henry ossawa tanner
1910
April 25th is celebrated as the feast day of Mark the Evangelist, also known as St. Mark and John Mark. He is the founder of the Episcopal tradition of Alexandria, one of his five central churches of the early Christian communion.
When I hear this, of course I think of Mark’s Gospel.
When Pier Paolo Pasolini created his 1964 masterpiece, The Gospel of Matthew, he chose that Gospel as the basis because “John was too mystical, Mark too vulgar, and Luke too sentimental.” . Perhaps the church has followed a different rule and has been based primarily on an understanding of the “historical” Jesus through Matthew.
However, since the 19th century, those seeking to understand the man behind the Gospels have come to believe that the earliest extant story of Jesus is contained in Mark. There are various reasons for this. The Gospel was almost certainly originally written in Greek, and although several possible locations have been suggested, most people seem to think it was written in Rome. It is also believed that the Gospel was written close to the destruction of the Temple and sacking of Jerusalem in his 70th year. In other words, it is the life of Jesus and his life after death.
The earliest proof that Mark was the author of this text was Papias of Hierapolis. Somewhere between the 1st century and the end of his 2nd century, that is, even later in life, Mark, who was a companion of Peter, claimed authorship. Since almost that time, Mark has been thought to be an evangelist. The majority of modern scholars seem to think that this is unlikely. Rather, the Gospels are generally believed to have been written by an anonymous hand, based on various traditions about the Master and his message, which have been passed down primarily orally.
Few who study this issue deeply think that the Gospels are biographies in the sense we use that term today, but they also contain the history of Jesus and his life and ministry. It is also the only source of information we have about both his events and his life. How did he convey that? In other words, they are mined. Most scholars these days consider Mark to be the source of both Matthew and Luke. John is an outlier, having been composed much later and generally not considered a source for historical issues.
All of them are interesting. But what interests me most is the ending of the Gospel.
The Vatican Codex and the Sinaitic Codex, the oldest extant documents containing the Gospel, both date back to the mid-4th century, when Mary Magdalene, Mary the mother of James, and Salome fled after discovering the empty tomb. There is.
Mark 16:8
The King James Bible says, “And they hurried out and fled from the tomb. They trembled and were astonished, and said nothing to anyone, for they were afraid.” Most used in seminaries The New Revised Standard Version, which is a common mainstream Protestant translation, says, “So they went out and fled from the tomb, for fear and astonishment came upon them; I didn’t say anything.”
The later text contains two different endings, one called “short” and the other “long.” I doubt that many in mainstream academia believe that either actually belongs in the written text. A subsequent editor didn’t like his ending at 16:8 and fixed it. Most Protestant Bibles include a “long” version, usually marked in parentheses.
While I’m interested in who Jesus really was and what he actually taught, I’m also very interested in the mysterious religion we know as canonical Christianity. there is. And I was deeply moved by that passage, which includes fear and silence.
Fear and silence.
A beloved teacher was brutally murdered. He is buried. Women, and it’s always good to point out that there were women here, not men. They came later when they decided to sort things out. These women encountered an empty tomb. The most obvious one would be that people stole the bodies. The reasons are debatable, but anyone can reasonably assume that someone will just take it. But this also includes other possibilities.
They lived in a world full of spirits, and in some ways it was much richer than ours. We accept spares. i will do it. Anything that can be measured deserves some sort of priority. However, we tend to get caught up in the fantasy of the material and forget that the world is mysterious. And for women, other non-human acts may certainly be involved. After all, he spoke about riddles. Why not another one?
Then comes silence. Why silence? Well, who would believe them? And who will they tell this to? If it was part of some conspiracy, they could be in trouble. Probably serious trouble. Silence is sometimes the only shield the powerless have.
But silence also has other forms and contexts. And in this story of strange words and miracles, they seem very possible.
Pasolini’s “Profane Gospel”. Vulgar is a very rich word. Obviously lacking in taste. course. Uncultivated. Crude. It can be embarrassing. And that means people, ordinary people, people who work, love, and die for generations. I remembered one day. And I lost…
It’s as if someone wants to hide good news within good news. I don’t think there’s a conspiracy at all, but it’s more likely that they just weren’t watching.
Think about miracles happening. It reminds me of our everyday life. I don’t really notice the difference.
Fear and silence.
Someone once said that the fear of the Lord is the beginning of wisdom.
Someone once said that silence is golden.
pointer. And an invitation.
