On the premise of Matthean priority and that Mark leveraged Matthew, can we understand Mark to be alluding to some of Matthew’s OT citations?
He Lifted Her Up.
Am going to start by confessing that this potential allusion is subtle, so I will not be offended if some of you contend that this claimed allusion is a stretch. Whether it is justified or not will likely turn on whether there is a strong enough pattern of these kinds of allusions elsewhere in Mark’s Gospel. Refer to the article on Mark 1:15 for another example. I will post another couple instances in the future.
Matthew 8:14–17 reports the healing of Peter’s mother-in-law. After entering Peter’s house and seeing her sick, Jesus
touched her hand, and the fever left her, and she rose and began to serve him. That evening they brought to him many who were oppressed by demons, and he cast out the spirits with a word and healed all who were sick. This was to fulfill what was spoken by the prophet Isaiah: “He took our illnesses and bore our diseases.” (ESV)
Matthew is drawing from Isaiah 53:4, from one of the Suffering Servant prophecies, although the OT rendering is somewhat different:
Surely he has borne our griefs and carried our sorrows … (ESV)
Note the verbs in this passage. The first verb, nasa, carries the sense of to “lift up … bear, carry,” etc., according to Swanson’s Dictionary of Biblical Languages (DBL). The second verb, sabal, has a similar meaning of “bear, carry,” etc.
Therefore, how interesting it is that while Mark omits the reference to Isaiah, he also makes a short addition to his description of the healing of Peter’s mother-in-law which seems to connect with Matthew’s Isaianic quote:
he came and took her by the hand and lifted her up, and the fever left her, and she began to serve them.
I suggest that Mark, with full awareness of Matthew’s text, has chosen to drop the quote from Isaiah, while inserting “and lifted her up” as a direct allusion to Matthew and his citation of Isaiah, which anticipated this future work of the Suffering Servant.
Per my review of around twenty commentaries on Mark, none connect Mark’s “he lifted her up” reference to Matthew and then back to Isaiah.1 I suspect that this is because of the common presumption of Markan priority. However, even advocates of the Two Gospel hypothesis (Matthew-Luke-Mark publication order) miss the connection, but instead assert that by inserting the phrase, “Mark enriches his narrative with a ‘resurrection motif’ that is often absent or less obvious in the parallel narratives.”2
The bottom-line here is that Mark appears to be alluding to Matthew’s use of Isaiah 53, yet this intertextual reference between the Synoptics is not being acknowledged by modern commentators.
- Some of the commentaries reviewed include Richard T. France, The Gospel of Mark: A Commentary on the Greek Text, New International Greek Testament Commentary (Grand Rapids, MI: Eerdmans, 2002), 107–108; James R. Edwards, The Gospel According to Mark, Pillar New Testament Commentary (Grand Rapids, MI: Eerdmans, 2002), 60; Walter W. Wessel, “Mark,” in Matthew, Mark, Luke, ed. Frank E. Gaebelein, The Expositor’s Bible Commentary (Grand Rapids, MI: Zondervan, 1984), 628; R. Alan Cole, Mark: An Introduction and Commentary, Tyndale New Testament Commentaries (Downers Grove, IL: InterVarsity, 1989), 115–116; Donald English, The Message of Mark: The Mystery of Faith (Downers Grove, IL: InterVarsity, 1992), 53–59; Morna D. Hooker, The Gospel According to Saint Mark (London: Continuum, 1991), 70; Mark L Strauss, Mark, Zondervan Exegetical Commentary on the New Testament (Grand Rapids, MI: Zondervan, 2014), 99–100; William L. Lane, The Gospel According to Mark, New International Commentary on the New Testament (Grand Rapids, MI: Eerdmans, 1974), 76–80; Robert H. Stein, Mark (Grand Rapids, MI: Baker Academic, 2008), 92–94; Vincent Taylor, The Gospel According to St. Mark (London: Macmillan, 1952), 178–80. ↩︎
- David B. Peabody, ed., One Gospel from Two: Mark’s Use of Matthew and Luke (Harrisburg, PA: Trinity Press International, 2002), 91. ↩︎
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