St. Mark Part 1 of the Autobiography of St. Peter's life with Jesus

       The Greek influence of Hellenization had begun a few centuries prior had already brought literacy, international trade, and new advances in science, mathematics, and philosophy to the region. As a matter of fact, Mark writes in Greek, the “hip” language of choice made even more popular in the international world transcending all of the local scatterings of different languages peppering the landscape. It can be fairly be said, if the critics are right, that Mark’s rendition of the Greek language is nothing less than atrocious, but unlike John’s Gospel, considered an endless ramble without breath, Mark is concise and to the point and in need of far less editorial rendition by those who translated the original work in Greek to other languages. Without heavy modifications, the critics say, John’s Gospel as originally written would “assault the ear” of anyone trying to follow along.

       The Brilliant Father Ralph Argentino, without match the Diocesan expert on Church history and development states that early Masses were said in Hebrew or in Syrian Aramaic – probably elements of both – but the enlightened literates of the region wrote and read Greek. It is likely that although familiar with Hebrew, the early Christians utilized Old Testament Scripture passages in Greek, from the best-seller of those days, the Septuagint, a Greek, and not always perfect translation. New Testament quotes of Old Testament passages are rendered from the Greek Septuagint rendition, and not from the original Hebrew Scrolls.

       As Mark writes, he is all-too aware of recent world events that made the timing of the arrival of Jesus so interesting, but he does not spend a lot of time retracing these events because they would be well known “current events” that would be considered silly in repetition.

       Almost a hundred years before Christ was born, the city Pella was already an old part of the Decapolis – as the name implies one of ten city colonies remaining from ancient Greece expeditions. Did Jesus ever go here? No one knows. Pella was in a fold within a huge slope facing to the west down into the River Jordan, with views in some spots of both the Sea of Galilee and the Dead Sea. Although Greek in origin, trade already gave it many Roman influences. It was close enough for regular visits to Gaza, Ascalon, Jerusalem, Joppa, Antipatris, Sebaste, Scythopolis, Tiberias, Philadelphia, Caesarea, Ptolemais, Tyre, Sidon, Caesarea Philippi, Damascus, Abila, Chalcis, and many other places that are rarely mentioned in the Bible, but they were well known to everyone who lived there. A hundred years before Christ, in the Jewish world, “wisdom books” were being written, shared, or distributed, such as Ecclesiasticus, and from Antioch in Syria to Alexandria in Ægyptus, Jewish communities were already drawn away from Jerusalem in search of higher learning opportunities in these foreign lands. Without doubt, Greek was the official written language of higher learning, and it was also still the internal language of trade, science, early industry, and commerce. Greek was so popular that even the venerable Old Testament had already been translated and disseminated widely through the world, and as stated elsewhere, the Greek Septuagint, as it was known was so popular that even when New Testament writers quoted Old Testament Scripture, the Greek version was almost always the one quoted. The learned and affluent were also aware of cultural phenomena based in abstract thought or fiction, such as Homer, Aristotle, Titus Maccius Plautus, and Solon. Shakespeare's Julius Caesar was a millennium and a half away, but people with names like Mark Antony, Julius Caesar, and Cleopatra would soon be real people on the planet, with very interesting life stories.

       The Jews had managed to preserve – often by the safety of scattered multiple copies under the quill of an entire profession dedicated to the art – the Scribes – the ancient scrolls that told the story of their people, first by putting tales told through the generations onto parchment and papyrus, and then by writing Jewish histories, poetries, songs, and even prophesies. Even in rare times of self-rule, some Jewish leaders often considered apostates caused tremendous suffering and oppression on their own people.

       The Jews had expected a great King, a descendant of their King David of Bethlehem of a thousand years ago, who would be dressed in gold and the purple colors of royalty, and who would crush all enemies of Jerusalem under his great and powerful foot to the ends of the Earth – and there had been many such enemies. They would have no expectation that their Messiah would arrive in the splendor of an unblemished soul, born in Bethlehem to a saintly young woman in a way that fulfilled every expectation of the prophets, but not in a way that had been anticipated or even considered possible.

       The lineage of David was complex and could account for a great number of people in Judea - perhaps half the population.

       Yet, the Jewish prophecies had narrowed the Messiah to a birthplace in Bethlehem. Three extremely rich and influential foreigners would cross Herod's borders and the River Jordan en route Bethlehem, guided by some unknown force of motivation or direction inspired by the famous bright star in the night sky.

       Now who was this Herod? He was a relative of a Jewish servant to the Hasmoneans, the most powerful Jewish leaders serving the Seleucid Antiochus III who in battle had won Jerusalem from Ptolemy V of  Ægyptus . They had become Jewish through the Decree of Cyrus, which forced Judaism upon them. The Hasmoneans gained many freedoms from the Seleucid leaders, including the right to mint Jewish coins. Yet the walls around Jerusalem had been destroyed in the last thousand years over and over, opening up the city to invasion and occupation at a moment’s notice, and in light of the horrors that would beset Jerusalem from 167-164 B.C. it is no wonder that once Pompey would conqueror Jerualem, at first the Romans would be seen as great liberators.

       Many of the building blocks of Jerusalem, sacked over the centuries by invasions by the Babylonians and Persians would be used for the Temple infrastructure when the Temple would be rebuilt and dedicated a century and a half before Christ. What made the Jews particularly favored, even as the Roman warrior Pompey came to town proclaiming the names of strange false gods such as Apollo, Ceres, Diana, Juno, Jupiter, Mars, Mercury, Minerva, Neptune, Pluto, Remus, Romulus, Saturn, Venus, Vesta, and Vulcan? He was popular because he was better than what had come to them before. In contrast, much better.

       Pompey was a high leader in the Roman Republic, and even as the Jews appeared unruly and extremely dedicated to their own God and customs, the Roman leader realized that Jerusalem was in a perfect place as a staging point for eastward and southern expansion. All roads may have led to Rome, but all roads to Alexandria or Arabia came through Jerusalem, the shortest land bridge between Rome and the more distant occupied lands. The fertile land surrounding Jerusalem was the last opportunity to replenish supplies of food and water before proceeding through the treacherous routes to other places.

       East of Jerusalem was a slope that went more than a thousand feet under sea level before reaching the Dead Sea, and on the eastern slope of the River Jordan was Pella. Beyond that were camels, sand, and desolation with an oasis few and far between, but they did exist, if one were lucky enough to stumble upon one of them through lands with very few navigational markers. All told, the immediate area surrounding Jerusalem was relatively blessed and fertile. For Pompey, domination of Jerusalem was mandatory to Roman interests, despite the unique problems in ruling that particular local population.

       Pompey had realized early on that the Jews of Judea were unlike anything ever seen in his years away from Rome from Gibraltar to Damascus, or from Alexandria to Britannia. The Jews had no intention of ever becoming Roman citizens, for to do so would prevent them from entering their own Temple as this would defile it.

       In Jerusalem, culture itself revolved around scrolls, burnt offerings, prayers and supplications, and an elaborate religion far more serious than Pompey had ever seen or heard about in the pagan world. Any circumcised boy only thirteen years old was invited to stand at the center of the Temple, read a scroll to the others, and then comment upon the words uninterrupted. But no Roman or Samaritan or Greek of any age was allowed to do the same, no matter how powerful they were.

       When persuasion failed to work with the Jews, Roman cruelty was tried. The introduction of the crucifixion as an example of Roman power over the helpless gave birth to the Zealots who in turn and in force convinced the Romans to stay out of the Temple. The Romans then began to pay bribes to those well connected to the inner workings of the Temple to ensure that trouble could be crushed before it could even be manifest.

       When forming the First Triumvirate with Julius Caesar and Marcus Licinius Crassus to lead the Roman Republic into conqueror of the whole world, it was immediately clear to Pompey that from a practical standpoint, the rule need be firm enough to maintain control, but not so firm as to turn the whole population against the occupiers. It was considered essential not to make the same mistakes that Alexander of Greece did when he pioneered the spread of his Greek sciences, languages, and coins over the conquered world, eventually biting more than he could chew and invoking a successful rebellion in the occupied lands against him. Now, hundreds of years after Alexander, many in Jerusalem all the way through Persia could speak the Greek language fluently, and now, it would be Rome’s turn to try to turn the unruly Jewish lands into a Roman Latin-speaking colony.

       The Roman skills to build a better building were most impressive, and Julius Caesar understood better than most, as the former Curator of the Apian Way. But when discipline would be required, it would be in public, for the whole world to see, to deter others by example. Julius had actually once been captured by Pirates and held for ransom – he told his captors that he was insulted – he was worth at least double what the pirates demanded in ransom, but to expect to be crucified after Rome would pay it. As Julius had predicted, Rome did pay the ransom, and the freed Caesar organized a naval force to run down, capture, and crucify the Pirates. The corpses were staged on shoreline crosses for all passing ships to see as a warning of Roman discipline. But, as the pirates had treated Julius well in the many weeks of captivity, he ordered their legs broken while on the cross to avoid prolonged suffering of the condemned pirates. The practice of crucifixion was rarely used in Rome, but there had been certain days after certain crimes when crucified bodies would appear in rows along the outer walls of the Roman Coliseum. And the practice of breaking legs to end protracted suffering was even more rare.    

       Even as the Roman Senate operated the machinery to run the Roman Republic from a day-to-day basis, the leadership was mostly earned through brute force and prowess, not by the powers of persuasion. Julius Caesar was so well known for his public speaking skills that even by the great Orator of the Roman Forum, Marcus Tullius Cicero, complimented him for his powers of verbal persuasion through debate and monologue. Julius Caesar, commanding his Army, was sacked by Germans who had crossed into the Ubian City-State under control of Italy, luring 78 of his horsemen to their deaths in an ambush. In retaliation, Julius mercilessly led his army into Germania, to preside over the slaughter of half a million men, women, and children.  Back in Rome, he realized that the three most powerful Roman soldiers had three unique visions on where Rome should take limited armies next, so he formed a coalition with Marcus Licinius Crassus, Pompey, who would rule with him as one political unity, the First Triumvirate.

       It would be a short-lived arrangement of greed and betrayal, and the three members of the First Triumvirate would each build their own separate armies that would go to war with each other over supreme control over the Roman Republic.

       Pompey, who had claimed Jerusalem for Rome was killed in battle at the hands of Julius Caesar in Ægyptus. Seeing a great opportunity to hold power in the face of the inevitable fall of the Hasmonean Jewish Kingdom if allies in Rome did not stay in power, Antipater Herod, the senior officer in the court of Prince Hyrcanus II, wanted to court great favor with the rising Roman Republic, even as its leaders were killing each other off in distant wars.

       Julius Caesar and his army were besieged at Alexandria while fighting Pompey, and his survival and victory was possible because Antipater Herod, ancestor of Herod the Great sent Jewish troops to join the battle against Ægyptus, allowing Julius and his army to escape, and endearing Julius to the Hasmoneans who had ruled Jerusalem by proxy for the Roman Republic. Thus, Herod “The Great,” was a descendant named king later down the road to rule over the entire region. This explains how Herod, a Jew came to rule the lands, even as the Romans, clearly not Jews, delegated this power by their authority to him. But long before then, in winning the battle against Pompey, Julius Caesar installed Cleopatra as the Roman Queen of Ægyptus, and his days were indeed numbered, because of fear of a Roman Empire run by one single person in command of too much power.

       Julius Caesar was, as could be anticipated, assassinated, and Mark Antony was not far behind the chase to Damascus for the fleeing murderer, Gaius Cassius Longinus.

       Mark Antony, after declaring himself the next Emperor along with two others in a short-lived Second Triumvirate, and before long he had been trapped in a suicide pact with Cleoptra as Gaius Octavius – also known as Caesar Augustus closed in on his holdout in Alexandria. Antony had made several blunders that would take decades to repair, one of which was in killing the last Hasmonean ruler who had kept the Jews at bay for many generations as they fell under relatively peaceful Roman occupation.

       Now Rome would have to expend the resources necessary for more direct supervision of the unruly subjects. Unfortunately, Judea would have to come under full Roman control, and a Praetor would have to be sent there, just as one was already seated in Damascus to control Syria. This would not happen immediately. There were a number of influential people living in castles south of the Dead Sea who could serve as interim puppet governors, and none courted more favor with Rome than Herod the Great, as Rome him, the King of the Jews. After all, Herod was not from Jerusalem – he was from the cluster of smaller cities in Idumea, with ties to Edom (the former Moab), both surrounding the southern Dead Sea. In short order, Herod would find a home in Jerusalem – a lavish one built at great expense using many slaves, all under the auspices of Herod’s proclamation that he had arrived to become the new King Solomon.

       Herod was a powerful aristocrat in the tradition of ancient forms of government, patterned largely after Alexander's style of government, and through him, the Romans did not need to exert great armies to maintain control over Jerusalem - only enough to divert taxes intended for the Jewish Temple to Rome, providing Roman soldiers as needed to assist Herod's Tax Collectors, private citizens who had won the rights at auction to collect Roman, Provincial, and Municipal taxes, often at great personal profit made available by corruption and fraud.

       Caesar Augustus attempted to placate the Jews by passing an edict that they could continue to mint their own coins and pass them into their own Temple, as opposed to trading them in for Roman coins to enrich the Treasury in Rome. In return, the shortfall in the budget would be made up by a Census Tax. Caesar Augustus had been in sole power for more than twenty years, enjoying the reputation of providing relative peace and stability to his Roman Empire. While the Senate truly admired him and proclaimed him Emperor of the World, he humbly said that he had only restored the Roman Republic to what it was meant to be. Because Herod seemed to be maintaining control of the interim provincial Roman government, Rome could concentrate on other matters.

       Then, far north of Jerusalem in a rural small hillside village called Nazareth in Galilee, God’s Archangel Gabriel – one of only three of a countless multitude named specifically in the Bible, (joining Raphael and Michael) appeared to a young woman believed to be the daughter of a devout Jewish woman named Anna who must have been overjoyed at Mary’s recent betrothal to Joseph, a kind and God-fearing young carpenter in Galilee. Well, there would be a change to those plans, Mary was told by Gabriel, the same Archangel visiting Daniel after Antiochus IV Epiphanes 161 years earlier destroyed Scripture, tortured and enslaved Jewish faithful, and left the Temple in ruins. Antiochus was a terrible person, a Syrian king, and the 8th ruler of the Seleucid Dynasty. Although Mary would have certainly known of the Romans by then, Nazareth would have been an unaffected rural town in those days. This time, even bearing good news as Gabriel did for Daniel, the times ahead for the region would be tumultuous and earth-shattering, so much so that many of us who see our own life challenged by God’s surprises and unpredictable world events can not complain when we understand what God had asked of Mary. She said yes, and soon, she found herself a well traveled young woman under a bright star in the sky, in a strange town called Bethlehem, where God’s sense of humor must have brought her to tears as after such a long trip under such difficult conditions, the Father in heaven had not provided her a place to stay when it came time to give birth to the Son of God but a stinking Manger. Visited by angels, poor shepherd, and finally foreign kings, things only got worse for her as Joseph led her and her newborn son to Ægyptus, as the Jewish Hasmonean King Herod had already put a target on her baby’s head. Perhaps in Bethlehem or her new home in exile did Mary learn about some of the world history that would all come together in 33 years, when nailed to a cross like a pinned butterfly, nearly naked, profusely bleeding and badly bruised, and pulled to a state of suffocation by God’s own gravity, above the head read the following inscription written in 3 languages:   Iesvs Nazarenvs Rex Ivdaeorum (often abbreviated INRI); Iésous o Nazóraios o Basileus tón Ioudaión; Yeshua HaNotzri Melech HaYehudimwith. Translated: Jesus of Nazareth, King of the Jews. And parts of every single Mass ever happening throughout time reaches back into space and time to connect with that terrible moment, when Jesus died for our sins. And the sins He died for then reach back to the beginning of time, out to the end of time.

       While I like to ponder whether the Romans or the Jewish politicians bear the greater responsibility for what happened to Jesus, I eventually must realize that my sins that were no longer my burden because He accepted them upon His shoulders, and in short, I am responsible for what happened to Jesus on that day.

       When visiting the Vatican, I marvel at an old Egyptian Obelisk that still stands in the center of St. Peter’s square, knowing that it is much, much older than Jesus. But, I do wonder if Jesus did not see that same Obelisk as a young child as he passed it in Ægyptus, long before it was hauled to Rome. I don’t know why I think Jesus did play on and bless that Obelisk, but I somehow think He did, if only by the miracle of where it stands today, long after Jesus would have pondered it as a young child.

       But in time, King Herod was dead, Jesus was back in Nazareth as a carpenter, traveling as often as was customary “up to Jerusalem,” in Judea he undoubtedly met his best friends in the world - from Bethany – siblings named Lazarus, Mary, and Martha. Jesus loved that place so much during his whole life that when ascending to heaven, He did so from there.

       Mark combines 3 separate Jewish prophesies when opening His Gospel. From 440 years earlier: “I am sending my messenger to prepare the way before me; And suddenly there will come to the temple the Lord whom you seek, and the messenger of the covenant whom you desire.” From the School of Isaiah from more than 600 years earlier, “A voice cries out: In the desert prepare the way of the LORD! Make straight in the wasteland a highway for our God!” Even from Exodus, far more than a thousand years earlier: “See, I am sending an angel before you, to guard you on the way and bring you to the place I have prepared. Be attentive to him and heed his voice. Do not rebel against him, for he will not forgive your sin. My authority resides in him.”

       Mark notes that John the Baptist appeared to proclaim a baptism of repentance for the forgiveness of sins. At the time Jesus came, it is most likely Jesus had traveled to Judea from Nazareth, probably even to stay with his friends in Bethany, to the Jordan River closer to the Dead Sea than the Sea of Galilee. People of the whole Judean countryside and even Jerusalem were traveling to be baptized by John the Baptist in the Jordan River as they acknowledged their sins.  Yet, he proclaimed "One mightier than I is coming after me. I am not worthy to stoop and loosen the thongs of His sandals. I have baptized you with water; He will baptize you with the Holy Spirit.”  It happened in those days (that come in the narrative shortly before Jesus meeting Simon Peter) that Jesus came from Nazareth of Galilee and was baptized in the Jordan by John the Baptist. On coming up out of the water He saw the heavens being torn open and the Spirit, like a dove, descending upon him. And a voice came from the heavens, "You are my beloved Son; with you I am well pleased." At once the Spirit drove Him out into the desert (of the Judean Wilderness), and He remained in the desert for forty days, tempted by Satan. He was among wild beasts, and the angels ministered to him.

       John the Baptist was arrested, (almost certainly much later on up north in Galilee, given that he was imprisoned by Herod Antipas) and Jesus (also had) traveled to Galilee, home of the early Apostles, and also where the outlying towns existed with such names as Cana and Nazareth – his home. 

       As Jesus passed by the Sea of Galilee, He saw brothers casting their fishing nets into the sea, Simon and Andrew. “Come after me, and I will make you fishers of men.” They abandoned their nets (and their boats) and followed him. (Now, some of the other Gospels paint a more colorful struggle between Jesus and these men, but in the end, the result is the same – they abandon everything to follow Jesus.) Down a little further Zebedee’s two sons were likewise converted, named James and John. There is a humorous story in another Gospel as Zebedee’s wife later goes to ask Jesus for special honors in heaven for her own sons against the other Apostles – like any mother would do). Now many Homilies break up the sequence and it appears that all four Apostles just gave up on the life God had given them to follow a stranger they did not yet know as the Son of God. The Holy Spirit may have inspired them. What is just as likely is that He led them to their home seaside town of Capernaum, where Jesus met with the families and then convinced them through what happens there to follow Him on His mission.)

        In Capernaum, we know that Simon Peter already had a wife and children, and he would have to make arrangements prior to his departure if he was really going to just suddenly escape life as he knew it to leave them behind in following Jesus for the next few years.  On the Sabbath Jesus entered the synagogue and taught to an astonished crowd. He taught them as one having authority (and not as the Scribes whose job it was to simply copy one manuscript onto another so that more towns could have a copy. This was a booming business after the destruction of so much Scripture under the Seleucids less than two hundred years earlier, and the job of the Scribes was to simply copy, letter for letter, one text onto another, without editorial commentary, or in some cases in some places to translate Hebrew into other languages – most notably Greek).

       In their synagogue was a demon-possessed man who cried out, “What have you to do with us, Jesus of Nazareth? Have you come to destroy us? I know you are the Holy One of God!”

       Jesus rebuked him and said to the demon, “Quiet! Come out of him!” The unclean spirit convulsed him and with a loud cry came out of him. The people were utterly amazed at these capabilities of the visitor from Nazareth, and the fame of Jesus (would quickly) spread everywhere throughout the whole region of Galilee. He then went to Simon Peter’s house along with the other three Apostles, where the mother of Simon’s wife was sick. He healed her immediately, and she left her bed to wait on them.

       After sunset, everyone in Capernaum who was sick or possessed was brought to Simon Peter’s house, where Jesus healed them all.

Rising very early before dawn, he left and went off to a deserted place, where he prayed.

       Simon and those who were with him went out to find where Jesus had gone. They may not have realized at the time that it was then when they had abandoned their lives. When they finally found Him, they told Him “Everyone is looking for you!”

       Jesus said, “Let’s go on to the nearby villages, so I may preach there as well. I come for this purpose,”  (of a widespread Mission, as opposed to staying only in Capernaum).  - yet Jesus would soon return to the Capernaum house of Simon Peter - now known as St. Peter).

       So with the four Apostles, Jesus went into their synagogues, preaching and driving out demons throughout the whole of Galilee. (Although Mark presents these travels as a breathless sequence, these events probably took place over months, if not years.)

        In one known place sometime later, Jesus must have passed by a leper colony, a group of people sent into the shadows of culture, abandoned by society, family, and friends, because of a disease, where the lepers could not work, could not meet others, and more often than not probably died of starvation than getting beat to death by clubs and stones when hunger drove them to places where they would beg or steal food to stay alive. There are many parallels of today’s society, and I need not repeat the names we have for today’s equivalents.)

       One such leper broke all the rules and approached Jesus, kneeling before Him and begging for a miracle. Moved with pity, He stretched out His hand, and did the unthinkable in that culture. He touched the leper, and said to him, “I do will it. Be made clean.” And the leper was cured. Then, Jesus said “See that you tell no one anything. Simply go and show yourself to the priest and offer for your cleansing what Moses prescribed - that will be proof for them.” The procedure Jesus asked the leper to undergo was a ritual to be followed in the rare event someone with leprosy was cured – it was a pathway back into normal society for them. Despite the stern warning by Jesus, the cured man went away and began to tell everyone what had happened at the hands of Jesus. As one might imagine, the reaction throughout Galilee made it difficult for Jesus to enter any town. He would not be forced to remain outside in deserted places. Yet, people kept coming to him from everywhere.

The Gospel of St. Mark on-line