7. End-time Family

The young Christian community at Antioch remembered and studied the words and works of Jesus. But sooner or later the oral traditions had to be put in writing. Many of the ordinary believers were not used to memorising extensive texts. Both the teachers and the catechumens will soon have relied on 'notes': on collections of traditions that had been written out on scrolls of papyrus.

None of these early documents have been preserved. But a comparison of the three Synoptic Gospels proves that such written texts must have existed. Most scholars accept at least two major Greek collections: one, which they call Urmark,(1) known to all three evangelists; another code-named Quelle (2) known only to Matthew and Luke.

Once this stage had been reached it was unavoidable that the written 'notes' would be brought together in a coherent form. This was the origin of our written Gospels, the first of which, Mark, appeared around 70 AD. It could also be expected that such an edition would be presented in a form that could appeal to Christian and non-Christian Hellenists.

Lives of heroes and teachers

It was at Antioch that believers were called 'Christians' for the first time.(3) The significance of the name should not escape us. They were known as the followers of Christ, Who was this 'Christ' people would ask? They had heard about famous kings, generals and philosophers who had lived in the past. Where did Jesus Christ fit in?

The Romans and Greeks learned about their heroes in history books and biographies written by prominent authors. The public library at Antioch contained thousands of scrolls. (4) Among them must have been copies of Plutarch's Parallel Lives and Suetonius' two works The lives of the Caesars and On Illustrious Men.(5) Many other such books must have existed, even though many have not survived to our day.

Jesus, of course, was a religious leader. But here too 'lives' played a role. The influential Athenian philosopher Socrates was widely known through accounts of his life and his teaching in Plato's Dialogues and Xenophon's Memorabilia.(6) The Jew Philo of Alexandria introduced Moses to Hellenistic audiences in a biography of the prophet that presents him as a classical political and religious hero.(7) Philostratus left us a life of the miracle-worker Apollonius of Tyana.(8) Other works of this nature were On the life of Pythagoras by Iamblichos, The Discourses of Epictetus by Arrian and The Lives of Eminent Philosophers by Diogenes Laertius.(9)

The Gospel of Mark differs in many respects from these Hellenistic biographies. Yet we need to have little doubt that for many Greek readers it would roughly fall into the same category.(10) Although the Gospel shows techniques of composition reminiscent of Greco-Roman rhetoric (11) and of classic Greek drama, (12) its main thrust was its presentation of Jesus. 'The Gospel of Mark partakes of the form of a biography that depicts a disciples-gathering teacher - from the high point of his career to his death'.(13)

Mark's Gospel

The Gospel starts with the brief heading: 'Beginning of the Gospel of Jesus Christ, the Son of God'.(14) This title men­tions neither the author, nor the time and place of composition.(15) Scholars more or less agree in assigning the Gospel a date between 65 and 75 AD, but they propose different locations depending on clues they perceive in it.(16) Rome is, perhaps, still the most likely location. It is supported by internal evidence (17) and by a robust tradition in the early Church. We are told a certain Mark who assisted Peter as interpreter in Rome, 'wrote down carefully, but not in order, all that he remembered of the Lord's sayings and doings'.(18)

Who was this Mark? The Christian community in Jerusalem used to gather in 'the house of Mary, the mother of John who is also known as Mark'.(19) This same John Mark came with Paul and Barnabas to Antioch.(20) He joined them when they started on theirfirst missionary journey,(21) but returned to Jerusalem when they reached Perga.(22) Paul was so upset about this (his precise reason is not given) that he refused to take John Mark with him on a later journey (23). The name 'Mark' also crops up in letters of Paul (24) and Peter (25), but we cannot be sure he was the same person since 'Mark' was a common Hellenistic surname. In short, we cannot be sure that the 'Mark' accredited by the early Church with composing the first Gospel was identical to the John Mark of Acts. Neither is this crucial. All we need to know is that one or other disciple, probably called 'Mark', put down the traditions of Jesus in a coherent form for a community of converts, possibly in Rome.

Composition

How did Mark go about his work? Greek and Roman authors, like authors today, would freely re-write their source material in their own way. Mark did no such thing. He knew that his sources were precious traditions, carefully passed on in memorised form or in written notes. He respected their contents and even, whenever possible, their formulation. All he did was to arrange the material, putting things together, linking them in sequence. He has been compared to an artist fitting existing pieces into a mosaic or to a composer who blends existing popular melodies into a new symphony. He was not writing his own book, but presenting the community's Gospel.(26)

Mark fitted the traditions into a simple geographical structure.

1, 1-13	introduction, Jesus' baptism
1, 14 - 6,6	a ministry in Galilee
6, 6b -9,50	apostolic journeys
10, 1-52	journey to Jerusalem
11, 1-16,20	ministry and passion in Jerusalem.

However, he bound this material together by an ever sharper focus on the mystery of Jesus' personality. From Jesus' call at his baptism and throughout all his teachings and healings we wonder 'Who is this man? (27) Jesus heightens the tension by telling demons (28), disciples (29) and converts (30) not to reveal his identity. (31) Peter's profession 'You are the Christ!' is a turning point in the story. (32) It prepares us for Jesus' declaration before the High Priest: 'You will see the Son of Man (=Jesus) sitting at the right hand of Power ( = God) (33) and the centurion's admission: Truly, this man was the Son of God!'. (34)

However, when we look at Jesus, what a paradox!

Hellenistic biographies revelled in describing the victories and triumphs of their heroes. Jesus, on the other hand, is presented as the 'Son of Man', the ordinary human being, who, like the Servant of Yahweh predicted by Isaiah (35), was giving his life as a ransom for all.(36)

God's household

How did Mark visualise the Church? From the way he presents Jesus and the disciples we can infer that he looked on it as a new family of brothers and sisters gathered around Christ.

His mother and relatives arrived. Standing outside the house, they sent a message asking him to come out. A lot of people were sitting around him. They told him: 'Your mother and your relatives are outside, asking for you'. He replied: 'Who is my mother? Who are my relatives?' Looking around at those who sat there, he said: 'These are my mother and relatives. For whoever does the will of God is my brother, sister and mother.'(37)

Those who give up everything to follow Jesus, including their physical families, will receive a hundredfold of brothers, sisters, parents and children in the end-time family of Jesus.(38) Jesus' family is a community of service (39) and a watchful community (40). The community is open and egalitarian in nature.(41)

The Gospel reflects 'house churches', that is: communities meeting in residential homes.(42) They were close-knit, small groups who would mirror themselves in such images as a flock of sheep (43) or a party travelling in a boat. (44) Rejected by the Jews and misunderstood by Hellenists, they would tend to adopt the strategies of persecuted minorities; shunning political involvement, guarding community rituals from intruders and recruiting new converts through personal contact. (45) In many respects the Church envisaged in Mark's Gospel is what we call nowadays a basic Christian community.

The grassroots Church

In our own days the Church has tried to promote the formation of natural local Churches, the so-called 'basic Christian communities'. The Second General Latin American Bish­ops' Conference (Medellin 1968) characterised them as follows:

The basic community forms the primary and fundamental core reality of the Church.
On her own level, she should take responsibility for the deposit of faith and its propagation, and also for worship which expresses faith.
She is the embryo of the Church's structure, the focus of evangelisation and, in our own days, the nerve centre for human progress.(46)

In 1975 Bishops came together in Rome for a Synod on evangelisation. One of their conclusions was that the Christian communities on grassroots level should be strengthened at all costs. However, such groups should not be allowed to drift away from communion with the larger Church. Pope Paul VI summarised the Synod's recommendations in his encyclical Evangelii Nuntiandi (1975). He highlighted the following features as signs of healthy communities:

* They seek nourishment in the Word of God and do not allow themselves to be taken over by one-sided political polarisation or fashionable ideologies.

* They remain firmly attached to the wider local Church (parish or diocese) in which they are inserted.

* They preserve sincere links of communion with the pastoral leaders which Christ gives to his Church.

* They strive to grow continuously in responsibility for their neighbourhood, in Christian liberation and mission­ary zeal.

* They show themselves in everything truly 'Catholic' and not sectarian.

The Pope then defines them in this way:

A basic Christian community is a focal point of Gospel preaching and living.

It supports the wider community, i.e. the local Church, and is a sign of hope for the Universal Church.(47)

The Bishops' Conferences of East Africa also endorsed the need for rediscovering and strengthening the local communities of faith.

* 'The Christian communities we are trying to build up are nothing else than the grassroots incarnations of the one, holy, catholic and apostolic Church.

* The Church is the sacrament of love and of God's universal grace. It is the world community of those who believe in Jesus' resurrection. It has the Pope as its head ....

But this universal Church must also be present to Christians as a reality in their own local surroundings, It must be a local reality as much as a universal one. The local Church is the Catholic Church in each place.

* The small Christian communities are the means through which the Church reaches out to the every-day life and needs of the people.

* In these communities the Church shares deeply the life situations people undergo.

In these communities believers can have a realistic expe­rience of the Church as a new way of being together.'(48).

In the complicated world in which we live, it may prove impossible for us to be part of such an ideal basic community of faith. Most of us belong to a larger structure, the parish. This fulfils some of the functions of the local Church (preaching, common worship, local apostolate), but often falls short in other aspects. It may not provide, for instance, the support of a small group to which one can 'belong' and with which one can share one's spiritual search or apostolate (a function eminently fulfilled in the basic community).

For this reason the parish structure often needs to be supplemented with additional subdivisions: neighbourhood groups, pastoral groups, prayer and action groups, Bible groups. In the gathering of each of these groups the ekklesia comes alive in a special way.(49) Here too the Bible can be discovered in a new way.

People's reading of Scripture

The communities for which Mark wrote his Gospel continued to interpret Jesus' words and deeds creatively. Since the text was written, its formulation could obviously no longer be changed. But the application could and was adjusted. For, in spite of its written form, Jesus' word had to remain a living word.

This dimension of the Gospel has been rediscovered in our time by the basic communities of Latin America. Instead of a fixed meaning, reflecting the past as explained by Scripture scholars, the Bible was found to have a dynamic meaning perti­nent to the present. This happens when ordinary people discuss it within their own context.(50) Perhaps the most famous exponent of this new approach to Scripture is Carlos Mesters, a Carmelite priest working in Brazil.

Mesters reminds us that the Gospel can only yield its living message if three elements are fully brought into play:

the situation we find ourselves in,
the community we belong to
and the text we read.

Scholars can help to clear away misunderstandings. When it comes to the question: What is God saying to us here?, the ordinary people themselves must unlock the meaning. Mesters, therefore, speaks of an interpretation of Scripture from the point of view of the ordinary people; which in Brazil means: from the point of view of the poor. (51)

Ordinary people, who read Scripture from within their everyday life, will draw different conclusions from those seen by clerics and scholars. He compares this to the different way a car is seen by a businessman who sends a car in for repair and by the mechanic who lies on his back under the car.

'The people are looking at the Bible as mechanics, lying on the ground of life, on the dirty sacking of injustices, wearing clothes soaked in dirt and blood.

Mechanics look at cars which are not theirs and which they cannot own. But people today are beginning to discover the Bible as their book. After repairing the cars of thousands of bosses, the people now, finally, are adjusting the plugs on an old car which is their own.

We, exegetes or interpreters, priests or pastoral work­ers, who were always the owners of the Bible and of knowledge about the Bible - we are not capable of having the same vision, the same joy, gratitude, wonder, novelty and commitment that the people bring to the Bible.' (52)

QUESTIONS FOR STUDY

1. Is the group in which you meet 'a basic Christian community'? If not, which functions of such a basic community of faith does it fulfil? Have you, as a group, recognised these functions and endorsed them by common agreement?

2. Can you formulate the basic theological reasons why the Gospel should be reflected on and discussed by a community, rather than being just the object of private study?

3. How would you interpret the symbolical meaning of these stories in the light of a small Christian community?

Jesus and the disciples in the boat (Mark 4,35-41)

A great storm arose. Waves beat into the boat so that it began to fill. But Jesus was in the stern, asleep on a cushion.

Jesus and the disciples at home in Capernaum (Mark 9,33-37)

Jesus asked: 'What were you talking about on the way?' They were silent. They had been arguing about who was the greatest.

Jesus and the disciples away from the crowds (Mark 6,30-32)

Jesus said: 'Come, let us go away by ourselves to a lonely place. There you can get some rest'.

4. Is it far-fetched to apply the widow's two-penny contribution (Mark 12,41-44) also to people's reading of the Gospel?

I tell you she has put in more than all the others, for she, out of her poverty, gave everything she had.

Footnotes

1. German for 'original Mark'.

2. From German Quelle, 'source'.

3. Acts 11,26.

4. About the spread of books, see F.G.KENYON, Books and Readers in Ancient Greece and Rome, Oxford 1932.

5. Plutarch lived from 46 to 119 AD, Suetonius from 69 to 122 AD.

6. Socrates: 470 - 399 BC; Plato: 428 - 348 BC; Xenophon: 431 -350 BC.

7. Philo: 15 BC - 50 AD. A good excerpt of the book can be found in D.R.CARTLIDGE and D.L.DUNCAN, Documents for the Study of the Gospels, London 1980, pp.253-292.

8. Apollonius: 1st cent. AD; Philostratus: 170 - 245 AD. Apollonius visited Antioch around 90 AD. He presented the city with some magical talismans. One, to ward off the north wind, was placed on the Eastern Gate. Another, against scorpions, con­sisted of a bronze scorpion that was enshrined in the middle of the city. He also prescribed an annual ceremony to guard the people against gnats. G. DOWNEY, Ancient Antioch, Princeton 1963, p.96,

9. Iamblichos: 250-330 AD; Arrian: 100-150 AD; Diogenes Laertius: 3rd century AD.

10. For a discussion on similarities and dissimilarities, see C.W. VOTAW, ‘The Gospels and Contemporary Biographies’, American Journal of Theology 19 (1919) pp.45-73, 217-249; C.F.EVANS, The New Testament Gospels, London 1965, pp.7-15; R.P.MARTIN, Mark - Evangelist and Theologian, Exeter 1972, pp.18-22; F.G.DOWNING, 'Contemporary analogies to the Gospels and Acts', in Synoptic Studies, ed.C.M.TUCKETT, Sheffield 1984, pp.51-65.

11. B.STANDAERT, L'Évangile selon Marc: Composition et Genre Littéraire, Paris 1982.

12. G.G.BILEZIKIAN, The Liberated Gospel: A Comparison of the Gospel of Mark and Greek Tragedy, Grand Rapids 1977.

13. V.ROBBINS, Jesus the Teacher: a Socio-Rhetorical Interpretation of Mark, Philadelphia 1984, p.10.

14. Mark 1,1.

15. The title 'Gospel according to Mark¹ was added later.

16. Some place it in Galilee; W.MARXSEN, Mark the Evangelist: Studies on the Redaction History of the Gospel, Nashville 1969; W.H.KELBER, The Kingdom of Mark: a New Place and a New Time, Philadelphia 1974.

17. Mark uses Latin loan words (4,21; 5,9.15; 6,27; 6,37; 7,4; 12,14; 15,39.44; etc.) and adds Latin explanations (12,42; 15,16; etc.).

18. PAPIAS, Exegesis of the Lord's Oracles (140 AD) who quotes the first-century John the Elder; see also JUSTIN, Dialogue with Trypho 106 (150 AD); IRENAEUS, Against Heresies 3,1.1 (180 AD); and so on. The tradition has been challenged; see esp. K.NIEDERWIMMER, 'Johannes Markus und die Frage nach dem Verfasser des zweiten Evangeliums', Zeitschrift für die neutestamentlichen Wissenschaft 58 (1967) pp. 172-188. M.HENGEL vindicates its reliability in Studies in the Gospel of Mark, Philadelphia 1985, esp. pp.46-53.

24. Philemon 24; Colossians 4,10

25. 1 Peter 5,13.

26. E.BEST, 'Mark's preservation of the tradition' in The Interpretation of Mark, ed.W.TELFORD, Philadelphia 1985, pp.119-133; R.PESCH, Das Markusevangelium, vol. 1, Freiburg 1976, pp. 15-32.

27. Mark 1,27-28; 2,12; 4,41; and so on.

28. Mark 1,25.34; 3,12.

29. Mark 8,30; 9,9.

30. Mark 1,43-45; 5,43; 7,36; 8,26.

31. For a full discussion of this theme, already present in pre-Markan material but strengthened by the evangelist, see The Messianic Secret, ed. C.TUCKETT, Philadelphia 1983.

35. Isaiah 49,1-6; 50,4-6; 52,13 - 53,12.

36. Mark 8,31-33; 10,45. Discussion about the Christology of Mark's Gospel is well summarised in F J.MATERA, What are they saying about Mark?, New York 1987, pp.18-37.

41. J.R.DONAHUE, The Theology and Setting of Discipleship in the Gospel of Mark, Marquette 1981, esp. pp.31-56.

42. E.TROCME, The Formation of the Gospel according to Mark, Philadelphia 1975, pp. 162-163.

43. Mark 6,34; 14,27.

44. Mark 4,35-41; 6,46-52; 8,14-21; see E.BEST, Following Jesus: Discipleship in the Gospel of Mark, Sheffield 1981, pp.208-245.

45. H.C.KEE, Community of the New Age, London 1977, esp. pp.78-96,106-115.

46. Council of Medillin 1968, Integrated Ministry, no 10.

47. POPE PAUL VI, On Evangelisation in the Modern World, London 1975.

48. Statement by AMECEA in African Ecclesiastical Review 5 (1979) pp. 265-272. For French-speaking Africa, see P.LEFèBVRE, Une Église qui nait de nouveau, Kinshasa 1981; J.B.CAPPELLARO, La Paroisse communion de communautés, Kinshasa 1982; E. DE SCHREVEL, Servir la communauté Chretienne, Kinshasa 1984.

49. Helpful books in English are: A.HOPE and S.TIMMEL, Training for Transformation. A Handbook for Community Workers, Gweru (Zimbabwe) 1984; P.BRENNAN, The Evangelising Parish, Alien (Texas) 1987; J.MARINS, The Church from the Roots, London 1989.

50. See E.CARDINAL, The Gospel of the Farmers of Solentiname, Maryknoll 1976. It is interesting to reflect on the fact that Mark's Gospel pays special attention to 'small people¹; see D.R.HOADS and D.MICHIE, Mark as Story, Philadelphia 1982,pp.l29-134.

51. Most of Mesters' booklets are in Portuguese (published by Vozes in Petropolis or Ediçôes Paulinas in Sao Paolo). Key books are: Deus, Onde Estas? Uma introduçâo prádtica à Biblia, Petropolis 1971; Flor sem Difesa. Uma Explicaçâo da Biblia a partir do povo, Petropolis 1983; 'Leitura Popular da Biblia', Revista de Interpretaçâo Biblica Latino-Americana 1 (1988) pp.5-103. Available in English: C.MESTERS, Defenceless Flower. A New Reading of the Bible, New York 1989; God's Project, Athlone 1980; 'Life is the Word. Brazilian Poor interpret Life', WordEvent 14 (1984) pp. 4-8.

52. C.MESTERS, Defenceless Flower, New York 1989, pp.17-18.