Mark 3
The Pharisees conspire to destroy Jesus; he withdraws to the sea, appoints twelve apostles, and is accused by the scribes of casting out demons by the prince of demons.
Summary
Mark 3 opens with the fifth controversy story: the healing of the man with a withered hand on the Sabbath (3:1-6). Jesus asks the Pharisees which is lawful on the Sabbath, to do good or to do harm, to save life or to kill. They are silent; he heals the man. The Pharisees immediately go out and conspire with the Herodians — a politically unusual alliance — to destroy him. The rest of the chapter follows Jesus' response to this conspiracy: withdrawal to the sea (3:7-12), the appointment of the Twelve (3:13-19), the Beelzebul controversy (3:20-30), and the scene with his family (3:31-35). The naming of the Twelve is brief but precise: Simon surnamed Peter, James and John sons of Zebedee surnamed Boanerges, Andrew, Philip, Bartholomew, Matthew, Thomas, James the son of Alphaeus, Thaddaeus, Simon the Cananaean, and Judas Iscariot who betrayed him. The final name with its final clause casts a shadow forward.
The Beelzebul controversy (3:22-30) is the first extended teaching of the gospel. The scribes come down from Jerusalem — a detail Mark emphasises — and say he is possessed by Beelzebul and casts out demons by the ruler of demons. Jesus calls them and speaks in parables: a kingdom divided cannot stand; a house divided against itself cannot stand. He then offers the image of the strong man whose house can only be plundered by someone who has first bound him. The argument is that the exorcisms presuppose Jesus' authority over the ruler of the demons, not his subservience to him. The blasphemy saying (3:28-30) declares that all sins and blasphemies will be forgiven humans, but whoever blasphemes against the Holy Spirit never has forgiveness — because they said he has an unclean spirit. The scene with his mother and brothers (3:31-35) closes the chapter by redefining kinship as a relationship constituted by doing the will of God.
- Mark 1Chapter 1 is the gospel's argument in miniature.
- Mark 2Chapter 2 introduces the pattern that will run through chapters 2 and 3: five controversy stories in which Jesus acts or allows an action and the scribes or Pharisees object, and Jesus answers with a counter-question or a pronouncement.
- Mark 3Chapter 3 marks the transition from controversy to conspiracy: after the healing of the withered hand on the Sabbath, the Pharisees immediately hold counsel with the Herodians against Jesus, how to destroy him.
- Mark 4Chapter 4 is the only extended teaching section in Mark's gospel before the apocalyptic discourse of chapter 13, and its placement — between the Beelzebul controversy and the series of healings that follows — is deliberate.
- Mark 5Chapter 5 gives three healings in sequence that together define the outer reach of Jesus' authority: the demoniac, the woman, the corpse.
- Mark 6Chapter 6 alternates between contrasting scales of reception.
- Mark 7Chapter 7 is the gospel's sustained engagement with the question of purity, and it opens the ministry decisively to Gentiles.
- Mark 8Chapter 8 is the pivot of the gospel.
- Mark 9Chapter 9 runs from the summit of the transfiguration to the valley of the disciples' argument about who is greatest — from the voice from the cloud naming Jesus as beloved Son to the disciples bringing a possessed child they could not heal.
- Mark 10Chapter 10 is the last chapter before the entry into Jerusalem and covers the final stretch of the road from Galilee south through Judea and Jericho.
- Mark 11Chapter 11 marks the gospel's second movement: after eight chapters of Galilean ministry and two of the journey south, the entry into Jerusalem initiates the events that will end at the cross.
- Mark 12Chapter 12 is the Jerusalem controversy section, the temple equivalent of the Capernaum controversies in chapters 2 and 3.
- Mark 13Chapter 13 is the only extended discourse in Mark's gospel outside the parable chapter, and it is placed at the hinge between the temple controversies and the Passion narrative.
- Mark 14Chapter 14 is the longest chapter of the gospel and the point where the narrative finally slows to match the weight of what is happening.
- Mark 15Chapter 15 is the Passion's centre of gravity.
- Mark 16Chapter 16 is the gospel's ending — or rather, its refusal of a conventional ending.