Chapter # 10 Paragraph # 5 Study # 2
October 3, 2023
Moss Bluff, Louisiana
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Thesis: The James and John record had its beginnings in Genesis and is a significant part of Mark's record because of the issues involved as far back as that.
Introduction: In our first study of this unit of thought, we considered The King's Example as the One Who serves most of all.
This evening we are going to look into the beginning of Mark's use of James and John.
- I. Round Two: The Kingdom's Requirement Of Servanthood (10:32-45).
- A. Part One: The King's Example; 10:32-34.
- B. Part Two: The Disciples' Complete Absence Of Understanding; 10:35-45.
- 1. The "approach" of James and John to Jesus.
- a. Mark's use of "prosporeuomai" is notable for the fact that this is the only time in the New Testament that this word is found.
- b. This verb is a Present Tense, Indicative Mood verb and "stands out" for its tense in the face of historical narrative. Mark wants his readers to "approach" (mentally) along with James and John as they read his record: something significant is taking place.
- c. This verb is a combination word ("pros" plus "poreuomai"); i.e., it is an intensive use of the verb "poreuomai" which is used in 146 texts of the New Testament, but not used by Mark at all.
- d. Mark's "point" for us as his readers is that what James and John "are doing" is to be considered extraordinary.
- 2 That it is James and John who are directly involved as "the sons of Zebedee" is also to be regarded with some thought.
- a. "Zebedee" is the man whose "sons" worked with him in the fishing trade, and was with them "in the boat mending the nets" when Jesus summoned the sons and took them out of the loop of their father's daily influence (1:19-20).
- 1) This was not necessarily a hardship for Zebedee as the text records that he had "hired servants" to do some of the work. It is, however, also true that Peter was in business with Zebedee (Luke 5:10) and that Jesus' summons of Peter away from the fishing trade might have put a kink in Zebedee's business affairs as he lost his "partner" as well as his "sons" to the "Gospel" and "Jesus" (Mark 10:29).
- 2) However, the link of these with Zebedee is not accidental. We read in Matthew 20:20, in its context, that it was the mother of James and John (the wife of Zebedee) who instigated this "approach" and actually stated the request that is attributed to James and John. She may well have determined to approach Jesus to insist upon her sons' placement in His kingdom because Jesus had pulled James and John out of her husband's business and her (his) "loss" warranted some special consideration.
- 3) Also, "Zebedee" is linked to the Old Testament text (Exodus 30:20) in which Zebulun was named by Leah, upon his birth as the sixth son of Jacob by her, because YAH had "endowed" her with a good gift so that she posited the notion that her husband would "now dwell with me" as a consequence of her having given Jacob "six sons" (2X3). This is the ancient notion that dominated Israel's theology: meritorious gain (i.e "salvation by works").
- 4) It is this "theology" that produces the rage that was likely a family trait and, consequently, the likely reason Jesus called James and John "the sons of thunder" (Mark 3:17): ambitious men who think of themselves as "superior" to others and "deserving" of higher honor than most.
- b. James and John were in Jesus' "inner circle", a placement that may have given them even more reason to think that they were "special".
- c. That Jesus determined to have "Peter, James, and John" as His "inner circle" may well have been rooted in His demonstrated "strength" to succeed over the most powerful of carnal ambitions (a tip of the hat to Mark's overriding thesis regarding the "pride of life" and its intimidating fears).
