Who was Mark?

by Sargon 7 Replies latest watchtower bible

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  Sargon

  This happens every year in February, i find myself doing really silly things because I've got way too much time on my hands. Today I actually found myself tracing biblical stories with my atlas. When I got to Mark 7:31 I had to scratch my head, either my atlas was wrong, my bible had a misprint, or the Gospel writer Mark was absolutely clueless when it came to Mid-east geography. Here's the passage:

  And again. He went out from the region of Tyre

  and came through Sidon to the Sea of Galilee

  within the region of Decapolis. Mark 7:31 (NIV)

  Well cool. I went to the library, my bible wasn't misprinted. Checked their atlas, yeh, well Sidon is about 25 miles due north of Tyre (both are in Lebanon) and the sea of Galilee lies south-east of Sidon. It makes no sense to pass through Sidon on the way from Tyre to Galilee.

  So this just makes me wonder, who exactly was this Mark guy who writes as an expert on the life of Jesus, but has no clue to the geography his story was set in?
• 

  jgnat

  Here's a cool link. http://www.errantskeptics.org/Tyre-Sidon_Maps.htm
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  Sargon

  Thanks jgnat,

  Thats cool!! Looks like a valid explanation to me. Still though, maybe i knew this in a previous life and forgot, but I'm still curious 'who was Mark?'
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  Yerusalyim

  Perhaps John Mark, the some-time traveling companion of Paul, even perhaps the biological son of Peter, perhaps the youth seen running from Mt Olive nude? All in one, none, no way of knowing. The Gospel writer Mark being Peter's son makes some sense as Mark has largely been looked upon as Peter's presentation of the kerygma
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  jgnat

  Sargon, here is one opinion http://www.christianity.co.nz/eye-5.htm

  Darn you! You activated my researcher gene. Really, it's been fun looking this stuff up. I have to get back to work now. Happy reading!
• 

  peacefulpete

  Why was the detail of this young man being naked and not wearing undergarments included in the story? Somethings missing. It has been connected to other texts to complete the narrative. Two views prevail, this was a baptism scene lifted from context and reworked or it was an excerpt from the Secret Gospel of Mark (look it up on web) wherein Jesus and his Apostles gave their "love" to young men "laying naked body to naked body". Do not think this impossible. It is possible that the historical figure at the center of the Jesus legend like many of his time saw no vice in homosexual acts done with tenderness. It is also possible that this did not happen but was only said to have happened by the writer of the earliest gospel versions. It then was clumsily edited by the final redactor of the Gospel of Mark.

  Edited by - peacefulpete on 13 February 2003 9:20:55
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  greven

  I have been looking on this site a poster gave http://www.errantskeptics.org/.

  What a poorly atempt to refute atheists and other non-christians!

  About the Koran they say that it

  commands the killing of Jews and Christians, permits polygamy, permits the husband to beat his wife, and permits a Muslim man to marry a Christian or Jewish woman, but forbids the Muslim woman to marry a Christian or Jewish man.

  The Bible does the same!!

  The Koran came almost 600 years after Christ. Many of its contents contradict the Bible.

  So does the Bible itself!!

  And what about their "Skeptics Hall of Shame"?

  Sheesh this is one pathetic site!

  Note that my flak is aimed at this errantskeptics-site and not at any poster on this thread.

  Greven
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  Yerusalyim

  Another possibility about the account of the guy running off naked was that it's a self depricating piece of info included by the author about himself.