 |
Joseph Francis Alward January 20, 2001
Dennis R. MacDonald argues in his book, The Homeric Epics and the Gospel of Mark,1 that Mark may have used some elements of tales in Homer’s Iliad and Odyssey to create fictional stories about Jesus and his disciples. I will describe here what I believe is MacDonald’s failed attempt to show that many of the elements of Mark’s stories of Jesus multiplying the loaves and fishes were borrowed in part from Homer’s narration of two feasts in Odyssey.2
|
E-Mail Alward Home Page Odyssey Online
MacDonald suggests that Mark used material from both
the Old Testament and Homer’s fictional tale of twin feasts in Odyssey
to create the two stories of the miraculous multiplication of the loaves and
fishes. I believe this article will show that MacDonald is only half
right: Old Testament stories were, indeed,
used to create Mark’s stories, but there seems to be no dependence on
Homer. I will present Mark’s stories
and show which parts of them connect directly to the Old Testament, and then
give Homer’s accounts of the two fictional feasts and rebut MacDonald’s
arguments of dependence.
|
Mark’s Loaves and Fishes Stories |
The key elements to watch for in the Mark passages below are references
to fishers of men, sheep without a shepherd, bread fed in a desert place, leftovers,
multiplication of loaves, lying (reclining) in green pastures, organization in
fifties and hundreds, eating to satisfaction, walking on water, and hearts
being hardened. All of these elements
will be seen below to have been lifted by Mark straight out of the Old
Testament for the purpose of showing that Jesus fished for men to constitute a
new exodus and treated them in a manner which mirrored the handling of the
people of the old exodus by holy men and the Lord, and that his disciples were
about as foolish and heart-hardened as Pharaoh. I will present the fishers of
men story, the first feeding story, the walking on water story, and then
describe their Old Testament origins.
Recruiting Fishers of Men
As
Jesus walked beside the Sea of Galilee, he saw Simon and his brother Andrew
casting a net into the lake, for they were fishermen. "Come, follow
me," Jesus said, "and I will make you fishers of men." At once
they left their nets and followed him. When he had gone a little farther, he
saw James son of Zebedee and his brother John in a boat, preparing their nets.
Without delay he called them, and they left their father Zebedee in the boat
with the hired men and followed him. (Mark 1:16-20)
Sailing Off to Feed the Fish
So they went away by themselves in a boat to a solitary place. But many who saw
them leaving recognized them and ran on foot from all the towns and got there
ahead of them. When Jesus landed and saw a large crowd, he had compassion on
them, because they were like sheep without a shepherd. So he began teaching
them many things. By this time it was late in the day, so his disciples came to
him. "This is a remote place," they said, "and it's already very
late. Send the people away so they can go to the surrounding countryside and
villages and buy themselves something to eat." But he answered, "You
give them something to eat." They said to him, "That would take eight
months of a man's wages! Are we to go and spend that much on bread and give it
to them to eat?" "How many
loaves do you have?" he asked. "Go and see." When they found
out, they said, "Five--and two fish." Then Jesus directed them to
have all the people sit down (literally, recline; Greek: anaklino) in
groups on the green grass. So they sat down in groups of hundreds and fifties.
Taking the five loaves and the two fish and looking up to heaven, he gave thanks
and broke the loaves. Then he gave them to his disciples to set before the
people. He also divided the two fish among them all. They all ate and were
satisfied, and the disciples picked up twelve basketfuls (kophinos) of
broken pieces of bread and fish. The number of the men who had eaten was five
thousand. (Mark 6: 32-44)
Walking on Water
Immediately
Jesus made his disciples get into the boat and go on ahead of him to Bethsaida,
while he dismissed the crowd. After leaving them, he went up on a mountainside
to pray. When evening came, the boat was in the middle of the lake, and he was
alone on land. He saw the disciples straining at the oars, because the wind was
against them. About the fourth watch of the night he went out to them, walking
on the lake. He was about to pass by them, but when they saw him walking on the
lake, they thought he was a ghost. They cried out, because they all saw him and
were terrified. Immediately he spoke to them and said, "Take courage! It
is I. Don't be afraid." Then he climbed into the boat with them, and the
wind died down. They were completely amazed, for they had not understood about
the loaves; their hearts were hardened. (Mark 6:45-52)
|
Old Testament Origin of
Mark’s First Feeding Story |
In this section I will show that Mark put Jesus and his disciples in a boat,
had Jesus walk on water, and multiply loaves and fishes twice, all for the
purpose of showing his audience that Jesus was at least as much a man of God as
was the Old Testament holy men Elisha and Moses, and perhaps was even the son
of God. At the same time, I will lay
the foundation for completely rejecting not just most of the claims by
MacDonald of intended parallels in Mark’s feeding stories to the twin feasts in
Homer, but all of his claims
Fishers of Men
The Jeremiah and 1 Kings passages below are apparently the foundation for
Mark’s story about Jesus recruiting disciples to be “fishers of men.”
However, the days are coming," declares the LORD, "when men will no
longer say, `As surely as the LORD lives, who brought the Israelites up out of
Egypt’… I will restore them to the land I gave their forefathers. "But now
I will send for many fishermen," declares the LORD, "and they will
catch them. ….I will teach them-- this time I will teach them my power and
might. Then they will know that my name is the LORD. (Jeremiah 16:14-16)
So Elijah went from there and found Elisha son of Shaphat. He was plowing with
twelve yoke of oxen, and he himself was driving the twelfth pair. Elijah went
up to him and threw his cloak around him. Elisha then left his oxen and ran after
Elijah. "Let me kiss my father and mother good-by," he said…Then he
set out to follow Elijah and became his attendant. (1 Kings 19:19-21)
Mark wanted Jesus to emulate
the Lord, who speaks of the “fishermen” who would gather up those straying
Israelites the Lord brought out of Egypt.
Moses was one of those fishermen; he led the chosen people in the old
exodus. Mark wanted to make sure that
his readers would understand that Jesus was the leader of a new exodus,
a fisherman who would be the new and better Moses, so he has Jesus recruit
fishers of men just like the ones spoken of in Jeremiah 16. Mark also made it clear that Jesus could get
men to leave their family to follow him, just as Elijah could. Here are the two stories in Mark which
parallel the ones in Jeremiah and 1 Kings:
As Jesus walked beside the Sea of Galilee, he saw Simon and his brother Andrew
casting a net into the lake, for they were fishermen. "Come, follow
me," Jesus said, "and I will make you fishers of men." At once they
left their nets and followed him. When he had gone a little farther, he saw
James son of Zebedee and his brother John in a boat, preparing their nets.
Without delay he called them, and they left their father Zebedee in the boat
with the hired men and followed him. (Mark 1:16-20)
Water Walking and Stilling the Waters
Mark doesn’t have Jesus walk on water until after he feeds the multitude on the sea shore--which will be described later; I mention the water-walking here following the fishers of men story to show that Mark used sailing as a literary device to allow Jesus metaphorically to calm still waters just as the Lord did, and to fish for recruits on the Sea of Galilee and later walk on its waters. Mark’s Old Testament sources for the calming of the sea and the water-walking episodes are given below:
He alone stretches out the
heavens and treads on the waves of the sea. (Job 9:8)
You answer us with awesome deeds of righteousness, O God our Savior, the hope
of all the ends of the earth and of the farthest seas, …who stilled the roaring
of the seas, the roaring of their waves…
(Psalm 65:5-7)
You rule over the surging
sea; when its waves mount up, you still them (Psalm 89:9)
Then they cried out to the LORD in their trouble, and he brought them out of
their distress. He stilled the storm to a whisper; the waves of the sea were
hushed. They were glad when it grew calm…
(Psalm 107:28-30)
But now, this is what the LORD says--he who created you, O Jacob, he who formed you, O Israel: "Fear not, for I have redeemed you; I have summoned you by name; you are mine. When you pass through the waters, I will be with you; and when you pass through the rivers, they will not sweep over you. (Isaiah 43:1-2)
In the passage below, Mark has Jesus bring the disciples out of their distress
by stilling the storm to a whisper, just as the Lord did, then he has him walk on water, just as the
Lord described.
A furious squall came up, and the waves broke over the boat, so that it was
nearly swamped. Jesus was in the stern, sleeping on a cushion. The disciples
woke him and said to him, "Teacher, don't you care if we drown?" He
got up, rebuked the wind and said to the waves, "Quiet! Be still!"
Then the wind died down and it was completely calm. He said to his disciples,
"Why are you so afraid? Do you still have no faith?" They were
terrified and asked each other, "Who is this? Even the wind and the waves
obey him!" (Mark 4:37-31
He saw the disciples straining at the oars, because the wind was against them…he went out to them, walking on the lake. He was about to pass by them, but when they saw him walking on the lake, they thought he was a ghost…."Take courage! It is I. Don't be afraid." Then he climbed into the boat with them, and the wind died down. (Mark 6:45-51)
As I will show below, Mark's story of Jesus' miraculous multiplication of the
loaves and fishes is patterned mainly after the one in the Old Testament about Elisha,
but also uses important imagery from other Old Testament sources. The main difference between the Kings story
about Elisha and Mark's story about Jesus is that Jesus is now on a boat, but
only because Mark decided to put him there to let him still the waves, walk on
water, and be a fisher of men, things spoken of about the Lord in the Old
Testament. In the analysis below I will
describe the Old Testament antecedents of Mark's story of Jesus' miraculous
multiplication of the loaves and fishes, beginning first with the source of the
“sheep without a shepherd” reference.
Sheep Without a Shepherd
Mark
knew the verse below told the Hebrews that their savior would be a man
appointed by the Lord to be the shepherd of the lost sheep of Israel, so he
made sure he used the words “sheep without a shepherd" in association with
Jesus:
May the
LORD…appoint a man over this community to go out and come in before them, one
who will lead them out and bring them in, so the LORD's people will not be like
sheep without a shepherd. (Numbers 27:16-17)
When Jesus landed and saw a large crowd, he had compassion on them, because
they were like sheep without a shepherd. So he began teaching them many things
(Mark 6:34)
Feeding Bread in the Desert
Mark couldn’t very well place Jesus' people of
the new exodus back in the desert and have Jesus give them bread to eat, just
Moses did with the old exodus people, so he did the next best thing: He put them in a “desert place,” and then
had Jesus give them bread to eat, expecting that his audience would compare
Jesus to Moses. This place was not a
desert, but it had the most important attribute of a desert for the purpose of
this story: It was an isolated place
virtually barren of food. Mark knew his
readers would be reminded of the desert place where the manna from heaven was
sent to the people of Moses’ exodus, and compare Jesus favorably with him.
Moses
said, "This is what the LORD has commanded: `Take an omer of manna and
keep it for the generations to come, so they can see the bread I gave you to
eat in the desert when I brought you out of Egypt.’” (Exodus 16:32)
And they departed into a desert place by ship privately (Mark 6:32 KJV)… Then
he gave [the loaves of bread] to set before the people (Mark 6:41).
Miraculous Multiplication of the
Loaves
In the Old Testament
there’s a story about a holy man miraculously feeding a hundred men with just a
little bit of bread. The doubtful
servant is the prefigurement of Jesus’ disciples who will likewise doubt that
many people can be fed with so little bread.
A man came
from Baal Shalishah, bringing the man of God twenty loaves of barley
…"Give it to the people to eat," Elisha said. "How can I set
this before a hundred men?" his servant asked. But Elisha answered,
"Give it to the people to eat. For this is what the LORD says: `They will
eat and have some left over.'" Then he set it before them, and they ate
and had some left over, according to the word of the LORD. (2 Kings 4:42-44)
Mark
obviously had in mind the story above about “the man of God” who ordered his
incredulous servant to feed many men with just a little bread. In that story,
Elisha tells his servant, "Give it to the people to eat";
miraculously they were all fed. Jesus
had to be at least as great a "man of God" as Elisha was, or else the
people would be less likely to accept him as their savior, so Mark had Jesus
say the same thing to his disbelieving disciples, with the same result.
Furthermore, just as the Kings author only told us how many men Elisha
fed and that there were leftovers, so Mark likewise only told us how many men
were fed by Jesus, and that there were leftovers. If Elisha thought it was important only to mention men, then to
complete the comparison to God’s holy man Elisha as strong as possible, Mark
mentions only men, too. The relevant
portion of Mark’s story is repeated below, followed by a table which summarizes
the comparisons between the Old and New Testament feeding stories.
[Jesus
said] “You give them something to eat.” They said to him, "… Are we to go
and spend that much on bread and give it to them to eat?" "How many
loaves do you have?" he asked.…they said, "Five--and two fish."
Then Jesus directed them to have all the people sit down (literally, recline;
Greek: anaklino) in groups on the green grass. So they sat down in
groups of hundreds and fifties. Taking the five loaves and the two fish and
looking up to heaven, he gave thanks and broke the loaves. Then he gave them to
his disciples to set before the people. He also divided the two fish among them
all. They all ate and were satisfied, and the disciples picked up twelve
basketfuls (kophinos) of broken pieces of bread and fish. The number of
the men who had eaten was five thousand. (Mark 6:37-44)
|
Elisha’s Miracle Feeding Story |
Jesus’ Miracle Feeding Story |
|
“Twenty loaves” |
“Five loaves” |
|
“How can I set this before a hundred men?" |
“Are we to go and spend that much on bread and give it to them to eat?“ |
|
"Give it to the people to eat.” |
“he gave them to his disciples to set before the people” |
|
“and they ate and had some left over” |
“They all ate [and there were leftovers]” |
|
Only the number of men fed was given (100) |
Only the number of men fed is given (5,000) |
Elisha
isn't the only basis of Mark's loaves and fishes story. During the exodus, Moses' people complained
about having to eat manna and recalled the meat they ate in Egypt. Moses asks the Lord, " Where can I get
meat for all these people?", and the Lord responded by covering the land
three feet deep in quail. (Numbers 11:13-21)
When Mark has Jesus miraculously multiplying in the loaves in response
to this same question from his disciples (in the second feeding story, coming
up), "But where in this remote place can anyone get enough bread to feed
them?", (Mark 8:4), he is showing us that Jesus is better than Moses, and
perhaps as good as the Lord.
Lie Down in Green Pastures in Fifties and Hundreds and
Fifties
Mark wanted his readers to think that Jesus was Moses and the Lord all wrapped
up into one. Just as the Lord would
have his chosen people lie down in rich pastures and Moses would arrange his
people of the old exodus in fifties and hundreds, so would Jesus, the leader of
the people of the new exodus, have his people lie down in green pastures in
groups of fifties and hundreds.
Green Pastures
I myself
will search for my sheep and look after them. As a shepherd looks after his
scattered flock when he is with them, so will I look after my sheep. I will
rescue them from all the places where they were scattered on a day of clouds
and darkness. I will bring them out from the nations and gather them from the
countries, and I will bring them into their own land. I will pasture them on
the mountains of Israel, in the ravines and in all the settlements in the land.
I will tend them in a good pasture, and the mountain heights of Israel will be
their grazing land. There they will lie down in good grazing land, and there
they will feed in a rich pasture on the mountains of Israel. I myself will tend
my sheep and have them lie down, declares the Sovereign LORD. (Ezekiel
34:14-15)
Fifties and Hundreds
But select capable men from all the people--men who fear God, trustworthy men
who hate dishonest gain--and appoint them as officials over thousands,
hundreds, fifties and tens….He chose capable men from all Israel and made them
leaders of the people, officials over thousands, hundreds, fifties and
tens.
(Exodus 18:21-25)
Jesus directed them to have all the people sit [literally, lie down; Greek: anaklino] down in groups on the green grass. So they sat down in groups of hundreds and fifties. (Mark 6:39-40)
Eating to Satisfaction
Mark strengthens Jesus’ connection to the Lord by having Jesus feed the five thousand on the green grass until they are “satisfied,” just as the Lord made sure his chosen people ate and were satisfied on the pasture of Israel:
The poor will eat and be satisfied; they who seek the LORD will praise him (Psalm 22:25-27) I will bring Israel back to his own pasture and he will graze on Carmel and Bashan; his appetite will be satisfied on the hills of Ephraim and Gilead (Jeremiah 50:18-20)
[After Jesus had the people of the new exodus lie down in green pastures, he
had his disciples distribute the loaves and fishes]The people ate and were
satisfied (Mark 6:42)
Heart-Hardened Men Didn’t Understand God
The
Exodus author uses “hardened heart” in the passage below to refer to Pharaoh’s
unwillingness or inability to understand that Moses is like God, or has power
given to him by God. Readers will
recall the foolish Pharaoh couldn’t understand the power of god working through
Aaron and Moses.3 whose
“heart was hardened” even after repeatedly witnessing miracle after miracle
from the men of God.
Pharaoh
Then the LORD said to Moses, "See, I have made you like God to Pharaoh,
and your brother Aaron will be your prophet. You are to say everything I
command you, and your brother Aaron is to tell Pharaoh to let the Israelites go
out of his country. But I will harden Pharaoh's heart, and though I multiply my
miraculous signs and wonders in Egypt, he will not listen to you. (Exodus
7:1-3)
MacDonald, in his comparison of the uncomprehending disciples to the
“uncomprehending companions” of Odysseus,4
apparently unintentionally points to a more plausible reason for Mark’s
negative portrayal of his disciples:
Mark wanted his readers to compare Jesus to Moses and the Lord, and the
foolish, unbelieving disciples to the foolish, unbelieving Pharaoh. Mark was expecting his readers to note the
folly of the disciples when he had the disciples fail to understand that Jesus
had god-like powers even after they had seen him work four miracles in their
presence: Jesus cured the Gerasene
demoniac5 and the
hemorrhaging young girl,6
multiplied the loaves and fishes, and walked on water. The message to his readers was obvious:
Don’t you, too, be as stupid as the Pharaoh, who even after seeing God
work several miracles, he still failed to understand God’s power.
Disciples
He was
about to pass by them, but when they saw him walking on the lake, they thought
he was a ghost. They cried out, because they all saw him and were terrified.
Immediately he spoke to them and said, "Take courage! It is I. Don't be
afraid." Then he climbed into the boat with them, and the wind died down.
They were completely amazed, for they had not understood about the loaves;
their hearts were hardened.
(Mark
6:30-52)
In a little while we will see Mark will return to this theme of the disciples'
Pharaoh-like stupidity and to a passage in Isaiah when he has Jesus express his
disappointment with his disciples after they fail to understand his power even
after a second multiplication of the loaves.
|
The Second Feeding Story |
After
walking on water to his disciples in the boat, Jesus and his men traveled
overland about the country healing people and arguing with Pharisees before returning
once again to the sea shore. (Mark 6:53-8:1) It's at this point where Jesus
repeats a feeding of the loaves miracle to an almost identical number of
people. This story is remarkable in
that it adds virtually nothing to our understanding of Jesus, other than the
fact that his disciples become twice as stupid as they were just after the
first feeding because their hearts are too hardened to understand that Jesus is
the son of God even after another miraculous feeding. Why are there two stories?
At first,
gospel writers had their candidate for messiah looking for lost sheep only
among the Hebrews.7
The fishes
and loaves story I’ve just discussed contains many allusions to Hebrew
scripture or culture, including sheep without a shepherd, lying down in green
pastures, organization in fifties and hundreds, and the use of a
particular type of reed basket (kophinos) favored for dietary reasons by
Hebrews to gather the leftovers.8
Since the church fathers weren’t recruiting into Christianity as many Hebrews
as they’d hoped, they decided to expand their influence by extending Jesus' promise of
salvation to the ones they initially had their gospel writers ignore--the pagan
Gentiles.9 The editors of the New American Bible echo this view:
The
two accounts of the multiplication of loaves and fishes…are considered by many
to [have been] developed in two distinct traditions, one Jewish Christian and
the other Gentile Christian, since Jesus in Mark's presentation (Mark 7:24-37)
has extended his saving mission to the Gentiles.
Mark prepares the
audience for the reaching out to the Gentiles by having Jesus cure the daughter
of the Greek woman at Tyre in 7:24-30.10 Following that, he presents another fishes
and loaves story which is almost identical to the first one. The second story (see below), is clearly
directed toward the Gentiles, because Mark sends Jesus to a multitude in
Decapolis which had a mixture of Jews and Gentiles. In this feeding story there are no references to icons from the
Old Testament or Hebrew culture that were present in abundance in the first
feeding story: no sheep without
shepherds, no lying down in green pastures, no organization in fifties and
hundreds, and the basket the disciples in the second feeding story is not the kophinos
used by Hebrews, but the spuris11
commonly used by Gentiles.
Then
Jesus left the vicinity of Tyre and went through Sidon, down to the Sea of Galilee
and into the region of the Decapolis. During those days another large crowd
gathered. Since they had nothing to eat, Jesus called his disciples to him and
said, "I have compassion for these people; they have already been with me
three days and have nothing to eat. If I send them home hungry, they will
collapse on the way, because some of them have come a long distance." His
disciples answered, "But where in this remote place can anyone get enough
bread to feed them?" "How many loaves do you have?" Jesus asked.
"Seven," they replied. He told the crowd to sit down on the ground.
When he had taken the seven loaves and given thanks, he broke them and gave
them to his disciples to set before the people, and they did so. They had a few
small fish as well; he gave thanks for them also and told the disciples to
distribute them. The people ate and were satisfied. Afterward the disciples
picked up seven basketfuls (spuris) of broken pieces that were left
over. About four thousand men12
were present. (Mark 7:31, 8:1-9)
The story
above is the same as the one directed toward Hebrews in Mark 6, minus the
Hebrew culture and the Old Testament references. In both stories, Jesus and his disciples arrive at the sea shore
to find about four or five thousand hungry people, the disciples doubt they can
feed them, Jesus has the people lie on the ground, he blesses the food,
miraculously feeds them all, and there are leftovers. The twin presence of these feeding stories is owing to the church
fathers felt need to have their Jesus fables appeal not only to the Hebrews but
to the Gentiles as well.
Before we turn to the feasts
in Homer, I will show where Mark once again evokes memories of the foolish
Pharaoh to tell his readers that they mustn't be like the uncomprehending
disciples, who risk the same fate at the Egyptian king. We pick up the story
just after the second loaves and fishes feeding. Note that this time, Mark uses Isaiah to drive home his message.
Then I heard the voice of
the Lord saying, "Whom shall I send? And who will go for us?" And I
said, "Here am I. Send me!" He said, "Go and tell this people:
"`Be ever hearing, but never understanding; be ever seeing, but never
perceiving.' Make the heart of this people calloused; make their ears dull and
close their eyes. (Isaiah 6:8-13)
And having sent them away, he
got into the boat with his disciples…The disciples had forgotten to bring
bread, except for one loaf they had with them in the boat… "Why are you
talking about having no bread? Do you still not see or understand? Are your
hearts hardened? Do you have eyes but fail to see, and ears but fail to hear?
And don't you remember?…."Do you still not understand?" (Mark
8:10-21)
|
The Feasts of Nestor and Menelaus |
Odysseus’s
son, Telemachus, and his companions sail off to seek information regarding the
fate of his father. They arrive at the castle
of Nestor, king of Pylos, where Nestor and hundreds of men are sacrificing
bulls at the sea shore. Pylos extends
his warm greetings and hospitality, but knows nothing of Odysseus’s
whereabouts. Nestor recommends that
Telemachus travel to the home of Menelaus, the king of Sparta, to ask him about
his father. At Sparta, Telemachus is once again welcomed to a feast, this time
at a wedding party.
Nestor’s Feast
[The] people…were gathered on the
sea shore to offer sacrifice of black bulls…. There were nine guilds with five
hundred men in each, and there were nine bulls to each guild … Telemachus and
his crew arrived, furled their sails, brought their ship to anchor, and went
ashore ….they found Nestor sitting with his sons, while his company round him
were busy getting dinner ready, and putting pieces of meat on to the spits
while other pieces were cooking. [Nestor’s son] seated them on soft sheepskins
that were lying on the sands …[and] he gave them …meats and poured wine for
them into a golden cup…[Nestor tells Telemachus to travel to the home of
Menelaus…. Telemachus got into the chariot [with Nestor’s son]…(Odyssey,
Book 3)
Menelaus’s Feast
All that day did they
travel…straight to the abode of Menelaus and found him in his own house,
feasting with his clansmen in honor of the wedding of his son, and also of his
daughter whom he was marrying to the son of that valiant warrior Achilles….the
gods were bring [her] marriage about..he was sending her [to Achilles'
city]….neighbours and kinsmen were feasting in his house. There was a bard …and two tumblers [to
entertain the guests]…[a] servant told Menelaus, " there are some
strangers come here…What are we to do? Shall I …tell them to [go]
elsewhere..?" Menelaus was very angry and said, "… you never used to
be a fool, but now you talk like a simpleton…you and I have stayed often enough
at other people's houses before we got back here, where heaven grant that we
may rest in peach henceforward…show the strangers in that they may have
supper”…[a] servant brought them bread…the carver fetched them plates of all
manner of meats and set cups of gold by their side…. [soon] they had had enough
to eat and drink…Helen came down from her high vaulted and perfumed room… (Odyssey,
Book 4)
I’ll turn
my attention now to MacDonald’s claim that “Mark’s models here probably were
Elisha’s multiplication of bread in 2 Kings 4 and the feast of Nestor to
forty-five hundred men at the shore of Pylos in the Odyssey.”
(MacDonald, p. 176)
|
The Alleged Homeric Connection |
MacDonald believes
that while Mark’s two loaves and fishes feeding stories definitely have a
connection to Elisha’s miraculous feeding story, he nevertheless believes that
there are “subtle differences between the two [Marcan] accounts” which are
“impossible to explain from biblical antecedents.” 13 He notes that
One should
observe in the two feeding stories significant differences impossible to
explain from biblical antecedents.
Although both stories take place on the shore of the Sea of Galilee,
Jesus arrives at the first location by boat and at the second by land. Although in both stories Jesus commands the
crowds to recline, only in the first do they do so in well-organized
groups. The thousands fed in the first
story were men, no women; those fed in the second presumably included
women. The presence of two stories
instead of one, the connections of the stories with sailing, the emphasis on
hospitality….may be evidence that the evangelist had in mind the twin feasts
that begin Books 3 and 4 of the Odyssey…[T]he parallels between Homer
and Mark extend beyond generalities.
Details in the story of Nestor’s feast not found in the story of
Menaleus appear in the feeding of the five thousand and not in its twin. The chances of these correspondences
deriving from accident are slim. The
most satisfactory explanation is Mark’s imitation of the epic.” 14
Now I’ll lay out MacDonald’s case, then show why I
think it’s badly flawed. Readers should
be alert to the principal elements of these two stories which MacDonald regards
as important to his argument: MacDonald
points to the first Homeric feast the sea shore, organized in nine eating
groups of five hundred men each. Strangers from the sea arrive, are graciously
welcomed, seated on soft sheepskin, fed well, and treated with extraordinary
hospitality. Then, the men travel
overland to a second feast attended by both men and women; a servant is scolded
after suggesting that the visitors be sent away, and then the guests are
cordially welcomed. Unlike at the first
feast, there is no organization into eating groups in the second feast. MacDonald particularly points to Mark’s use
of the word “symposia” to describe the eating groups of fifties and hundreds;
he calls the use of this word “[p]erhaps Mark’s clearest flag” signaling
Homeric influence.
The Journeys to the Feedings
Although both stories take place
on the shore of the Sea of Galilee, Jesus arrives at the first location by boat
and at the second by land.15
Just as Homer’s Telemachus went by sea to the first feast, and overland to the
second feast, so did Mark have Jesus go by sea to the first feeding and
overland to the second one. MacDonald
suggests there’s more than just coincidence at work here: “Jesus sailed to the first feast but
traveled overland to the second, even though it, too, took place on the shores
of the Sea of Galilee.” It’s virtually
impossible to see Homeric design here; Jesus arriving at the second feast
overland, just as Telemachus did, seems to be just an unimportant and unsurprising
literary coincidence.
After the first feeding,
Jesus travels overland about the country for several days, working miracles,
arguing with Pharisees, going all the way to the coastal cities of Tyre and
Sidon, before finally turning around and coming back inland to the Sea of
Galilee. It seems just too much to
believe that Mark had Jesus leave the shores of the Sea of Galilee after the
first feeding, travel all over the country on foot, working miracles, arguing
with Pharisees, just so he can have him
return overland, instead of in a boat, to the scene of another feast on
the shores of the Sea of Galilee, all for the purpose of giving his readers the
opportunity to compare Jesus’ behavior favorably to that of the gracious hosts
in Homer.
What is believable is
that the editor who eventually put all of the various Marcan episodes together
may not have paid too much attention to the order in which they appeared, as
long as the stories weren’t blatantly contradictory. Thus, the Marcan editor sandwiched a side trip overland to Tyre
and Sidon where Jesus worked a few miracles in between the two loaves and
fishes stories. It was a good thing he
did that, too; otherwise, it would have been highly suspect that two feedings
of nearly the same improbably large size took place one right after the other,
and doubly suspicious that the disciples couldn’t remember at the second
feeding what they’d seen a short while earlier, namely, that Jesus had the
power to multiply food loaves and fishes.
And, of course, people would wonder how and why the disciples so quickly
changed from the smaller kophinos baskets to the larger spuris baskets. The editor may have wanted to give the
disciples time to forget what they saw, and to change baskets, so he sent Jesus across country for a few
days before letting him go back to the sea shore.
The
Organization of the Eating Groups
Although in both stories Jesus commands the crowds to recline, only in
the first do they do so in well-organized groups.16
MacDonald suggests that
there’s a possible intentional correspondence in the grouping of diners at the
first feasts in Homer and Mark. In
Homer, there were nine groups of five hundred each while Mark had Jesus put the
diners in groups of two different sizes:
groups of one hundred, and groups of fifty. This seating in groups in the first feeding story may have been
intended by Mark to remind his readers of the grouping in Homer, MacDonald
believes, but I don't believe it.
Mark forces Jesus to put the
5,000 in at least 51 different groups (49 x100 + 2 x 50), and as many as 99
groups (98 x 50 + 1 x 100). Surely Mark
would not have thought it probable that his readers would connect four to eight
dozen groups of diners in Mark to only nine in Homer; the disparity in
numbers of groups is just too great.
Furthermore, if Mark had been intent on using his seating arrangement to
mark a parallel with Homer, he would had a much better way to do it: Mark only needed to have Jesus say is, “Put
them in ten groups of 500.” This
grouping would have been sufficiently unlike Homer’s nine groups of 500 to hide
amateurish and obvious copying, but sufficiently like Homer to represent a
flag.
In any case, I believe an
excellent reason why Mark had Jesus put the multitude in groups of fifties and
hundreds has already been provided:
Mark was having Jesus organize the people of this new exodus the same
way Moses organized the people of his exodus: in “thousands, hundreds, fifties, and tens.” 17 Given this background,
how likely is it that the Mark who wrote these verses thought that his readers
would cast aside the wonderful symmetry and symbolism attached to the Moses-Jesus
exodus organization in favor of Homer’s nine groups of five hundred men
roasting bulls?
The Genders of Those at the Feasts
The thousands fed in the first story were men, no women; those fed in the
second presumably included women. 18
Both authors speak only of
men attending the first feast. If we
accept the majority of translations, which don't speak of only men at the
second feast (the NIV translation give above refers to "men"), to
give MacDonald the benefit of the doubt, one can reasonably infer from the
story that there were women at the second feeding in Mark, because Mark
does not tell us only the number of men fed, as he did with the first
feeding. Women are also presumably
present at the wedding feast in Homer.
MacDonald observes that it is not surprising that only men are present
the first feast in Homer, since that feast was a sacrifice by sailors to the
sea gods, but he suggests it’s unusual in Mark; one would expect some women to
be present among the 5,000 served by Jesus, especially since they’re present at
the second feast. MacDonald suggests
that Mark may have copied this element from Homer, but I think there are
simpler explanations:
Mark may have just told us
the number of men who had been given food because he regarded women as
less important than men, just as did other Bible writers; man was the head of
woman, and women were not allowed to assume leadership roles. 19
Indeed, Mark has Jesus recruit Simon and Andrew to be fishers of men, not
fishers of men and women. Mark seems primarily to be interested in
talking about men, and less concerned with women, so his use of the word “men”
instead of “people” may just have been an unconscious insensitivity. Certainly it would have been no surprise if
Mark had told us how many persons were fed, rather than just the number
or men, but we can see why the number of men might have been his main
concern: They were the only ones who
really counted--the only ones who could be part of Jesus’ army for God.
The best explanation for Mark’s having only told us only about the number of men
fed is that Mark wanted his readers to see the parallel to the Old Testament
story of Elisha’s miraculous feeding of the one hundred men. Only men
were fed in that story, so Mark wanted only men to be fed in his story, too, to
maintain a very close parallel to the Elisha story.
Now, why weren’t only men
mentioned in the second feeding story, too (according to most
translations)? I’ve already provided
the explanation for this: The second
feeding story is a stripped-down version of the first one (although the Marks
who wrote or edited the gospel don’t admit this). Virtually all of the data which would point Gentiles to Old
Testament tradition, such as sheep without shepherd, lying in green pastures,
organization in Moses-like groups of fifties and hundreds, and the use of the
Jewish kophinos to gather the food leftovers, has been removed from the
first feeding story to create the second.
If a Greek pagan Mark had been assigned to write the Gentile version of
the feeding story--which seems reasonable, it’s quite possible he was unaware
of the details of the Elisha story and so he probably wouldn’t have spoken only
of the men fed; he might not have been sure how the story should be told, so he
played it safe and kept his description gender-neutral. All of this makes for a vastly simpler
explanation than the one MacDonald suggests for these gender elements. If, by this time, Mark had created an
impressively long list of obvious parallels to Homer, we could expect that his
readers might suspect that there was a parallel to be found also in this gender
correspondence. However, given that
there are virtually no correspondences other than the most commonplace,
Mark cannot have expected his readers would see anything here. We may reasonably conclude, therefore, that
Mark did not base this aspect of his feeding stories on Homer. Nor did he
attempt any other Homerian parallels in any other part of his feeding stories.
The
Presence of Two Stories Instead of One
No matter what the origin of
the feeding stories, the presence of both in the Gospel is strategic and
intentional…If Mark knew only one miraculous feeding story, he had sufficient
literary reasons for doubling it…[H]e created both of them from biblical and
epic antecedents.20
MacDonald is referring to a
variety of suggested reasons21
why Mark tells two almost identical feeding stories, but nevertheless seems to
imply that even if none of the explanations for two stories conjectured by
others is correct, Mark still had good reason to double the story: He wanted his audience to see the connection
between Jesus’ double feedings of loaves and fishes and the twin feasts in
Homer so that his readers would compare Jesus’ hospitality toward the
multitudes with Nestor’s and Menelaus’s hospitality toward their guests. While I completely agree that the presence
of the second story is “strategic and intentional,” I don’t agree that it’s for
the reason MacDonald suggests. I’ve
already given the reason why I think there are two stories: Mark needed to reach out to the Jews and
the Gentiles.
Furthermore, Mark’s readers couldn’t have failed to see
the obvious and extremely strong connections to the Elisha story, and the
plain-as-day allusions to Moses and the people of his exodus, and the Lord’s
having his people lie down in green pastures, and the other flags signaling
connections to the Old Testament. How
could Mark ever have dreamed that through this extremely dense layer of Old
Testament correlations they would be able to see Homeric dependencies?
Finally, I believe the
extremely important premise MacDonald uses to advance this argument is
false: It’s not true, as he claims,
that Jesus was especially hospitable toward the multitude, nor was he generous,
but I’ll wait to explain why until I get to the section below on
hospitality. For now it’s sufficient to
note that there is a perfectly good “strategic” reason for Mark having a second
feeding story: He needed a Gentile
fishes and loaves story to parallel the Jewish one; Homer need not have ever
entered his mind here.
The Numbers
of the People Fed
MacDonald’s states that “The correlations of…the
forty-five hundred or five thousand men [is] not accidental,” and calls it a
“Marcan flag.” 22 Referring to the Elisha story, he further
notes “…that story of itself
does not explain… the outrageous number of people fed.” 23 I certainly agree that the correlations of
the “men” in the Homeric and Marcan stories are not accidental, but not for the
reason MacDonald gives; I believe that Mark wanted his first loaves and fishes
story to be as tightly bound to the Hebrew tradition as possible, so he had
only men at that feast, just as Elisha had only men at his feast. However,
MacDonald suggests that Mark had about the same number at the first
feeding at the sea shore, five thousand, to signal his readers that they should
read his this gospel story in the light of the Homeric epic, where one finds at
the feast at the sea shore an almost equal number in attendance, forty-five
hundred.
It cannot be denied that this correspondence of
numbers, 4,500 versus 5,000, is interesting, and if there were several other
meaningful correspondences between the stories of the Homeric and Marcan
feasts, one would have the right to suspect that Mark chose this number with
Homer in mind. We will perhaps never know
whether he consciously, or subconsciously, based his choice on Homer, or
whether there is some historical basis for a feeding of this size. We may note, however, that this number is
just about what one would expect Mark to use:
He locked himself into groups “hundreds and fifties” with the Moses
connection, so he would have had to have had several groups of hundreds at
least, so it would have to be more than, say, about a thousand people, but
certainly less than the more than six hundred thousand of Moses’ people who
were fed “bread” (manna) in the desert.24 So,
Mark picked a number in between, one that was not so small as to make Jesus
power seem insignificant, but not too large to make the story unbelievable.
Finally, why would Mark think that his readers would
connect the 5,000 at Mark’s first feast to the 4,500 at Homer’s, yet ignore the
fact that 4,000 at the second feast doesn’t compare at all to the much smaller
number at Menelaus’s wedding party?
Menelaus’s party was at his house, and only his relatives and
neighbors are in attendance. The party
is so small that one bard and two tumblers were sufficient to entertain the
entire group. Homer is describing a
very small party by comparison to Jesus’ second feeding; there are probably
only about a hundred guests.
Hospitality
Homer describes the feasts as lavish affairs at which
the hosts treat the guests with hospitality.
MacDonald suggests that Mark wanted readers to think of those feasts
when they read about Jesus’ feeding of the multitudes and compare him favorably
to the hosts in Homer. However, I think
MacDonald misinterprets the authors and exaggerates Jesus’ sacrifice. I’ll first show what MacDonald says, and
then tell why I disagree with his interpretation.
“Mark portrays Jesus as an
exemplary host.” “Both Menelaus and
Jesus pitied their guests because they had gone so long without food.” … “Jesus
refused to send them away hungry, even though feeding them would have cost him
dearly. Taking the few supplies available, he spread a humble but copious feast
and ordered the disciples around like waiters.
He told them [to have the crowd sit] on the ‘green grass,’ apparently
because verdant grass offered greater comfort than the rocky shore or prickly
dry grass. Jesus gave a proper blessing
and sent his disciples to serve the guests.
Everyone ate to satiety. The disciples dutifully gathered the remaining
fragments, one basket each.” (p. 84).25
I don’t see the hospitality MacDonald speaks of. Mark didn’t have hospitality in his mind, or
Homer in the back of his mind, when he described the treatment of the
multitude. MacDonald says that Mark’s
use of the word “recline” (Greek: anaklino), suggests “the meal was less
a picnic than a banquet,” like the ones in Homer, but, as I noted earlier, Mark
puts the people on “green grass” to evoke the picture of the Lord in the Old
Testament having his people lie down in green pastures, not because it was
softer than nearby land. Mark had them
eat to their satisfaction to have his readers recall the Lord in Jeremiah
allowing the poor to “eat and be satisfied.”
As for this spread costing Jesus “dearly,” that’s
simply cannot be true: All it “cost”
Jesus was one sweep of his arm, or a glance skyward, to miraculously multiply
the loaves and fishes; where’s the sacrifice in that? Does Mark convey to his readers a sense that the people at the
sea shore were administered to by attentive “waiters” circulating among the
groups, as MacDonald implies? I don’t
think so: All the disciples did was
“set it before the people”; that’s all there is to the description, and it
hardly suggests that Jesus was an unusually thoughtful host. Finally, if Jesus was all that thoughtful
and gracious, why couldn’t the people decide for themselves when they would
leave, instead of being abruptly “dismissed” by Jesus?26
Pity
MacDonald states that “Both Menelaus and Jesus pitied
their guests because they had gone so long without food.” However, there’s nothing in Homer which
suggests either that Menelaus pitied Telemachus and his companion, or that the
two guests had gone without food, let alone gone “so long” without food. Furthermore, Homer shows that pity was not
what was on Menelaus’s mind when he welcomed his guests. His words make it clear that he welcomed the
two men in the hope that the gods would be pleased with his treatment of
strangers. Speaking to his servant,
Menelaus says, “[S]how the strangers in
that they may have supper. You and I
have stayed often enough at other people’s houses before we got back here,
where heaven grant that we may rest in peace henceforward.” There will be no resting in peace if these
strangers are gods and we mistreat them, Menelaus is thinking.
Symposia
MacDonald finds it extraordinary
that the Mark uses the word “symposia” to describe the groups in which Jesus
puts the five thousand men. Writers long before Mark referred to Homer’s feasts
as “symposia”; 27
Homer never used the word, but Mark did, and is the only writer in the New
Testament to do so, not counting Luke, who copied Mark’s feeding stories. MacDonald calls this “Mark’s clearest flag” 28 signaling a parallel
to Homer. I disagree. This is only evidence that Mark used the
same word to describe eating groups that others used to describe other eating
groups. Perhaps Mark was using irony to
describe a dried fish and bread meal with a word that was more commonly used to
refer to elegant banquets such as the ones Athenaeus spoke of; it certainly
wouldn’t be the first time Mark used irony in his gospel: It was used wonderfully in his story about
the Barabbas-Jesus contest.29
|
Conclusions |
Virtually
all of MacDonald’s suggested parallels of Mark’s twin feeding stories to
Homer’s twin feasts are nonexistent, in my opinion, and aspects of both stories
can be far, far better explained on the basis of Old Testament antecedents than
they can by Homeric correspondence. The
sailing theme arose not out of Mark’s desire to evoke Odyssean sailing images,
but of a literary need to have Jesus and his disciples be fishers of men as
spoken of in the Old Testament and to give Jesus an opportunity to walk on
water to save his disciples, as per the Old Testament. Mark’s portrayal of Jesus’ disciples as
uncomprehending and heart-hardened wasn’t meant to signal the readers that they
should compare the disciples to Odysseus’s companions. It was an invitation to his readers to
compare the disciples to Pharaoh who was too dense to recognize and understand
the power of God; don’t you be like the Pharaoh, too, was Mark’s message
to them. Mark had Jesus lay his people down on green grass beside the waters in
fifties and hundreds not because he wanted his readers to think of the nine
groups of five hundred at Nestor’s feast and Homer’s Telemachus sitting on soft
sheepskins, but because Mark was having Jesus emulate the Lord, who would lay
the people down in green pastures beside still waters, and Moses, who organized
the people of the old exodus in groups of thousands, hundreds, and
fifties. Mark’s message is that Jesus
was the Lord and Moses all wrapped up in one.
Jesus was neither particularly hospitable nor generous toward the
multitudes, as MacDonald claims; indeed, Jesus gave up nothing when he
miraculously multiplied the loaves and fishes with a wave of his hand, and he treated
his guests like cattle, apparently not allowing them to sit wherever they
wished, but instead ordering them to be placed in highly organized groups. The “guests” at Jesus’ feedings couldn’t
even decide when they could leave; Jesus abruptly dismisses them, sending them
on their way. There are two feeding stories not because Mark was influenced by
Homer’s twin feasts, but because he wanted first to reach out to the Jews, then
to the Gentiles.
Notes
[1] The Homeric Epics and the Gospel of Mark, Dennis R. MacDonald, Yale University Press, 2000. See reviews by Robert J. Rabel, Ronald F. Hock, Yale University Press Review.
[2] The
1898 translation by Samuel Butler is used in this article; it’s available
online: Odyssey
[3] Exodus 7-12. Ten plagues brought down on
Pharaoh. See the article, Ten
Plagues.
[4]
“Even though Jesus had told [the disciples] explicitly about the
‘mystery’ of God’s rule, they repeatedly demonstrated their failure to
understand.” (MacDonald, p. 20)
[5] Mark 5:1-21. Jesus cures the demoniac. See also the article, The Gerasene
Demoniac.
[6] Mark 5:21-34. Jesus cures the hemorrhaging girl.
[7] St. Paul tells the Ephesians, "So I tell you this, and insist on it
in the Lord, that you must no longer live as the Gentiles do, in the futility
of their thinking. They are darkened in their understanding and separated from
the life of God because of the ignorance that is in them due to the hardening
of their hearts. (Ephesians 4:17-18)
Jesus
told his followers that they were to teach the word of God only to the chosen
few: "Go not into the way of the Gentiles....but go rather to the
lost sheep of the house of Israel. I am not sent but unto the lost sheep of the
house of Israel." (Matthew 10:7)
See also the article, Jesus Excluded
Gentiles.
[8] Liddell-Scott-Jones
Lexicon of Classical Greek: kophinos,
basket. The information that the
kophinos was a reed basket favored for dietary reasons by Hebrews, and
the spuris was a larger basket favored by Gentiles, comes from a source whose
reliability has not yet been confirmed.
In the 1871 commentary by Jamieson, Fausset, and Brown (see Blue Letter Bible), the authors
note: “The [kophinos] was part of the
luggage taken by Jews on a journey--to carry, it is said, both their provisions
and hay to sleep on, that they might not have to depend on Gentiles, and so run
the risk of ceremonial pollution.”
[9] The Gentiles were ripe for harvesting, and so the priestly
fathers apparently changed their attitude and had scribes add following verses
to the end of Matthew's gospel: "Go ye therefore, and teach all
nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the
Holy Ghost." (Matthew 28:19-20). What a remarkable turn-around
this is: just eighteen chapters earlier, in Matthew 10.5, Jesus was
telling his disciples, "Go not into the way of the
Gentiles."
[10]
Mark 7:24-30. Jesus cures Greek woman’s
daughter as he reached out to the Gentiles.
[11] spuris: large basket, creel, the type favored by
Gentiles . Used by Paul to lower
himself down over the prison wall in Damascus.
Biblical evidence that the spuris is larger than the kophinos comes from
Mark 6:43 and 8:8, where we see that each kophinos holds scraps from whatever
is miraculously multiplied from 5/12 of a loaf, while one spuris holds the
scraps from one miraculously multiplied loaf, and is therefore 12/5 times a
large as a kophinos.
[12] The
Worldwide English Translation and the New International Version-IBS also show
“men”. However, most translations are
gender-neutral, translating it similar to, “They that ate were four thousand.” These latter Bibles include the New American
Bible, New English Translation, King James, New American Standard, Royal
Standard Version, Darby, and Young’s Literal Translation. The 1550 edition of the Textus Receptus
prepared by Robert Estienne (Stephanus), which is the basis for the King James
Version of the Bible, is based on various Greek texts as well as the Latin
Vulgate. The Textus Receptus shows de
phago en hos tetrakishchiloi, which literally is “and eating were about
four thousand.” (Source: Blue
Letter Bible)
[13] MacDonald, p.
84.
[14] MacDonald,
pp. 84-85.
[15] MacDonald, p.
84-85.
[16] MacDonald, p.
85.
[19] The following two articles below describe the Bible’s
teaching that women are inferior to men, and Paul’s teaching that women must
not be allowed to teach or lead men: Women May Not Teach , Women Are Not
the Glory of God
[20] MacDonald, p.
83.
[21] MacDonald,
p. 83: “[t]wo reports of a single event…two performances of a popular legend,
or as evidence of a pre-Marcan chain of miracle stories characterized by two
cycles of similar tales.”
[23] Private
communication, January 24, 2001
[24] Exodus 12:37
[25] MacDonald,
p. 84, p. 88.
[26] Mark 6:45
[27] Athenaeus, ca 200 AD, was a Greek grammarian
and author of Deipnosophistai ("The Gastronomers”). MacDonald notes, “One of the garrulous
diners among Athenaeus’s ‘supper-sages’ went on at length about Homeric symposia,
including those of Nestor and Menelaus, and used them as examples of how such
parties should be conducted.” (Volume 5
of Deipnosophists 181c-191a)
[28] MacDonald, p. 90.
[29] Jesus and Barabbas
Appendix
Lying Down in Safety Isaiah 14:30 The poorest of the poor will find pasture,
and the needy will lie down in safety
Prophecy
of the New Exodus
In
that day the Root of Jesse will stand as a banner for the peoples; the nations
will rally to him, and his place of rest will be glorious…In that day the Lord
will reach out his hand a second time to reclaim the remnant that is left of
his people from Assyria…as there was for Israel when they came up from Egypt.
(Exodus 8:10-16)
Calloused
Hearts in Isaiah
Then I
heard the voice of the Lord saying, "Whom shall I send? And who will go
for us?" And I said, "Here am I. Send me!" He said, "Go and
tell this people: "`Be ever hearing, but never understanding; be ever
seeing, but never perceiving.' Make the heart of this people calloused; make
their ears dull and close their eyes. Otherwise they might see with their eyes,
hear with their ears, understand with their hearts, and turn and be
healed." (Isaiah 6:8-13)