Thursday, December 23, 2010

Wright on Mark 13

"Most popular Christian readings of the text, not least within fundamentalism, have shared Schweitzer's understanding that Jesus predicted the end of the world, but have said that, since this did not happen within a generation, Jesus must have meant something different by 'this generation'. Here we have the solution to the problem of the timing of the kingdom, which of course is also raised by such verses as Matthew 10.23 and Mark 9.1. Already present in Jesus' ministry, and climatically inaugurated in his death and resurrection, the divine kingdom will be manifest within a generation, when Jesus and his followers are vindicated in and though the destruction of Jerusalem. The generation that rejects Jesus must be the last before the great cataclysm. There can be no other, because if there were they would need another warning prophet; once the father has sent the son to the vineyard, he can send nobody else. To reject the son is to reject the last chance. "

N.T. Wright, Jesus and the Victory of God, 365.

2 comments:

Darren Jennings said...

Can you comment on this passage? It would help me understand the context as well as have a guiding light for what the implications for this passage have.

michael said...

Wright is suggesting that the "coming of the Son of Man" in Mark 13 does not refer to Jesus' second coming - but to the vindication of Jesus' ministry in the destruction of Jerusalem. If you remember that documentary "Collision" it's basically the exact same thing Wilson tell Hitchens, the reversal of creation imagery in 13:24-27 is same imagery in the OT used to announce judgement and destruction on cities that opposes the true God, such as Babylon. Jerusalem by rejecting Jesus as the Davidic King has brought themselves under God's judgement.

Wright isn't saying Jesus isn't coming back- he wrote an entire book about that subject. He's just saying that isn't what Mark 13 is talking about.

I think it makes the most sense of the passage, especially as seeing Mark 13 as an important plot movement in the larger story of Mark.

Furthermore, Jesus says "this generation will not pass away until all these things take place", so the question is, which do you take literally? The reversal of creation imagery, or the "this generation"? Wright's view seems to be the most hermenuetically consistent and make the most sense in the context of the biblical story.