THEO 1432: The Religious Quest
🎵 Recording ⌨ Space / ←→

Mark 4-8:26

03/19/2026 · Tue/Thu 10:30-11:45 AM · Brad Bannon · Boston College

📄 Synopsis

Instructor Brad Bannon led a collaborative discussion on the Gospel of Mark, specifically chapters four through eight. The class explored the pedagogical and theological function of parables, such as the Mustard Seed and the Sower, noting how these stories act as 'spiritual filters' that require faith to decode. A significant portion of the dialogue centered on the 'Messianic Secret,' where Jesus frequently commands silence regarding his miracles, contrasted with the Gerasene demoniac (Legion) who is told to proclaim God's mercy. Students analyzed the recurring tension between fear and faith, particularly in the accounts of the hemorrhaging woman and the raising of Jairus's daughter. The session also touched upon Mark’s literary techniques, the historical context of Roman occupation, and Jesus’s radical redefinition of purity laws regarding food. Throughout the discussion, the class applied the phenomenological method, drawing parallels between the interpretive challenges of the Gospel and the Bhagavad-Gītā, while considering how social pressure and 'intentionality' shape one's perception of divine authority.

⚡ Key Takeaways

  • The 'Messianic Secret' in Mark suggests that parables function as a spiritual filter, revealing deeper truths only to those with the 'ears to hear' or the right intentionality.
  • The class identified a persistent dichotomy between fear and faith, noting that fear often acts as a barrier to perceiving or receiving divine power.
  • The account of the Gerasene demoniac (Legion) serves as a political allegory for Roman imperial oppression and liberation from an occupying force.
  • Jesus’s command for the healed demoniac to 'go home and tell' is an exceptional break from his usual pattern of keeping miracles secret, possibly due to the non-Jewish context.
  • The 'bread and fish miracle' was briefly noted as an example of trusting in Jesus for survival rather than worrying about physical needs.
  • Jesus’s declaration that 'all foods are clean' represents a major shift from traditional purity laws to an emphasis on the internal state of the heart.
  • The transcript emphasizes that the Gospel of Mark was likely composed for oral performance, intended to be heard and interpreted within a communal setting.
  • The use of Aramaic terms like 'Talitha koum' suggests the author was an intermediary between the spoken and written word, translating for a non-Aramaic speaking audience.

🎤 Transcript Tap any timestamp to jump the audio player

Opening Meditation and Breathing Exercise

0:00

Discussion of Mark Chapter 4: Parables and the Mustard Seed

Brad
Alrighty, howdy. Let's take a moment and transition. Try to take a moment just to keep your mind and body still for a moment.
0:03

The Death of John the Baptist and the Feeding of the Multitudes

Student
Let's take a breath together.
Brad
Go ahead and breathe in and out. Word.
Student
Word.
Brad
All right. This isn't bad, right? Gives you a chance to improve your quiz grade. I guess it also gives you a chance to lower your quiz grade.
Student
Yeah, I know, that would be kind of— ⚠
Student
I was just looking out for anyone's gonna upset anyone.
Student
Yeah, unless like just pray for that. ⚠
Student
Thank you. Oh.
Brad
Yeah, of course.
Student
Would you throw in a twist at the end?
Brad
It's not a trick question.
Student
Okay.
Brad
Good, are we good? All right, can you pass them some directions? I, I, what, what, which question are you asking me? 2 or 3? ⚠
Student
2.
Student
2.
Brad
I don't know who's on the question. Oh, I'm not that tricky. Come on. On the cushion? No, no, no. Cool. That it? ⚠
Student
That's it.
Brad
All right, cool. Let's see. For attendance, we're just missing Christine and Iona, I think, right? Right on. So it's just the cushion part that you thought was tricky. Okay. I'm not trying to throw any, like, super tricky questions. I was trying to think of the most basic questions, like, did you do the reading? Kind of thing. It's always my goal, but sometimes I have bad questions, that's for sure. Um, all right, cool. Let's, um, let's dive in. Let's jump right to it. Yeah, um, a little bit of a longer reading today, um, but The Gospel of Mark is really divided into two halves, two parts, and we actually finished the first part today. So the second half really begins with verse 27 of chapter 8 and, you know, kind of rushes to the end from there. But I don't know. Let's hear from our— why don't we take a few minutes like normal, take a few minutes and in small teams talk with your group and kind of organize your thoughts, and then we'll try and go, you know, all the way through these 4 chapters. ⚠
Brad
So maybe have something like a verse from each one of the chapters kind of lined up. We may not be able to talk about all of the verses you have, but Yeah, work. Take at least 5 minutes or so.
Student
Oh, good job. like it comes from the soil, or like the mice, or the camels, or the same of God. Then you have like the disciples who are like, cause us to, um, How like a little seed, like that does actually— Yes, I think I just like heard about seeds and just tried to connect to another seed, so don't do that. Focus on your own. Yeah, that's good. ⚠
Brad
I mean, I played there like all throughout my whole life. Are you like a pitcher?
Student
I think, uh, pitcher.
Student
Yeah, that's awesome, man.
Student
Yeah, uh, people cheer? That's awesome. You can say yeah, I guess. What, what, why are you God, I know it's not my thing. It's sort of a, um, you almost can't picture it in your mind. ⚠
Student
No, he is so right.
Student
I hate that one. I talk about myself. No, I think he's excellent. It's more so there's a lot of liability. Like if someone gets hit— actually, if someone gets hit with a baseball, that's kind of fun. No, it's just really expensive equipment. I get it. You went to Cooperstown? ⚠
Student
Yes.
Student
That's awesome. That's good for you. It's just too expensive equipment. And like, if kids flip, I don't know. I've never flipped before, and I'm definitely scared. I have so much mass that like if it starts tipping one way, it just like totally rocks arrowheads. So far it hasn't. Yeah, it's absolutely reasonable. ⚠
Brad
All righty, let's, um, let's try and get where, where we can see each other a little bit, a little bit better. It doesn't have to be a perfect circle, but just I want you to be able to see each other.
Student
No, I do not have a sister. I should have told you earlier. ⚠
Student
She's like my teenage sister.
Student
There's a time where the sister drove you to the game cap, actually. ⚠
Student
It's okay.
Student
Here, I can get this guy in there.
Student
I don't—
Brad
Alright, which of our team leaders wants to get us started? Katie? So we'll try and go from Chapter 4 first. Yeah, something in Chapter 4. If you— yeah, if that's okay. Well, I mean, we'll just start with Chapter 4. It's kind of go 4, 5, 6, 7, 8. ⚠
Student
What he just mentioned was like how he like kind of related like the mustard seed to his faith and like how that spreads and grows. He was saying like, oh, the mustard seems like a small seed, but when sown it grows and it becomes the greatest of all shrubs. He was just kind of saying like where he's starting off now, like yeah, like not many people believe in yet, not many people know him yet, but like in hopes like he wants that to like grow and obviously. ⚠
Brad
Cool.
Student
Yeah.
Student
We were also talking about the first parable about sprinkling the seeds and it doesn't matter where you spread the seeds, it matters the soil that it's in. It's not the lack of— it's not on a sower, I guess, to be responsible for the seed, not taking. It's more the soil. I feel like that related later on to— it's about what's in your heart versus immediate action. ⚠
Student
Cool. Good. Yeah. Yeah.
Student
I think going off of that, there was like an emphasis on like listening versus like hearing. And I felt like he kept mentioning like pay attention to like let anyone with ears to hear listen. It's like even if you hear what you're saying, it doesn't matter if you hear it. It matters what you do with it and how you believe. ⚠
Student
Word. Facts.
Brad
Yeah.
Student
I thought it was interesting just the whole parable of the mustard seed and how he speaks in parables, that really you can read the whole reading today as literal or as kind of like a metaphor for something else, where that's the same thing as the Gita. That's like, you can read the literal words on the page, or you can look at it as kind of like that metaphor for, um, the like field of Dharma. And so There's just a lot that, like, especially in the notes too, there's a lot that you can, like, see that's like, oh, that's actually alluding to something else too. ⚠
Student
Okay. Yeah, Śaṅkara.
Student
Yeah, when I was reading, like, this part of the gospel, I was making a lot of connections to real life. And, uh, in this parable, I think, uh, it is really about, like, how hard it is to leave out of leave out beliefs consistently. And because most people, they don't reject ideas immediately they get it, but they lose them because of pressure of different distractions. And the line which says that the cares of the world choke the world really stood out to me because It feels like really modern, I guess, because people get really often overwhelmed and lose focus. And I can say from my own experience, like when I'm trying to study, I just take my phone for a second, but then it turns out to be like an hour of doom scrolling and that's it. So I think this just suggests that faith isn't just about like hearing something once, but about actually thinking about it and accepting it over time. ⚠
Student
Okay, good.
Brad
Yeah, Manny?
Student
I kind of like the analogy that starts out verse 28. It's like that if you scattered a seed on the ground, it would like, you know, keep growing. And I kind of just like how that relates to like faith in general, the seeds are planted, but then you also have to develop your faith throughout your whole life. ⚠
Student
And then at the end right here where he ends, like, oh, he'll go on with his cycle.
Student
It's like you're going to keep spreading the faith to everybody else. You know what I'm saying?
Brad
Yeah, Tim?
Student
Yeah, I definitely noticed a common theme throughout these chapters, which starts with the mustard seed example of God is all you need. To survive, really. And once you like plant yourself in his teachings and that faith, everything else will come. I guess I see that again later with the bread and fish miracle, where like you don't need to worry about the food when you're with Jesus. You just trust in him and hope it'll work for you. ⚠
Student
Okay, yeah, good.
Student
You see that too in the, um, when the woman touches the hem of his robe where he says like, your faith has healed you, and Like, that's kind of exactly the same thing where it's like all she had was faith in him, and that was what he was like gave the credit to in healing her. ⚠
Brad
Yeah, okay.
Student
Uh, yeah, uh, something in chapter 5 that I was like slightly not confused, but I had a question about. It's like, uh, chapter 5, verse 43. This is when he rose Jairus's grave. ⚠
Brad
Yeah, I don't Your guess is—
Student
He was like, he specifically said, he said that no one should know this. And like, he was very strict about that. But before that, when in verse 19, when he healed the legion of— and then all the pigs died in the river, he was like, tell all your friends what I've done for you. And how much mercy I've shown you. And before that, with the cloak, when a lot of people were surrounded by him, like, people saw that he was healed immediately. But like, why does he pick and choose? Like, oh, tell people, and like, people are seeing this, and then he tells like Jairus's daughter, like, oh, like, no one can know about this. Because like, I feel like the same thing what he said, um, faith stems from like obviously like believing and like thinking about it. But I think like seeing it and like that also like helps like boost your faith. Like, you know, it's like good to see it and like, wow, he did that. Like, I like really believe him. Like, I believe in Jesus. ⚠
Student
But I was just kind of confused why like he tells Jairus and his family like, don't tell people I did this. But for others, he's like, tell my word, like tell people what I've done for you.
Brad
Yeah, I mean, I think a really good close reading. I think this is actually a pretty exceptional time where he's saying, go and tell them how much the Lord has done, right? It's really common throughout the gospel. We see this over and over and over again where he's like, don't tell anybody, don't tell anybody, don't tell anybody. But we have this one. Yeah, as you point out, they began— they meaning the— this is a really important passage. Let's just zoom in Actually, you know what, before we zoom in here, I want to zoom in here on this legion passage. But before we do that, let's go back a little bit to chapter 4 because I don't want to skip over this passage. So beginning, I'm just going to read from verse 10. "When he was alone, those who were around him, along with the 12, asked him about the parables. ⚠
Brad
And he said to to you, the disciples, right, to you has been given the secret of the kingdom of God, but for those outside, everything comes in parables, in order that they may indeed look but not perceive and may indeed listen but not understand, so that they may not turn again and be forgiven. And then he chastises them because they don't understand. But what Yeah, so this is a quote from Isaiah chapter 6 there at the bottom, right? Which is an interesting passage. I mean, it's an interesting passage on its own. And then in this context that he's saying, he's telling them, I'm speaking in parables in order that they might look but not perceive, they might listen but not understand. Why would— I mean, why is that there? What does that mean? And this particular passage, by the way, Isaiah 6, the little passage, is in all four of the Gospels. So a rare instance of a passage being quoted. It's not that rare for the synoptics to agree, but it's pretty rare for the synoptics and John to all have the same passage. And then it's also, it's actually in Luke twice. ⚠
Brad
It's once in Luke's Gospel right at the end. And then it comes up again at the end of Acts. Luke is in two volumes. So he brings that, this comes up quite a bit. Why? What do we make of that? Shouldn't it say the opposite of what it says that I speak in parables in order for people to understand? What is it? You know, what do you think?
Student
Um, I like looked this up and it's like from a commentary and it was talking about how the parables like that he only speaks in are some— are like a spiritual filter. And so like normal people just understand them as some basic story, almost like a myth, like it's just— he's just telling these stories. Whereas like somebody who has like complete faith in him and is like seeking more in the parables will see extended metaphors that reveal the hidden plan of God and understand what he's saying on a deeper metaphorical level. ⚠
Brad
Okay, so it's something that you can understand if you hear it the right way kind of thing?
Student
Could be. Yeah, good.
Brad
Others? Yeah, Tim?
Student
I mean, part of it to me seems like, at the time, like a protection from the law because obviously he ends up getting captured captured and killed for his teachings. And so I figured maybe he speaks in parables and not directly like the faith, because if he gets in trouble with the police or something, he could say, well, I'm just talking about a mustard seed, that's not against the law. But if people want to look more into it, then it actually has the answers that he's teaching. ⚠
Brad
Okay, all right, so a little bit of way to wiggle out of something if he gets into trouble.
Student
Yeah?
Student
I think it comes too as giving the people listening a chance to come to him and come to his faith on their own versus saying directly, like, you should believe in me because if you do this and like, if he says it very literally, then people might just kind of be like, okay, dude, like, nice, move on. Like, you're not that guy. But if they can kind of understand the message that he's conveying on their own, then they'll believe in him on a more authentic level. ⚠
Student
Okay.
Brad
Any others? Yeah, Tim.
Student
It reminds me of a thing I highlighted in the beginning of this chapter where I noticed he said the secret of the kingdom of God. It's not just the kingdom of God.
Student
Yeah.
Student
And so him saying it, that him saying it's a secret was interesting to me. And maybe this correlates with it where it's not like so clear, but once you look for it, you're able to find it.
Student
Hmm. Yeah.
Student
Kind of what she said, it's like if you have the right intentions, it could just be like a story, but if you have the right intentions to have that faith, it's like, I just thought of it, I don't know if it's right, but kind of like with the Brahman, if you have your right intentions and that your mind in order, the Ātman's always there, like yourself, but how you go about it is like if you'll see that or not. ⚠
Brad
Okay, so connecting that, I guess also with the grounding, right? So then if you're, the kind of— if you're primed and ready to receive the words, then it's something that can grow. And if not, then you'll just be confused by it. ⚠
Student
Yeah, Danny?
Student
I also think that individual people have different backgrounds and different experiences, so people could interpret it within their own context, because one parable said literally might mean different things to different people, and so they could interpret it as their own to fit kind of their own life.
Brad
So, I mean, that could— so then one speaks in parables or stories because it may mean something a little bit different to Danny than it will to Caroline kind of thing, and then you can kind of receive it that way. Definitely makes sense. But it, but it does say that, um, he speaks in order that they won't understand, right? So it's— I mean, what you're saying makes sense, but the text seems to say the opposite, right? Yeah, I mean, I don't have any answers there. I'm just kind of— this is a perpetual mystery in Mark's Gospel. ⚠
Student
Good?
Brad
Cool. All right. So let's flip over to chapter 5. And yeah, this legion episode is pretty important. And it's pretty long. Too, right? It's an unusually, maybe unusually long parable. You know, let's just do this. If we would begin with Andrew and just kind of go, let's just read a verse. So if you read a verse, and then we'll just kind of read it out loud. By the way, according to Beavis, I can't say your name without thing. Sorry, I'm a child of the '80s. Beavis says that— she has this whole thing, really kind of— I thought it was pretty cool. But, you know, we talked in chapter 13, or I talked in chapter 13, about the orality of the of the mahavakyas, or really just all of the Vedanta, right, that it needs to be heard. And in order to be heard, it needs to be spoken by a teacher, right? And so the emphasis there was that the teacher needs to point and say, like, Brent, you are, you know, you are brahmin, right? You are atman. ⚠
Brad
And Bevis points out that that this, or at least, you know, many scholars believe that this was originally written intended to be spoken because most people in the audience were not literate. ⚠
Student
Right?
Brad
So they couldn't read it. So it wasn't written to be read silently. It was written to be read aloud to, you know, like to a church, you know, to a group of people. And that so the author She says, "Thus the reader of a document like Mark would have been a literate person with the ability to declaim the gospel aloud to the audience, the intermediary between the written and the spoken word, the text and the audience. In this sense, the first reader or oral performer of the gospel was probably the evangelist himself presenting his work to the members of this community, perhaps adding explanations and even answering questions." And we see that throughout the text also, right? I mean, he seems to— he'll explain Aramaic terms. Like, he'll give the Aramaic expression, like, "Talitha koum," and then explain what it means, right? Translate it. So what does that tell us? I mean, that tells us most likely that he knew Aramaic, right? But also that his audience didn't. Or at least some in his audience didn't. So, you know. What does that mean? And that sort of thing. ⚠
Brad
But all of that was just to say that I think reading it aloud and hearing it aloud is consistent with the spirit of the text. So yeah, if you don't mind, just read a verse and then we'll pass it on. It's just the first verse.
Student
Yeah.
Student
They came to the other side of the sea to the country of the Gerasenes.
Student
And when he had stepped out of the boat, immediately a man out of the sea tomb with an unclean spirit met him.
Student
He lived among the tombs, and no one could restrain him anymore, even with a chain. For he had often been restrained with shackles and chains, but the chains he wrenched apart and the shackles he broke in pieces, and no one had the strength to subdue him.
Student
Night and day among the tombs and on the mountains he was always howling and bruising himself with stones.
Student
When he saw Jesus from a distance, he ran and bowed down before him, and he shouted at the top of his voice, "What have you to do with me, Jesus, Son of the Most High God? I adore you, my God, do not torment me!" For he had said to him, "Come out of this man, you unclean spirit!" Then Jesus asked him, "What is your name?" He replied, "My name is Legion, for we are many." He begged him to unseat him at the foot of the vine, which Now there on the hillside a great herd of swine was feeding. ⚠
Student
But the unclean spirits begged him, "Send us into the swine; let us enter them." So he gave them permission, and the unclean spirits came out and entered the swine. And the herd, numbering about 2,000, rushed down the steep bank into the sea and were drowned in the sea. The swineherds ran off and told it in the city and in the country. Then people came to see what it was that had happened. ⚠
Student
They came to Jesus and saw the demonic sitting there, clothed and in his right mind, the very man who had had the legion, and they were afraid. Those who had seen what had happened to the demonic and to the swine reported.
Student
They began to beg Jesus to leave their neighborhood.
Student
As he was getting into the boat, the men who had been possessed by demons begged him that he might be with them.
Student
But Jesus refused and said to him, "Go home to your friends and tell them how much the Lord has done for you and what mercy he has shown you." And he went away and began to proclaim in the Decapolis how much Jesus had done for him, and everyone was amazed.
Brad
Okay, good. So we'll stop there. What do we make of this? What's— I don't know— anything significant, anything confusing, anything interesting, anything you learned from commentary, anything, Eva? ⚠
Student
I'm trying to notice when people are afraid of Jesus. I'm skipping to all the way to the end of Mark and know how the women don't say anything because they're afraid. And I just think it's interesting that in this passage, they are afraid of him and then beg him to leave their town. And then that's when he decides— that's when he says, show what I've done for you. So it's almost maybe to make up like the kind of fear that he's instilled in some people. ⚠
Brad
Yeah, good. As I was reading this, this section assigned for today, all through the margins I kept writing fear versus faith, fear versus faith. It comes up over and over again, fear versus faith. Some people are afraid and some people have faith, and those, those things seem to be dichotomized in here as well.
Student
Yeah, yeah. The man put it in him to tell his friends about what, like, the Lord has done for him. I read a commentary about it, and it was saying that because Jesus had, like, crossed the sea and he wasn't— he was no longer, like, where he was originally performing all the miracles, or, like, saving all the people, it said that he no longer had to keep the secret, and he didn't have to find or redefine his role because they aren't expecting him to be a conquering Messiah. So that kind of helped me understand a little bit of one reason that he could have not wanted to keep that secret to himself. It was also kind of like spreading the word of the Lord. ⚠
Brad
All right, I got it. So because he's saying go home, right? So you're not going to spread it around here, you're going to go home and spread it, and that's fine. Yeah, interesting. It makes sense.
Student
Others?
Student
Yeah, I read down in the notes too that like the legion is kind of like the Roman legion of unclean spirits and the whole story of casting the unclean spirits into swine, which in Judaism is an unclean animal. It's not kosher. And then they go down into the water and like die. I kind of read it as an allusion to like the strength and faith of God is more powerful than the Romans who are ruling this area at the time. And just like that kind of came to fruition where the Emperor of Rome converted to Christianity and then ultimately Christianity outlasted the Roman Empire. So I just thought it was like an interesting story that, like I was saying earlier, meant a little more than the literal text. ⚠
Brad
Okay. Yeah.
Student
Good. Yeah, Anna?
Student
I have a question. He, like the legion, like recognizes him as Jesus, Son of the Most High God. But like up until this point, Jesus is kind of keeping this a secret and he never says like, I am Jesus and I'm the Son of a God. So how does he like know that that is Jesus? ⚠
Brad
So the one that proclaims him is, are the demons, right? The spirits. Yeah, so we have seen that before. So the spirits, the unclean spirits, they seem to most always maybe recognize him as the Son of the Most High, or the Son— yeah, usually the Son of God, but here Son of the Most High God, but not a human character, right? So Yeah, good. ⚠
Student
Others?
Student
Yeah, based on what you're just saying, it's like interesting that the demons were like the first to recognize Jesus when like often at this time like other people didn't even recognize him.
Brad
Yeah, even the— it's not even clear that the disciples really understand him either, right? So it's kind of— I mean, so far, at least in the text, it seems to be only the unclean spirits that recognize him, at least in that sense, right? Everybody— I mean, you've got massive crowds surrounding him, but they all want to be healed, right? So people are coming to, to be healed. Um, good. Yeah, Śaṅkara? ⚠
Student
Uh, yeah, I just wanted to support the idea that about the moment where the man is like in his right mind and it's like a complete transformation, but people still resist and they do not like accept the fact that it's a complete transformation. So again, I've made like kind of connection to the current situation in the world, and like it was like this throughout the history, I guess, that people resist change even if it's positive and it's like good for everybody. People just don't want anything to change. ⚠
Brad
So I want to zoom in a little bit more on, you know, Brent's line of thinking here. So, I mean, what is the significance of swine?
Student
Yeah, yeah.
Student
Like, it's what we talked about, about our groups, like swine, pigs, like this is like like, not like— it's not clean food. So like, in Judaism, like, that's kosher, like, you can't eat them. So because at first I was like, oh, like, why would, you know, they send the demons into the pigs? Like, maybe one of them— because these people probably rely on them. And we talked about that, which is interesting. It's like, oh, like, showing like the unclean spirits go into the unclean swine. And then Kaurava actually brought up like an interesting point that when the Vatican performed exorcisms in the past, like, they would often like, you know, send out those spirits into pigs and like, you know, in like the 16th century or whatever. And so I think it's probably like because of this passage, we're basically just showing that these swine are unclean. So thus the spirits are kind of almost drawn to them. It's kind of got rid of two birds with one stone right there. ⚠
Brad
Okay. All right. Good. All that's true. What else? Yeah, Logan.
Student
I think it is also interesting that it's a herd of swine because how often do you hear of like a herd of pigs? Normally it's either sheep or or something else normally sheep that's used throughout the Bible, which I just thought was interesting. ⚠
Student
Yeah.
Brad
Yeah, good. I don't want to spoon-feed it to you, but so we've got a little bit of a— I mean, it's a metaphor, right, or an allegory. So we've got, on the one hand, this Roman force, right? I mean, legion is Roman, refers specifically to the Roman soldiers, right? So the occupying force in the form of soldiers, right? And those Roman soldiers, so we know that swine, you know, is specifically forbidden in the Book of Leviticus, right? So it's declared unclean. It's considered an abomination to even touch. Swine, right? Very unclean within the Jewish tradition. And so we're in Jewish territory here, right? So why are there— why is there a large herd of swine at all? Shouldn't be any swine in this area, right? So why are there swine there at all? ⚠
Student
Yeah?
Student
Would it be who put the evil leaves in? ⚠
Brad
Gotta be. It's gotta be, right? There's no really other explanation. So there's— there's all these people in this area that don't eat swine. That's not part of their diet at all. But those same people that are even forbidden to touch swine have to take care of the swine. Why? Because their occupying force, you know, requires it, right? So you've got to keep these pigs for us. You've got to raise these pigs for us, right? Because, you Yeah. ⚠
Student
I also don't think that the falling into the sea is for no reason. I think you say they're dirty animals, then the sea is water which cleanses, and maybe it signifies a baptism. Once the demon goes into them, then they fall into the ocean and are cleansed.
Brad
Okay. Yeah, good. Yeah, Śaṅkara.
Student
I got a question. So this— whole thing is happening in the city of Gerasa? Yeah, yeah, yeah, because, uh, like in the Gospels it's written that it was largely non-Jewish. Okay, so I guess that's the answer why they had a lot of caves there. ⚠
Brad
Yes, yeah, yeah, but I believe that this, um, this town was kind of— I mean, I think it's one of the towns that didn't really exist before the Romans came in, right? And so it's a town that's mostly non-Jewish because it's mostly Romans, right? So I think the two things are a different way of saying the same thing. But just to, you know, Socrates says things said are better understood than things not said. You know, so the unclean spirits are occupying the bodies, you know, in this case occupying the body of this demoniac, right, who doesn't have a name. But, and then so Jesus liberates him from that occupying force, right? So the occupying force in that case is the demon, and then that occupying force goes into the swine, which also sort of representing this occupying force You know, and it has the name of Legion, which is literally the occupying force, right? So he's speaking in parables here, but we want to unpack those parables a little bit. Yeah, so we've got this theme of, you know, empire, imperialism, right? Imperial oppression. Good. Anything else to say? Well, one last thing. ⚠
Brad
Since we have talked about the unclean food. Wait, we do have— gosh, I underlined so much now I can't figure out where it is, but somewhere in this pericope, we have the— oh yeah, yeah, jump to chapter 7, verse 19. We, like, low-key have Jesus making a joke here, I think. Listen to me, all of you, and understand. Jump back to verse 14. So listen and understand, opposite of what he said earlier. There's nothing outside of a person that by going in can defile 'But only the things that come out are what defile.' That's definitely a joke, right? 'When he left the crowd and entered the house, the disciples asked him about the parable. He said, "Then do you also fail to understand? Do you not see whatever goes into a person from the outside cannot defile, since it enters not the heart but the stomach and goes out into the sewer?"' And then Mark says in parentheses here, "Thus he declared all foods clean." So then, you know, what do we do with that? Were the swine unclean earlier in the text but now declared clean? ⚠
Brad
Or is the uncleanliness of the swine not ever really the issue at all for him? You see what I'm saying?
Student
Good.
Brad
Cool. Yeah, Manny.
Student
I mean, I just feel like it's more of an uncleanness of the soul. Like, if you really break it down, like, if you're told not to eat it, it's not physically defiling you, but it's more of like your soul is now tainted because you went against the will.
Student
Okay.
Brad
Yep.
Student
Kayla.
Student
Also, like, earlier on the Page 13, about abandoning the commandment of God and holding human tradition and how that's like people started to hold human tradition higher than the commandment of God. ⚠
Student
And so some of the things that they're doing might not necessarily— like they might be more aligned with their human tradition, even if they don't necessarily realize it.
Student
Okay, then.
Brad
Yeah, Logan.
Student
Yeah, I mean, it's like the This whole kind of passage here from 7 all the way down to 23, it's kind of almost a direct criticism of the Pharisees and people in charge at the time. And at least before reading this passage, I would kind of think of like, oh, they were against Jesus because he was— or crucified him because he was the Savior or something like that. But then you realize this is like some pretty punishable— these are some pretty punishable punishable offenses back then, and the direct criticisms of people in charge and just pointing out their fallacies within their own beliefs and their systems and how they're kind of abusing it. And that is like kind of the cherry on top, just kind of like you saying that you can't eat pigs isn't really important. It's not very core thing to the faith. You eat whatever you want. It's just how you conduct yourself as a person. ⚠
Brad
So this is something that was very important to the Pharisees and to the scribes, and it is pretty important in the text, in the Hebrew scriptures, but he's saying it's not. Yeah, yeah. ⚠
Student
I think this also shows like the transition because like the disciples were like raised on the idea that these rituals and practices were like so important and that kind of just like all got pushed away when he did like declared that everything was clean. So I feel like that definitely shows about like in previous times, like it was important that foods were clean versus unclean, like now that this is the shift. ⚠
Brad
Yeah, right.
Student
Uh, I think too the context matters in this situation where the Pharisees were kind of chastising Jesus and his disciples for eating with unclean hands, but then that like 9 to 13 section, Jesus says, well, you're picking and choosing what traditions follow because honor your father and mother, that commandment, you're— it said in the notes like there was a tradition of like donating food to the temple and all that which was taking away from the ability to follow that commandment. So that was kind of his direct like rebuttal of I can eat with dirty hands if I want to. And then he says like there's all these un— there's all the unclean foods are clean and Yeah, like she said, it's a major shift in my opinion. ⚠
Brad
Yeah, and I mean, I hear you on the picking and choosing, but it almost feels like he's doing that too, right? So yeah, a little bit. Yeah, Grace? ⚠
Student
Kind of reminded me of like the first time that we read Mark, and it was like the— I can't remember exactly how it was, but it was like him talking about like healing the blind person, I think, and he's like, it's one thing to like say that their sins are forgiven, that's another thing to actually heal the person. I think that kind of connects with like in this passage he's saying that like he's declaring that all foods are clean. That's another thing to like do what he did with the swine and like actually like cast out the unclean spirit. ⚠
Student
Right on.
Brad
Yeah.
Student
We talked about that same passage from the beginning of Mark, I think it was Mark 2. Uh, I think we looked it up and it was verse 9, uh, where it's saying like there's one thing to ask him for forgiveness and then it's like easier to just get up and walk, right? Uh, and we kind of connected that back to, um, in Mark 5 when he's healing the daughter of the synagogue leader and, um, We connected that to, again, that verse and the whole thing about how it's easier to have faith and to heal them through faith rather than like a work of magic. I think that's kind of the theme through this whole reading. Um, and I think it was in the notes at the bottom too, or it was in the commentary I read, they were saying everything is not a work of magic, it's having faith in the Lord. He says that again when the woman touches the hem of his robe, and it's her faith that saved her. And I think it's repeated multiple times, so I just thought that was important too. ⚠
Brad
It definitely is. Yeah, let's look at that, those two verses there. So chapter 5, verse 33 and 34. Yeah, she touches him, he says, who touched me? But the woman, knowing what had happened to her, came in came in fear and trembling, famous little phrase there, came in fear and trembling, fell down before him and told him the whole truth. He said to her, "Daughter, your faith has made you well." So, I mean, I wrote faith and fear and faith here again, but it almost seems like a little bit different than the other ones because she, it seems like most of the time there's either faith or fear. But here she has seems to have both, but maybe she had the faith first. Like, when does her fear arise? Does her fear arise because she got caught touching him, or does her fear— so why does her fear arise? I mean, you know, we don't, we don't know, but I mean, what do you think? ⚠
Student
Yeah, I feel like her fear arises because Jesus was going to save someone else, and like she kind of intercepted that and like made her healing like the center of like his focus. And I feel like she was worried that it like might come across as greed versus like, I don't think her fear comes from like fear of her healing or like fear of Jesus versus like, and I feel like that's what the fear was before, and now it's more like fear of the consequences of like how she looks. ⚠
Student
Okay, good. Yeah, yeah, Kayla?
Student
Yeah, I feel like kind of similar to that, it's more of like a fear like that she sinned in a way, like she did, like she just like touched Jesus without permission.
Student
And so she, like, feels like she maybe did something wrong, even though she— it healed her. ⚠
Brad
Yeah. Also, um, now that you're saying that, um, so the, um, the Hebrew scripture— I mean, in order to really understand these texts, we'd have to read and memorize all the Hebrew scriptures, right? But, um, uh, but Hebrew scriptures are pretty clear about, uh, a woman who's hemorrhaging, meaning a woman in her cycle is unclean and should not be touched by anyone, but especially not a rabbi, right, or a religious person like him. So it could be that the thing that she's done is, you know, coming into contact with them. So there's a purity or a cleanliness issue there, right? But he doesn't say like, oh, you're in trouble because you touched me when you were unclean. ⚠
Student
Right?
Brad
But instead, just touching her, touching him, heals her. And yeah, very much on— I think it was Kat's point— that's, yeah, verse 34. He said to her, "Daughter," interesting address, "your faith has made you well." So yeah, it's her faith that's made her right, which then we could also kind of roll into the whole his hometown section. Does that come up? Yeah, that's coming up next. We've got also another on the way, verse 36. Overhearing what they said, Jesus said to the leader of the synagogue, "Do not fear, only believe." So again, fear and faith seem to be in opposition here. We've got another secret there, right? Verse 43, he strictly ordered them that no one should know this and told her to give her something to eat. But then, yeah, let's roll into chapter 6. And we can definitely open it up. We don't have to be just leaders. Leaders have done a good job. So yeah, Sophia. ⚠
Student
I think it was interesting to see that, like, when you went back to his hometown, like everyone kind of just saw him as like the son of the carpenter and the son of Mary and like the brother to his siblings. And I feel like that took away from like a lot of what he was able to do to other people. And like the people that knew him from growing up and like knew him best were the ones that like had no faith in him at all because like they thought he was just like one of them. ⚠
Brad
Yeah, good. Well, you could read that. I mean, some people are caught off guard by the fact that Jesus had brothers. So the brother of James and Joes and Judas and Simon and his sisters are there, right? But then really verse 5, I guess, is what I want to draw attention to. So he could do know, he could do no deed of power there, except that he laid his hands on a few sick people and cured them. And he was amazed at their unbelief. So it seems like his power is really their power, almost, right? Like he's— he can't— I mean, I don't know, what do you think of the fact that he could do no deed of power there? It's not that he chose not to, but he was unable to do any deed of power there because they had no faith. Yeah, Colin? ⚠
Student
It almost seems like the people in that hometown kind of humanized him and they didn't really have faith in the Lord. And I think that, again, that's a major theme throughout these readings is faith. And since the hometown people all kind of viewed him as this human figure and not this Son of God and almost the Word of God, that he didn't really have that power.
Student
Yep, you go.
Student
I think similarly, it's like kind of makes him more just like of a historical figure, which I feel like a lot of times, like when I think about Jesus, at least like I think of more historical rather than the divinity side of him. And I think it almost is like appealing to people to believe, like if you believe then like these sort of miracles or like your faith will come for you good or something like that, rather than just seeing him as someone who like lived in his time. ⚠
Student
Okay, yeah.
Student
I think also like drawing back to the beginning of Mark, like we don't see his upbringing or like his like first life till like now. Like we just get him when he's like going and saving all these people, but like his hometown, like they watched him grow up, like he was just like their neighbor at some point. So like without seeing him like exerting his power throughout his childhood and now he has this power, they might not believe it because they were like, no, I was just with him like 3 weeks ago and he wasn't doing this. ⚠
Brad
So yeah, I mean, I think this is an important point, right? That just based on the straightforward reading of the text, he didn't have any of these powers when he was growing up, right? And now he does. And so, you know, as Colin was saying, they don't see him as having those powers because he didn't have those powers before. Presumably. Um, and then so, um, so yeah, so which raises the question of what changed? Why does he have these powers, and why can he only do the powers if people believe, right? ⚠
Student
Yeah, I feel like this just goes back to like the first parable where it talked about like spreading seeds, and like regardless of if he like spreads his seeds here, like no one— like the soil like isn't for planting here, sort of like nothing's gonna come of it because no one believes that like he is anything.
Student
Mm-hmm. Okay, good.
Brad
Yeah, it's a great point.
Student
It's kind of just talking about how people respond to God's message, and I think the people of the hometown, obviously they think of him as as not this higher being, not a person of God and God's Son, but obviously this human person. And so obviously they're the ones that are within the rocks, the seed planted in the rocks that aren't going to respond as well as the seeds that are in deep soil, right, ready to grow.
Brad
Okay, good. Um, let's move into, um, so this, this next section here, um, after, I guess, after he leaves the hometown. Um, so the second half of verse 6, then he went about among the villages teaching. He called the 12 and began to send them out two by two and gave them authority over the unclean spirits. So he's giving authority, right? So we've seen one of the things we talked about last time we talked about Mark was, you know, Mark keeps saying he speaks with authority, teaches with authority. He has That's a pretty big deal for Mark, right? He speaks with authority. So now he's giving them authority over the unclean spirits and ordered them to take nothing for their journey except a staff, no bread, no bag, no money in their belts, but to wear sandals and not put on two tunics. He said to them, "Wherever you enter a house, stay there." So they went out and proclaimed to all that all should repent. Verse 13. They cast out many demons and anointed with oil many who were sick and cured them. ⚠
Brad
And then we have, so we have here what's called the, what's usually referred to as like Mark's sandwich. He does this like sandwich. It's like a literary device where he starts a story. So here we see, I mean, he's already done it many times before. This is not the first time. But where he starts a story. And then has another story inside of that story and then comes back and finishes the first one. Right? So here we've got— so he sends out the apostles and then we have this whole King Herod, John the Baptist stuff. And then beginning in verse 30, so quite a bit later, then the apostles return. So there are lots of different ways to approach Mark's Gospel. One could be that if we take, you know, some of the— I mean, obviously the— maybe not obvious, but the chapter and verses, those were added later, right, by somebody else. They're not original to the text. ⚠
Brad
But nevertheless, it could be that these chapters and the verses are divided up more or less where, like, you know, we could imagine Mark in his original context kind of giving, like, a lesson or giving a sermon, right? And so this one begins with the sending out of the apostles, and then you've got the John the Baptist scene in the middle, and then ends with the apostles, right? So trying to understand all of these as sort of one semantic unit, we might say, right? So using the middle part to help us understand the outside parts and vice versa, right? Kind of understand them all together. So So yeah, what do you make of this, that he's giving power to the disciples or giving authority to the disciples? Is there a difference between authority and power? And they did cast out many demons and anointed with oil. In Greek, that's the word Christos, right? So they're christening many people. And then this whole episode with John the Baptist, why is it even here? What are we supposed to take away from it? Should we do another? ⚠
Student
Yeah, Tim, go for it.
Student
Jesus says to the apostles, if someone comes to your house, you're dead to me, and wash not your feet at their doorsteps. I think that kind of reminded me of the Passover where like going house by house and seeing who is showing faith and who is not. ⚠
Brad
Yeah, interesting.
Student
Yeah. Yeah.
Student
I'm not really sure about the King Herod part of the story, but looking at Jesus giving the disciples authority over these demons, I kind of see it as the first priests in Catholicism where a priest like has the authority to teach. And you think of like the community communion where only a priest can say the prayer that actually makes the wafer into the body of Christ. We're like, that's the same authority that I'm seeing. It's almost like the precedent that sets the fact that there are priests in the Catholic tradition. ⚠
Student
Okay. Yeah.
Student
Sure.
Student
Yeah.
Brad
Śaṅkara.
Student
I think that John the Baptist part is he wants to show that power and politics still override the truth. And because I think that Herod, he knows that John is actually right. He's like, he even has some like inside conflict, and it says like he was deeply grieved, yet he did not want to refuse her. So deep inside he understood that John is right, but He was affected, I think, by social pressure. And I think this just shows how people often act against their values and principles and thoughts to maintain their social status and opinion about them, I guess. ⚠
Brad
Yeah, why didn't Herod want to kill him. You have that there?
Student
What does this, um, yeah, it says, uh, for Herod feared John knowing that he was a righteous and holy man, and he protected him. So that was 6:20. But that's kind of like, he was holy. ⚠
Brad
Yeah. So he thinks, he seems to think highly of him. So he doesn't want to kill him because he thinks highly of him. And then I feel like it's a little bit slippery in the text here. Right? So Herodias seems to refer to his daughter, but then sometimes kind of refers to his wife. Right, seems a little— or maybe there's two, maybe mother and daughter are both named Herodias, which is really similar to Herod. It's a little bit confusing. Yeah, but an opportunity came when Herod on his birthday gave a banquet for his courtiers and officers and for the leaders of Galilee. ⚠
Brad
When his daughter Herodias came in and danced, she pleased Herod and his guests, and the king said to the daughter, "Ask me for whatever you wish and I will give it." And he solemnly swore to her, "Whatever you ask me, I will give you, even half my kingdom." And she went out and said to her mother, "What should I ask for?" And she, the mother, replied, "The head of John the Baptizer." Immediately she rushed back to the king and requested, "I want you to give me at once the head of John the Baptist on a platter." The king was deeply grieved, yet out of regard for the oaths And for the guest, he did not want to refuse her. And then he does that, right? I don't know. What do we make of this? Why is it here at all? ⚠
Student
Yeah.
Student
It reminds me a lot of what we've been reading in the Bhagavad Gita with Arjuna and his kind of deciding whether he should fall into compassion for, I guess, his enemies were good friends or kinsmen, or fulfill his role and oaths as said here by the king. So it's kind of a tricky situation where, you know, do you want to fulfill your honor, your Dharma, be righteous by your oaths, or, you know, fall towards compassion and be rightful to the person that you think is righteous too as well. ⚠
Student
So, okay.
Brad
We could definitely— yeah, we could definitely open it up to moving beyond this passage, but there's probably more to say here too. Go into the loaves and fishes. Why is it here twice? Isn't it weird that it's in there twice? As I mentioned before, both Matthew and Luke have a copy of Mark's Gospel, and they for the most part copy it, right? But there's a few things that they change and a few things that they leave out, and both of them include the feeding of the 5,000, but neither of them include the feeding of the 4,000. They're like, we already did that, why we got to have it twice? ⚠
Student
What do you think?
Brad
Why is it in there twice?
Student
Yeah, I mean, I think it's kind of— it all leads up to that final point when they're on the boat with the apostles, like, oh, we have like such minimal food. And then Jesus is like, do you not see these two things? I already did these thousands of people with just a couple loaves of bread and fish. It's just like, I think then they're both just like, I don't know what Brad was talking about before, like a lot of these can be interpreted more as myths and not actual stories. Just like, oh, if you truly believe in me, then it's possible. And so it's like, I feel like both of these is kind of Jesus testing the faith of the apostles, being like, do you guys truly believe in me yet? Like, have you seen what I've done for others? I can do the same thing for you. Or like, do you guys still need like more testing, per se? ⚠
Brad
Okay, so he's doing it in order to prove it to the disciples. Yeah, Śaṅkara?
Student
I think the, like, the second time, like, repetition makes, like, disciples' confusion more noticeable for us. And we can make a conclusion that people actually fail to connect, like, past experiences to new experiences. And it just shows that faith doesn't just come. You need to like actually learn and understand it along the time. I guess that's what I understood from this. ⚠
Brad
I mean, totally, but like, why don't they understand? It seems like they're trying to understand, doesn't it? It seems like they're following him everywhere. They're listening to him. What is it about the disciples? Are they just thick or like what? ⚠
Student
Yeah.
Student
Kind of like direct perception versus the word. I'm forgetting the names, but what we learned about in the first few minutes, where it's like direct perception is kind of beyond our ability to even comprehend, whereas the secondary forms of teaching in the direct what is heard is something we're able to understand, and then from that we have to just like have faith in that higher level of God or the Creator or anything like that. ⚠
Student
Okay, yeah, man.
Student
And it's kind of like adding on to that, I feel like there's always this like idea of that you're not supposed to completely comprehend your faith, like you're supposed to question it and you kind of just have to like believe, and that's kind of the whole concept of like, you know, having faith in the first place.
Brad
Okay, so like that Anselm from chapter 1, like faith seeking understanding, never finding it. But yep.
Student
Yeah.
Student
Is it like maybe like they see like, oh, like Jesus did this for 5,000 people and like 4,000 people and like fed them with 5, 7 loaves. But like when it comes to like when they're on the ship and they're like, oh, we don't have— or like the boat and they're like, oh, we don't have food. It's like they kind of forget to think about themselves. Believe him. They've seen him do it, but like, it's because they're like not ignorant, but they just forget, like, oh, like, he would do this for us too. Like, he would help us out. He wouldn't just like strand us. ⚠
Brad
Okay, so he's gonna take care of their basic needs kind of thing. Yeah, I mean, why— I mean, why does he do these things? It doesn't seem like— I mean, they're not even telling the crowd Right? The crowd doesn't know any— the crowd doesn't necessarily know anything special happened, right? Pass the food around, they all get some food, and there's some food left over. They don't know how much they started with. They don't know how much they ended with, right? There's no sort of accounting of it. I mean, maybe there is and Mark doesn't tell us, but for sure Mark doesn't tell us, right? ⚠
Student
I don't know.
Brad
So many mysteries in Mark's Gospel. One thing that stood out to me, verse 46, so chapter 7, no, chapter 6, verse 46. After saying farewell to them, he went up to the mountain to pray. Unless I overlooked it, this is the first time we've seen Jesus pray in the gospel, right? Um, I'm pretty sure. Um, What is— I mean, what's going on there, right? Why? He sees them in the boat, this wind is going, why is he walking on the water at all? And why isn't he walking towards them? Why is he walking intending to pass them by? Do we have any commentary down there in the— Again, the disciples are terrified not only at the wind but also at the apparition. Mark compares Jesus to God using the phrase "I am," ego eimi. Yeah, please. ⚠
Student
Well, the next commentary says that like if the disciples not only lacked faith, like maybe he was going to walk by them to like show them that he was still there and like he doesn't need to be the one like directly helping them all the time. But like if they have faith and like they're able to see him, that like everything will be okay. ⚠
Student
Okay.
Brad
Others? Well, so this is often looked at as one of the passages within Mark's Gospel that seems to attribute a high level of divinity to him. So the question is often like, what's the relationship between— are we over time? So sorry. Have a good weekend. See you on Tuesday. So sorry about that. I just got all excited about Mark.

THEO 1432: The Religious Quest · Brad Bannon · Boston College

Generated by Mitra