Savouring the last chapters, Joyce Voysey signs off on the book of Mark

Chapter 14.  72 verses!  And what verses, culminating in Peter having denied Jesus Christ three times as Jesus had said he would.  Peter wept.  The whole chapter makes us want to weep.

Julie Swannell writes: It's the last day of May already, and we are wrapping up our study of the Gospel of Mark.  What an inspiring journey it has been.  For those of you who are able to come along, we will be hosting an in-house discussion in the Reading Room at 61 Ernest St, Margate next Monday June 4

Enthusiastic contributor Joyce Voysey writes...
Mark Chapter 10 begins with the Pharisees baiting Jesus re divorce and the lawfulness of it. 

Mark Chapter 9.  The mountain top experience where Peter, James, and John were with Jesus and saw Elias (Elijah and Moses speaking to Jesus.  It is to be remarked that both Elijah and Moses ascended and did not see death.  The Elijah story is well known from the account in II Kings, but the fact of Moses’ ascension is somewhat obscure in the telling in Deuteronomy (34:5, 6).

Around here in the Mark narrative, we are shown how Jesus was proving his Sonship with God and warning about what was to happen to him – his betrayal, trial, condemnation, suffering on the cross, crucifixion, and finally ascension.  How difficult it must have been for the disciples to comprehend all this.

Mark chapters 6 – 8 - from Joyce Voysey

Mark Chapter 6
I have been sort of stuck on Mark 6 with its dramatic happenings e.g. the feeding of the five thousand.  It is recorded that there were 5,000 men, a multitude; but it seems likely that women and children were also present.  So perhaps double the 5,000 and call it 10,000.  Now that is a multitude! 

www.biblewise.com is a new web site to me.  It's just full of interesting things, especially how people are using the Bible in their lives - e.g. working in prisons or writing children's books.  If you are a Sunday school teacher, this site may be a must!
Love to you all,
Julie Swannell

Mark Chapters 3, 4 and a little 6 from Joyce Voysey

Jesus had multitudes coming to him when he withdrew to the sea.  How many Herodians and Pharisees were there in comparison with Jesus’ multitudes? Again, though he healed plagues, unclean spirits, etc. he urged them not to make him known

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 THE GOSPEL OF MARK chapter 2 from Joyce Voysey

Jesus at Capernaum (his home town?): he was ‘in the house’ - whose house?  Possibly Peter’s.  He could have been on the verandah where there was room for the crowd which overflowed into the courtyard, around the door and out into the street.  (Dummelow)

Jesus preached to them.  He healed the man of palsy after his friends had let him down through the roof.  Healing through the destruction of sin.  What were his sins?  Possibly those which confront all of us: belief of life in matter; belief in existence separate from Spirit; belief of sensation in matter; all the things the scientific statement of being in Science and Health with Key to the Scriptures by Mary Baker Eddy handles. See p. 468:8- 15.                                                          

Multitudes found him at the seaside.  Levi becomes a follower.  This man, Levi, is called Matthew in the Gospel of Matthew.  He was a Customs man and possibly had contact with people who imported and exported goods (there was trade with Egypt and Damascus), hence he presented a means of spreading the Word to other countries perhaps.  He was possibly employed by Herod.    As a Publican (tax collector) he was employed by the Romans, so was hated by the Jews.  Some doubt if he is the writer of the Gospel of Matthew.  I like to think he was, because he writes like an eyewitness.  He is said to have copied Mark, but he has so much that is not in Mark, e.g. The Sermon on the Mount.

Scholars say that Matthew, as a tax collector, couldn’t have written the gospel in the Greek language, or even translated it from Hebrew.  The reasoning is that the Greek does not read as having been translated from another language.  BUT Matthew had been a student of the Christ, and don’t we see people transformed by Christian Science and able to speak in public, write for periodicals, etc. etc?

So Jesus eats at Matthew’s house.  Jesus and his disciples, plus publicans and sinners, were there.  Scribes and Pharisees were not invited, but came out of curiosity to see and condemn Jesus’ fraternising with publicans and sinners (the meal being public affair), whereas these were the very people Jesus wished to meet with.  They needed uplifting.

Nit-picking of the scribes and Pharisees:  I have been reading all the laws Moses gave them to worry about and fuss over.  Wow!  No wonder they were confused about what was right.  “How is it that he eateth and drinketh with publicans and sinners?”  Surely, they were questioning.

CHAPTER 3

Another of Moses’ laws has the scribes and Pharisees going round in circles when Jesus is confronted with a man with a withered hand.  Would he heal him on the Sabbath day?  Is that against Moses’ law?  The restrictive thinking and teaching of the Pharisees was possibly the cause of the withering of the man's hand.  Jesus was angry with them for their lack of compassion, their lack of brotherly love.  Jesus loved the man and healed him.  I figure this is healing number 5 (+ many others healed) in the book of Mark.

The Pharisees now took counsel with Herodians.  Who were the Herodians?  The Peloubet Bible Dictionary has: Canon Cook describes these persons as “that party among the Jews who were supporters of the Herodian family as the last hope of retaining for the Jews a fragment of national government, as distinguished from absolute dependency upon Rome as a province of the empire.”

Herod Family: Though of Idumean origin, and thus alien by race, this family was Jewish in faith.  Herod the Great was appointed procurator of Judea by Julius Caesar, BC 47.  The Bible Dictionary is interesting on him.  It looks like the job was an hereditary one, and, of course, not popular with the ordinary Jews.

Repeating: The Pharisees now took counsel with the Herodians!  They were desperate!

Here's an interesting web site that gives the meaning of the original Hebrew and Greek words in the Bible?  Take a look at www.BlueLetterBible.org.  I like how easy is it to use the Hebrew and Greek Lexicon which also gives audible pronunciation of the original Greek and Hebrew words.  It's a very easy way to have Strong's famous Concordance at your fingertips.  You can choose a Bible passage and research the original meaning of the words, or choose a particular word and see how it is used throughout the Scriptures.

Guest Blog #2 from Joyce Voysey

GOSPEL OF MARK – CHAPTER 1

John the Baptist’s mission was to “prepare” the way for Jesus in the same spirit as Elijah. Isaiah and Malachi also wrote about the way being prepared.  Hundreds, if not thousands, came to him to be baptised.  He didn’t go to them – they found their way to him in the wilderness.  Even Jesus came.  Then John recognised that Jesus was the one he came to prepare the way for. Dummelow reports that John says: “I can bring you to repentance, but no further.  My baptism brings no grace.  It only symbolises the greater baptism that Jesus will give.  His baptism will give you the Holy Ghost i.e. new spiritual life, and inward sanctification, and “fire” i.e. holy fervour and zeal in God’s service.”

Jesus baptism: Was it at this time that he first realised he was the Son of God?  He saw the heavens opened, and the Spirit like a dove descending upon him: and heard the void from heaven pronouncing that fact.  Perhaps John heard it too, perhaps not.

Thursday 10^th May – I’ve been reading and researching for 3 days and only up to verse 12!

Jesus temptation – with wild beasts and angels – good and evil influences were at war in his consciousness to tempt him into believing he was not the Son of God (his first healing perhaps).  The angels won the case.  Jesus went immediately and enlisted disciples and taught that the Kingdom of God was at hand.  He was recognised in the synagogue as speaking with authority and not as the scribes taught.  Immediately, right there in the synagogue, he healed a man of an unclean spirit (Mark 1:23).                                                                                                               

The people recognised the authority he exhibited. The word spread around Galilee.  It was all Go for Jesus once he knew what his job was.

Now the second (third ?) healing: I have thought about the healing of Peter’s mother-in-law before, so will put that down before I share more recent insight.  As Mark has it, Jesus recruited Peter and he left his nets and followed him.  Why wouldn’t Peter’s mother-in-law suffer the fever of fear; fear because her son-in-law had left his business to go follow some itinerant preacher seemingly leaving the family with no means of support?

[Here is to-day’s (Friday 18.5.12) insight: Her healing freed her to minister to them.  She was converted really, I guess.  Jesus ‘lifted her up’. Her doubts were allayed – perhaps she was able to contribute to the family income somehow.  Aha!  Perhaps she made a living by healing – as she had been healed and lifted up.]                                                                                                                          
Note: Somewhere in the Glossary definition of fear in the German translation of the Christian Science textbook, Science and Health with Key to the Scriptures by Mary Baker Eddy, there is the word ‘Angst.’ ...Found it: Anxiety is „Angst“ auf Deutsche (in German) - Page 586 of Science &Health -

ENGLISH - Fear: Heat; inflammation; anxiety; ignorance; error; desire; caution.

GERMAN - Furcht: Hitze; Entzündung; Angst; Unwissenheit; Irrtum; Verlangen; Vorsicht*.
 *Vorsicht: Careful!; watch out!; attention; care; cautiousness; circumspection; circumspectness; guardedness; precaution; prudence; wariness.  (It seems to tend towards warning of danger.)

There always seems to be another angle to a Bible story to give us new inspiration.  Someone pointed out that we should not say, “This is the only interpretation of this passage.”

Monday 14^th May - Mark 1:32 “And at even, when the sun did set, they brought unto him all that were diseased, and them that were possessed with devils.”

“At even”  What is the inference of that word, “even”?  They brought the diseased to be healed, and “all the city” was there to witness the work.  Many were healed of “divers diseases”.  Turning again to the Glossary in Science and Health (S&H), we find (page 586) “EVENING” means “Mistiness of mortal thought; weariness of mortal mind”.  Time perhaps for the Truth’s antidote to heal with “peace and rest”; that beautiful time of day when the sun has set and a gentleness sweeps over the land and the thought; a time to contemplate the wonders which the SUN (S&H p. 595: “The symbol of Soul governing man, - of Truth, Life, and Love”) – has wrought in our day through the light of Truth and Love.  Devils quieted and cast out.

Guest Blog #1 from Joyce Voysey

I love the idea of the book club and am delighted to be in on the study that goes with it.  I also love The Message quote Julie has given about the Gospel of Mark.  As well as Dummelow, I also went to the Internet to glean more about Mark.  Here is some of what I found:

Mark was born in North Africa – Was he dark-skinned? Some say he is the same character as John Mark.

"The Messianic Secret": Mark doesn’t mention Jesus as being the promised Messiah. He is the one who has Jesus saying: "Tell no man." This Messianic Secret is something we could possibly look into further.

The last chapter of Mark may have an added piece from 16:8, although as it ends with a conjunction this is tricky. Another notion is that the front and back pages of the book were lost as they can be with use. Perhaps the verses after 16:8 were added in the second century.

The most complete external evidence for Mark's authorship and his association with Peter comes from the church historian Eusebius, who quotes Papias (c. 60-130 AD), a bishop of Hierapolis in Asia Minor, as writing: " Mark, having become the interpreter of Peter, wrote down accurately whatsoever he remembered. It was not, however, in exact order that he related the sayings or deeds of Christ. For he neither heard the Lord nor accompanied Him. But afterwards, as I said, he accompanied Peter, who accommodated his instructions to the necessities [of his hearers], but with no intention of giving a regular narrative of the Lord's sayings. Wherefore Mark made no mistake in thus writing some things as he remembered them. For of one thing he took especial care, not to omit anything he had heard, and not to put anything fictitious into the statements."

I have more to share - watch this space tomorrow.

Last month (April) we studied the book "Mary Baker Eddy - The Golden Days" by Jewel Spangler Smaus. It was a thoroughly enjoyable journey.

I like what Mrs Smaus records on page 162:

A visitor to one of their meetings at this period [1879] spoke of "the little circle of followers which meets for fellowship at her (Mrs. Eddy's) house fortnightly."  He observed, "They take the name of Christian Scientists and find in the Christian Records the foundation of their faith."  Later he commented, "I find her followers thoughtful and devout, without cant or egotism, students of life rather than of books, and a promising company."

I think our little book club is like that and that we are "students of life rather than of books, and a promising company."

Happy reading!

WELCOME TO OUR BOOK CLUB May 2012

Hello everyone.  Well I've taken the plunge and started a blog!  How exciting is this.

This month we are studying the book of Mark in the New Testament of the Bible and we have two questions to answer:

1. How many healings are recorded in the book of Mark?
2. Who do you think wrote the book of Mark and for whom?

I like what Eugene Petersen writes in The Message as his preface to the book: "Mark wastes no time in getting down to business - single-sentence introduction, and not a digression to be found from beginning to end. An event has taken place that redically changes the way we look at and experience the world, and he can't wait to tell us about it. There's an air of breathless excitement in nearly every sentence he writes."

How many readers in our little book club have discovered the author of this Gospel i.e. who was this Mark person?  
Dummelow's One Volume Bible Commentary has this to say: "..it is as the companion of St. Peter that St. Mark is best known.. St. Peter, in all probability, was not a very good Greek or Latin scholar.  Preaching in Aramaic, he required the services of an interpreter to translate his sermons ..into Greek or Latin..and also to conduct his correspondence."  Dummelow suggests that Mark did not give us a record that is in historical order, but that he certainly gave us an account which is both thorough and accurate.

When did Mark compose his account?  Dummelow gives us possible dates of 61AD (around the time of Paul's imprisonment in Rome) or 66-70AD.  Apparently Peter's followers exhorted Mark to put down Peter's recollections.  Note that it is pretty certain that Mark himself had not been an immediate disciple of Jesus, and only found this way of thinking through Peter.

Who was he writing for?  The answer is perhaps twofold.  We learn that Peter framed "his teaching to meet the [immediate] wants [of his hearers]", so we presume that Mark, the transcriber, had a specific audience in mind.  Who were they?

more another day.....