Saturday, March 18, 2017

Jesus and Gentiles part 2

Let's look at Jesus's actions and words regarding Gentiles in Mark:

*Mark 5 has Jesus crossing the lake (the sea of galilee)  to a region east of the Jordon called the Gerasenes, part of a larger area called the decapolis. This region was Greco-Roman in culture, not Jewish. There Jesus casts a legion of demons out of a mad man into a herd of 2 thousand pigs. The pigs go crazy and run  into the lake, killing themselves, and probably destroying at least one person's livelihood. But remember, pigs were "unclean" to the Jews. The people of that region are disturbed by this and beg that Jesus leave the area. As he is getting into the boat to head back, the man who is no longer possessed begs to go back with him. Jesus says no and encourages him to spread the word about what "the lord" did for him. He supposedly did so, and all the people who heard it were amazed. Of course there is no extrabiblical corroboration. Also the region mentioned is not even next to the Sea of Galilee.

*Jesus's next recorded encounter with a gentile in the book of Mark is in chapter 7. There,  a Greek Syro-Phoenician woman begs him to drive a demon out of her daughter. Jesus replies with, "it is not right to take the children's bread and toss it to the dogs." The implication here is that the Jews are the children of god and non Jews are the metaphorical equivalent of dogs. Well, that's not a very loving statement, is it? The woman appears to take this in stride and says, "even the dogs under the table eat the children's crumbs." Jesus appreciates her logic and heals her child.

*After skimming through the rest of Mark, the only other possible reference to gentiles I can find is at the end of the 16th chapter. There Jesus is said to have given " the great commission," telling the apostles to "go out into all the world and preach the gospel to all creation," presumably gentiles as well as Jews. The problem with this passage is that it may not have been in the original version of the book of Mark.

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