Mark 11
Encyclopedia
Mark 11 is the eleventh chapter of the Gospel of Mark
in 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.
Jesus and his disciples
approach Bethphage
and Bethany
, towns on the edge of Jerusalem. Bethany was about two miles (3.2 km) east of the city on the Mount of Olives
. Zechariah
14:4 has the final messianic
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 donkey
, which he says will be tied up and has never been ridden, for him to ride. This is to fulfill Messianic prophecies, such as Zechariah 9:9, which is quoted in every Gospel except Mark. He instructs them that if anyone questions them to say "The Lord needs it and will send it back here shortly." (3), where Mark uses a double entendre
as the "Lord" is meant as the owner of the colt and Jesus. 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 cloak
s on it and Jesus rides it into Jerusalem and people lay their cloaks and tree branches before him, singing him praise as the Son of David and a line from Psalm 118:25-26. "Hosanna
(save us please)! Blessed is he who comes in the name of the Lord! Blessed is the coming kingdom of our father David! Hosanna in the highest!" (9-10) This quote from the Psalms is significant as they are traditionally ascribed to King David. The word "Hosanna" is derived from Aramaic (הושע נא) (see Aramaic of Jesus#Hosana) from Hebrew (הושיעה נא) , meaning "help" or "save, I pray", "an appeal that became a liturgical formula; as part of the Hallel
... familiar to everyone in Israel." This event is celebrated by Christians as Palm Sunday
, 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. 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.
They reach Jerusalem and Jesus goes straight to the Temple, Herod's Temple, and starts, without explanation, throwing over tables and driving the dove
salesman and money changers from the courtyard of the Temple and stops people from bringing anything for sale through the Temple courts . The doves were used for sacrifices and the standard Greek
or Roman
money used by people had to be changed into special blessed Jewish or Tyrian money suitable for use. Jesus tells everyone that "Is it not written: 'My house will be called a house of prayer for all nations'? But you have made it 'a den of robbers.'" (17), combining quotes from Isaiah
56:7 and Jeremiah
7:11. Both are from expositions on the nature of the Temple. The quote from Isaiah comes from a section about how all who obey God
's will, Jewish or not, are to be allowed into the Temple so they can pray
and therefore converse with God. The passage in Jeremiah 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. 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 synoptics
have basically the same story as Mark. John 2:12-25 has the incident occurring at the start of his book and therefore Jesus' ministry
. He expels the dove salesman and money changers but does not quote from the Old Testament
, instead saying "How dare you turn my Father's house into a market!". The disciples remember "Zeal
for your house will consume me." Most scholars hold that this is the same incident and that it really occurred shortly before Jesus' death. A minority hold that there were two incidents with the money changers, once at the beginning and once at the end of Jesus' mission, a position held in the official chronology of Jesus' life according to the Roman Catholic Church
.
The Jesus Seminar
concluded that this was a "pink" act, "a close approximation of what Jesus did", as recorded in , , and called the "Temple incident" and the primary cause of the crucifixion.
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:
Similar statements can be found, apart from the fig tree story, in Matthew
17:20 and Luke
17:6 as well as the Gospel of Thomas
saying 48. Saint Paul
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 illogical
, since one might assume that a divine
Jesus would know that the tree would not have figs or could have simply produced the figs by a miracle
as opposed to cursing the tree. Bertrand Russell
, the agnostic
philosopher, even listed this story as one of his reasons for not being a Christian. It is akin to the argument about why would God punish someone if God knew they were always going to do wrong because of God's omniscience
, which others have countered with arguments using the notion of free will
. The cursing of the tree displays Jesus' power and the power of prayer coupled with full belief in God. Mark, placing the fig tree before and after the incident in the Temple, may be using the fig tree as a metaphor
for what he sees as the barrenness of the priests and the withering of their teaching and authority due to their lack of true faith. Just like with the fig tree, Jesus had hoped to find "fruit", the fruit of true worship of God, at the Temple but it is not the right time for this, and so the Temple, like the fig tree, is cursed. Exegetes
often take this as one of Mark's references to the destruction of the Temple by the Romans, and consequently their dating of Mark after this event. The fig tree is again mentioned in Mark 13:28 by Jesus as part of his eschatological
discourse, when its leaves will be full and it will be bearing fruit in the summer, as opposed to the current spring. Matthew has roughly the same story but not Luke or John, although Luke 13:6-9 has Jesus relating a parable
, The Parable of the Barren Fig Tree, about a man not finding fruit on a fig tree. Thomas has Jesus talking about thistle
s not yielding figs in saying 45, which is also found in the Sermon on the Mount
in Matthew 7:16.
This section of Mark ends with verses which are paralleled in and , which some have seen as a portion or a follow-on of the Lord's Prayer
(see also Discourse on ostentation#Prayer): forgive others so that God may forgive you.
.
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.
According to the Jewish Encyclopedia
article on Jesus: In the Temple
Gospel of Mark
The Gospel According to Mark , commonly shortened to the Gospel of Mark or simply Mark, is the second book of the New Testament. This canonical account of the life of Jesus of Nazareth is one of the three synoptic gospels. It was thought to be an epitome, which accounts for its place as the second...
in the New Testament
New Testament
The New Testament is the second major division of the Christian biblical canon, the first such division being the much longer Old Testament....
of the Christian
Christian
A Christian is a person who adheres to Christianity, an Abrahamic, monotheistic religion based on the life and teachings of Jesus of Nazareth as recorded in the Canonical gospels and the letters of the New Testament...
Bible
Bible
The Bible refers to any one of the collections of the primary religious texts of Judaism and Christianity. There is no common version of the Bible, as the individual books , their contents and their order vary among denominations...
, beginning Jesus' final week before his death as he arrives in Jerusalem
Jerusalem in Christianity
For Christians, Jerusalem's place in the ministry of Jesus and the Apostolic Age gives it great importance, in addition to its place in the Old Testament, the Hebrew Bible.-Jerusalem in the New Testament and early Christianity:...
for the coming Passover
Passover
Passover is a Jewish holiday and festival. It commemorates the story of the Exodus, in which the ancient Israelites were freed from slavery in Egypt...
. It contains the stories of Jesus
Jesus
Jesus of Nazareth , commonly referred to as Jesus Christ or simply as Jesus or Christ, is the central figure of Christianity...
' entry into Jerusalem, his cursing of the fig tree
Cursing the fig tree
Cursing the fig tree is one of the miracles of Jesus in the Gospels. It is included in the gospels of Mark and Matthew, but not in Luke or John...
, his conflict with the Temple money changers
Jesus and the Money Changers
The narrative of Jesus and the money changers, commonly referred to as the cleansing of the Temple, occurs in all four canonical gospels of the New Testament....
, and his argument with the chief priests and elders about his authority.
Triumphal entry into Jerusalem
Disciple (Christianity)
In Christianity, the disciples were the students of Jesus during his ministry. While Jesus attracted a large following, the term disciple is commonly used to refer specifically to "the Twelve", an inner circle of men whose number perhaps represented the twelve tribes of Israel...
approach Bethphage
Bethphage
Bethphage was a place in ancient Israel, mentioned as the place from which Jesus sent the disciples to find a donkey and a colt with her upon which he would ride into Jerusalem....
and Bethany
Bethany (Israel)
Bethany is recorded in the New Testament as the home of the siblings Mary, Martha, and Lazarus, as well as that of Simon the Leper...
, towns on the edge of Jerusalem. Bethany was about two miles (3.2 km) east of the city on the Mount of Olives
Mount of Olives
The Mount of Olives is a mountain ridge in East Jerusalem with three peaks running from north to south. The highest, at-Tur, rises to 818 meters . It is named for the olive groves that once covered its slopes...
. Zechariah
Book of Zechariah
The Book of Zechariah is the penultimate book of the twelve minor prophets in the Hebrew and Christian Bible, attributed to the prophet Zechariah.-Historical context:...
14:4 has the final messianic
Messiah
A messiah is a redeemer figure expected or foretold in one form or another by a religion. Slightly more widely, a messiah is any redeemer figure. Messianic beliefs or theories generally relate to eschatological improvement of the state of humanity or the world, in other words the World to...
battle occurring on the Mount of Olives. Bethphage is Aramaic
Aramaic of Jesus
It is generally agreed that the historical Jesus primarily spoke Aramaic, perhaps along with some Hebrew and Greek . The towns of Nazareth and Capernaum, where Jesus lived, were primarily Aramaic-speaking communities, although Greek was widely spoken in the major cities of the Eastern Mediterranean...
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 donkey
Donkey
The donkey or ass, Equus africanus asinus, is a domesticated member of the Equidae or horse family. The wild ancestor of the donkey is the African Wild Ass, E...
, which he says will be tied up and has never been ridden, for him to ride. This is to fulfill Messianic prophecies, such as Zechariah 9:9, which is quoted in every Gospel except Mark. He instructs them that if anyone questions them to say "The Lord needs it and will send it back here shortly." (3), where Mark uses a double entendre
Double entendre
A double entendre or adianoeta is a figure of speech in which a spoken phrase is devised to be understood in either of two ways. Often the first meaning is straightforward, while the second meaning is less so: often risqué or ironic....
as the "Lord" is meant as the owner of the colt and Jesus. 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
Lazarus of Bethany
Lazarus of Bethany, also known as Saint Lazarus or Lazarus of the Four Days, is the subject of a prominent miracle attributed to Jesus in the Gospel of John, in which Jesus restores him to life four days after his death...
, his sisters, and Simon the Leper
Simon the Leper
Simon the Leper is a biblical figure mentioned by the Gospels according to Matthew and Mark . These two books narrate how Jesus made a visit to the house of Simon the Leper at Bethany during the course of which a woman anoints the head of Jesus with costly ointment. Bethany was the home of Simon...
, and so could have arranged for the colt to be there.
They bring the colt back to Jesus and put their cloak
Cloak
A cloak is a type of loose garment that is worn over indoor clothing and serves the same purpose as an overcoat; it protects the wearer from the cold, rain or wind for example, or it may form part of a fashionable outfit or uniform. Cloaks are as old as human history; there has nearly always been...
s on it and Jesus rides it into Jerusalem and people lay their cloaks and tree branches before him, singing him praise as the Son of David and a line from Psalm 118:25-26. "Hosanna
Hosanna
Hosanna is a liturgical word in Judaism and Christianity. In Judaism, it is always used in its original Hebrew form, Hoshana.- Etymology :The word hosanna is etymologically derived from the Hebrew , ...
(save us please)! Blessed is he who comes in the name of the Lord! Blessed is the coming kingdom of our father David! Hosanna in the highest!" (9-10) This quote from the Psalms is significant as they are traditionally ascribed to King David. The word "Hosanna" is derived from Aramaic (הושע נא) (see Aramaic of Jesus#Hosana) from Hebrew (הושיעה נא) , meaning "help" or "save, I pray", "an appeal that became a liturgical formula; as part of the Hallel
Hallel
Hallel is a Jewish prayer—a verbatim recitation from Psalms 113–118, which is used for praise and thanksgiving that is recited by observant Jews on Jewish holidays.-Holy days:...
... familiar to everyone in Israel." This event is celebrated by Christians as Palm Sunday
Palm Sunday
Palm Sunday is a Christian moveable feast that falls on the Sunday before Easter. The feast commemorates Jesus' triumphal entry into Jerusalem, an event mentioned in all four Canonical Gospels. ....
, as the Gospel of John
Gospel of John
The Gospel According to John , commonly referred to as the Gospel of John or simply John, and often referred to in New Testament scholarship as the Fourth Gospel, is an account of the public ministry of Jesus...
says the branches were from Palm trees
Arecaceae
Arecaceae or Palmae , are a family of flowering plants, the only family in the monocot order Arecales. There are roughly 202 currently known genera with around 2600 species, most of which are restricted to tropical, subtropical, and warm temperate climates...
.
The fig tree and the money changers
As they leave Bethany next day, Jesus sees a fig tree at a distance and goes over to see if it has figs. It is too early in the year for the tree to produce fruit and it has none. Jesus says: "May no one ever eat fruit from you again", which his disciples hear.Dove
Pigeons and doves constitute the bird family Columbidae within the order Columbiformes, which include some 300 species of near passerines. In general terms "dove" and "pigeon" are used somewhat interchangeably...
salesman and money changers from the courtyard of the Temple and stops people from bringing anything for sale through the Temple courts . The doves were used for sacrifices and the standard Greek
Ancient Greece
Ancient Greece is a civilization belonging to a period of Greek history that lasted from the Archaic period of the 8th to 6th centuries BC to the end of antiquity. Immediately following this period was the beginning of the Early Middle Ages and the Byzantine era. Included in Ancient Greece is the...
or Roman
Ancient Rome
Ancient Rome was a thriving civilization that grew on the Italian Peninsula as early as the 8th century BC. Located along the Mediterranean Sea and centered on the city of Rome, it expanded to one of the largest empires in the ancient world....
money used by people had to be changed into special blessed Jewish or Tyrian money suitable for use. Jesus tells everyone that "Is it not written: 'My house will be called a house of prayer for all nations'? But you have made it 'a den of robbers.'" (17), combining quotes from Isaiah
Book of Isaiah
The Book of Isaiah is the first of the Latter Prophets in the Hebrew Bible, preceding the books of Ezekiel, Jeremiah and the Book of the Twelve...
56:7 and Jeremiah
Book of Jeremiah
The Book of Jeremiah is the second of the Latter Prophets in the Hebrew Bible, following the book of Isaiah and preceding Ezekiel and the Book of the Twelve....
7:11. Both are from expositions on the nature of the Temple. The quote from Isaiah comes from a section about how all who obey God
God
God is the English name given to a singular being in theistic and deistic religions who is either the sole deity in monotheism, or a single deity in polytheism....
's will, Jewish or not, are to be allowed into the Temple so they can pray
Prayer
Prayer is a form of religious practice that seeks to activate a volitional rapport to a deity through deliberate practice. Prayer may be either individual or communal and take place in public or in private. It may involve the use of words or song. When language is used, prayer may take the form of...
and therefore converse with God. The passage in Jeremiah is from a chapter on the futility of worship
Worship
Worship is an act of religious devotion usually directed towards a deity. The word is derived from the Old English worthscipe, meaning worthiness or worth-ship — to give, at its simplest, worth to something, for example, Christian worship.Evelyn Underhill defines worship thus: "The absolute...
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. 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 synoptics
Synoptic Gospels
The gospels of Matthew, Mark, and Luke are known as the Synoptic Gospels because they include many of the same stories, often in the same sequence, and sometimes exactly the same wording. This degree of parallelism in content, narrative arrangement, language, and sentence structures can only be...
have basically the same story as Mark. John 2:12-25 has the incident occurring at the start of his book and therefore Jesus' ministry
Ministry of Jesus
In the Christian gospels, the Ministry of Jesus begins with his Baptism in the countryside of Judea, near the River Jordan and ends in Jerusalem, following the Last Supper with his disciples. The Gospel of Luke states that Jesus was "about 30 years of age" at the start of his ministry...
. He expels the dove salesman and money changers but does not quote from the Old Testament
Old Testament
The Old Testament, of which Christians hold different views, is a Christian term for the religious writings of ancient Israel held sacred and inspired by Christians which overlaps with the 24-book canon of the Masoretic Text of Judaism...
, instead saying "How dare you turn my Father's house into a market!". The disciples remember "Zeal
Zealotry
Zealotry was originally a political movement in 1st century Second Temple Judaism which sought to incite the people of Iudaea Province to rebel against the Roman Empire and expel it from the Holy land by force of arms, most notably during the Great Jewish Revolt...
for your house will consume me." Most scholars hold that this is the same incident and that it really occurred shortly before Jesus' death. A minority hold that there were two incidents with the money changers, once at the beginning and once at the end of Jesus' mission, a position held in the official chronology of Jesus' life according to the Roman Catholic Church
Roman Catholic Church
The Catholic Church, also known as the Roman Catholic Church, is the world's largest Christian church, with over a billion members. Led by the Pope, it defines its mission as spreading the gospel of Jesus Christ, administering the sacraments and exercising charity...
.
The Jesus Seminar
Jesus Seminar
The Jesus Seminar is a group of about 150 critical scholars and laymen founded in 1985 by Robert Funk under the auspices of the Westar Institute....
concluded that this was a "pink" act, "a close approximation of what Jesus did", as recorded in , , and called the "Temple incident" and the primary cause of the crucifixion.
The next morning they pass by the fig tree again and Peter
Saint Peter
Saint Peter or Simon Peter was an early Christian leader, who is featured prominently in the New Testament Gospels and the Acts of the Apostles. The son of John or of Jonah and from the village of Bethsaida in the province of Galilee, his brother Andrew was also an apostle...
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. (22-23)
Similar statements can be found, apart from the fig tree story, in Matthew
Gospel of Matthew
The Gospel According to Matthew is one of the four canonical gospels, one of the three synoptic gospels, and the first book of the New Testament. It tells of the life, ministry, death, and resurrection of Jesus of Nazareth...
17:20 and Luke
Gospel of Luke
The Gospel According to Luke , commonly shortened to the Gospel of Luke or simply Luke, is the third and longest of the four canonical Gospels. This synoptic gospel is an account of the life and ministry of Jesus of Nazareth. It details his story from the events of his birth to his Ascension.The...
17:6 as well as the Gospel of Thomas
Gospel of Thomas
The Gospel According to Thomas, commonly shortened to the Gospel of Thomas, is a well preserved early Christian, non-canonical sayings-gospel discovered near Nag Hammadi, Egypt, in December 1945, in one of a group of books known as the Nag Hammadi library...
saying 48. Saint Paul
Paul of Tarsus
Paul the Apostle , also known as Saul of Tarsus, is described in the Christian New Testament as one of the most influential early Christian missionaries, with the writings ascribed to him by the church forming a considerable portion of the New Testament...
also mentions faith that can move mountains in 1 Corinthians
First Epistle to the Corinthians
The first epistle of Paul the apostle to the Corinthians, often referred to as First Corinthians , is the seventh book of the New Testament of the Bible...
13:2.
Some have argued that Jesus' action in regard to the fig tree seems illogical
Logic
In philosophy, Logic is the formal systematic study of the principles of valid inference and correct reasoning. Logic is used in most intellectual activities, but is studied primarily in the disciplines of philosophy, mathematics, semantics, and computer science...
, since one might assume that a divine
Divinity
Divinity and divine are broadly applied but loosely defined terms, used variously within different faiths and belief systems — and even by different individuals within a given faith — to refer to some transcendent or transcendental power or deity, or its attributes or manifestations in...
Jesus would know that the tree would not have figs or could have simply produced the figs by a miracle
Miracle
A miracle often denotes an event attributed to divine intervention. Alternatively, it may be an event attributed to a miracle worker, saint, or religious leader. A miracle is sometimes thought of as a perceptible interruption of the laws of nature. Others suggest that a god may work with the laws...
as opposed to cursing the tree. Bertrand Russell
Bertrand Russell
Bertrand Arthur William Russell, 3rd Earl Russell, OM, FRS was a British philosopher, logician, mathematician, historian, and social critic. At various points in his life he considered himself a liberal, a socialist, and a pacifist, but he also admitted that he had never been any of these things...
, the agnostic
Agnosticism
Agnosticism is the view that the truth value of certain claims—especially claims about the existence or non-existence of any deity, but also other religious and metaphysical claims—is unknown or unknowable....
philosopher, even listed this story as one of his reasons for not being a Christian. It is akin to the argument about why would God punish someone if God knew they were always going to do wrong because of God's omniscience
Omniscience
Omniscience omniscient point-of-view in writing) is the capacity to know everything infinitely, or at least everything that can be known about a character including thoughts, feelings, life and the universe, etc. In Latin, omnis means "all" and sciens means "knowing"...
, which others have countered with arguments using the notion of free will
Free will
"To make my own decisions whether I am successful or not due to uncontrollable forces" -Troy MorrisonA pragmatic definition of free willFree will is the ability of agents to make choices free from certain kinds of constraints. The existence of free will and its exact nature and definition have long...
. The cursing of the tree displays Jesus' power and the power of prayer coupled with full belief in God. Mark, placing the fig tree before and after the incident in the Temple, may be using the fig tree as a metaphor
Metaphor
A metaphor is a literary figure of speech that uses an image, story or tangible thing to represent a less tangible thing or some intangible quality or idea; e.g., "Her eyes were glistening jewels." Metaphor may also be used for any rhetorical figures of speech that achieve their effects via...
for what he sees as the barrenness of the priests and the withering of their teaching and authority due to their lack of true faith. Just like with the fig tree, Jesus had hoped to find "fruit", the fruit of true worship of God, at the Temple but it is not the right time for this, and so the Temple, like the fig tree, is cursed. Exegetes
Exegesis
Exegesis is a critical explanation or interpretation of a text, especially a religious text. Traditionally the term was used primarily for exegesis of the Bible; however, in contemporary usage it has broadened to mean a critical explanation of any text, and the term "Biblical exegesis" is used...
often take this as one of Mark's references to the destruction of the Temple by the Romans, and consequently their dating of Mark after this event. The fig tree is again mentioned in Mark 13:28 by Jesus as part of his eschatological
Eschatology
Eschatology is a part of theology, philosophy, and futurology concerned with what are believed to be the final events in history, or the ultimate destiny of humanity, commonly referred to as the end of the world or the World to Come...
discourse, when its leaves will be full and it will be bearing fruit in the summer, as opposed to the current spring. Matthew has roughly the same story but not Luke or John, although Luke 13:6-9 has Jesus relating a parable
Parable
A parable is a succinct story, in prose or verse, which illustrates one or more instructive principles, or lessons, or a normative principle. It differs from a fable in that fables use animals, plants, inanimate objects, and forces of nature as characters, while parables generally feature human...
, The Parable of the Barren Fig Tree, about a man not finding fruit on a fig tree. Thomas has Jesus talking about thistle
Thistle
Thistle is the common name of a group of flowering plants characterised by leaves with sharp prickles on the margins, mostly in the family Asteraceae. Prickles often occur all over the plant – on surfaces such as those of the stem and flat parts of leaves. These are an adaptation that protects the...
s not yielding figs in saying 45, which is also found in the Sermon on the Mount
Sermon on the Mount
The Sermon on the Mount is a collection of sayings and teachings of Jesus, which emphasizes his moral teaching found in the Gospel of Matthew...
in Matthew 7:16.
This section of Mark ends with verses which are paralleled in and , which some have seen as a portion or a follow-on of the Lord's Prayer
Lord's Prayer
The Lord's Prayer is a central prayer in Christianity. In the New Testament of the Christian Bible, it appears in two forms: in the Gospel of Matthew as part of the discourse on ostentation in the Sermon on the Mount, and in the Gospel of Luke, which records Jesus being approached by "one of his...
(see also Discourse on ostentation#Prayer): forgive others so that God may forgive you.
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 blasphemyBlasphemy
Blasphemy is irreverence towards religious or holy persons or things. Some countries have laws to punish blasphemy, while others have laws to give recourse to those who are offended by blasphemy...
.
Jesus says he will tell them if they answer him one question. "John
John the Baptist
John the Baptist was an itinerant preacher and a major religious figure mentioned in the Canonical gospels. He is described in the Gospel of Luke as a relative of Jesus, who led a movement of baptism at the Jordan River...
's baptism
Baptism
In Christianity, baptism is for the majority the rite of admission , almost invariably with the use of water, into the Christian Church generally and also membership of a particular church tradition...
—was it from heaven
Heaven
Heaven, the Heavens or Seven Heavens, is a common religious cosmological or metaphysical term for the physical or transcendent place from which heavenly beings originate, are enthroned or inhabit...
, 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
Sanhedrin
The Sanhedrin was an assembly of twenty-three judges appointed in every city in the Biblical Land of Israel.The Great Sanhedrin was the supreme court of ancient Israel made of 71 members...
, are Jesus' opponents. Before his conflict's had been with the Pharisees
Pharisees
The Pharisees were at various times a political party, a social movement, and a school of thought among Jews during the Second Temple period beginning under the Hasmonean dynasty in the wake of...
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
Mary, sister of Lazarus
Mary of Bethany is a biblical figure described in the Gospels of John and Luke in the Christian New Testament...
and Martha
Martha
Martha of Bethany is a biblical figure described in the Gospels of Luke and John. Together with her siblings Lazarus and Mary, she is described as living in the village of Bethany near Jerusalem...
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.
According to the Jewish Encyclopedia
Jewish Encyclopedia
The Jewish Encyclopedia is an encyclopedia originally published in New York between 1901 and 1906 by Funk and Wagnalls. It contained over 15,000 articles in 12 volumes on the history and then-current state of Judaism and the Jews as of 1901...
article on Jesus: In the Temple
- This would appear to have been on the first day of the week and on the 10th of Nisan, when, according to the Law, it was necessary that the paschal lamb should be purchased. It is therefore probable that the entry into Jerusalem was for this purpose. In making the purchase of the lamb a dispute appears to have arisen between Jesus' followers and the money-changers who arranged for such purchases; and the latter were, at any rate for that day, driven from the Temple precincts. It would appear from Talmudic references that this action had no lasting effect, if any, for Simon ben Gamaliel found much the same state of affairs much later (Ker. i. 7) and effected some reforms (see Derenbourg in "Histoire de la Palestine," p. 527). The act drew public attention to Jesus, who during the next few days was asked to define his position toward the conflicting parties in Jerusalem. It seemed especially to attack the emoluments of the priestly class, which accordingly asked him to declare by what authority he had interfered with the sacrosanct arrangements of the Temple. In a somewhat enigmatic reply he placed his own claims on a level with those of John the Baptist — in other words, he based them on popular support.