's son, the beloved—listen to him—(cf Mark 9:2-7) chooses the 12 apostles of a renewed Israel.

Two things follow: Scribes "come down"² from Jerusalem (a negative phrase biblically) and bluntly contradict Jesus diagnosis of the Pharisees in 3:1- 6 above. Their allegations essentially say, "It is he who is demonic, not the Pharisees.³ He is no new Moses, we understand the Law of Moses and it's clear he is an impostor on the side of Beelzebub." But they are the filling of a Markan Sandwich. The story of Jesus' blood family, afraid of the crowds who claim Jesus is losing his mind, brackets the story of the Scribes. His family appear to agree with the Scribes' assessment of Jesus. In refuting the Scribes, Jesus asks us to whom we belong: Are we a part of the crowd, which may include our own blood family, and on the side of the sacred (and Empire), or do we belong to Jesus and his new family?

The Sea

NRSV speaks of the Sea of Galilee in Mark 1:16 and 7:31, but then consistently translates the same word, thalassa, as lake.  This reminds us that geographically we are inland, but it hides the theological location which is the symbol of chaos and danger which the sea. In Chapters 4 and 5, the great adventures of the storm and the man living in the tombs, happen on and by the sea, not on a lake.⁴

The fact that Mark consistently says thalassa, and not lake, is a persistent reminder to his Greek speaking readers and listeners that the chaos symbolised by the sea is confronted and overcome. NRSV hides this from us. "Mark consistently refers to the freshwater lake as a “sea” in order to invoke the most primal narratives in the Hebrew tradition: the Ark of Noah; the crossing of the Red Sea; and the psalmic odes to storms."⁵

A clear illustration of all this can be seen in the story of the healing of the Gerasene demoniac. There, NRSV Mark says, "the herd, numbering about two thousand, rushed down the steep bank into the lake, and were drowned in the lake." In both cases—note the repetition—Mark uses the word thalassa. Luke removes Mark's repetition in Luke 8.33 and also uses the word limne— lake. Mark is trying to make a point about the ultimate weakness of the chaos and evil still resisting God.

In the violence and struggle of the upcoming narrative, the sea may also serve another purpose. It is "an appropriate setting for epiphanies, and this section [of Mark] presents Jesus increasingly as an epiphany of God."⁶ In Psalm 29:3,10, sitting upon the sea is a sign of God's majesty:

³The voice of the Lord is over the waters;
   the God of glory thunders,
   the Lord, over mighty waters...

¹⁰ The Lord sits enthroned over the flood;
   the Lord sits enthroned as king for ever. (NRSV)

The Crowds

The crowds have escalated. In Chapter 1 the whole city came to the door. In chapter 2:2, there were so many gathered around there was not room for them, not even at the door. Now there are so many at home he is not even able to eat. And beside the sea, there was the danger of a destabilised crowd crush. People are coming from everywhere, within Israel, even from the old enemy Edom (Idumea).

The crowds are a picture of us, with all our pathos and violence. They are, first of all, a symbol of all Israel searching for salvation.⁷ As noted above, the image of Jesus' going up the mountain echoes Israel's gathering at the base of Sinai and Moses going up on the mountain into the presence of God. This echo is reinforced by the source of the crowds. Although the mention of Tyre and Sidon and the trans-Jordan shows Jesus is even touching the fringes of Gentile society, the list of locations is first of all the image of the original Israel, from Dan to Beersheba. (cf Judges 20:1, 1 Sam 3:20, 1 Kings 4:25 etc. It also includes the old enemy Edom, called Idumea in Jesus' time, because that area was forced to convert to Judaism in the time of the Hasmoneans.⁸ )

Significantly, these crowds are coming to Jesus in Galilee instead of to the Temple in Jerusalem. The crowds "show some wisdom" in their going out after John and Jesus,⁹ but their essential violence is growing. When Jesus takes measures not to be crushed, it is not simple "crowd management" but a recognition that all crowds are a mob in waiting. The word thlibōsin can mean to press upon or crowd a person, but it also has the metaphoric sense of oppressing or afflicting.¹⁰ The safe dry land is as insecure and chaotic as the sea itself.

The emotive weight of the passage is heightened by the word for all who had diseases: It is mastigas which, literally meaning a lash or a whip, also implied a "suffering sent by God."¹¹ NRSV has the crowd pressing upon him, which continues the image of the crush, but the underlying word epipiptein means the text can be translated as fell upon him. This is clearly Mark's intention, for in the very next sentence, the unclean spirits fell down. (prosepipton)

The crowd around Jesus is an anxious society where everything is being disturbed, as is the society of which we are a part. Unclean spirits are being confronted, and the settled way of doing things is being challenged. The unclean spirits, which include our own deep but unwelcome instincts, recognise who he is: "You are the Son of God." (Mark 3:11) So all who know their status and security is enhanced by the current system of elites sense they are under threat as the kingdom comes near. At best, the crowd is confused, not yet sure if Jesus is good news or threat, and unsure if they should seek a scapegoat around whom to coalesce and expel.¹²

The Unclean Spirits

Ironically, the unclean spirits cry out the truth: "You are the Son of God!" Jesus rebukes them not because of some messianic secret, but because their desperate fealty to him is not something for us to emulate. Their worship is misplaced because they do not understand who he is. Yes, they bow down to him, recognising that he is their superior. But they understand his superiority as being of the same nature as themselves, only more powerful. They do not understand that they are to be brought to nothing by the culture of God. (cf Mark 5:1-13) For they are not separate beings somewhat analogous to ourselves. They are the visible effects of our violence which take on a quasi-being or existence within someone. They are the manifestation of our violence, the "canary in the coal mine" which warns us the crowd is destabilised. When the culture of empire is finally healed they will simply cease to exist, and we see the beginnings of this in injured people who have found a safe community which embraces them: Some of the symptoms of violence and abuse which so discomfort them, and us, begin to fade.

If we fall down before Jesus because we conceive that he is only a more powerful person than we are, we are still living within the culture of empire, and all our unclean spirits will persist. We may proclaim he is Lord, but if we preach a violent God, if we continue to blame and condemn (ie; scapegoat,) we betray our failure to understand what Jesus means for us. That is, all the out-workings of our violence, which become a power greater than the sum of our parts, will remain unhealed and appear insurmountable. Jesus is calling us to follow him into a new reality and culture where he is no greater than us! and where violence is not overcome, but has no meaning or existence at all. We cannot conceive of such a reality until we see the crucifixion and resurrection, and begin to understand that the power of empire was brought to nothing by the powerless power of the Son of God in whom there is no violence.

Mark 3:13-19 - The Twelve

¹³He goes up the mountain and calls to himself those whom he wanted, and they came to him. ¹⁴And he appointed twelve, whom he also named apostles, to be with him, and to be sent out to proclaim the message, ¹⁵and to have authority to cast out demons. ¹⁶So he appointed the twelve: Simon (to whom he gave the name Rock); ¹⁷James son of Zebedee and John the brother of James (to whom he gave the name Boanerges, that is, Sons of Thunder); ¹⁸and Andrew, and Philip, and Bartholomew, and Matthew, and Thomas, and James son of Alphaeus, and Thaddaeus, and Simon the Cananaean, ¹⁹and Judas Iscariot, who also handed him over.

¹³Καὶ ἀναβαίνει εἰς τὸ ὄρος καὶ προσκαλεῖται οὓς ἤθελεν αὐτός, καὶ ἀπῆλθον πρὸς αὐτόν. ¹⁴Καὶ ἐποίησεν δώδεκα [οὓς καὶ ἀποστόλους ὠνόμασεν] ἵνα ὦσιν μετ’ αὐτοῦ καὶ ἵνα ἀποστέλλῃ αὐτοὺς κηρύσσειν ¹⁵καὶ ἔχειν ἐξουσίαν ἐκβάλλειν τὰ δαιμόνια· ¹⁶[Καὶ ἐποίησεν τοὺς δώδεκα,] καὶ ἐπέθηκεν ὄνομα τῷ Σίμωνι Πέτρον, ¹⁷καὶ Ἰάκωβον τὸν τοῦ Ζεβεδαίου καὶ Ἰωάννην τὸν ἀδελφὸν τοῦ Ἰακώβου καὶ ἐπέθηκεν αὐτοῖς ὀνόμα[τα] Βοανηργές, ὅ ἐστιν υἱοὶ βροντῆς· ¹⁸καὶ Ἀνδρέαν καὶ Φίλιππον καὶ Βαρθολομαῖον καὶ Μαθθαῖον καὶ Θωμᾶν καὶ Ἰάκωβον τὸν τοῦ Ἁλφαίου καὶ Θαδδαῖον καὶ Σίμωνα τὸν Καναναῖον ¹⁹καὶ Ἰούδαν Ἰσκαριώθ, ὃς καὶ παρέδωκεν αὐτόν.

Translation Notes

There are two textual variants not present in all manuscripts. "Whom he also named apostles" (vv14) and "So he appointed the twelve" (vv16) Metzger retains them, albeit in square brackets.¹³ The Scholars Bible translation excludes the text of verse 16.

Simon the Cananean (vv18) Cananean does not mean Canaanite or that this Simon came from Cana. It is more likely to derive from the Aramaic qan'an for Zealot, which is how Luke understood it, replacing Καναναῖον with Ζηλωτὴς in the list of disciples in Acts 1:13.¹⁴ We will reflect upon other names in the list, below.

What's in a Name?

This pericope which at first seems an interruption to the stories of healing, crowds, and accusations, stabilises the narrative of 3:7-35 and makes Jesus' identity utterly clear to the listener and reader. The unclean spirits' misunderstanding of what the "son of God" means is corrected as Jesus recapitulates Moses' ascent of Sinai to receive the Law, and foreshadows his own transfiguration in Mark 9:2-8. He really is "the Son of God" as he acts out a recollection of Israel in the choosing of twelve apostles, the number of the tribes of Israel and marks out for us a path which goes on from Moses. This event is not the creation of a new Israel, but a reminder of God's promises of the completion of Israel and all humanity. It is this "Son of God" that the scribes from Jerusalem will shortly imply is a son of Satan.

The disciples are to emulate Jesus' ministry; they are sent to preach and cast out demons, which is exactly what he has been doing. (vv 14) Black¹⁵ says the sense that the group has some special status is extra to Mark, and derives from Paul and Luke. (1 Corinthians 9:1; 15:3-11; Galatians 1:1, Luke 24:10; Acts1:15-26) And one of the few people actually named in Mark, Levi, (cf 2:13-28) who was called by Jesus, is not in the twelve.

There are three of these disciples who feature constantly in Mark, and another who is notorious. Mark notes that Jesus re-named the three, and appears to add a fourth by-name himself.¹⁶ Iscariot could mean Judas from Kerioth, or mean Judas the 'isqaria' which is Aramaic for the false one, or derive from sikarios which is assassin and also referred to a revolutionary political movement.¹⁷ But whichever of these is correct, the bestowed name of this last disciple is Judas Iscariot who also handed him over.

Names serve two functions. Sometimes, a name is just a label. When we say James, it is often merely to signify that we are talking about that brother rather than the one we call John. But there are also times when a name is loaded with meaning. This seems to be the case with Rock and the Sons of Thunder. The one name suggests stability and dependability, the other may reflect the divine voice from the cloud¹⁸ in Mark 9:7, meaning sons of thunder is a piety to avoid saying that they spoke like the voice of God!

Mark then takes these three names and adds his own message to them. Petros (the Greek equivalent of Aramaic's Kepha' was not a personal name in Jesus' society before Simon was renamed Rock.¹⁹ Translating it as Peter hides this. The Petron of verse 16 will be a constant ironic reminder of the frailty of Simon's discipleship (Mark 14:71: ‘I do not know this man you are talking about,’) and his obdurate lack of perception. (Mark 8:31-33) And rather than speaking like the voice of God, the only time we hear the voice of the Sons of Thunder, it is all about self aggrandisement. (Mark 10:35-37) Finally, Judas will hand Jesus over. From the beginning, then, human frailty and the character of empire exist in the new family of Jesus. In a reflection which Mark shortly places before us, there will be an unflattering reference to rocky ground. (Mark 4:5,16)

How do we read Mark's characterisations? As with our reaction to the failings of the Pharisees, if we deflect our own failings upon "Peter," that very imperfect apostle, we are blind to ourselves. Jesus names him among the best of us, a rock, and we are never better than he. To call him "Peter" is to blunt the gift he offers us.

Bringing our attention to the core group around Jesus, his chosen family perhaps, Mark will now enable us to "read" this thing we call family, which manifests the best and the worst of us. 

Mark 3:20-35 - At Home

[A] Then he comes home; ²⁰and the crowd comes together again, so that they are not able even to eat.

[B]  ²¹When his family heard it, they went out to lay hands on him, for they were saying, 'He has gone out of his mind.'

[C] ²³And the scribes who came down from Jerusalem said, 'He has Beelzebul, and by the ruler of the demons he casts out demons.'

[D] ²²And he called them to him, and spoke to them in parables, 'How can Satan cast out Satan? ²⁴If a kingdom is divided against itself, that kingdom cannot stand. ²⁵And if a house is divided against itself, that house will not be able to stand. ²⁶And if Satan has risen up against himself and is divided, he cannot stand, but his end has come. ²⁷But no one can enter a strong man's house and plunder his property without first tying up the strong man; then indeed the house can be plundered.

[C] ²⁸ 'Truly  I tell you, people will be forgiven for their sins and whatever blasphemies they utter; ²⁹but whoever blasphemes against the Holy Spirit can never have forgiveness, but is guilty of an eternal sin'— ³⁰for they had said, 'He has an unclean spirit.'

[B] ³¹Then his mother and his brothers came; and standing outside, they sent to him and called him.

[A] ³²A crowd was sitting around him; and they said to him, 'Your mother and your brothers and sisters are outside, asking for you.' ³³And he replied, 'Who are my mother and my brothers?' ³⁴And looking at those who sat around him, he said, 'Here are my mother and my brothers! ³⁵Whoever does the will of God is my brother and sister and mother.'

²⁰Καὶ ἔρχεται εἰς οἶκον· καὶ συνέρχεται πάλιν [ὁ] ὄχλος, ὥστε μὴ δύνασθαι αὐτοὺς μηδὲ ἄρτον φαγεῖν. ²¹καὶ ἀκούσαντες οἱ παρ' αὐτοῦ ἐξῆλθον κρατῆσαι αὐτόν· ἔλεγον γὰρ ὅτι ἐξέστη.

²²Καὶ οἱ γραμματεῖς οἱ ἀπὸ Ἱεροσολύμων καταβάντες ἔλεγον ὅτι Βεελζεβοὺλ ἔχει καὶ ὅτι ἐν τῷ ἄρχοντι τῶν δαιμονίων ἐκβάλλει τὰ δαιμόνια.

²³Καὶ προσκαλεσάμενος αὐτοὺς ἐν παραβολαῖς ἔλεγεν αὐτοῖς· πῶς δύναται σατανᾶς σατανᾶν ἐκβάλλειν; ²⁴καὶ ἐὰν βασιλεία ἐφ' ἑαυτὴν μερισθῇ, οὐ δύναται σταθῆναι ἡ βασιλεία ἐκείνη· ²⁵καὶ ἐὰν οἰκία ἐφ' ἑαυτὴν μερισθῇ, οὐ δυνήσεται ἡ οἰκία ἐκείνη σταθῆναι. ²⁶καὶ εἰ ὁ σατανᾶς ἀνέστη ἐφ' ἑαυτὸν καὶ ἐμερίσθη, οὐ δύναται στῆναι ἀλλὰ τέλος ἔχει. ²⁷ἀλλ' οὐ δύναται οὐδεὶς εἰς τὴν οἰκίαν τοῦ ἰσχυροῦ εἰσελθὼν τὰ σκεύη αὐτοῦ διαρπάσαι, ἐὰν μὴ πρῶτον τὸν ἰσχυρὸν δήσῃ, καὶ τότε τὴν οἰκίαν αὐτοῦ διαρπάσει.

²⁸Ἀμὴν λέγω ὑμῖν ὅτι πάντα ἀφεθήσεται τοῖς υἱοῖς τῶν ἀνθρώπων τὰ ἁμαρτήματα καὶ αἱ βλασφημίαι ὅσα ἐὰν βλασφημήσωσιν· ²⁹ὃς δ' ἂν βλασφημήσῃ εἰς τὸ πνεῦμα τὸ ἅγιον, οὐκ ἔχει ἄφεσιν εἰς τὸν αἰῶνα, ἀλλ' ἔνοχός ἐστιν αἰωνίου ἁμαρτήματος. ³⁰ὅτι ἔλεγον· πνεῦμα ἀκάθαρτον ἔχει.

³¹Καὶ ἔρχεται ἡ μήτηρ αὐτοῦ καὶ οἱ ἀδελφοὶ αὐτοῦ καὶ ἔξω στήκοντες ἀπέστειλαν πρὸς αὐτὸν καλοῦντες αὐτόν. ³²καὶ ἐκάθητο περὶ αὐτὸν ὄχλος, καὶ λέγουσιν αὐτῷ· ἰδοὺ ἡ μήτηρ σου καὶ οἱ ἀδελφοί σου [καὶ αἱ ἀδελφαί σου] ἔξω ζητοῦσίν σε. ³³καὶ ἀποκριθεὶς αὐτοῖς λέγει· τίς ἐστιν ἡ μήτηρ μου καὶ οἱ ἀδελφοί [μου]; ³⁴καὶ περιβλεψάμενος τοὺς περὶ αὐτὸν κύκλῳ καθημένους λέγει· ἴδε ἡ μήτηρ μου καὶ οἱ ἀδελφοί μου. ³⁵ὃς [γὰρ] ἂν ποιήσῃ τὸ θέλημα τοῦ θεοῦ, οὗτος ἀδελφός μου καὶ ἀδελφὴ καὶ μήτηρ ἐστίν. (NA28)

Stepping Out of the Crowd

This is a text where physically laying out the artistry of the author is helpful. The pericope is a chiasm; that is, there is a sequence of issues laid out, and then repeated in reverse order. At the centre of these issues are the inter-related questions of who Jesus is, the nature of blasphemy, and the critical role of Satan in our human affairs. On the way in to the centre, crowd and family and discipleship are examined and found wanting. On the way out, a source of healing is offered. We might say of this chiasm that it reflects our being drawn into the centre of the crowd, and then set free.

[A] (vv20) When the pericope begins, Jesus and the twelve are at home. The gathered crowd is a hindrance to human life; they are not even able to eat. (vv20) Mark is not only reporting an historical event here. He is making a theological statement (and critique) about the inherent nature of crowds. This crowd is again gathering around Jesus, a movement which can end in a lynching. With post-resurrection eyes, we can see that Mark is making a subtle reference to the Eucharist. The temple is no more, the house church is where the followers of Jesus meet, and if we are more crowd than house; that is if our house becomes divided, (cf vv25) our healthy dividing of the bread of thanksgiving will not be able to happen.

[B] (vv21) Our house, of course, is the place of our family, so the text now "indents" to Jesus' family, (vv21) who have listened to the crowd's diagnosis that Jesus is out of his mind. There is some ambiguity in the Greek text; it does not say the crowd said he was out of his mind, only that they said he was out of his mind. Although it is not clear if the crowd or the family has spoken, it is clear that the family²⁰ is also a hindrance to the living of life. They have gathered with, and as a part of, the crowd. Indeed, in Mark's post-Jerusalem world, family has been an active part of the terrorising crowd. Mark 13:12 has become historical fact: "Brother will betray brother to death, and a father his child, and children will rise against parents and have them put to death…" (NRSV)

Jesus' presence, and his actions, have destabilised the crowd, so that the crowd is out of its mind and is projecting that fact upon Jesus rather than deal with its own individual; that is, personal, destabilising scandals. (If it seems this statement is an unwarranted judgement of the crowd, consider that whenever someone is forgiven, healed, or restored to their place there are always others whose privilege is threatened, or who feel judged.)

Mark inserts a pun into the Greek. Kratēsai is one of those Greek words where context is everything. Clearly his family have come to seize or "restrain" (NRSV) him. But the NRSV translation blinds us to the use of kratēsai in Mark 1:31 where Jesus kratēsas tēs cheiros or "seizes the hand" of Simon's mother-in-law. The same phrase is used when he raises the little girl to life in Mark 5:41. And later, Judas will tell the priests how to lay hands (kratēsate) on Jesus in the garden.²¹ (Mark 14:44) The question Mark is posing through Jesus' family, the people of his house, is clear: Are we people of Jesus, who heal, or are we people of the crowd, who seize people and do violence to them?

[C] (vv23) Moving closer to the centre in verse 22, we discover that Scribes have come down from Jerusalem and have also gathered around Jesus. They have joined the crowd. The Scribes make the nature of this crowd unarguably clear: they say Jesus is evil. He has Beelzebul. Jesus' death is already planned, and here, the accusation that he is indeed worthy of death is placed before the crowd. The mob is being provoked.

The question about the nature of our "house" continues here. Whilst the name Beelzebul might imply Lord of the Flies, or Lord of the Dung, and those implications were almost certainly used as insults against Baal, Old Testament use of zə·ḇul (exalted) suggest Beelzebul is used here to mean Lord of the House.²² Matthew seems to be aware of this meaning: "If they have called the master²³ of the house Beelzebul, how much more will they malign those of his household!" (Matthew 10:25) In that statement, Matthew has seen the irony in Mark's narrative: The Scribes have tacitly accepted Jesus' power, because it is too great to deny or ignore. But their accusation that he has Beelzebul, not just any unclean spirit, is tantamount to saying he is Beelzebul. And of course, for Mark's listeners, He is Lord of the House.

[D] (vv22-27) Now, at the centre of crowd and chiasm, Jesus demonstrates his lordship by calling the Scribes out of the crowd to himself, just as he calls us all. The movement towards a lynching is interrupted. The ambiguity and choice which faces all of us in all of life is on display here. As provocateurs in the crowd, the Scribes are already distinguishable from the mass of the crowd, and therefore vulnerable.²⁴ Jesus exposes them by bringing them to the centre of the crowd, the place of violence. Yet, in doing this, he also calls them out of the crowd into salvation, if they will only listen. This moment is a call to discipleship, even there in that crowd, even of them! In the world of Mark, and now, there is no option to "drop out." We are either of the crowd, or of Jesus' people.

Satan

When hearing Jesus question the Scribes about Satan, we must remember that we are badly placed to think about Satan. There are three possible ways to read Satan here, and we are formed and embedded in a culture which has embraced a reading which either ridicules or trivialises the other two readings. This can blind us to what Jesus is saying.

Our modern reading thinks Satan is an outmoded myth and superstition. It ridicules those who think otherwise or, as a sop to people's instinctive fears, it trivialises Satan in books and movies. In these, his power may be depicted as terrible and evil, but it is usually an entertainment into which we can channel our dis-ease for a while, and then go home from the theatre. These responses are reflected within the church, where many explain Satan away, while others develop "ministries" of exorcism which can be as facile as they are dangerous, and which in the name of God too frequently project our fears and failings upon the afflicted person, and action which is in Mark's eyes, to be Satan. Many of these "ministries" risk trivialising the power which oppresses us. If we allow ourselves to be shaped by the modern responses to Satan we significantly blind ourselves to the Gospel.

The second reading of Satan is that of the Scribes who came down from Jerusalem. For them, Satan is real, a rebellious creature opposed to God. The modern reading of Satan might call the Scribes' reading naive, or pre-critical, but the Scribes at least took the power of Satan seriously. Yet, although in no doubt about the power and reality of Satan, they are, in the diagnosis of Jesus and Mark, unconscious that they are formed and manipulated by Satan.

Please understand that there is no deliberate evil on the part of the Scribes here: the Scribes in this pericope stand for any of us²⁵ who are like the assessment Jesus offers some sincere followers of God in Matthew 23:15.

Woe to you, Scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites! For you cross sea and land to make a single convert, and you make the new convert twice as much a child of Gehenna as yourselves. (NRSV)

If we do not see that, as church, we frequently do this to people, and have often had it done to us, then we have barely understood the Gospels.

We now come to the third understanding or reading of Satan. I am writing at length about this because the concepts on which I have based my reading have changed everything about my appreciation of the Gospel.

When I try to summarise the understanding of Jesus and Mark in the language of my Girardian sensibility, I conclude that Satan is us, a quasi-being, a false being, which is nonetheless a real and concrete manifestation of our rivalry and violence. (Jesus clearly says to Rock in Mark 8, "Get behind me, Satan.) But Satan is more than us, more than the sum of our parts, as it were. Satan has formed us and underpins our social being. This is presented most clearly and concisely in John 8:44, but underlies the understanding of Mark:

You are from your father the devil, and you choose to do your father's desires. He was a murderer from the beginning… (NRSV)

This statement from Jesus is a critique of a human spiritual mindset, not an attack upon Jewishness. It is a measure and critique of our own spirituality.

Jesus and Mark also understand that Satan is defeated through the cross. As soon as we live in the truth of that, Satan has no reality and we are free to see "him" as the delusion "he" is.²⁶ The strong man is bound. (Mark 3:27) But until we embrace the freedom Jesus gives us, which means until learn what it means to follow Jesus, and do it, Satan rules us, and our every move is under Satan's influence.

An Excursus on Being

Being, or to be, is to have a God-given reality. In God we live and move and have our being. (Acts 17:28) We are created in the image of God. Yet human being is also a becoming, we are not complete. We aspire to humanity.²⁷ We try to find meaning and purpose: "How can I be?" is our cry from our beginning. We seek to be, to become, by imitating others.

This becoming is also God-given. Girard says that because imitation is commanded by Jesus—follow me—it is good. "It is the only true road to God."²⁸ James Alison calls this following and imitation a pacific possession. Jesus allowed God to "constitute his consciousness pacifically,"²⁹ rather than trying to be himself through rivalry that overcame others at the expense of their being.

Girard makes clear the distinction between Jesus and Satan: "Satan imitates God in a spirit of rivalry."³⁰ That is, Satan seeks to be—to surpass—God, to be "himself," which is also what we do when we seek to get meaning from others apart from God. The names for this are twofold: Firstly, it is idolatry, because it imagines we can be without God; that is, we make ourselves God. Second, it is to be possessed, for we put ourselves under the power if Satan. We are always possessed. The only question is who possesses us.

Perhaps it is for this reason, that Jesus speaks of Satan as one who has being, not as some kind of principle or diagnosis of our selves and our predicament. I am reluctant to abandon his language because to describe Satan as a mechanism, (let alone with the modern delusion that Satan is merely a primitive projection of ourselves about which we now know better,) is to seriously underestimate the real live force against which humanity struggles. It too easily imagines that we can understand and control that which we call Satan when, for the most part, we neither understand nor control it, and are in fact rather helpless (if not blind) before it. Satan is not a technical problem. Satan has formed us. "Satan is the principle—if not the entire reality—of human culture since the foundation of the world," Girard says.³¹ Even though it is ultimately false, there is a be-ing here which is far greater than the be-ing we have sought to cobble together for ourselves by our imitation of those around us. We are no match for it. Scripture is correct when it says "Like a roaring lion your adversary the devil prowls around, looking for someone to devour." (1 Peter 5:8)

How is this so? We are terrified to find that we must become, having no idea who we are or where to start.³² God demands of us that we face the contingency of our creation, which includes the fact of our death³³ so, desperate for relief and comfort, we take refuge in (or with) Satan, the ordering and disordering³⁴ principle of human culture, and find that although we gain a sort of being, the endless cycle of order and disorder is an inescapable trap. A trap where existential fear is always only a moment away. When our self-distractions fail, or when someone seeks to possess us to bolster their own being, our fear returns.

If we deny the being of Satan, we close our eyes to the bars, embrace our imprisonment,³⁵ and live in denial of our death. Whereas embracing our death means freedom.

But… to imagine that Satan is a being, a discrete individual, is also to seriously underestimate our situation. It is not that Satan is not real, it is that to think in terms of a discrete individual, as we might think of Jesus, or even of our self, moves us towards mythicising Satan as a discrete knowable reality, whereas Satan involves the constant discovery of where we are gaining a faux being at the expense of a victim.  As Girard said, "Myth lies."³⁶ There is a massive, real, and desperate power in our midst. So we need to hold the uneasy metaphor of Satan's actual being to describe the real force which is us—we form it—which then enslaves us.

How Can Satan Cast Out Satan?

If a kingdom is divided, it cannot stand. How then could Satan cast out Satan? The logic seems compelling. But Mark himself warns us this is only the "first reading." He specifically says Jesus was speaking a parable. (v23) It's a "let the reader understand" comment³⁷ . Although Mark does not define what a parable is, we will see in Chapter 4 that parables are not always memorable illustrations used to make a simple point. They are indeed memorable, but are designed to provoke thought, and are capable of many interpretations. The wise response to Jesus' statement here, is not only to take the obvious point that "Of course Satan can't cast out Satan, because "his" kingdom cannot then stand," but to wonder what other thing Jesus and Mark are saying. Armed with the reading of Satan outlined above, we might realise Satan does cast out Satan—all the time! When our disorder is too great to stand, we recreate order by together metaphorically (even actually) casting out and killing someone. Think of the savagery of "cancel culture" if this seems an extreme statement, or remember our frequent honour killings.³⁸ To see this is the beginning of a great freedom.

We, all of us together, are the house of the parable. We are divided among ourselves, rent by scandal and violence, ruled by fear. We cannot stand. We live in fear within an everyday brutality and uncertainty which we find unsurvivable unless we deflect our fear, harden our hearts, and visit violence upon the rivals who threaten us. This denial enables us to imagine that we are innocent and righteous and that the other deserves to suffer what we place upon them. The other, of course, thinks the same of us. We have risen up against ourselves. Until "we recognise ourself as a persecutor,"³⁹ we are unable to see this, and unable to see we live in a house which cannot stand.

Yet there is no way out. There is no getting beyond the collective us which is formed and sustained by violence. We try. We place chains around the things which terrify us, binding them in prohibition, ritual, and threat of retaliation, just as the Gerasenes do to the man in Chapter 5:3-4. And despite all our self-imposed chains and shackles, we break free of our restrictions and precautions and unleash more violence and fear. Who can bind the strong man?

Marcus notes that when Jesus calls the Scribes to him he uses a verb which is not usually used for enemies. Alison also notes that he uses a "gentle word" for calling them. He is inviting them, and us, to see that contrary to all our despair, there is a way to bind the strong man. He is suggesting that the healing he is doing, that selfless giving, forgiving, and accepting, that we see all through the gospel, has nothing to do with Satan. He has called the Scribes out of the crowd and invited them to follow him. He offers this same to us.

Freedom

[C] (vv28-30) The chiasm begins its reverse movement as Jesus then speaks an astounding word of grace. He speaks it to the Scribes, and to all of us, and makes it a serious formal announcement: Truly I say to you… "people will be forgiven for their sins and whatever blasphemies they utter." We so often hasten on to the next statement that we miss the enormity of what he says: The statement is a hendiadys.⁴⁰ Blasphemies are sins; we are forgiven for whatever blasphemies we utter.

We are primed to read what follows this stunning word of grace as a harsh condemnation by God, rather than as a self-administered, tragic, logical, and psychological, inevitability. It is inevitable that if we can only conceive of the actions of the Holy Spirit as actions of Satan, that we cannot, and will not, then ask that same Spirit for forgiveness.⁴¹ Jesus warns the Scribes that if they choose to interpret him as Satan rather than the Son of God (cf Mark 3:11) then they will be unable to perceive that God is offering them forgiveness. They will cut themselves off. The pastoral response to folk worried about committing the unforgiveable sin is to say that if they are worried about it, they have not. It is profoundly true. What Jesus is talking about is that place of certitude which is incapable of seeing that it is in error.

[B] (vv31) Jesus' blood family's arrival has been subject to a literary delay for some nine verses, but now they are able to arrive. With poignant subtlety, Mark tells us they were standing outside his house. In this long pericope where Jesus has been calling people, his blood family now call him. What is the nature of their call?

Families are themselves kingdoms, a fact reflected in the way we speak of dynasties. Dynasty comes from a Greek word for power. The phrase not able to stand (ou dunatai stathēnai)  from verse 26, is similar to Ephesians 6:10 where Paul speaks about being able to stand against the wiles of the devil and resist the powers. (to dunasthai humas stēnai) Families can be outposts of empire or a gathering of Jesus' people, and by the very centre of the chiasm Jesus had stopped speaking of kingdoms and spoke instead of houses. At the heart of any family and house, resides the question, "Is this a gathering around Jesus, or is it a crowd, who is the Lord of this house?" 

[A] (vv32-35) Who, then is the Lord of our House, and who are our family? "Whoever does the will of God is my brother and sister and mother." These people cease to be part of the crowd, because in following Jesus and doing the will of God, they are free of Satan. 

How might this work, and be worked out, in our lives?

It begins when we seek to acquire being rather than accept what is given to us, so we experience the terror of being as we seek to create our self. Rivalry is an attempt to preserve our own being by possessing what the person we admire seems to have: "If I do not get what they have, I may lose my being." We mistake their possessions or some characteristic of them as "real being." We are not used to thinking about ourselves in this way, so it can seem artificial and concocted. But when we remember the devastating impacts of being excluded or belittled in the school ground, or on the school bus, this process can be seen to be a very real thing, not some arcane and unreal abstraction. Children see more clearly what we adults very often deny because it is too hard to bear.

We "be" and become by imitating others. So, we Christians, imitating Jesus say, "God is the one in whom we live and move and have our being," (Acts 178:28) and we live that out. We allow him to possess us, rather than being possessed by desire for what we think someone else has. Satan becomes real when we pretend to be ourselves—explore the pun—as though we can be without God. Then, inevitably, we will end up in rivalry with those whom we seek to imitate, and violence will in some way follow.

I remember a small child whose doting father constantly used to say, "You are amazing." I saw someone seek to possess this little one by extolling their own virtues and implying the little child wasn't much of a being at all. I saw the child's shoulders slump in despair, until they stood up and said, "Well, I'm amazing," and were free. The child took refuge in something stronger than themselves instead of trying to be on their own. So there was no starting a war of words, or physically striking out at the other. And at that moment, the strong man was bound.

Andrea Prior (February 2025)

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1. So Hamerton-Kelly, The Gospel and the Sacred. pp24

2. Jerusalem is in higher country from Galilee, so coming down would a natural description of the Scribes journey were it not for the fact that "descending" is often a negative movement in the Bible; eg the descent into Egypt, (cf Isaiah 30:2, 31:1, 52:4 etc) and the descent of Satan (cf Isaiah 14:12, and perhaps Genesis 6:1-4, ) Marcus pp271

3. See (Mark 3:1-6 – Everyone is Silent)

4. Like English, Greek and Latin did distinguish between lakes (limne) and oceans (thalassa). Josephus variously referred to the lake as the lake of Gennesar, the lake of Gennesaritis, or the lake of Tiberias. Pliny the Elder referred to it as lake of Gennesaret or Taricheae in his encyclopedia, Natural History. Cf Davidson https://isthatinthebible.wordpress.com/2016/08/29/did-mark-invent-the-sea-of-galilee/ Retrieved 13/01/2025

5. Ched Myers et al "Say to This Mountain: Mark's Story of Discipleship", quoted by Nuechterlein, "Proper 7b" Retrieved 13/2/2025

6. Marcus,  pp 256

7. Hamerton-Kelly, Gospel, pp24

8. Marcus, pp260

9. Hamerton-Kelly, Gospel, pp24

^[10] Marcus, pp 258

11. Marcus, pp 258

12. Some of this text is a reworking of my post at https://www.onemansweb.org/satan-sabbath-and-original-sin-mark-320-35.html Retrieved 13/2/2025

13. Metzger, pp80

14. Marcus, pp264

15. Black, Mark "Jesus' Selection of the Twelve (3:13-19a)"

16. Simon the Cananean may already have been so-called, but Mark msy also be applying this name to make some point about the catholicity of Jesus' choice of whom he would call.

17. Marcus, pp264-5.

18. Marcus, pp265

19. Marcus, pp263.

20. The violence implicit in the family's reaction can be seen if we think of the scandal of the parable of the Profligate Father in Luke.  Where the younger son has shamed the family it dawns on us that the father had intervened so that the son could leave town alive rather than being the victim of an honour killing. Here, in Mark, the family is coming to restore their honour by sanctioning Jesus in some way. Mark 13:9-13 makes it clear that this was a reality for Mark's audiences.

21. I am particularly indebted to James Alison for opening my eyes to some of these subtleties. See, for example, "Homily for Sunday 10 in Ordinary Time, Year B,"  https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qf_29p6il0E (Retrieved 24/2/2025)

22. 1 Kings 8:13, Isaiah 63:15, Habbakuk 3:11, Psalm 49:15. See Marcus, pp272

23. The Greek translated as "master" is oikodespotēn, "house despot!"

24. See: Mark 1-3 Introducing the Crowd.

25. Girard says, "If Pharisaism were not the highest mode of religious life yet attained by man, it could not stand for every other form, the words uttered by the gospel would not reach all cultural forms at the same time." Girard, "The Evangelical Subversion of Myth", pp38

26. Girard, Reader, pp209

27. Wink, Just Jesus, pp102

28. Girard, Reader, pp197-8

29. Alison, The Joy of Being Wrong, pp159

30. Girard, Reader, pp197-8

31. Girard, Reader, pp203

32. For more on this see: What We Bring to Mark - Imitation. One might also meditate upon the experience of a friend who came upon a car accident on the Hay Plain one night. The lone survivor was a very small child who screamed into the night with an uncontrollable terror my friend had never before witnessed. He was one of us with everything removed from them; their being stripped bare.

33. One of the key texts in this area is Earnest Becker's The Denial of Death.  Becker's masculine language seriously detracts from his book, does his homophobia. But  his premise is foundational and the book is in places lyrical. A more accessible book in this area is Richard Beck's The Slavery of Death.

34. "Both the disorder. and order of human culture are from the same source," which is Satan. Girard, Reader, pp 201

35. Cf Richard Beck, The Slavery of Death.

36. See the section: What We Bring to Mark - How the Sacred Controls Violence.

37. Cf Mark 13:14

38. Aggrieved and scandalised men kill a woman every week in Australia, even in C21 because they have not been able to sufficiently possess her, or find enough being through her domination. When we feel  our honour is impugned it means our being is threatened.

39. This insight comes from Girard's answer to a questioner: “You will see the success of my theories when you recognize yourself as a persecutor.” The anecdote is mentioned in various places, eg:  https://churchlifejournal.nd.edu/articles/we-do-not-come-in-peace/

40. A hendiadys is where one statement is reinforced by the statement which follows it. It is a characteristic of many of the Psalms.

41. (I suspect Mark is speaking post-resurrection perceptions and experiences at this point, because we have unexpectedly jumped from Jesus to the Holy Spirit.)