Meaning Through Structure
Other Structures
(Photo by Sarah Pflug from Burst)
Synopsis
In this learning unit we will look at other ways in which Mark uses structure to communicate his message. The basic structure we identified in the previous learning unit functions like the skeleton of a body. Just as the skeleton supports all the parts of the body, so too does Mark’s basic structure support the other structures he overlays on top of it. We will study Mark’s use of:
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Placement of key ideas at the beginning, center, and end of the gospel
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Repetitions of words and images
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Inclusios
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Groupings
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Chiasms
By using these literary devices, Mark enriched his gospel and masterfully communicated to us his faith in Jesus as the Messiah and the suffering Son of God.
Learning Objectives
You will have successfully completed this learning unit when you can:
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Explain why Mark placed Peter’s confession that Jesus is the Christ in the middle of the gospel (8:29) and the Roman centurion’s confession that Jesus is the Son of God towards the end (15:39).
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Explain how Mark used repetitions.
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Explain what inclusios and chiasms are and describe their function.
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Describe how Mark groups things together according to common themes and explain how this enriches the meaning of the text.
Other Structures
In this section of the course, we have been analyzing the text to discover how Mark structured his gospel. Ancient authors didn’t have access to the same devices modern authors have today. All they had were the words they used. This doesn’t mean that they weren’t good communicators. On the contrary, they were great communicators because they were able to do so much with so little.
Lacking our modern resources forced them to be quite creative when it came to writing. Their texts can be quite sophisticated. They may not have had bullet points and emojis, but they knew how to highlight a point with the words they used. Our challenge is to recognize how they did this. In a sense, all our modern resources have made us lazy readers and writers.
In the previous learning unit, we analyzed the text of the gospel to determine how Mark could have possibly structured it. We saw that, depending on whether we base our analysis thematically or geographically, we can divide the body of the gospel into two or three parts. This is the gospel’s basic structure or skeleton.
In this learning unit we will study other literary devices Mark used to shape his text. By doing this, he created overlaying structures. We can compare his gospel to the human body. Just as the skeleton is the basic structure that supports the whole body, so too does the gospel’s skeleton support the rest of the text. And just as we find other structures in the body that overlay the skeleton, such as the digestive and respiratory systems, so too can we find structures in the gospel that overlay its “skeleton.”
(Image by Gerd Altmann from Pixabay)
The following are some of the structures Mark used to communicate his message to us.
Location
Location is a well known principle in the real estate business. Properties can vary widely in value based on where they are situated. Although the expression: “The three things that matter most in property are location, location, location” is commonly attributed to the British tycoon Lord Harold Samuel, who died in 1987, ancient authors were well aware of this principle. They would strategically place their main ideas in the most important places of their texts, namely, at the beginning, the middle, and the end.
It is easy to see how Mark used this technique. We find his main ideas in the very first verse, when he tells us that he is going to show us that Jesus is the Christ and the Son of God. Then, in the middle of the gospel, we find Peter’s proclamation that Jesus is the Christ. In antiquity, this practice of placing an important idea in the middle was quite common. And finally, towards the end, right after Jesus dies, Mark tells us that Jesus is truly the Son of God.
Repetitions
Repetition is another literary device commonly used by storytellers and communicators. It can create a sense of rhythm, which is common in poetry and speech giving. This makes it easier to remember the text. Two famous examples from the recent past that highlight the importance of this are Martin Luther King’s “I have a dream” and Winston Churchill’s “We Shall Fight on These Beaches” speeches.
Optional Assignment: Find and read these speeches on the Internet.
Authors also use repetition to emphasize an important idea by drawing the reader’s attention to it. The Bible is full of repetitions. It contains large scale repetitions. Think of the four gospels—they are reiterations of the same story—or the story about the Kingdom of David, which is told in 1 and 2 Samuel is then repeated in 1 and 2 Chronicles. The Bible also contains many small scale repetitions. We find them, for example, in the psalms. Psalm 136 is the most repetitive of them all.
O give thanks to the Lord, for he is good,
for his steadfast love endures for ever.
O give thanks to the God of gods,
for his steadfast love endures for ever.
give thanks to the Lord of lords,
for his steadfast love endures for ever. (Ps 136:1–3)
Every second verse repeats the phrase: “for his steadfast love endures for ever”. It occurs 26 times! Other repetitions are more subtle:
Ascribe to the Lord, O heavenly beings,
ascribe to the Lord glory and strength.
Ascribe to the Lord the glory of his name;
worship the Lord in holy array. (Ps 29:1–2)
We can find another good example of this in Paul’s first letter to the Corinthians.
When I was a child, I spoke like a child, I thought like a child, I reasoned like a child; when I became a man, I gave up childish ways. (1 Cor 13:11)
The rhythm of these repetitions quickly draws our attention to the point the author is trying to make. But authors can also use repetition as a way of connecting ideas or themes. Mark’s gospel is full of this. We already mentioned some examples when we studied the first chapter:
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The first word of the gospel calls to mind the very first word of Bible. By doing so, Mark connects Jesus’ coming to the creation; it is the beginning of a new creation.
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Mark tells us that John the Baptist dressed like Elijah did. This helps us identify John as the new Elijah promised by Malachi.
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Mark uses the same word schizein to describe the tearing open of the heavens during Jesus’ baptism and the tearing of the temple’s curtain after his death. He does this to indicate that these two events are connected.
Mark also tells us three times that Jesus foretold his death and resurrection. By doing this, he is emphasizing its importance. If he were writing today, he might have drawn our attention to these passages by using bold fonts or yellow highlighting. However, if you pay close attention to the text, you will notice that things are not simply repeated each time in exactly the same way. There is development. Jesus’ predictions about his death, for example, grow in intensity and detail.
We already mentioned this once, but it is worth saying it again. One of the most basic Bible reading principles is pay attention to repetitions. They draw our attention by connecting or highlighting things. But since the events are not identical, we also need to pay attention to their differences. These can be just as important as the similarities because they indicate that something new is happening.
Inclusios
A repetition can also be used to frame or bracket large blocks of text. This literary device is called an inclusio and it is quite common in the gospels. The Sermon on the Mount in Matthew’s gospel is an example that is easy to recognize. The main teaching part of the sermon starts and ends with the expression “the law and the prophets” (see Mt 5:17 and 7:12). This expression functions like bookends.
(Image by OpenClipart-Vectors from Pixabay)
Authors will use an inclusio to highlight the text found between the bookends. They may do so for different reasons. For example, they may want to alert the reader to an important theme or tell us that everything in between the bookends should be read in the light of the inclusio’s theme. One example found in Mark’s gospel is the expression “Son of God.” It occurs in the very first very verse and then again towards the end of the gospel. By this, Mark could be instructing his readers to interpret everything that happens in between these two passages as a revelation that Jesus is the Son of God.
Many scholars also consider Mark 8:22–26 and 10:46–52 to bracket another inclusio. These passages are similar because in both of them Jesus heals a blind man. The first healing takes place at Bethsaida and the second one in Jericho, which was Jesus’ last stop before reaching Jerusalem. Mark seems to be drawing our attention to the apostles’ spiritual blindness. In between these two miracles, we find Jesus warning them that he will have to suffer and die. He also says that he expects his disciples take up their cross and follow him. However, we see that they have a difficult time accepting this. Mark tells us that they don’t understand him and are afraid to ask him what he means. Peter even rebukes Jesus for this.
By placing these events within the two miracles, Mark could be telling us that the apostles are spiritually blind and that it will take a miracle to heal them, just as it took a miracle to heal these two men. In addition, Mark seems to be telling us that the healing of the apostle’s spiritual blindness will be similar to the healing of the blind man at Bethsaida. That is, it won’t happen at once, but rather will be a process that takes place in steps. We will look at these miracles in more detail in the next section.
Groupings
Another method ancient authors used to communicate more effectively was to group things together. The basic idea that underlies this literary device is that the whole is greater than the sum of the parts. Mark, once again, is a master at this. When we study his gospel, we find many groupings.
Mark presents us with five controversies between Jesus and the Jewish authorities, one right after the other. This occurs in chapters 2 and 3. We find another five controversies between Jesus and the same authorities in chapter 12. This repetition could also indicate an inclusio that tells us that the authorities reject Jesus because of his teachings and actions found within it.
Likewise, Mark arranges his gospel so that almost all of Jesus’ miracles occur in the first part (chapters 1 to 8). And in chapter 4, he groups all of Jesus’ parables together as if Jesus had taught them all on a single day.
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The parable of the sower (4:1–9)
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The purpose of the parables (4:10–20)
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The parable of the lamp (4:21–25)
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The parable of the growing seed (4:26–29)
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The parable of the mustard seed (4:30–32)
Matthew and Luke take a different approach. They spread the parables throughout their gospels. We find another cluster in chapters 4 and 5. There, Mark brings together a series of miracles:
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The calming of a storm (4:35–41)
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The healing of the Gerasene demoniac (5:1–20)
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The healing of the woman with a hemorrhage (5:25–34)
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The raising of Jairus’s daughter (5:21–24; 35–43)
By doing this, he is communicating to us much more than just the facts about these miracles. Of the many miracles Jesus did, Mark specifically brought these four together to show us that, according to Jewish mentality and world view, Jesus’ power has no limits.
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The calming of the storm shows us that Jesus has power over the forces of nature.
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The casting out of the demon in Gerasa shows us not only that Jesus has power over the demonic (Mark has already shown this in 1:23–28) but also, that he can perform miracles outside of Israel.
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The healing of the woman with the hemorrhage shows us that Jesus has power over ritual impurity.
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The raising of Jairus’ daughter shows us that Jesus has power over death.
Nature, the demonic, pagan territory, ritual impurity and death, these were all limitations for the Judaic religion of the time. By grouping these miracles together, Mark wants us to notice that Jesus’ power has no bounds. Since only God’s power is limitless, this is another way of telling us that he is God.
Finally, we see that bread is an important theme in many of the episodes narrated in 6:30–8:30.
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The first multiplication of the loaves (6:30–44)
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“They did not understand about the loaves, but their hearts were hardened” (6:52)
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The breadcrumbs under the table (7:24–30)
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The second multiplication of the loaves (8:1–10)
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The apostles forget to bring bread (8:14–21)
This happens so often that commentators call this the “section of bread.”
Chiasms
Another structure used by Mark in his gospel is the “chiasm” (pronounced ky′-az-um). In a chiasm, the text is structured according to a repeating A–B–C ... C’–B’–A’ pattern. For example, in Mark 6:45–53, Jesus walks on water.
A - The disciples start travelling in a boat (vv. 45–47)
B - Jesus walks towards them and the disciples are terrified (vv. 48–50a)
C - Jesus says “Take heart, it is I; have no fear.” (v. 50b)
B’ - Jesus calms the storm and the disciples are astounded (vv. 51–52)
A’ - The disciples continue travelling in the boat and reach the other shore (v. 53)
This structure draws our attention to the center of the chiasm, which is often the key idea.
Conclusion
Remember what Papias said about Mark. Following Peter’s example, he didn’t teach things in chronological order because wasn't just giving us a biography of Jesus’ life. By using these and other literary devices in the text, Mark enriched his gospel and masterfully communicated to us his faith in Jesus as the Messiah and the suffering Son of God.
Assignments
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Explain why Peter’s confession that Jesus is the Christ (8:29) occurs in the middle of the gospel and the Roman centurion’s confession that Jesus is the Son of God (15:39) occurs towards the end of the gospel.
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Describe the repetitions Mark uses and explain their purpose.
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Explain what inclusios and chiasms are and give an example of each from the gospel.
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Describe how Mark groups things together according to common themes and explain how this enriches the meaning of the text.