[B-Greek] Mark 7:18-19

yancywsmith at sbcglobal.net yancywsmith at sbcglobal.net
Mon Nov 2 17:14:55 EST 2009


OK, well that is a different sort of anachronism altogether! Surely  
the translator cannot completely avoid it, since she or he is creating  
a text that is, in many ways, metaphorical to the original (i.e.  
METAFWRA = translatio) and the voices coalesce ... in this case we are  
also dealing with Mark as a translator of Jesus and the story of the  
confrontation over eating food with unwashed hands.

I think that Mark applies the story of Jesus in the straightforward  
way Origen (and other ancient Greek speakers read it). Mark asserts  
that Jesus cleansed all foods, kosher and non-kosher. The Syriac  
evidence is derivative. Nevertheless, the context in which one chooses  
to read the story can radically alter the meaning. If one chooses to  
read Mark's story in the context of Jesus ministry and his interaction  
with the Pharisees, it cannot mean what Mark and the translations of  
Mark say it means. An enlightening study of what Jesus is likely to  
have meant is found in the recent NTS article by Yair Furstenberg,  
"Defilement Penetrating the Body: A New Understanding of Contamination  
in Mark 7:15." A follow up article has appeared in the Jerusalem  
Perspective by David Bivens "Mark 7:19: Did Jesus Make 'Unclean' Food  
'Clean'?" Bivens attempts to extend Furstenberg's interpretation to  
Mark 7:19, in a spectacularly unsuccessful way, I might add. Here is  
Furstenberg's abstract. (I have the pdf of both articles, BTW).

Mark 7.15, which contrasts two modes of defilement, appears in the  
gospel as a
response to the Pharisaic custom of washing hands before eating. In  
this article, it
is argued that this custom embodies an innovative approach to ritual  
impurity.
Hand washing, which originated, so it is argued, in the Greco-Roman  
practice, was
promoted by the Pharisees along with other purity laws, but stands in  
contrast to
the biblical priestly purity system. In this logion, Jesus rejects the  
Pharisees’ new
conception of ritual purity, which was designed to guard the self from  
impurity.
This interpretation offers both a coherent narrative and a plausible  
understanding
of the custom within its historical-social context.

As translators of Mark, we translate Mark, not Jesus.
As students of Greek we can seek to discover what Jesus words (before  
Mark) might have meant, at a different time and place. It is  
anachronistic to assume that Mark simply reproduced the meaning of  
Jesus to his Gentile audience with no change in meaning at a different  
time, place, and in a different language!

So, if I were to translate καθαρίζων πάντα τὰ  
βρώματα in the Jesus' (Palestinian) context, I would say that it  
means: "he said this, ... in effect, cleansing all [kosher] foods  
[that the Pharisees assert are impure through being touched by  
unwashed hands]"

In Mark's context, a lot has changed and many believers in Jesus have  
moved on to assume that the story has to do, contrary to the immediate  
context, with all foods, not just foods supposedly contaminated by  
being eaten with unwashed hands. Here is a case where Mark has taken a  
saying of Jesus and expanded its meaning, under the direction of the  
Spirit of the Gentile mission, to allow for both Jewish and non-Jewish  
believers in Christ to eat together. In this case context changes the  
meaning of πάτα τὰ βρώματα and expands the originally  
much more restricted meaning of καθαρίζων.

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






On Nov 2, 2009, at 3:27 PM, Oun Kwon wrote:

> Hi Yancy,
>
> About your question on 'anachronistic':
>
> Mark is surely fond of adding such interesting and intriguing
> 'editorial comments' of his own here and there in the Gospel
> narrative. This phrase KAQARIZWN/KAQARIZON PANTA TA BRWMATA
> (which is lacking in the parallel Mt) does likewise belong to the  
> layer of the
> author's voice.
>
> I glance from many writings that taking it (at the end of v. 19) to
> connect to KAI LEGEI AUTOIS (at the beginning of v.18) is surely a
> strained effort of (theological) understanding.
>
> Many modern translations bring this effect into the translation
> itself, the understanding which is purely at the level of
> interpretation.
> As it stands then, it *is* the voice of the translator within the
> translation. The readers get misled as if it were the voice of Mark,
> or even of Jesus. This cannot be anything other than anachronistic.
>
> Oun Kwon.
>
> On Mon, Nov 2, 2009 at 2:32 AM, yancywsmith at sbcglobal.net
> <yancywsmith at sbcglobal.net> wrote:
>> In his Commentary on the Gospel of Mark 11.12, Origen says:
>>
>> <clipped>
>>
>> Origen clearly links KAQARIZWN with ELEGEN hO SWTHR.
> <clipped>
>> Origen seems to view Jesus' statements as having performative action,
>> in the act of saying this he "purified all foods."
>> But I think it is instructive and not anachronistic to compare Mark  
>> with Paul,
>> who has a similar attitude in 1 Cor. 8:8.
>> If Mark knew Paul, he may well have picked up an attitude or two  
>> from Paul.
>> They were alive in the same movement during the same decades.
>> What is anachronistic about that? Paul expressed himself with
>> considerable irony here.
>>
>> <clipped>
>>
>> Yancy Smith, PhD
>>
>
>>
>> On Nov 2, 2009, at 12:31 AM, Oun Kwon wrote:
>>
>>>
>>> <Clipped>
>>> I do not see any narrative support  for an idea of 'abolishing the
>>> dietary law' here. Bringing in Pauline comments into the  
>>> discussion of
>>> this Gospel text seems anachronistic to me.
>>>
>>> <clipped>
> ---
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