Chapter # 11 Paragraph # 2 Study #5
March 19, 2024
Moss Bluff, Louisiana
(476)
1901 ASV
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.
- D. The challenge by the offended "leaders" of Jesus regarding His "authority" to act as He had the previous day.
- 1. The leadership of the nation is represented by the three sets of men.
- 2. They are likely shocked to see Him in the temple again, so soon.
- 3. The nature of the three groups...
- a. The chief priests...
- 1) These were those who, in 11:18, wished to find a way to destroy Him. They were the primary "leaders" of the Sanhedrin and Sadducees by "theological leaning".
- 2) In 8:31 this same "grouping" of the leaders is revealed by Jesus to be those who were going to kill Him; this is His first time to tell them this and it is immediately after Peter's declaration that He was the Christ, a concept that Jesus told His disciples to not mention at this point.
- 3) In 10:33 the same point is made by Jesus but in this place there is no mention of the "elders".
- b. The scribes are they who were first "recognized as incompetent" in 1:22 and, by way of contrast to Jesus, suffered the most humiliation.
- 1) It was this group who made the biggest "deal" about Jesus' lack of conformity to "The Scriptures" because they were the ones who came up with the "inspired interpretations" (2:6; 7:1-5).
- 2) In 3:22 it was this group who announced the "official positions" of those in control in Jerusalem and who had to "explain" how Jesus could contradict Nicodemus of John 3:1 notoriety.
- c. The "elders" were the ones who gave "gravity" to the decisions of doctrine and practice and were the roots of the "traditions" (7:3).
- 1) In 5 of the 7 references by Mark to these "elders", they are willingly in support of those who wanted to kill Jesus.
- 2) They "filled out" the leadership in the decision to put Him to death.
- 4. Their "issue" was "authority"
- a. This began as early as 1:22-27, and continued to be "the" issue as 3:15 and 6:7 show.
- b. It really is "the" issue; men are required to have an "authority" to appeal to for their beliefs, choices, and actions, but it is a mixture of external and internal "authorities".
- E. The challenge by Jesus of these "leaders".
- 1. Jesus forced this issue by putting them between a rock and a hard place so that the "truth" of their "so called" interest in "authority" would come to light.
- 2. The record tells us that these leaders were not interested in divine "authority"; they only sought to retain their own.
