[B-Greek] Mark 7:18-19

Mark Lightman lightmanmark at yahoo.com
Sun Nov 1 17:35:57 EST 2009


Yancy wrote:
 
<...linguistic irony/humor may account for the  
terseness of style. Humor theorists have provided
insights into the various cues that signal the
 presence of humor.  These cues include: 1)  
the sudden disregard of a social propriety; 2) the delivery of humor— 
particularly, the timing of humor and the streamlined presentation; 3)  
the setting; 4) linguistic and typological cues; and 5) the sudden  
reversals or surprise disruptions of expectations.>

 
I don't know anything about humor or irony, but
I fully accept your contention that Markos is being
funny here.  The joke is that you would expect
the masculine accusative: καΙ εις τον αφεδρωνα
εκπορευεται καθαριζοντα KAI EIS TON AFEDRWNA
EKPOREUETAI KAQARIZONTA  "and it goes out into
the toilet which disposes of all foods."  By shifting
unexpectedly to the nominative, Mark uses a little good natured
bathroom humor to make a serious point about
Christian freedom.

Mark L
Φωσφορος

FWSFOROS MARKOS

--- On Sun, 11/1/09, yancywsmith at sbcglobal.net <yancywsmith at sbcglobal.net> wrote:


From: yancywsmith at sbcglobal.net <yancywsmith at sbcglobal.net>
Subject: Re: [B-Greek] Mark 7:18-19
To: "B-Greek" <b-greek at lists.ibiblio.org>
Date: Sunday, November 1, 2009, 8:43 AM


I am inclined to accept Origen's reading of καθαρἰζων as a  
comment of the evangelist (as Iver is arguing). καθαρίζον  
arose from (1) indistinguishable sound and (2) plausibility of the  
reading in the immediate context of the words of v. 18, 19. This  
reminds me of the discussion in Aristotle' Art of Rhetoric book 3.2 on  
avoiding ambiguity through proper punctuation (i.e. proper arrangement  
of the words so that the reader can easily read them out loud). Some  
arguments, he suggests, can fall flat because they are difficult to  
read out loud. The problems reading Mark here may arise from his  
ironic attitude and the cuteness of his argument. Pragmatics affects  
grammar to give cues about attitude, an area of grammar that need  
further research. In this case one might consider Paul's ironic  
reference in 1 Cor 8:8 as a similar humorous jab through a reversal of  
expected outcomes. βρῶμα δὲ ἡμᾶς οὐ  
παραστήσει τῷ θεῷ· οὔτε ἐὰν μὴ  
φάγωμεν ὑστερούμεθα, οὔτε ἐὰν  
φάγωμεν περισσεύομεν BRWMA DE hHMAS OU PARASTHSEI  
TWi QEWi; OUTE EAN MH FAGWMEN hUSTEROUMEQA, OUTE EAN FAGWMEN  
PERISSEOUOMEN. "'Food will not bring us to judgment before God.' We  
are no worse off if we do not eat, and no better off if we do." It  
seems to me that both Mark and Paul engage in a bit of satire when  
dealing with the issue of food, which may account for the oddity of  
grammar and style. Adela Y. Collins, gets the tone right. She says:

The comment that the things that come into the body from outside go  
out of it again and end up in the latrine (v. 19b*) satirizes the  
great concern about ingesting something impure alluded to in vv. 3–4*  
and makes the point that such concern would be better directed  
elsewhere.

Collins points out that Paul engages in a similar satirical jab  
against those in the community of believers in Jesus that continue to  
fuss about the pros and cons of eating or abstaining from foods based  
upon purity concerns. Mark seems to be using the story of Jesus here  
to address such concerns. That he uses a bit of double-entendre potty  
humor to make his point would be a powerful argument in the right  
setting. I think Iver's discourse considerations are worthy of careful  
consideration, but the linguistic irony/humor may account for the  
terseness of style. Humor theorists have provided insights into the  
various cues that signal the presence of humor. These cues include: 1)  
the sudden disregard of a social propriety; 2) the delivery of humor— 
particularly, the timing of humor and the streamlined presentation; 3)  
the setting; 4) linguistic and typological cues; and 5) the sudden  
reversals or surprise disruptions of expectations.

Yancy Smith, PhD
yancywsmith at sbcglobal.net
Y.W.Smith at tcu.edu
yancy at wbtc.com
5636 Wedgworth Road
Fort Worth, TX 76133
817-361-7565









      


More information about the B-Greek mailing list