Mark 9
Mark 9 is the ninth chapter of the Gospel of Mark in the New Testament of the Christian Bible. It begins with Jesus' prediction that "I tell you the truth, some who are standing here will not taste death before they see
that the kingdom of God has come with power". The chapter then recounts the transfiguration of Jesus, a healing miracle, and Jesus' teaching about the return of Elijah, humility and temptation.
Text
The original text was written in Koine Greek. This chapter is divided into 50 verses (49 verses in the Douai-Rheims version.Textual witnesses
Some early manuscripts containing the text of this chapter are:- Codex Vaticanus
- Codex Sinaiticus
- Codex Bezae
- Codex Alexandrinus
- Codex Ephraemi Rescriptus
Locations
Verse 1
Anglican biblical scholar Edward Plumptre argues that this verse should be read with the final section of Mark 8 and suggests that the present arrangement may have been made with a view of connecting it with the Transfiguration as the fulfilment of the promise in this verse. This verse is numbered as Mark 8:39 in the Douai-Rheims Bible.What exactly the kingdom of God refers to has been long debated. It immediately follows Jesus' statement of "... when he comes in his Father's glory with the holy angels." in the preceding chapter. This could simply refer to the following Transfiguration. Some have thought this refers to the Second Coming, an event most hold did not happen within the lifetimes of those present. This could be a prediction that came true if you take into account John's Revelation of the Second Coming while he was on the island of Patmos. Others have interpreted it as Jesus referring to his resurrection and/or the coming of Christianity. It is also recorded in Matthew and Luke . Matthew adds the statement that "... then he will reward each person according to what he has done" between the two.
The Transfiguration
Six days pass and then Jesus takes Peter, James and John up an unnamed high mountain, which many came to believe was Mount Tabor. Suddenly, Jesus' clothes become dazzingly white "... whiter than anyone in the world could bleach them." and Elijah and Moses appear. The disciples are stunned and ask what they should do and offer to put up shelters or 'tabernacles' for them. A cloud overshadows them and a voice comes from the cloud saying "This is my Son, whom I love. Listen to him!" which is what Jesus heard the "voice from heaven" say when he was baptised by John the Baptist in Mark 1 but now Mark has Peter, James, and John as witnesses to this. Elijah and Moses disappear and they head down the mountain. On the way down the mountain, Jesus tells them to keep what had happened to themselves until the Son of Man had risen from the dead. They are confused as to what he means but do not ask him to clarify himself. They ask him about Elijah and he says:It was commonly believed that Elijah would reappear before the coming of the Messiah, as predicted in Malachi . Matthew states that the three of them believed Jesus was comparing Elijah to John the Baptist. The imprisonment and death of John the Baptist may be compared to the persecution of Elijah by Jezebel. Moses can be seen as a representative of the law and Elijah a representative of the prophets.
This whole passage has echoes of Exodus , where clouds covered Mount Sinai for six days before Moses went up to receive the ten commandments.
The original Greek uses the word metamorphothe which was translated into Latin as Trans Figura, the changing of appearance or of the body itself.
The Possessed Boy
They arrive back and find the rest of the disciples arguing with several teachers of the law surrounded by a crowd. As Jesus returns, the crowd are "amazed" at him: the New Revised Standard Version translates as "they were... overcome with awe", suggesting that his appearance "still retained traces of His transfiguration-glory".Jesus asks the crowd "What are you arguing about?" and a man says he brought his possessed boy for Jesus to heal. The boy has a mute spirit and "foams at the mouth, gnashes his teeth and becomes rigid" - symptoms of epilepsy, which Matthew states to be the case. The man says the boy has been made to fall both into water and fire by the demon. Jesus' disciples could not heal him. Jesus says "You faithless generation". He commands the boy be brought to him. The father begs Jesus to help the boy if he can, to which Jesus replies "Everything is possible for him who believes", and the man says "I believe. Help my unbelief!" Jesus heals the boy: when asked by the disciples privately why they could not cast it out, he replies "This kind can come out only through prayer and fasting".
Predictions about the crucifixion
Jesus tells his entire group again that the Son of Man will be betrayed into the hands of men, killed, and after three days he will rise again. This is the second prediction of the Passion in Mark's Gospel, although in the first prediction there is no reference to betrayal. Theologian Marvin Vincent notes that the Greek reads "ἐδίδασκεν", and the Revised Version would have done better to give the force of the imperfect here: He was teaching. He sought seclusion because he was engaged for the time in instructing. The teaching was the continuation of the "began to teach" ".Jesus' disciples still do not understand what he means but they are afraid to ask him to clarify himself. William Robertson Nicoll notes that "they had heard the statement before, and had not forgotten the fact, and their Master had spoken too explicitly for them to be in any doubt as to His meaning. What they were ignorant of was the why". Skeptics dismiss these predictions as not actually made by the real Jesus but regard them as an example of vaticinium ex eventu. Scholars such as Raymond E. Brown believe, however, that "the difficulty in dismissing all these predictions as totally postJesus creations is exemplified in where many scholars recognize Semitic features and old tradition."
Teaching in Capernaum
They go back to Capernaum and in the house, Jesus asks what the disciples were discussing or arguing about on the road. They do not answer, because they had been arguing about who was, or who would be, the greatest disciple, possibly because Jesus only took three of them with him up the mountain and the remaining nine could not cure the boy. In Matthew's account, the subject was introduced by the disciples themselves, who came and asked Jesus who should be greatest. Jesus already knows what they had been talking about, however, and he summons the twelve, sits down with them and instructs them:He takes a child in his arms and says whoever welcomes children welcomes him and therefore God.
John says some other group of people have been healing people in Jesus' name even though they were not part of the group, but Jesus is pleased and says "... For he who is not against us is for us.". In and Jesus says: "He who is not with Me is against Me"; see also You're either with us, or against us. The disciples seem to think one needs to be part of Jesus' personal group but Jesus makes clear that anyone who works in his name and does his work is also for him.
He then gives one of the most forceful condemnations of sin in the Bible :
The text quotes the final verse of the Book of Isaiah:
The Pulpit Commentary observes that the bodies cast into hell "could not be at the same time burnt with fire and eaten by worms".
The original manuscripts use the term "τὴν γέενναν" Gehenna for Hell. Gehenna was a trash dump next to Jerusalem in the Hinnom valley, where the dead bodies of criminals as well as trash were burned. The valley was named after a man named Hinnom who had owned it. It had at one time been used as a place to sacrifice live children to Pagan Gods.
What exactly the "salt" Jesus was referring to was is unclear. Jesus relates it to fire, the good, and peace. Salt was seen as a thing of purity, but salt also has destructive properties and was used as a preservative. "Salt" might simply refer to his teaching. It also might be seen as an interlocking double metaphor relating the salt required in sacrifices to God found in Leviticus to the "salt" of the sacrifice of Christ and to the "salt" required to be in followers of Jesus as metaphorical sacrifices as in Romans and also relating the salt of the Old Covenant from Leviticus to the "salt" of the new or renewed covenant. See and also Salt and Light.