The Lion of St Mark

The Gospel of Mark

Chapter 13: Overview

This speech by Jesus comes just after he has left the Temple and predicted its destruction (13,1-2). Immediately after the speech there begins the story of the Passion which leads to the destruction of Jesus himself (14,1). The question thus arises about the fate of the disciples. This speech looks beyond the resurrection, firstly to the time of Mark's own community. Then beyond that to the times of all disciples of Jesus as they await his return in power and glory (13,26). The theme is set by the two questions in verse 4, "when?" and "what?".

The keyword of the speech as found in translations varies around the repeated call to "watch", "take heed", "stay awake", "be alert or vigilant".
There are actually two words being used in Greek but the translations rarely make the distinction. The original RSV is an exception using "take heed" and "watch" (though the RSV's "watch" in verse 33 is yet another word in Greek as we will see.)
Yet the distinction needs to be made. The two Greek words are so important for this speech that this is one of the few occasions when we need to be aware of them.

The first word is blepete, which is the imperative of the verb blepo, meaning "to see". In the speech we could translate this simply as "see"; "look out" is better because it carries with it a sense of discernment. More on that when we read. Here we can note that blepete is found in verses 5,9, 23 and 33.

The second word is gregoreite found only in verses 34, 35 and 37. "Stay awake" could be a good translation for this word because it is linked to the word "to awaken". As we will see later, this word is also used by Jesus in the Garden of Gethsemane.

The final verses of the speech, 13,34-37, which use the second word for "watch" or "stay awake" are unique to Mark. This distinctive ending with its emphasis on staying awake must therefore be important for the evangelist.

The future tense is used 27 times and imperatives 21 times in this speech. The dominance of these two verb forms indicate that Jesus is speaking about what will happen after he is gone. The speech is addressed to the four disciples and through them to the Church of all times (13,37).

The keywords together with those future and imperative verbs is why I think this speech is best described as a prophecy. In chapter 6, the word is used twice and in general we can say "prophet" describes Jesus' ministry (note 13,22). This speech is a prophecy because it describes and calls upon the community to have the right attitude, of watching and being alert, during its time of waiting. "The end" is mentioned in verses 7 and 13 and this background of the end is highlighted by the NABRE translation for verse 4 "about to come to an end". This is a notably literal translation which makes the point (though other translations are also right in preferring "accomplish" or "fulfilled").

This is important because it helps us to hear the speech with the right expectations. There is much confusion about the interpretation of this speech because expectations are so confused. Prophecy is not often used to describe this speech but it gives us a good basis for our reading. The role of the prophet especially in the New Testament is to encourage and to warn (Apocalypse 2-3, for example).

Comparing 13,34-37 with Matthew and Luke shows that Mark's conclusion to the speech is special to him. With the distinctive "stay awake" in these verses, this is an indication that this speech is more important for him than the other two evangelists. Matthew and Luke both include this speech but they have adapted it in different ways which lessen its impact.

Chapter 4 is a more complicated speech than this one. The key word there is "listen". It is worth noting therefore that one major speech of the Gospel is based on listening (see 7,37) and the other on sight (see 10,52). Both are calls to discernment and choice.

Finally at this stage, there is much debate about whether the background to the speech is the destruction of Jerusalem by the Romans in 70AD or whether Jesus is speaking more generally about the end of time. The destruction of Jerusalem following the Jewish revolt in 66 AD could well be the immediate background in view of Jesus' comments in 13,2. It could have been, possibly must have been, an event of which Mark's community were well aware. The comment in 13,14 may be a hint of this. Yet the Gospel itself does not refer to this event and we must be careful not to read too much into what it says. We will come back to this when we read 13,14-20.

We can now return to the main page.

Outline: Mk 13,3-37

The disciples in 13,4 ask the two questions: "When?" and "What?".

"When?" will not be clearly answered so this leads to Jesus' message "watch" being the main theme of the speech as we have seen.
"What?" though we can take as the theme of the first part of the speech, 13,5-23, with the bracket formed by the repeated "look out" in verses 5 and 23. There is another "look out" in verse 9; we will see its role when we read this first part.

" Stay awake" is as we have seen the dominant theme of the final verses, 13,34-37. That makes these verses the conclusion of the speech. We have already noted that they are unique to Mark.

This leaves the middle verses, 13,24-33. My reading would see a bracket formed as "those days" in verse 24 become "that day" in verse 32.
Verse 33 with its final "look out" I then read as the conclusion to all that has been said since verse 5. Here I am being unusual because this verse is commonly seen an introduction to the following verses rather than concluding what preceeds. Yet the "look out" in this verse has been the keynote up to this point. What follows, 13,34-37, is then Mark's special conclusion based on "stay awake".

Most commentators see the central portion and highlight of the chapter as the coming of the Son of Man in verses 24-27. My reading means that we will read the image of the fig tree, 13,28-33, as part of this central scene. As a result, the Day of the Lord becomes the theme of these middle verses (which of course includes the coming of the Son of Man).

Verse 32 then becomes the climax to the "when?" question: of that day no one knows but only the Father.
To which the response is that of verse 33, the final "look out".

Putting all this together, we have:

We will see in due course how verses 23 and 33 both function as conclusions.

We can now return to the main page and see how we will read the speech.