enThe Lion of St Mark

The Gospel of Mark

Chapter 8: Overview

"In those days" at the beginning of the chapter (8,1) marks a new opening while keeping a link with what has just preceeded. Jesus remains in Gentile territory until the end of the first episode of the chapter in 8,9.

At the beginning of chapter 9 there is the account of the Transfiguration of Jesus (9,2-10). This begins with the phrase "after six days" (9,2); we will be considering in due course how this opening links the transfiguration with the second half of chapter 8.
We are therefore reading chapter 8 as 8,1-9,1.

The Settings of the Chapter

There are four settings given within the chapter: the desert (8,4), the boat trip (8,10.13) (with an onshore visit (8,11-12)), Bethsaida (8,22) and Caesarea Philipi (8,27).

The chapter begins with feeding of the crowd in the desert (8,1-9).
Jesus then gets into the boat (8,10). The feeding scene is often concluded in verse 10, though verse 9 ends with "and he then sent them away". Many translations make this statement the opening of a sentence which continues into verse 10. Yet verse 10 in the Greek begins "And immediately" just as after the end of the first feeding in 6,44, there is also "And immediately" (6,45). There this phrase is usually linked with the following scene, the walking on the water. There must be a case for consistency in reading the "And immediately" as opening the following scene in both cases. In both too, the following scene involves the boat (6,45; 8,10).

It is therefore the boat trip which forms the second part of the chapter, 8,10-22a. We note that this boat trip is omitted by Matthew (Mt 16,4, Mt 16,12-13).
Verse 13 can then be translated that Jesus got back into the boat again and went "towards the other shore". Therefore, Jesus and his disciples are continuing on their journey as they have their conversation arising from the encounter with the Pharisees in verses 14-21. They then arrive in Bethsaida at the beginning of verse 22. No more will be heard of the boat.

Therefore we can have the second part of the chapter beginning in verse 10 where in our reading the boat trip is clearly seen to be the setting for two episodes. The first is Jesus' meeting with the Pharisees (8,11-12). The second is then his discussion in the boat with the disciples arising from that meeting. (8,14-21).

The third part of the chapter is the healing of the blind man (8,22b-26). This healing is told only by Mark; we will be seeing that it has a special role in the story because it prepares for what follows.

In the final part of the chapter Jesus and the disciples travel to Caesarea Philippi (8,27). Events there form a key moment in the Gospel story. We will look at Mark's editing of the scene when we come to it. From what we have noted, this final part will be 8,27-9,1.

A consequence of this investigation is that we need to consider further the editorial activity of the evangelist in this part of the Gospel. For this, return to the main page.

Editing: Mk 6,34-8,26

As well as all the other editorial activity by the evangelist which we have explored, we can see that there is a notable parallel arrangement of the episodes from Mk 6,34-8,26:

Feeding of 5,000 (6,34-44) Feeding of 4,000 (8,1-9)
Crossing of the Lake (6,45-52) Crossing of the Lake (8,10)
Controversy with the Pharisees (7,1-23) Controversy with the Pharisees (8,11-13)
The Children's Bread (7,24-30) The One Bread (8,14-21)
Healing of a Deaf Mute (7,31-37) Healing of a Blind Man (8,22-26)

We will consider the consequences of this arrangment after we have read up to 8,26.

Return to the main page in order to see our reading plan.