Quotations of Jewish Scripture - The Gospel of Mark

This continues a survey of quotations of Jewish Scripture in different gospels, which to this point has covered some collections of alternative gospels. We have now come to the first survey of a document that is recognized by the Christian church as a reliable record of Jesus' life: the Gospel of Mark.

A Note On Methods (Skip to the next heading if you're not interested in the technical stuff)

And here, for the first time, it becomes important to note: there are many cases of references or allusions which are not being included in this analysis, because this analysis is focused specifically on quotations. This was less of an issue in the previous documents that we surveyed since there were relatively few references to the Jewish scriptures. But as we come to the Gospel of Mark it becomes necessary to clarify how to distinguish a quote from other kinds of reference. One way that I’m using to distinguish other references from quotations is by the fact that a quote repeats the original material, where another type of reference may not repeat the original material so much as mention it. An example is that Moses allowed a man to divorce his wife: here we can find a reference to Jewish Scripture but it would be overstating the case to call it a quotation. Another situation that I do not count as a quotation here is finding such a short set of words that it’s not clear whether it’s intending to repeat the original material or reference it. The identification of something as a quotation is reserved for passages where there’s not a serious doubt: where not only is there a reference to earlier Scripture but also there are more than a few words involved or it was introduced in the document as a quotation (e.g. “it is written”).

Quotations of Jewish Scripture in the Gospel of Mark

1. .. as it is written in Isaiah the prophet:

“I will send my messenger ahead of you,
    who will prepare your way”—
“a voice of one calling in the wilderness,
‘Prepare the way for the Lord,
    make straight paths for him.’”

 2. “‘they may be ever seeing but never perceiving,
    and ever hearing but never understanding;
otherwise they might turn and be forgiven!’”

3. He replied, “Isaiah was right when he prophesied about you hypocrites; as it is written:

“‘These people honor me with their lips,
    but their hearts are far from me.
They worship me in vain;
    their teachings are merely human rules.’

4. For Moses said, ‘Honor your father and mother,’ and, ‘Anyone who curses their father or mother is to be put to death.’

5.  “‘the worms that eat them do not die,
    and the fire is not quenched.’

6. You know the commandments: ‘You shall not murder, you shall not commit adultery, you shall not steal, you shall not give false testimony, you shall not defraud, honor your father and mother.’”

7. “Blessed is he who comes in the name of the Lord!”

8. And as he taught them, he said, “Is it not written: ‘My house will be called a house of prayer for all nations’? But you have made it ‘a den of robbers.’”

9. Haven’t you read this passage of Scripture:

“‘The stone the builders rejected
    has become the cornerstone;
the Lord has done this,
    and it is marvelous in our eyes’?”

10. Now about the dead rising—have you not read in the Book of Moses, in the account of the burning bush, how God said to him, ‘I am the God of Abraham, the God of Isaac, and the God of Jacob’?

11. “The most important one,” answered Jesus, “is this: ‘Hear, O Israel: The Lord our God, the Lord is one. Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind and with all your strength.’ The second is this: ‘Love your neighbor as yourself.’ There is no commandment greater than these.”

12. While Jesus was teaching in the temple courts, he asked, “Why do the teachers of the law say that the Messiah is the son of David? David himself, speaking by the Holy Spirit, declared:

“‘The Lord said to my Lord:
    “Sit at my right hand
until I put your enemies
    under your feet.”’

13. “You will all fall away,” Jesus told them, “for it is written:

“‘I will strike the shepherd,
    and the sheep will be scattered.’

14. And at three in the afternoon Jesus cried out in a loud voice, “Eloi, Eloi, lema sabachthani?” (which means “My God, my God, why have you forsaken me?”).

 

Analysis

In the very first quotation in Mark, we see something we hadn't seen in the documents surveyed previously: the quote is attributed to a particular prophet, Isaiah. While the second part of the quote is from Isaiah, the first part is from Malachi, so the attribution doesn't completely satisfy. Despite the mixed-source quote with attribution for only part of it, it’s the most precise we’ve seen yet: it's the first instance we’ve seen of the author trying to be specific about the previous author. While that was the first instance, as we continue in the Gospel of Mark we see that it's not too unusual here, where we have various quotes attributed to Isaiah, Moses (or the Book of Moses), and David. 

Most quotes of Jewish Scripture are included as having been spoken by Jesus. We also see some independent application by the author of the gospel. There is an instance of Jewish Scripture by some of the people in the crowd during Jesus' arrival in Jerusalem. For the most common case -- instances where Jesus quotes the Jewish Scripture -- some of these uses of Scripture are embedded in conversations which revolve around the right understanding or application of Jewish Scripture. The other people in the narrative are shown to have their own knowledge of or interest in Jewish Scripture.  

Quotations of Jewish Scripture are more plentiful here than was typical in the alternative gospels. Fourteen passages in Mark contain quotes of Jewish Scripture, compared to a combined total of seven in the previous eight documents surveyed.