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(More customer reviews)This is a book review I wrote for a class over this book. I really enjoyed reading it and this book definitely makes you reexamine your understanding of Jesus and the first century.
Horsley demands a new investigation in the Markan text is required due to the abuse of "modern literary analysis and Christian theological concepts." Mark has suffered from the hands of these dissectors as they savage their way through chunks of verses, establishing their own individualistic agendas, all while ignoring the oral, social, and political concepts of Markan text. Mark must be placed within its correct context of a story full of conflicts describing the historical interaction of the Galilean and Judean villages under Roman imperial rule. The dominant plot of Mark centers on Jesus "proclaiming the kingdom of God and manifesting God's renewing power for the people in exorcisms and healings." Secondly, there is a mandate for the disciples of Jesus to take this message and apply it to both the political and economic life of the village.
The first chapter sets forth the apologetic of understanding Mark as a whole story. The Western reader, diagnosed with individualistic interpretation and plagued by mini-sermons that chop up and allegorize selected chapters, is urged to gain a historical understanding of the situations of the Markan text. Mark is a story that takes place in the villages of a third world country that details the struggle between the ruling elite and those being dominated. All the subplots within the text point toward the general agenda of a renewal movement amongst Israel's villages under the rule of Jerusalem leaders and Roman imperialism.
In the next chapter, Horsley continues his thesis that the Markan text represents a story regarding the renewal movement of people subjected by the Roman Empire. In order to understand this rejuvenation, an investigation into the submerged history of the persons during the Roman occupation is needed. The historical perspective of history is usually viewed through the eyes of the winners and those in power. However, Mark, when compared to its historical and social elements, must be viewed as history from the bottom up. The village life, which in some form was autonomous through community rule, faced heavy taxation from Herod. The High Priests were granted authority only by Herodians rule and collaboration with the Empire. Thus, the priests poisoned the message of God with the venom of the Empire. Jesus, rejecting this form of empiric power, began his kingdom movement through village to village movement consisting of healings and exorcisms.
The third chapter discusses the oral nature of the Markan text. It primarily sets the stage of literacy in the developing Galilean villages. Peasant workers, who were illiterate and whose villages most likely could not afford the expensive parchment scrolls, relied on oral tradition for their education of the Torah and teachings of Jesus. Horsley continues to echo his theme of Jesus, the authority challenger, by showing how he attacked the Pharisaic customs that were traditions over the command of God. Consequently, the village people were enslaved to these customs and did not have the literate means to rebel against them. The oral customs placed the villagers into the chains of religious control, allowing the literate to dominate over the marginalized. Jesus was not interested in abolishing Judaism or the Law, but he was engrossed in bringing an end to the distorted image of God that rests with those in power.
Horsley continues the fourth chapter discussing the role of the disciples within the Markan text. Modern interpretation has often equated Mark with discipleship, with which Horsley strongly disagrees with. The disciples' narratives are merely subplots of the major plot (renewal of Israel). Mark often portrays the disciples in the negative. They seek individual power, fall asleep while Jesus is praying, one denies Jesus, another betrays him, they do not understand his message, and at times they have hardened hearts. The disciples often provide counter examples to the egalitarian kingdom that Jesus is attempting to establish.
The fifth chapter elaborates Horsley's thesis, starting from the climax of the Markan text and working backwards noting common thematic discussion. The dominant plot resides in Jesus' renewal of Israel as a Mosaic/Elijah like character. The Pharisees and Rome crucified Jesus for his role in challenging their authority through non-aggression. Jesus sought the liberation and revival of the village movement.
The sixth chapter inspects the role of Roman rule within the Markan Gospel. The reader is reminded of the historical oppression of the Hebrew village people under Roman rule. Once again, modern theologians have attempted to give Mark an apocryphal connotation, while Horsley states that Mark is speaking (literally!) about the occupation status of Hebrew people under Roman rule. The author's favorite story (which is found repetitiously throughout his book) is that of Legion, whose name means a division of the Roman army. This story, loaded with military words (herd, dismissed, charge, etc...) describes a scenario in which Roman legions are being destroyed and the people of God are being freed.
In the seventh chapter, Horsley continues to dissect the fallacies of modern interpreters in their understanding of the Pharisees. The Pharisees, who are often mistakenly equated with common Judaism, only really represented a fraction of Hebrew thought. Great division existed between the Qumram communities (who saw the Pharisees as liberal in their interpretation) and common Galilean village's beliefs (who lacked literacy and mostly relied on common sayings of the Hebrew Bible). Thus, the Pharisees only represented the temple-state relationship in Jerusalem. Jesus rejected this model preferring the true conservativeness of the Galilean villages, in which doing good is favored over rigorous interpretation.
The eight chapter details the covenant community that Jesus established amongst the villages, noting both the economic and religion factions of these rural communities. The Galilean villages, due to Roman expansion, were already under stressful forced labor and heavy taxation. The village people also had to pay high interest rates to lenders, often selling their land and sharecropping in return. In addition to that, they also were being taxed at the temple through the practice of korban. Thus, the normal village person was being oppressed by both the religious institutions and the state. Jesus' challenged this current situation by calling a renewal to village communities amongst the laboring peasants. He stated that the highest commandments of the Lord were both the Shema and loving one's neighbor. This teaching would counter the Pharisaic notion, that the temple (and thus its stiff expenses) was integral to a pious life.
Next, the role of females within Markan scholarship is elaborated upon by Horsley in the ninth chapter. The role of women in the Markan text has often been overlooked mostly due to male dominance in Western academia. Only through the rise of female scholarship have the exegesis of female characters within the text started to be observed. As noted in chapter four about the disciple's negative examples, women in Mark's Gospel play a positive role in responses to Jesus' message. The examples of the hemorrhaging women, the daughter of the assembly reader, the Syrophoenician woman, and the woman who anoints Jesus prior to his death all portray positive examples of women who respond positively to Jesus' message. Furthermore, these examples transcended a male dominance cultural in which a bleeding woman rights her way through the crowd and the Syro-woman responds to Jesus' riddle and helps to vindicate the Gentile people.
The tenth and final chapter of Horsley's book deals with messianic and prophetic "scripts" (popular tradition of the Israeli people). It helps the reader understand Jesus as a character who had both Mosiac (wilderness feedings) and Elijah (raised child from the dead) like qualities. Jesus established the renewal in communities through this prophetic nature. This section also brings the reader awareness to other messianic risings during the same period of time of Jesus.
Overall, Horsley's book demands a new, authentic look at the Gospel of Mark that will challenge those who read it. He gives overwhelming evidence for his thesis, that Jesus led a renewal movement amongst peasant villages and against the powers that be. Through both his socio-historical and exegetical analysis, a fresh picture of Jesus, the revolutionary prophet, is painted into the readers mind. His book challenges the reader to abandon their preconceived Westernized notions of Mark and enter into the story of Jesus, the popular leader amongst third world peasant villages.
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Horsley provides a sure guide for first time readers of Mark's Gospel and, at the same time, induces those more familiar with Mark to take a fresh look at this important Gospel text. From tracing the plot and sub-plot in Mark to inquiring how the Gospel was first heard (as oral performance), Horsley tackles old questions from new angles. He consistently and judiciously uses sociological categories and method to help readers see how Jesus challenged the dominant order of his day.
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