We dive into Lent by backtracking in our reading of Mark today, heading to the scene of Jesus' temptation and forty day fast. Though a short passage, we find a Gospel rich with Old Testament imagery and typological fulfillment. Jesus heads into the wilderness to re-stage many scenes from Scripture but this time as the faithful son who has come to reconcile the world to his Father.
Diving deep into our Gospel we'll spend our episode looking closer at:
- How Jesus' forty days in the desert parallel not only the Israelites forty years in the desert but also Moses' forty day fast before he destroyed the Golden Calf [22:01]
- The Jewish legend that Adam also fasted for forty days after the fall and did penance by washing in a familiar river [26:19]
- The uncanny connections between Jesus' baptism and the flood narrative in Genesis (our first reading) [32:00]
- How the presence of the wild beasts in the wilderness point to the beginning of a new creation [37:14]
- The Rabbinic literature that claims Adam and Eve were also ministered to by angels in the Garden of Eden before the fall [49:12]
BIBLIOGRAPHY
Donahue, John R., and Daniel J. Harrington. The Gospel of Mark. Edited by Daniel J. Harrington. Vol. 2. Sacra Pagina Series. Collegeville, MN: The Liturgical Press, 2002.
Healy, Mary. The Gospel of Mark. Grand Rapids, MI: Baker Academic, 2008.
Marcus, Joel. Mark 1–8: A New Translation with Introduction and Commentary. Vol. 27. Anchor Yale Bible. New Haven; London: Yale University Press, 2008.
REFERENCES
Deuteronomy 8:2 - "And you shall remember all the way which the LORD your God has led you these forty years in the wilderness, that he might humble you, testing you to know what was in your heart, whether you would keep his commandments, or not."
Exodus 25:18 - "And Moses entered the cloud, and went up on the mountain. And Moses was on the mountain forty days and forty nights."
Deuteronomy 9:18 - "Then I lay prostrate before the LORD as before, forty days and forty nights; I neither ate bread nor drank water, because of all the sin which you had committed, in doing what was evil in the sight of the LORD"
Life of Adam and Eve 6.1-2 - "And Adam said to Eve: ‘Thou canst not do so much as I, but do only so much as thou hast strength for. For I will spend forty days fasting, but do thou arise and go to the river Tigris and lift up a stone and stand on it in the water up to thy neck in the deep of the river. And let no speech proceed out of thy mouth, since we are unworthy to address the Lord, for our lips are unclean from the unlawful and forbidden tree. 2 And do thou stand in the water of the river thirty-seven days. But I will spend forty days in the water of Jordan, perchance the Lord God will take pity upon us.’"
Genesis 1:28 - "Have dominion over the fish of the sea and over the birds of the air and over every living thing that moves upon the earth."
Life of Adam and Eve 4.2 - "And Adam said to Eve: ‘This hath the Lord provided for animals and brutes to eat; but we used to have angels’ food."
Sanhedrin 59b.22 (Talmud) - "Adam, the first man, would dine in the Garden of Eden, and the ministering angels would roast meat for him and strain wine for him." https://www.sefaria.org/Sanhedrin.59b.22?lang=bi&with=all&lang2=en