Mark*. Pericope 1: The Announcement: Prophets Past & Present!
Beginning this announcement of good news
- of one who's won the right to rule right here
(in this case not Tiberius who'd choose
for his “good news” to be proclaimed each year
at birthday time, to lucky subjects who
must act quite glad because he said they’d got
“good news” - they now had him as ruler to
rule over them - and he’s a “SON OF GOD”).
This Ruler, who is (also known as) “Christ”
(“Messiah” to the Jews who were widespread);
means their anointed leader realised
as king/priest/prophet - who'll have won, & led!
All others who were hailed as such demised,
when they were killed their followers were shed.
Bar Kokhba's just like Nero; & suffice
to say, you prob'ly heard this man was dead,
Now his rule is begun, and that's good news!
-for he's a better Em-per-or than all.
A true man, uncorrupted, he would choose
to serve the weak, though he would die and fall.
A true man, uncorrupted, he would choose
to serve the weak, though he would die and fall.
He's named) Yeshua, (just as many were
so named in Hebrew then, amongst the Jews,
but God has raised him up to be the first,
and over any ruler you could choose.
But when they spoke his name in Greek to those
who weren't from Palestine, they used the Greek-
ish way to say it, which is I suppose
their own prerogative, well, so to speak.
When his news was proclaimed by heralds5, and
in "lunch-rooms" all around about the place,
they said his name was "Iysous" (which we stand
to hardly recognise - unless we've traced
the Greek ourselves).
But if I speak his name,
in English (as I've learned to speak from birth),
you might have heard it said as though he's blamed
for all the bad that happens here on Earth…
While list'ning to.
...These stories, of the same,
...These stories, of the same,
I hope you'll hear, & can imagine too,
and meet this person (that's if you are game).
I'll call him "Jesus Christ"! See what you’ll do!
God's claimed him as his son (and so I'll call
him that, and all who follow where he led
will gladly bow their knees, before him fall).
The one to lead us on to what's ahead-
as second Adam, ruling well on Earth
as Lord. Though Earth is desolate compared
to God's good dream he hoped for at its "birth".
He leads in such a way that life is shared
with God, who loves and wants us to grow true.
God's picked the way (this man) to move ahead,
to throw out self-ish ways to think, speak, do!
As Proph. Is-ai-ah wrote (that God had said):
“Behold (take note, and listen), for I'm send-
ing (Greek word's “appostello” - 'member this!)
an angel or a messenger to tend
the way ahead of you, before your face,
who will prepare the way for you. A voice
that's calling in the desert 'Ready, set,
go on, prepare his way - the Lord (of choice)!
Make straight-a-way, a path for him.'" So, yet
there comes ol' John the Washer in the des-
ert, and he's heralding a washing (off
of "dirt" to start), a change of heart, that says
"Away with sin!", that brings remission of't.
And coming out to him was all of the
Judean country, & Jerus'lemites.
He washed them clean, thus Jordan's waters be
the end of sins confessed (by these Semites).
And John himself had clothes of camel's hair,
& leather belt around the waist of him
(that's reminiscent of Elijah, where
he wore a belt like that, then warned the king).
while eating locusts, honey of the field
(depending not on nearby towns), John, he
then heralded his message which revealed
“One comes behind me, who's ahead of me;
for I'm not worthy to bend down and loose
his sandals underfoot (as a slave would).
I'm washing you in water; but he'll use
the Spirit of the Holy (God. He's good)!"
1Ἀρχὴ τοῦ εὐαγγελίου Ἰησοῦ Χριστοῦ [υἱοῦ θεοῦ].
2Καθὼς γέγραπται ἐν τῷ Ἠσαΐᾳ τῷ προφήτῃ·
ἰδοὺ*
ἀποστέλλω τὸν ἄγγελόν μου πρὸ προσώπου σου,*
ὃς κατασκευάσει τὴν ὁδόν* σου·
3 φωνὴ βοῶντος ἐν τῇ ἐρήμῳ·
ἑτοιμάσατε τὴν ὁδὸν κυρίου,*
εὐθείας ποιεῖτε τὰς τρίβους* αὐτοῦ,
4ἐγένετο Ἰωάννης [ὁ] βαπτίζων ἐν τῇ ἐρήμῳ καὶ κηρύσσων βάπτισμα μετανοίας εἰς ἄφεσιν ἁμαρτιῶν. 5καὶ ἐξεπορεύετο πρὸς αὐτὸν πᾶσα ἡ Ἰουδαία χώρα καὶ οἱ Ἱεροσολυμῖται πάντες, καὶ ἐβαπτίζοντο ὑπ’ αὐτοῦ ἐν τῷ Ἰορδάνῃ ποταμῷ ἐξομολογούμενοι τὰς ἁμαρτίας αὐτῶν. 6καὶ ἦν ὁ Ἰωάννης ἐνδεδυμένος τρίχας καμήλου καὶ ζώνην δερματίνην περὶ τὴν ὀσφὺν αὐτοῦ καὶ ἐσθίων ἀκρίδας καὶ μέλι ἄγριον.
7Καὶ ἐκήρυσσεν λέγων· ἔρχεται ὁ ἰσχυρότερός μου ὀπίσω μου, οὗ οὐκ εἰμὶ ἱκανὸς κύψας λῦσαι τὸν ἱμάντα τῶν ὑποδημάτων αὐτοῦ. 8ἐγὼ ἐβάπτισα ὑμᾶς ὕδατι, αὐτὸς δὲ βαπτίσει ὑμᾶς ἐν πνεύματι ἁγίῳ. (Mark 1:1-8, NA 28)
End Notes
* This looks like it is probably the first Gospel/Evangel/Good-news to be written and passed on by followers of Jesus, in the common Greek that was used within the Roman Empire of the first Century C.E.. Before that, it looks like Peter spoke it, maybe still in Aramaic, or in heavily-accented poor-quality (Palestinian) Greek, and by the time Peter was in Rome, Mark looks like he is Peter's oral interpreter/translator retelling the story in more understandable, and cultured Common (Koine) Greek. Thus he may be recording here the script of their combined spoken-word presentation, for the next generation of "tellers". Not the bank-tellers of later Christendom, but the often penny-less story-tellers of the time of the explosive spread of this evangel throughout the Roman Empire.
-
In attempting to translate the meaning of this First Century Greek text (see the end of each section or pericope) it must be noted that words hold meaning in sentences, in literary contexts, in languages, & in cultures. In addition to these contexts, they have nuances based on common and recent usage, etymology, their phonemes, all within a particular sub-culture at a particular time. Thus they can give rise to puns, poetry, and mnemonic devices etc.. much of which can never be translated by a word-for-word translation, hence as Mark demonstrates for us in his rendition of the euangelion 4 times, as he transliterates, then translates Jesus's Aramaic words into Greek for the general population who didn't know Aramaic, we are to look at a dynamic equivalence.
-
A pericope is a story-let within a bigger (oral) story. In this case they seem to have had a life as oral stories for decades within a community of people before they were collated, & written down & thence codified.
-
"Prophet" came to mean one who has met with God (stood in the divine council) and listened, & thus is able to be a mouthpiece for God to communicate his word, his message, to his people on Earth. Isaiah was one of many prophets, but he distinctively spoke of God's Anointed Leader (Messiah) as a suffering servant of Yahweh-God. Mark's prophetic quote here is a compilation of some of the prophet Isaiah's writings, and some of the prophet Malachi's writing. He then presents John the Washer as a (more modern) prophetic figure, and we might miss the fact that in Mark's announcement he is also acting as a prophetic voice for this new testament of the word of God getting out to God's people.
-
The Greek word is εὐαγγελίοv (euangelion), and although its literal meaning might be written in a First Century Dictionary (if dictionaries had been invented) as "good news", on top of the way it had been used in both Jewish & Roman literature, for people who now lived within the Roman Empire, where the Empire under Tiberius had it’s euangelion spread regularly, it seems to me that it's functional meaning within that context of the First Century would have a distinct added flavour, to mean " 'good' news of the one who has won (& continues to win) the right to rule you"
-
In the First Century (before we ever had the Sydney Morning Herald, but probably giving rise to the last word of the name of that newspaper), heralds were people who were sent to make public, proclaim or "tell out" their ruler's message, as they were sent by their ruler/leader to do so, to those they have been sent by that ruler to take the message to. Heralds, and heralding appears to have been a public affair, but presumably a leader's herald might be willing to pass on their message in any setting where people congregated. In Greek, as in English, there was the herald (a noun, which referred to), the person (κήρυκα, keruka), this concept has some overlap with what is often expressed by the word (angel or) messenger (ἄγγελόν, angelon), or even the "bringer of the Ruler's good news" (εὐαγγελιζόμενος, euangelidzomenos), related to that is the herald's message (another noun), speaking of what was proclaimed or heralded (κηρύγμα, kerugma), & the herald's method (the "doing word", or verb) of getting out or disseminating the message commonly by proclaiming, "crying" out, shouting, or "heralding" it in market places or other public places (κηρύσσων, kerussone).
-
Caesar Augustus (the adopted "Father" of Tiberius) was deified (made into a god), by some people before, and by others after, his death. Some of Tiberius' coins commemorate that Tiberius is therefore a "son of divinity".
-
The practice of anointing was one used to choose, recognise and appoint the succession of leadership. There are records of its use in designating such leadership roles as king, prophet, and the chief or head priest. In Hebrew thinking, the Hebrew word for anointed (משיח, Messiah), & the Greek word (Χριστος ,Christ) came by the First Century CE, to designate in the minds of many Jews someone God would send as the Leader of leaders, maybe similar to King of kings, or the Roman idea of an Emperor who ruled over kings of countries.
-
Bar Kokhba was a Jewish leader hailed by some as Messiah, God’s anointed, expected, “mythic” Leader, who like Adam was meant to be, and as the Jewish psalms (e.g. Ps 8) kept alive, would be “a son of god” & therefore “Lord of the whole Earth”. Bar Kokhba died and it was all over. Augustus,Tiberius & Nero were Roman Caesars who (in one way of another) also claimed to be the "a son of god". They died & so did their rule.
-
“Professor” is commonly shortened to “Prof.”, and in it's etymology as I understand it, from monastic days, it originally meant something like "one who professes faith and (possibly because of his life's integrity) is thus able to teach". Prophet has here been shortened similarly to Proph.and in Ancient Jewish culture the prophet's authority, it seems to me, was somewhat akin to the professor's nowadays within the un-official religion of “scientific” Western Education.
-
Although remission can communicate a temporary doing away with something like cancer, the temporary nature here is more a function of the cancer itself. Doctors don't normally talk of being "healed" of cancer. But remission is also a legal term from commercial life that means "doing away with", or cancelling, making to have no power over a person; as in when a remittance has been paid, and then the debtor enjoys a "remission of debts".
-
Semites (like Shemites) are a designation of the first branch of the family tree from Noah, through Shem. And the Jewish people as a whole designate themselves as Semites.
In attempting to translate the meaning of this First Century Greek text (see the end of each section or pericope) it must be noted that words hold meaning in sentences, in literary contexts, in languages, & in cultures. In addition to these contexts, they have nuances based on common and recent usage, etymology, their phonemes, all within a particular sub-culture at a particular time. Thus they can give rise to puns, poetry, and mnemonic devices etc.. much of which can never be translated by a word-for-word translation, hence as Mark demonstrates for us in his rendition of the euangelion 4 times, as he transliterates, then translates Jesus's Aramaic words into Greek for the general population who didn't know Aramaic, we are to look at a dynamic equivalence.
A pericope is a story-let within a bigger (oral) story. In this case they seem to have had a life as oral stories for decades within a community of people before they were collated, & written down & thence codified.
"Prophet" came to mean one who has met with God (stood in the divine council) and listened, & thus is able to be a mouthpiece for God to communicate his word, his message, to his people on Earth. Isaiah was one of many prophets, but he distinctively spoke of God's Anointed Leader (Messiah) as a suffering servant of Yahweh-God. Mark's prophetic quote here is a compilation of some of the prophet Isaiah's writings, and some of the prophet Malachi's writing. He then presents John the Washer as a (more modern) prophetic figure, and we might miss the fact that in Mark's announcement he is also acting as a prophetic voice for this new testament of the word of God getting out to God's people.
The Greek word is εὐαγγελίοv (euangelion), and although its literal meaning might be written in a First Century Dictionary (if dictionaries had been invented) as "good news", on top of the way it had been used in both Jewish & Roman literature, for people who now lived within the Roman Empire, where the Empire under Tiberius had it’s euangelion spread regularly, it seems to me that it's functional meaning within that context of the First Century would have a distinct added flavour, to mean " 'good' news of the one who has won (& continues to win) the right to rule you"
In the First Century (before we ever had the Sydney Morning Herald, but probably giving rise to the last word of the name of that newspaper), heralds were people who were sent to make public, proclaim or "tell out" their ruler's message, as they were sent by their ruler/leader to do so, to those they have been sent by that ruler to take the message to. Heralds, and heralding appears to have been a public affair, but presumably a leader's herald might be willing to pass on their message in any setting where people congregated. In Greek, as in English, there was the herald (a noun, which referred to), the person (κήρυκα, keruka), this concept has some overlap with what is often expressed by the word (angel or) messenger (ἄγγελόν, angelon), or even the "bringer of the Ruler's good news" (εὐαγγελιζόμενος, euangelidzomenos), related to that is the herald's message (another noun), speaking of what was proclaimed or heralded (κηρύγμα, kerugma), & the herald's method (the "doing word", or verb) of getting out or disseminating the message commonly by proclaiming, "crying" out, shouting, or "heralding" it in market places or other public places (κηρύσσων, kerussone).
Caesar Augustus (the adopted "Father" of Tiberius) was deified (made into a god), by some people before, and by others after, his death. Some of Tiberius' coins commemorate that Tiberius is therefore a "son of divinity".
The practice of anointing was one used to choose, recognise and appoint the succession of leadership. There are records of its use in designating such leadership roles as king, prophet, and the chief or head priest. In Hebrew thinking, the Hebrew word for anointed (משיח, Messiah), & the Greek word (Χριστος ,Christ) came by the First Century CE, to designate in the minds of many Jews someone God would send as the Leader of leaders, maybe similar to King of kings, or the Roman idea of an Emperor who ruled over kings of countries.
Bar Kokhba was a Jewish leader hailed by some as Messiah, God’s anointed, expected, “mythic” Leader, who like Adam was meant to be, and as the Jewish psalms (e.g. Ps 8) kept alive, would be “a son of god” & therefore “Lord of the whole Earth”. Bar Kokhba died and it was all over. Augustus,Tiberius & Nero were Roman Caesars who (in one way of another) also claimed to be the "a son of god". They died & so did their rule.
“Professor” is commonly shortened to “Prof.”, and in it's etymology as I understand it, from monastic days, it originally meant something like "one who professes faith and (possibly because of his life's integrity) is thus able to teach". Prophet has here been shortened similarly to Proph.and in Ancient Jewish culture the prophet's authority, it seems to me, was somewhat akin to the professor's nowadays within the un-official religion of “scientific” Western Education.
Although remission can communicate a temporary doing away with something like cancer, the temporary nature here is more a function of the cancer itself. Doctors don't normally talk of being "healed" of cancer. But remission is also a legal term from commercial life that means "doing away with", or cancelling, making to have no power over a person; as in when a remittance has been paid, and then the debtor enjoys a "remission of debts".
Semites (like Shemites) are a designation of the first branch of the family tree from Noah, through Shem. And the Jewish people as a whole designate themselves as Semites.
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