Mark

Chapters

1. 1
2. 2
3. 3
4. 4
5. 5
6. 6
7. 7
8. 8
9. 9
10. 10
11. 11
12. 12
13. 13
14. 14
15. 15
16. 16

In the maps

• Mark 3:31

  Jesus' mother and 'brethren' come looking for him, and he answers that whoever does God's will is his brother, sister and mother. Pitre cites the passage first as an objection (p 13) and then turns it into evidence (p 105): Mark has already named Mary 'his mother' twice, so when he later writes 'Mary the mother of James and Joses' (15:40) he cannot mean the mother of Jesus. The 'brothers' belong to another Mary.

• Mark 6:3

  The people of Nazareth name James, Joses, Judas and Simon as Jesus' 'brothers.' Pitre's answer to the objection has three parts: 'brother' in Semitic usage is broad; James and Joses are elsewhere the sons of a different Mary (Mark 15:40; Matthew 27:56); and no New Testament text ever calls anyone but Jesus 'the son of Mary.' The named brothers are relatives, and Mary's perpetual virginity stands.

• Mark 6:4

  Right after the crowd names his 'brothers,' Jesus says a prophet is without honour among his own kin. Pitre asks why Jesus would call his 'brothers and sisters' his relatives (p 107) and answers: because, according to Mark, they are his cousins. The verse is the Gospel's own gloss on the word 'brother' in 6:3.

• Mark 7:9

  Jesus condemns those who use a vow to avoid supporting their parents, and cites the Law's death penalty for dishonouring them. Pitre uses this to give the cross scene its full force (p 109): in Jesus' own words, neglecting one's aging parents was a capital offence. Had Mary other sons, entrusting her to a disciple would have been unthinkable; Jesus gives her to John because he is her only son.

• Mark 10:45

  The Son of Man came to give his life as a ransom for many. Pitre opens the chapter on Mary's birth pangs with the paradox this verse states (p 118): Jesus heals and raises the dead, yet his mission is finally not to take away suffering but to take it upon himself, as Isaiah's Servant does. Mary's life follows the same paradox — miracle and sorrow — with no labour pains at Bethlehem and the real pangs at Calvary.

• Mark 13:8

  Jesus calls the coming wars and disasters 'the beginning of birth pangs.' Pitre shows that he is using an established Jewish idea, the 'birth pangs of the Messiah': the tribulations that precede the age of salvation. Once that concept is in view, Mary's travail at the cross fits the pattern — labour that brings a redeemed people to birth.

• Mark 15:40

  At the cross Mark names 'Mary the mother of James the less and of Joses.' Pitre calls this his strongest point: the two men Mark earlier listed first among Jesus' 'brothers' have a mother whom Mark identifies by their names, not as the mother of Jesus — a strange way to introduce the Lord's own mother. The brothers belong to another Mary, and so are kinsmen of Jesus, not sons of the Virgin.

• Mark 16:1

  The mother of James is alive on Easter morning, buying spices for Jesus' body. Pitre uses this detail to close off an alternative theory: the 'brothers' cannot be Joseph's sons by a first wife who died, because their mother is plainly living at the resurrection. She is a different, living Mary, and her sons are Jesus' kin.