Chapter # 11 Paragraph # 2 Study #3
March 5, 2024
Moss Bluff, Louisiana
(472)
1901 ASV
11:18 And the chief priests and the scribes heard it, and sought how they might destroy him: for they feared him, for all the multitude was astonished at his teaching.
11:19 And every evening he went forth out of the city.
11:20 And as they passed by in the morning, they saw the fig tree withered away from the roots.
11:21 And Peter calling to remembrance saith unto him, Rabbi, behold, the fig tree which thou cursedst is withered away.
11:22 And Jesus answering saith unto them, Have faith in God.
11:23 Verily I say unto you, Whosoever shall say unto this mountain, Be thou taken up and cast into the sea; and shall not doubt in his heart, but shall believe that what he saith cometh to pass; he shall have it.
11:24 Therefore I say unto you, All things whatsoever ye pray and ask for, believe that ye receive them, and ye shall have them.
11:25 And whensoever ye stand praying, forgive, if ye have aught against any one; that your Father also who is in heaven may forgive you your trespasses.
11:26 [But if ye do not forgive, neither will your Father who is in heaven forgive your trespasses.]
11:27 And they come again to Jerusalem: and as he was walking in the temple, there come to him the chief priests, and the scribes, and the elders;
11:28 and they said unto him, By what authority doest thou these things? or who gave thee this authority to do these things?
11:29 And Jesus said unto them, I will ask of you one question, and answer me, and I will tell you by what authority I do these things.
11:30 The baptism of John, was it from heaven, or from men? answer me.
11:31 And they reasoned with themselves, saying, If we shall say, From heaven; He will say, Why then did ye not believe him?
11:32 But should we say, From men--they feared the people: for all verily held John to be a prophet.
11:33 And they answered Jesus and say, We know not. And Jesus saith unto them, Neither tell I you by what authority I do these things.
- I. The Structure Of This Section.
- A. Following the chiasm of 9:1-11:11.
- B. The record of "rejection" begins with Jesus' curse upon the fig tree (11:12-26); a record that is structured in terms of "The Curse", "The Reason", and "The Necessity for Faith".
- C. The record of the "interruption" between the segments of Jesus' treatment of the fig tree.
- 1. The reaction by the leadership in Jerusalem and The Temple.
- a. The roots of this reaction: "they heard" (Aorist Active Indicative); and "they were being made fearful" (Imperfect Passive Indicative).
- 1) Their "hearing". Mark used "akouo" in 41 places in his record. It typically generated some kind of response/reaction except when its "function" of generating responses was deliberately blocked (4:9, 12).
- 2) Their "fear": "all the crowd were being made amazed" (Imperfect Passive Indicative).
- a) The verb is "phobeo".
- (1) It is, interestingly, used in 16:8 as a major part of the phrase "ephobounto gar" which ends Mark's record.
- (2) This "fear" is a very major aspect of Mark's entire record as is highlighted by 11:18, 32, and 12:12 and is in the background of Herod's destruction of Witness-John in 6:26.
- b) The reason for the fear is that the crowd was hearing what He was teaching and were being "so impressed" (as a metaphor out of the idea of being squashed) by it that they might have been moved to act in a hostile manner toward their "leaders".
- (1) The verb, "exeplesseto" is used by Mark in 5 places, but the specific form (Third Person Singular Imperfect Passive Indicative) is only found here in all of the New Testament where the cumulative use adds up to 13 texts (with 10 of them saying that it was a response to what Jesus was "teaching").
- (2) The "thing" that the crowd might well have reacted to was the accusation that the leaders had turned The Temple into a cave of robbers.
- b. The particular leaders.
- 1) The chief priests.
- a) The first reference by Mark to these men is in 8:31 where Jesus first told His disciples that "the Son of Man must suffer many things and be rejected by the elders and the chief priests and the scribes, and be killed, and after three days rise again".
- b) In 10:33 He said much the same thing.
- c) The remaining texts in Mark regarding these men (18 of them) are all found in chapters 11-15 with 11 of those 18 being in chapter 14's account of the developing plot to kill Jesus.
- d) These were wicked men who had everything to lose if they lost their influence over the crowd.
- 2) The scribes.
- a) Mark refers to these men in 21 places also (there are 21 references to the chief priests in Mark's record) with 12:38 being of primary importance.
- b) These men were of a class of "scholars" who were responsible for the actual content of doctrine (1:22) that was believed in the synagogues of Israel.
- c. They were seeking (Imperfect Active) how they might destroy (Aorist Subjunctive) Him.
- 1) This "destruction" was first introduced in 3:6.
- 2) It did not, necessarily, mean "physical destruction" as in "killing", but it did mean to nullify His impact upon the people by some method -- either showing Him up as an agent of Satan (3:22), or, if necessary, killing Him.