Information AboutMark 11 |
| CATEGORIES ABOUT MARK 11 | |
| new testament chapters | |
|
''This article is on the biblical chapter. For the U.S. Navy weapon system see United States Navy Mark 11 Mod 0 Sniper Weapon System '' Mark 11 is the eleventh chapter of the Gospel Of Mark is the New Testament of the Christian Bible , beginning Jesus' final week before his death as he arrives in Jerusalem for the coming Passover . It contains the stories of Jesus ' entry into Jerusalem, his cursing of the Fig Tree , his conflict with the Temple money changers, and his argument with the chief priests and elders about his authority. TRIUMPHAL ENTRY Jesus and his battle occurring on the Mount of Olives. Bethphage is Aramaic for house of unripe figs, perhaps Mark's foreshadowing of the story of the fig tree. Jesus instructs two unnamed disciples to go ahead to the town and get a colt, by which he almost assuredly means a young as the "Lord" is meant as the owner of the colt and Jesus. (Miller 39) The two go and find the colt as Jesus had predicted and start to untie it and people standing nearby ask what they are up to and they tell them what Jesus told them to say and amazingly they leave them alone. Mark leaves the event seemingly showing Jesus' power of prediction, but it could be argued that the people already knew Jesus as this town is his base of operations over the next several days. He also, according to Mark and the other Gospels, had friends there including Lazarus , his sisters, and Simon The Leper , and so could have arranged for the colt to be there. They bring the colt back to Jesus and put their , as the Gospel Of John says the branches were from Palm Trees . Where this entry took place is unknown, some believing is was through what is now called The Golden Gate where it was believed the messiah would enter Jerusalem. Others think he might have used an entrance to the south that had stairs that led directly to the Temple. (Kilgallen 210) He goes into the city and checks out the Temple but because it is late leaves and goes back to Bethany. There were two areas of the Temple, the main area of the building where people's activity took place and the inner sanctuary, also called the Temple, where the power of God was thought to reside. THE FIG TREE AND THE MONEY CHANGERS As they leave Bethany on Monday Jesus sees a fig tree in the distance and goes over to it to get some figs. It is however too early in the year for the tree to produce fruit and it has none. Jesus, seemingly annoyed, says "May no one ever eat fruit from you again." ( 14 ), which his disciples hear. They reach Jerusalem and Jesus goes straight to the Temple and starts, without explanation, throwing over tables and driving the 's will, Jewish or not, are to be allowed into the Temple so they can Pray and therefore converse with God. The passage in Zechariah is from a chapter on the futility of Worship if one does not obey God's will. People making money off of worshipping God right inside God's own Temple seems to Jesus to be a corruption of God's intention. "Den of thieves" might be a reference to extortionary pricing for the doves and money. (Kilgallen 215) The people are amazed by him and his teaching, which drives the chief priests to plot to kill him. Jesus and his group however leave the city at the end of the day. The incident with the money changers is in all the Gospels. The . The next morning they pass by the fig tree again and Peter notices that it is now "withered", and excitedly points it out to Jesus, who replies: Have faith in God,...I tell you the truth, if anyone says to this mountain, 'Go, throw yourself into the sea,' and does not doubt in his heart but believes that what he says will happen, it will be done for him. Therefore I tell you, whatever you ask for in prayer, believe that you have received it, and it will be yours. Similar statements can be found, apart from the fig tree story, in also mentions faith that can move mountains in 1 Corinthians 13:2 . Some have argued that Jesus' action in regard to the fig tree seems in Matthew 7:16 . ARGUMENT OVER JESUS' AUTHORITY Jesus then goes back to the Temple on Tuesday and as he walks through the Temple courts the priests, teachers, and elders come up to him and question his authority to do the things that he is doing. They are trying to get him to say that his authority comes from God and can therefore accuse him of Blasphemy . Jesus says he will tell them if they answer him one question. " John 's Baptism —was it from Heaven , or from men? Tell me!" ( 30 ) The priests are then trapped. Mark implies that they did not believe in John, so that if they answer from heaven people will ask why they did not believe John. If they answer from men, they would be in conflict with the people, who ''did'' believe in John. They therefore refuse to answer and accordingly so does Jesus. This allows him to make the priests look bad and incompetent and also allows him to imply to the people that his authority is from God without saying it. This is the first time in Mark that the chief priests, members of the Sanhedrin , are Jesus' opponents. Before his conflict's had been with the Pharisees and local teachers of the law. Jesus has several arguments with the Jewish authorities beginning here and lasting through chapter 12 in which they try to trip him up but continually fail. Matthew has these stories in chapter 21 with the differences that Jesus fights with the money changers the day he gets to Jerusalem and he heals several blind and lame people afterward. Jesus curses the fig tree the next morning and it withers immediately. Luke has all of this in 19:28-20:8 except for the fig tree but an explicit prediction by Jesus of Jerusalem's destruction. He also states the Pharisees tried to silence his followers praise of him during his entry into Jerusalem and like Matthew Luke says Jesus expelled the money changers the day he arrived there. John 12 has Jesus arrive in Bethany and have dinner with Lazarus and his sisters Mary and Martha after raising him from the dead. The next day he finds the colt, John making no mention of the disciples, and rides it into Jerusalem with the same Psalm being sung. He then teaches the crowd in Jerusalem, John having the incident in the Temple before Jesus' final trip to Jerusalem. REFERENCES
|
|
|