As he came out of the temple, one of his disciples said to him, ‘Look, Teacher, what large stones and what large buildings!’ 2Then Jesus asked him, ‘Do you see these great buildings? Not one stone will be left here upon another; all will be thrown down.’
3 When he was sitting on the Mount of Olives opposite the temple, Peter, James, John, and Andrew asked him privately, 4‘Tell us, when will this be, and what will be the sign that all these things are about to be accomplished?’5Then Jesus began to say to them, ‘Beware that no one leads you astray. 6Many will come in my name and say, “I am he!” and they will lead many astray. 7When you hear of wars and rumours of wars, do not be alarmed; this must take place, but the end is still to come. 8For nation will rise against nation, and kingdom against kingdom; there will be earthquakes in various places; there will be famines. This is but the beginning of the birth pangs.
Translation: And as he went out of the Temple, one of his disciples said to him, "Teacher, behold what manner of stones and what buildings!" And Jesus said to him, "Do you see these great buildings? There will surely not be left a stone upon a stone that will not be thrown down." As he was sitting on the Mount of Olives over against the Temple, Peter and James and John and Andrew were asking him privately, "Tell us, when will these things be, and will be the sign that all these things are about to be brought to completion?"
But Jesus began to say to them, "See that no one may lead you astray. Many will come on my name saying that 'I am', and they will lead many astray. But when you hear of wars and reports of wars, do not be alarmed. It is necessary to be, but not yet the completion. For nation will be raised upon nation, and kingdom upon kingdom. There will be earthquakes in places. There will be famines. These things are the beginning of birth pangs."
Background and situation: Construction of the Jerusalem Temple was begun in 19 BC. The Temple itself was finished in about two years, though work continued on the structure for another 80. The immense complex covered an area five football fields long and three football fields wide.
The Temple was built by King Herod, known by history as Herod the Great, and known by his many victims as a murdering thug. Though his sins are indeed many, Herod truly was a great builder. The harbor at Caesarea Maritima was state-of-the-art in its day, and the Temple in Jerusalem was thought by many to be the most beautiful building in the world.
The exterior was covered in white marble and gold. One can only imagine the reaction of pilgrims upon first seeing it, especially if they arrived in the morning with the early light striking the front facade. This shining structure would have seemed a fitting place indeed for God's presence on earth.
Many Jews had mixed reactions to the Temple. On the one hand, it held prominent psychological space as the center of their religion and their national life. On the other hand, it was rife with corruption and collaboration with Rome.
At least some of Jesus' massive support among the common people can be attributed to his confrontational stance toward the Temple. (When he is teaching in the Temple, working over the scribes and Temple bureaucrats, Mark says that "the large crowd was listening to him with delight." 12:37)
The Roman-Jewish War began in AD 66 though it had been brewing for some time. Open warfare had been preceded by decades of earlier uprisings. At the death of Herod in 4 BC, for example, there was anti-Herodian and anti-Roman violence all through the region. The Romans had to bring three Legions down from Syria to suppress the revolt.
Uprisings throughout Syria and Galilee also followed the announcement of the census of Quirinius in AD 6. Prior to Jesus, the most widely known Galilean would have been Judas of Galilee who led the resistance to Quirinius' census.
In AD 66, fighting first broke out in Caesarea. In the beginning, the tide of war seemed to favor the rebels against Rome and they had several early successes. In Jerusalem, a provisional government was set up, but never achieved any real stability because of contention between the rebels and zealots on the one side and the clerics and remnants of the aristocracy on the other.
After the Roman seige of Jerusalem failed in the fall of AD 66, the clerics recaptured control of the provisional government, but a year later, the rebels were able to overthrow the priests.
Two specific actions of the rebels say much about their motivation. One of the first things the rebels did was burn the Temple archives which contained the records of debt. (Foreclosure had rendered many citizens destitute. It's not for nothing that Jesus spoke about debt and talked of being hauled before magistrates.) The rebels also overthrew the high priest and elected a commoner in his place. The high priest and his retinue were seen as blatant collaborators with Rome.
Fighting continued between the various factions inside the city even while Rome was preparing for the final seige. The priests forced the rebels back to the Temple precincts, but an influx of rebels from Idumea turned the tide in favor of the rebels.
By late AD 68 and all through AD 69, the rebels maintained an often brutal control inside Jerusalem which was accompanied by increasing religious fanaticism. The rebels expected the intervention of God and the arrival of the Messiah. In the meantime, they expected all Jews to fight with them against Rome.
This apocalyptic fanaticism was given a boost when the Emperor Nero was removed from office in AD 68. General Vespasian, who was conducting the military campaign against the rebels, broke off his attack and returned to Rome in response to the political crisis and the subsequent struggle for succession. Indeed, AD 69 became known as the "year of the four emperors." Eventually, Vespasian himself emerged as emperor.
The rebels considered this Roman political crisis to be an intervention from God. Their enemy was in disarray! God really was on their side! Victory was near! This is reminiscent of Adolf Hitler hearing the news that Franklin Roosevelt had died. For at least awhile, he believed this to be the stroke from Providence that would enable him to snatch victory from certain defeat.
Hitler was delusional, and so were the Jerusalem rebels. Vespasian's son, Titus, returned to Israel with 60,000 Roman soldiers and began anew the seige of Jerusalem. The Romans eventually broke through the Jerusalem defenses and the bloodbath that followed was horrific. Thousands upon thousands were slain. During the course of this bloody melee, the Temple caught on fire and was destroyed.
Scholars continue to debate whether or not Mark was written before the destruction of the Temple or just after. Ched Myers, for example, takes a line from this week's lection to argue that Mark was written just prior. When Jesus says that "not one stone will be left on another," Myers argues that the Temple was not destroyed by being torn down, but from being burned down. On the other hand, the Temple was eventually torn down by people scavenging for remains of gold and whatever other items of value they could find.
In any case, whether before or after, Mark was written in a highly contentious and portentious atmosphere, one filled with violence and threat. It is just such an environment that tends to generate apocalyptic literature such as that found in Mark 13.
Apocalyptic is literature for tough times. It flourished in the period from 300 BC to 100 AD. (The apocalyptic book of Daniel was written toward the beginning of this period, the apocalyptic book of Revelation at the end.)
These years were some of the most difficult in Hebrew history. They began with the conquest of Alexander the Great, which initiated a "culture war" between Hellenism and established Hebrew orthodoxy, and ended with two wars against Rome, the first and second Roman Jewish Wars, AD 66-70 and AD 135-138, both of which the Jews lost.
Throughout the first century, the economic situation of the native population kept deteriorating. More and more people were forced off their land and into poverty. The totality of the tax burden approached 50% of peoples' already meager incomes. Any resistance was met with brutality. Sometimes, roads were lined with people hanging on crosses.
"All things brought to completion together": In our lection this week, Jesus and the disciples leave the Temple for the last time. As they do, an unnamed disciple exclaims on the magnificence of the Temple. Jesus responds that there "will surely not be left a stone upon a stone" and that the great Temple will be "thrown down."
Then we have a rather abrupt change of venue. Jesus and the disciples (13:3) are sitting "over against"--kateanti--the Temple on the Mount of Olives. The Mount of Olives had apocalyptic associations. It is the place from which Yahweh would fight against the enemies of Israel. (Zechariah 12:4: "On that day, (Yahweh's) feet will stand on the Mount of Olives.")
The first-called disciples--Peter, James, John, and Andrew--then ask an interesting question: "Tell us, when will these things be, and will be the sign that all these things are about to be brought to completion?"
Note the use of tauta--"these things." They first want to know when "these things" will be, meaning the destruction of the Temple. They then want to know what will be the sign that "all these things" have been done, meaning, as Werner Kelber says, "the time of fulfillment, the arrival of the Kingdom."
Kelber's interpretation is supported by Mark's use of the Greek phrase sunteleisthai panta, which King James translates as "fulfilled" and the New Revised Standard translates as "accomplished." Another translation of this rich phrase might be: "all things brought to completion together." (The base word is telos, which means the "end, goal, completion, consummation," to which is appended the prefix sun, which means "together," to which is added panta, which means "all.") This kind of sweeping, even cosmic, assertion can only refer to the work of Christ.
But Jesus began to say to them, "See that no one may lead you astray. Many will come on my name saying that 'I am', and they will lead many astray. But when you hear of wars and reports of wars, do not be alarmed. It is necessary to be, but not yet the completion. For nation will be raised upon nation, and kingdom upon kingdom. There will be earthquakes in places. There will be famines. These things are the beginning of birth pangs."
Jesus had issued similar warnings in the past. "Beware the yeast of the pharisees and yeast of Herod," he had said in 8:15.
Here, he issues a similar warning. There will be those who might even dare to speak in his name and proclaim themselves the Messiah. NRSV has "saying, 'I am he,'" but the phrasing is actually "saying that 'I am.'" Mark uses ego eimi here, which is the Greek form of the name of God, YHWH.
Place Jesus' statement in the context of the final days of the Roman-Jewish War. In AD 69, the atmosphere of Jerusalem was thick with religious ardor. Many were proclaiming the Messiah was near. They may even have proclaimed themselves the Messiah.
Indeed, see a similar warning in 13:21-22: "And if anyone says to you at that time, 'Look! Here is the Messiah!' or 'Look! There he is!'—do not believe it. False messiahs and false prophets will appear and produce signs and omens, to lead astray, if possible, the elect." Messianic fervor was in the air--indeed, it was suffocating.
"Wars and reports of wars" is a condition that is true at virtually any point in history, including the present. In an apocalyptic situation, these rumors and uncertainties would be magnified. No doubt rumors of all kinds circulated through the region. Why was Vespasian halting the campaign really? Would the Romans return?
The conflict of "nation raised upon nation and kingdom upon kingdom" could, again, refer to any time, but also spoke to the particular anxieties of the first century. Would war break out between Rome and Parthia, for example? Rome had had repeated conflict with the great Parthian Empire ever since Crassus had invaded in 53 BC and promptly got himself destroyed. The reason Roman Legions were available to put down revolts in Israel in the first place was because Rome had Legions in Syria as a brake on Parthia.
Wars, famines, earthquakes are typical fare in apocalyptic. They are symbols of, in Paul Tillich's phrase, "the shaking of the foundations," the discombobulation of all that which seems solid and strong. Against these uncertainties and anxieties, Jesus tells his followers not to be "alarmed"--me throeisthe.
These portentous events are all "necessary"--dei, a word often used in apocalyptic--but they are not yet the telos, the grand and glorious consummation. They are the "birth pangs" which precede the emergence of something entirely new. Paul will use the same word when he talks of the "whole creation...groaning in labor pains until now" (Rm 8:22).
Apocalyptic texts are not often associated with being "good news," although that, indeed, is often what they truly are. The standard theme of apocalyptic is a recognition of fundamental truth, i.e., that things are terrible, but nevertheless God is going to intervene and make things right.
For Mark, God is indeed intervening, but not in the form of fanatical and violent resistance to Rome. God has come as one who suffers, one who reigns from a cross, which great act draws all things together to the goal, the eschaton, the new world of God.
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