Prologue to the Passion: Mark Chapters 11 -13
What do scholars want to know about these chapters?
Not: did these events happen as described but
2. Why is the narrative structured in this way?
3. What picture of Jesus and his followers does it depict?
4. Mark believes that Jesus's decision to go to Jerusalem sealed his fate -- and most scholars agree -- but why?
5. How does Mark interpret these events -- is that the only interpretation possible?
Chapter 11: Proclaiming a king
1-10: entry to Jerusalem on a colt; procession to Temple
12-14: The cursed fig tree
15-19: "Cleansing" the Temple
20-25: Fig tree revisited
27-33: Jesus's authority is questioned
Chapter 12:
1-12: The parable of the wicked tenants
13-17: Pharisees' questions about taxes
18-27: Sadducees' question resurrection
28-34: scribes' questions of the great commandment
35-37: Jesus's questions Davidic ideas about the Messiah
38-40: Jesus denounces the scribes
41-44: The widow's mite
Chapter 13
1-2: Prediction of the Temple's destruction
3-37: The Little Apocalypse
--3-8: signs of the last days
--9-14: predictions of suffering
--14-22: Predictions of the end
--24-26: The coming of the Son of Man
--28-31: Fig tree as sign of the apocalypse
--32-37: Necessity of vigilance