Tonight s Goals. How Catholics Read the Bible INTRODUCTION TO THE GOSPELS; MARK. ü learn how Catholics read the Bible

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1 Class 1 INTRODUCTION TO THE GOSPELS; MARK Tonight s Goals ü learn how Catholics read the Bible ü understand how the New Testament came together and comes to us ü define what the/a gospel is ü identify features of the Gospel of Mark literary characteristics pastoral context and resulting themes Mark s Christology How Catholics Read the Bible ü First of all, we should read and study it! ü We read it in light of tradition, and as a product of tradition ü We read it as both God s revelation and the human response, the word of God in human language ü We recognize that we have to learn about the humans who wrote it to understand it ü We recognize that there may be differing interpretations of the words ü We believe that the Bible is inerrant in what is necessary for salvation, but not in every detail 1

2 How the New Testament Came Together 4 BCE 29 CE JESUS Paul Mark Matthew John Luke Acts Oral Preaching How the NT Comes to Us = 2

3 TEXT APPARATUS Codex Sinaiticus c. 350 CE Mark 1:1-4 Codex Sinaiticus is the oldest complete copy of the Christian New Testament 3

4 All Four Gospels Lectionary Coverage, Sundays & Feasts All Four Gospels Lectionary Coverage, Sundays & Feasts What is the/a Gospel? Gospel = English translation of ευαγγελιον (good news) 1 st century ce: referred to preaching of and about Jesus 2 nd century: came to apply to written texts Types of these texts: Eschatological history Biography Sayings Revelatory discourses Infancy stories Passion accounts Mark Matthew, Luke, John Thomas Mary, Philip [John] James, Thomas Peter 4

5 The Gospel Genre Not history as we define it It IS a picture of Jesus history It does place Jesus IN a wider history But it is not only a story of the past; it is also a present summons ú ú We tend to want to ask, is it true? We should ask, how does it true us as disciples? THE GOSPEL OF MARK The Gospel of Mark An Outline I. Galilean Ministry (1:1-8:21) II. Peter s Confession, Prediction of Passion and Journey to Jerusalem (8:22-10:52) III. Ministry in Jerusalem (11:1 16:8) a. controversies in the Temple (11:1-13:37) b. passion narrative (14:1-15:39) c. resurrection report (15:40-16:8) 5

6 The Gospel of Mark Literary Characteristics Your observations Vestiges of oral preaching paratactic narrative (and and and ) use of historical present (tense) vivid images and evocative sounds Apocalyptic drama with open ending gospel originally ended at 16:8 A strange motif: the messianic secret The Gospel of Mark Pastoral Context & Resulting Themes Response to turmoil of mid-1 st century Nero s persecution of Christians (64 CE) Jewish Revolt, destruction of Jerusalem (70 CE) deaths of eyewitnesses Challenges of discipleship pressure under persecution internal tensions over leadership Spread of message not only to Jews but also Gentiles THEMES Jesus as suffering messiah Real enemy = Satan (religious leaders = proxies) disciples failures messianic secret overtures to Gentiles The Gospel of Mark Christology: A Suffering Messiah three key titles Messiah Son of God Son of Man a suffering messiah not power and glory, but suffering and death earthly but also cosmic contest, resolved in signs of power (δυναμεις) and exorcisms willingness to do father s will resurrection 6

7 Gospel of Mark Lectionary Coverage, Sundays & Feasts Gospel of Mark Manuscript Evidence There are 1,738 manuscripts of Mark; only 9 of these date to the first 600 years of Christian history Century Manuscript Extent Mark 1:1-4 Codex Sinaiticus 200s P45 Parts of Mark 4 9, (& Mt, Lk, Jn, Acts) 300s P88 27 verses from chapter 2 01 all 03 all verses from chapter 11 c :1 16:14 400s 02 all 04 most 500s 032 all D. C. Parker, An Introduction to the New Testament Manuscripts and Their Texts (New York: Cambridge University Press, 2008)

8 PRINCIPLES OF CATHOLIC BIBLICAL INTERPRETATION Recent Historical Background: Watershed Moments in the 20 th Century ² Pope Pius XII, Divino Afflante Spiritu (1948) ² Vatican II, Dei Verbum ( ) 5 Principles of Catholic Biblical Interpretation ü The Bible should be available in all languages, and the faithful should be encouraged to read and study it ü Scripture and tradition together shape Catholic faith ü The Bible is both God s revelation and the human response, the word of God in human language, and borrows from the literary conventions of antiquity ü The literal sense the words and their human context is thus a proper and the primary focus for study, and there will be different interpretations ü The Bible is inerrant in what is necessary for salvation, but not in every detail 8

9 Recent Historical Background: Vatican II, Dei Verbum ( ) Article 11 The Bible teaches firmly, faithfully, and without error that truth which God wanted put into sacred writings for the sake of salvation. God s personal communication But not every word is true in the same sense Recent Historical Background: Vatican II, Dei Verbum ( ) Article 12 the interpreter of sacred Scripture in order to see clearly what God wanted to communicate to us, should carefully investigate what meaning the sacred writer really intended and what God wanted to manifest by means of their words. Literary forms Historical circumstances of the time of writing Customary and characteristic patterns which people in that period employed in dealing with each other Recent Historical Background: Vatican II, Dei Verbum ( ) Article 13 For the words of God, expressed in human language, have become like unto human speech, just as the Word of the eternal Father, when he took on himself the flesh of human weakness, became like unto human beings. 9

10 What the Bible Is ta biblia = the books A Timeline of Composition Dead Sea Scrolls 75 BCE - 68 CE Mk, Matt, Lk, Jn parts of Gos. Thomas, Gos. Peter? CE? Nag Hammadi & other gospels CE 100 BCE 100 CE JESUS 4 BCE - 29 CE? = and 10