God’s Law and Human Tradition

Mark For Everyone

MARK 7.1–13
God’s Law and Human Tradition...

...I read a book about jokes the other day (not just a book of jokes, you understand, though there were plenty of them, but a philosophical book about jokes; humour is, as you might say, a very funny thing). One of the crucial things about jokes, the author was explaining, is that the less explanation you have to give the better. What makes telling and hearing a joke fun, as well as funny, is that teller and hearer discover they share a little bit of private world together, the bit you have to understand, without it being mentioned, in order to get the point of the joke. Some of the best jokes are Jewish jokes (the book was written by a Jewish philosopher), but it is part of the deal that you have to know the Jewish world on the inside to get the point.

One of the difficulties with Mark 7 is that unless you’re inside the Jewish world you won’t get the point. Mark already knows this, which is why he’s explained to his readers some- thing which, if they were Jewish, they wouldn’t have needed to have spelled out like this. (This passage, about ritual washing of hands, pots and so on, is in fact one of the reasons why scholars conclude that his audience was primarily Gentile.) Suddenly Mark’s stories about healing have stopped for a minute, and we have a debate instead, focusing on a controversy about the interpretation and practice of Judaism by Jesus and his followers. And for this, even if it spoils the story for those who live in that world, we need some explanations...

Taken from Mark for Everyone by Tom Wright