Chapter # 8 Paragraph # 6 Study # 1
October 11, 2022
Moss Bluff, Louisiana
(348)
1901 ASV
31 And he began to teach them, that the Son of man must suffer many things, and be rejected by the elders, and the chief priests, and the scribes, and be killed, and after three days rise again.
32 And he spake the saying openly. And Peter took him, and began to rebuke him.
33 But he turning about, and seeing his disciples, rebuked Peter, and saith, Get thee behind me, Satan; for thou mindest not the things of God, but the things of men.
- I. The Setting.
- A. He has just drawn out of His disciples what "they" had concluded about His identity: "You are The Christ" is Peter's response. It is given in the setting of "The Son of David" concept of "Christ".
- 1. Mark's "Title" to this Gospel is "The beginning of the Gospel of Jesus Christ, the Son of God".
- 2. The next use of "Christ" is in our current context (8:29). After these two, there are five more uses of "Christ" by Mark and the most revealing of these five is 14:61 where the high priest ties it to the identity of "The Son of The Blessed" and He is accused of blasphemy when He responds with a "yes" and then immediately reverts to "The Son Of The Man" identity.
- B. He then insisted that those disciples "not say to anyone" this conclusion.
- 1. This "insistence" is "epitimao"; one of three times Mark uses it in this immediate context (8:30, 32, 33), and one of nine uses in the entire Gospel by Mark.
- 2. This "insistence" carried a significant level of authority in that it is the word describing how Jesus cast out demons (1:25; 9:25). In respect to the issue of "not telling others", Mark first used it in 3:12 where He "insisted" that the unclean spirits refrain from identifying Him as "The Son of The God", and now we find it here in 8:30 where He insists that the disciples not tell anyone that He is The Christ.
- 3. This "insistence" regarding His identity (3:12 and 8:30) is rooted in the massive confusion of the entire complex of Jewish interpretations regarding The Christ. He did not want the realities of His true identity revealed at this time because they would be a huge stumbling-block to the people. The "Messiah ben Joseph" (diminished)/"Messiah ben David" (exalted) theology of Israel was too ingrained in the common understanding of the people that it represented a large "excuse" for rejecting Him.
- a. In the first case, wherein the demons were loudly proclaiming His identity as a mixture of deity/humanity, the problems of the God/man concept were legion. It was a concept introduced early in the history of mankind as a massive deception (Nimrod/Semiramis) so that when the true God/man came He would be rejected as "a partner to Beelzebul".
- b. In this second case, the immediate issue is the confusion of "the men" regarding Jesus as "John the Baptizer", "Elijah", or "one of the prophets" and is sufficient to restrain the disciples from attempting to clear the fog at this point in time.
- II. The Details.
- A. "And He began to teach them...".
- 1. The use of "archo" by Mark is extensive (27 texts of Mark contain this word). It typically introduces an action taken, but the link to the notion of "authoritative rule" probably signals a rather significant elevation of "topic" when the connection to "teaching" is made.
- 2. The reference to "teaching" is also extensive in Mark (in 17 texts). It is directly associated with the noun "disciple" and, thus, indicates the communication of truth that is designed to move the "disciple" further into the realm of "submissive (loving/believing) service".
- B. The content of His teaching.
- 1. "It is necessary for The Son Of The Man to suffer many things...".
- a. This "parallel" identity: The Son Of The Man.
- 1) Was first reported by Mark in 2:10 -- "The Son of The Man has authority on earth to forgive sins" in the face of "...He is blaspheming; who can forgive sins but God alone?"
- 2) Is next expressed in 2:28 -- "The Son Of The Man is Lord even of the Sabbath" in the face of "...why are they doing what is not lawful on the Sabbath?"
- 3) In 3:28 the phrase is "...the sons of the men..." and refers to the large group of humanity that "sins".
- 4) The next use is our current text (8:31) and the next is 8:38 where "...The Son of The Man will also be ashamed of him when He comes in the glory of His Father with the holy angels" in the face of the potential of men being "ashamed of Me and My words in this adulterous and sinful generation".
- 5) The next use is in 9:9 and is a parallel to our text regarding the "rising from the dead" of The Son of The Man and causing a stir among Peter, James, and John about "rising from the dead".
- 6) There are two further references to Jesus, as The Son Of The Man, being put to death and rising from the dead (9:31 and 10:33-34) with five more references to Him as "The Son of The Man" and a final reference to "this man" as "The Son of The God".
- 7) The overall meaning is "human being" with overtones of "deity" lurking in the background.
- b. At this point, this "necessity" is simply declared, not definitively explained.
- c. But even without explanation, it is clear that Jesus is telling His disciples that the days of adulation and acceptance and the pursuit by others are going to come to an end.
- d. This declaration signals an intensification of the opposition as the crisis of "Truth" versus "doctrines of demons" continues to build.
- e. In 9:12 (the last use of "suffer" by Mark) Jesus deliberately asks His disciples how the issue of "suffering many things" fits into the picture? This indicates the fact that the revelations God has given to the prophets of the past are not understood by the leaders of Judaism in the first century (Note Jesus' question of Nicodemus in John 3:10).
- 2. "And to be rejected by the elders and the high priests and the scribes...".
- a. In most cases of "acceptance"/"rejection" by the masses, the attitudes of the leaders will be determinative.
- b. It was no small thing for the entire hierarchy of Judea to be aligned against Jesus.
- 3. "And to be killed..."
- a. This is the "recognizable" climax (since the real climax of resurrection was so completely ignored) for the disciples: Jesus is headed for death, not a recognizable "victory".
- b. The disciples have given evidence on occasion of their terrible fear of death because the idea of a glorious resurrection was not in a significant place in their theology.
- 4. "And after three days to rise..."
