[Propertalk] Gospel Quotes for Mark 9:38-50 - Part 7

[Joe Parrish]

There are parts of the world where such acts of heroism are still needed but most of us do not have - nor would we much welcome - the opportunity to be such a witness to our community. However, our faithfulness in the trials of normal life can also be heroic: courage in facing terminal or long-term illness; loss of a cherished relationship because it was at risk of becoming sinful; giving up a job because it conflicts with faith - and so on.


http://www.wellsprings.org.uk/weekly_wellsprings/year_b/sunday_26.htm

Catherine McElhinney and Kathryn Turner
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Eternal punishment. Like it or not, it is a biblical concept, albeit a late-blooming one. In the Old Testament, the afterlife is rarely spoken of, and when it is, it is usually pictured as a shadowy, wraithlike existence.
For the dominant line of thought in the Old Testament, "Sheol [the realm of the dead] cannot thank thee, death cannot praise thee; those who go down to the pit cannot hope for thy faithfulness" (Isa. 38:18) The dead are miserable, insubstantial shades, and it is better to be a living dog than a dead lion (Eccles. 9:4).

Only in the later books of the Old Testament, such as Daniel, do we encounter the idea of a resurrection of the dead at the end of time, "some to everlasting life, and some to shame and everlasting contempt."

http://www.religion-online.org/showarticle.asp?title=987

Joel Marcus, 2000
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Gathering the clan and resisting the outsiders is a popular reaction against insecurity and fear. Identifying perceived enemies and resisting them is a popular diversion used by nations and individuals. Ethnic cleansing, heretic hunting and other methods of exclusion are deadly reactions to fear and insecurity.

http://findarticles.com/p/articles/mi_m1058/is_n25_v114/ai_19844883/

Kenneth L. Carder, 1997
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 It is almost universally recognized that Jesus' drastic language was his metaphorical way of expressing his hatred of sin. Yet it is precisely the intention that lies behind his metaphor that gives us our problem. For Jesus' language in all its vigorous overstatement still reflects a sense of divine fury over the failure of the divine purpose to work itself out in the actions of human beings that does not compute with our urbane, 20th-century middle-class liberal Christianity.

 http://www.religion-online.org/showarticle.asp?title=992

Ronald Goetz, 1986
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In the vivid expansion of this story found in 4 Maccabees, Eleazar tells his tormentors, "I will not transgress the sacred oaths of my ancestors concerning the keeping of the Law, not even if you gouge out my eyes and burn my entrails" (4 Macc 5:30). So also in the case of the mother and her seven sons. Because they refuse to eat pork, they too face torture and death. The first son has his tongue cut out and his hands and feet cut off (2 Macc 7:4). His brother tells the tyrant Antiochus, "Gladly, for the sake of God, we let our bodily members be mutilated" (4 Macc 10:20).

These Maccabean martyrs became national heroes and symbols of commitment to the Jewish faith. By referring to hands and feet being cut off and eyes being plucked out, Jesus may well have intended to allude to these great heroes who suffered under Antiochus IV, rather than abandon their religion and so set a poor example for others.

http://www.beliefnet.com/Faiths/Christianity/2004/04/Better-To-Pluck-Out-Your-Eye.aspx?p=2

Craig A. Evans 
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