Mark 11
Mark 11 is the eleventh chapter of the Gospel of Mark in the New Testament of the Christian Bible, beginning Jesus' final week before his death as he arrives in Jerusalem for the coming Passover. It contains the stories of Jesus' entry into Jerusalem, his cursing of the fig tree, his conflict with the Temple money changers, and his argument with the chief priests and elders about his authority.
Text
The original text was written in Koine Greek. This chapter is divided into 33 verses.Textual witnesses
Some early manuscripts containing the text of this chapter are:- Codex Vaticanus
- Codex Sinaiticus
- Codex Bezae
- Codex Alexandrinus
- Codex Ephraemi Rescriptus
Timescale
Triumphal entry into Jerusalem
Jesus and his disciples approach Bethphage and Bethany, towns on the edge of Jerusalem. Bethany was about two miles east of the city on the Mount of Olives. Zechariah has the final messianic battle occurring on the Mount of Olives. Bethphage is Aramaic for house of unripe figs, perhaps Mark's foreshadowing of the story of the fig tree.Jesus instructs two unnamed disciples to go ahead to the town and get a colt, by which he almost assuredly means a young donkey, which he says will be tied up and has never been ridden, for him to ride. This is to fulfill Messianic prophecies, such as Zechariah , which is quoted in every Gospel except Mark. He instructs them that if anyone questions them to say "The Lord needs it and will send it back here shortly.", where Mark uses a double entendre as the "Lord" is meant as the owner of the colt and Jesus. The two go and find the colt as Jesus had predicted and start to untie it and people standing nearby ask what they are up to and they tell them what Jesus told them to say and amazingly they leave them alone. Mark leaves the event seemingly showing Jesus' power of prediction, but it could be argued that the people already knew Jesus as this town was his base of operations over the next several days: according to Mark and the other Gospels, Jesus also had friends there including Lazarus, his sisters, and Simon the Leper.
They bring the colt back to Jesus and put their cloaks on it and Jesus rides it into Jerusalem and people lay their cloaks and tree branches before him, singing him praise as the Son of David and a line from Psalm :
The Textus Receptus repeats the words ἑν ὀνόματι Κυρίου in verse 10 as well as verse 9:
The ancient Codex Alexandrinus supports the duplication, but other early manuscripts, the Vulgate and the writings of Origen omit these words from verse 10.
The quotation from the Psalms is significant, as the composition of the Psalms is traditionally ascribed to King David. The word ὡσαννά, is derived from Aramaic from Hebrew , meaning "help" or "save, I pray", "an appeal that became a liturgical formula; as part of the Hallel... familiar to everyone in Israel."
This event is celebrated by Christians as Palm Sunday, as the Gospel of John says the branches were taken from Palm trees.
Where this entry took place is unknown, some believing it was through what is now called the Golden Gate where it was believed the messiah would enter Jerusalem. Others think he might have used an entrance to the south that had stairs that led directly to the Temple. He goes into the city and checks out the Temple, but because it is late he leaves and goes back to Bethany. There were two areas of the Temple, the main area of the building where people's activity took place and the inner sanctuary, also called the Temple, where the power of God was thought to reside.
The fig tree and the money changers
As they leave Bethany next day, Jesus sees a fig tree at a distance and goes over to see if it has figs. It is too early in the year for the tree to produce fruit, and it has none. Jesus curses it : "May no one ever eat fruit from you again", words which his disciples hear.adjacent to the Shrine of the Book exhibit at the Israel Museum, Jerusalem.
as it appears today. The West Wall is in the foreground with the Dome of the Rock rising over the Mount.
They reach Jerusalem and Jesus goes straight to the Temple, Herod's Temple, and starts, without explanation, throwing over tables and driving the dove salesman and money changers from the courtyard of the Temple and stops people from bringing anything for sale through the Temple courts. The doves were used for sacrifices and the standard Greek or Roman money used by people had to be changed into special blessed Jewish or Tyrian money suitable for use. This is what Jesus told everyone there:
Verse 17
- Cross reference:,
The incident with the money changers is recorded in all the Gospels. The synoptics have basically the same story as Mark. John has the incident occurring at the start of his book and therefore Jesus' ministry. He expels the dove salesman and money changers but does not quote from the Old Testament, instead saying "How dare you turn my Father's house into a market!". The disciples remember "Zeal for your house will consume me." Most scholars hold that this is the same incident and that it really occurred shortly before Jesus' death. A minority hold that there were two incidents with the money changers, once at the beginning and once at the end of Jesus' mission.
According to the Jewish Encyclopedia article on
The Jesus Seminar concluded that this was a "pink" act, "a close approximation of what Jesus did", as recorded in,, and called the "Temple incident" and the primary cause of the crucifixion.
The next morning they pass by the fig tree again and Peter notices that it is now "withered", and excitedly points it out to Jesus, who replies:
Similar statements can be found, apart from the fig tree story, in Matthew and Luke as well as in of the Gospel of Thomas. Saint Paul also mentions faith that can move mountains in 1 Corinthians .
Some have argued that Jesus' action in regard to the fig tree seems illogical, since it was not the time of year for trees to bear fruit and one might assume that a divine Jesus would know that the tree would not have figs or could have simply produced the figs by a miracle as opposed to cursing the tree. Bertrand Russell, the agnostic philosopher, even listed this story as one of his reasons for not being a Christian. The cursing of the tree displays Jesus' power and the power of prayer coupled with full belief in God. Mark, placing the fig tree before and after the incident in the Temple, may be using the fig tree as a metaphor for what he sees as the barrenness of the priests and the withering of their teaching and authority due to their lack of true faith. Just like with the fig tree, Jesus had hoped to find "fruit", the fruit of true worship of God, at the Temple but it is not the right time for this, and so the Temple, like the fig tree, is cursed. Exegetes often take this as one of Mark's references to the destruction of the Temple by the Romans, and consequently their dating of Mark after this event.
The fig tree is again mentioned in Mark by Jesus as part of his eschatological discourse, when its leaves will be full and it will be bearing fruit in the summer, as opposed to the current spring. Matthew has roughly the same story but not Luke or John, although Luke has Jesus relating a parable, The Parable of the Barren Fig Tree, about a man not finding fruit on a fig tree. Thomas has Jesus talking about thistles not yielding figs in , which is also found in the Sermon on the Mount in Matthew .
This section of Mark ends with verses which are paralleled in and, which some have seen as a portion or a follow-on of the Lord's Prayer : forgive others so that God may forgive you.
Argument over Jesus' authority
Jesus then goes back to the Temple a third time and as he walks through the Temple courts the priests, teachers, and elders come up to him and question his authority to do the things that he is doing. They are trying to get him to say that his authority comes from God and can therefore accuse him of blasphemy.Jesus says he will tell them if they answer him one question. "John's baptism — was it from heaven, or from men? Tell me!" The priests are then trapped. Mark implies that they did not believe in John, so that if they answer from heaven people will ask why they did not believe John. If they answer from men, they would be in conflict with the people, who did believe in John. They therefore refuse to answer and accordingly so does Jesus. This allows him to make the priests look bad and incompetent and also allows him to imply to the people that his authority is from God without saying it.
This is the first time in Mark that the chief priests, members of the Sanhedrin, are presented as Jesus' opponents. His previous conflicts had been with the Pharisees and scribes or teachers of the law. Jesus has several arguments with the Jewish authorities beginning here and lasting through chapter in which they try to trip him up but continually fail.