Interpretations
12/9/04
NT 400
Introduction – The Challenge of Discipleship – Daniel Patte
- Chapter
2 – Assuming Responsibility for our Faith-Interpretations
- Three
frames (lenses)
- Analytical
frame
- what
are the features of the text?
- analysis
- which
are attended / neglected?
- Contextual
frame
- bridge
categories – what interests bring us to this text?
- perception
that one lacks knowledge or has wrong knowledge or congregation lacks
knowledge – expection is to learn
- lack
of will – need to be corrected/motivated
- sense
of powerlessness
- lack
of faith or wrong faith – sense of need in relationship with God
- example
– if focused on liberation, then a reading of Mark 15 would be different
- Hermeneutical
Frame
- how
does the world work?
- what
do you believe about God?
- how
is meaning determined?
- existential
commitments
- How do
people arrive at different interpretations? Do I have to choose between them?
- once
we determine where someone is coming from, then you have a starting point
for discussion
- to
disagree with someone on scripture, then we need to determine where they
are coming from in their reading of Scripture
- biblical
scholarship – disregards contextual frame and hermeneutical frame
- other
voices force people to consider context
- critiquing
someone else’s view of Scripture opens a person up to other critiques
- this
tool also provides a starting point to assess an interpretation
Mark 15:22-39
What is striking from reading this in Greek?
- isolation
- Mark
only depicts people who mocked Jesus.
Why?
- women
not noticed at the cross according to this narrator
- stripped
of his clothes, separated from the earth, clothes divided up
- even
God has abandoned him, according to this cry
- words
from the cross are even not understood – used for further mocking “keep
maybe Elijah will come”
- mocking
- focus
on the crowd instead of Jesus – only refers to Jesus twice
- 2
references to Jesus
- he
is only the actor twice
- style
mostly in present tense
- narration
in the present
- see
something unfold before your eyes
- blasphemy
- charge
of blasphemy is in the narrative
- not
a normal word for mocking
- only
can blaspheme something that is holy
- chapter
3 – prince of the demons, blaspheming against the Holy Spirit
-
- Amos
- speech
- itself
is a dramatic effect
- highlights
what is going on
- irony
- king
– acknowledging but not understanding
- not
a prominent title in Mark
- Mark
– Messiah is mostly a royal title
- v.1:1
- Jesus Christ, Son of God
- chap
8 – Peter confesses him as Christos
- chap
12 – David’s son is called Lord
- save
- admission
by priests and scribes – he can save
- mocking
of Jesus uses the accusations of Jesus’ claims
- Romans
put the title “king of the Jews” on him
- temple
Psalm References
- Psalm
22 – shaking of heads
- tone
changes partway through
- starts
“why have you forsaken me”
- ends
“I will praise you”
- would
Mark’s readers get a hint of where the narrative is going?
- does
quoting part of text invoke the whole?
- if
Mark ends at 16:8 – then no easy tie-up
-
- Psalm
69 – wine and myrrh
- Mark
writes with these mentioned without direct quotations (allusions)
15:28 : the scripture was fulfilled – he will be numbered
with the lawless
JDL - Darkness irony
- irony
of revelation and darkness
- “see
and believe”
- light
from darkness
- Genesis
1
- 2 Cor
4:6
- Mark
1:1 / Mark 15:39
Hermeneutical Frame
- our
sense impacts – “Gospel” of Mark?
- my
theology of the cross flavors my view
- Luther’s
theology of the cross – “God is most revealed where he is most hidden”
Inclusio
- 1:1
- heavens
rent (opened)
- curtain
rent (ripped)
- 15:39
Ending
- early
manuscripts did not have anything after 16:8
- additional
endings do not agree
Justin Martyr
- read
from prophetic texts and memoirs of the apostles
Why does Mark paint this bleak picture?
- Lutheranism
– against triumphalism
- potentially
– Mark shows life of upcoming way of disciples
- Paul
– paradox
- follow
Jesus by serving and suffering and laying down one’s life for the gospel