Did Mark Know Where He Was?

[ICXCNIKA]

Okay, here is another thing from the book “Reading the New Testament.”

“Mark 7:31 suggests that the author was not familiar with Palestinian geography. (Try tracing the proposed route on a map!)” (204).

Here is what Mark 7:31 says:

“Then he returned from the region of Tyre, and went through Sidon to the Sea of Galilee, through the region of the Decapolis.”

So I traced it on a map and I don’t see the problem. From Tyre he could go north to Sidon then south to the Sea of Galilee and then further south to Decapolis.

Am I reading the map wrong?

ccel.org/bible/phillips/CN600NTWORLD.htm

(Scroll down for a map of Syria and Palestine)

 

[peary]

Okay, here is another thing from the book “Reading the New Testament.”

“Mark 7:31 suggests that the author was not familiar with Palestinian geography. (Try tracing the proposed route on a map!)” (204).

Here is what Mark 7:31 says:

“Then he returned from the region of Tyre, and went through Sidon to the Sea of Galilee, through the region of the Decapolis.”

So I traced it on a map and I don’t see the problem. From Tyre he could go north to Sidon then south to the Sea of Galilee and then further south to Decapolis.

I don’t see a problem either.

Am I reading the map wrong?

ccel.org/bible/phillips/CN600NTWORLD.htm

(Scroll down for a map of Syria and Palestine)

 

[Catholic_Dude]

I’m not sure I see the route being described, but you should also keep in mind if there were hills/mountain ranges around we would not expect a straight line from point A to point B if a mountain/hill was in between there most likely will be a round about way.

 

[Sideline]

No there isn’t anything wrong with it.

There is nothing stopping a person going from Cornwall to London through Manchester, or to Virginia from New York via Chicago, or even from Calgary to Vancouver by way of Banff.

It’s just that it’s a rather… strange… route.

 

[ICXCNIKA]

In my reading of it, I don’t see that Mark is giving a straight route. It seems like he is saying, Jesus came back from Tyre then he went to Sidon, then to Galilee then to the Decapolis.

I doubt it was a straight route from one location to the next. It seems like a quick summary of where Jesus was hanging out at the time.

Does anyone know, was Sidon in Syria at that time or was it part of Phonecia?

 

[Sideline]

In my reading of it, I don’t see that Mark is giving a straight route. It seems like he is saying, Jesus came back from Tyre then he went to Sidon, then to Galilee then to the Decapolis.

I doubt it was a straight route from one location to the next. It seems like a quick summary of where Jesus was hanging out at the time.

You mean Jesus went from Tyre, then back home, and then went to Sidon, and then to the Decapolis? That’s an even stranger route. That’s like going on a trip from Philadelphia to New York, then on to Cleveland, and winding up in Boston.

If he wasn’t giving a straight route, there are much easier ways to communicate that, “Jesus travelled through the region, stopping in Sidon before returning to Galilee.” or “Jesus travelled to Sidon, before returning.” or “Before Jesus travelled to Galilee, he travelled to Sidon.”

There are much bigger problems with Mark, though. He doesn’t seem to know much about the scripture or holidays of the Jews, for instance.

Does anyone know, was Sidon in Syria at that time or was it part of Phonecia?

As far as I can tell, it is in Syria.

 

[ICXCNIKA]

You mean Jesus went from Tyre, then back home, and then went to Sidon, and then to the Decapolis? That’s an even stranger route. That’s like going on a trip from Philadelphia to New York, then on to Cleveland, and winding up in Boston.

If he wasn’t giving a straight route, there are much easier ways to communicate that, “Jesus travelled through the region, stopping in Sidon before returning to Galilee.” or “Jesus travelled to Sidon, before returning.” or “Before Jesus travelled to Galilee, he travelled to Sidon.”

There are much bigger problems with Mark, though. He doesn’t seem to know much about the scripture or holidays of the Jews, for instance.

As far as I can tell, it is in Syria.

I don’t know if Jesus went back home, it just says he returned from Tyre. Returned where. Just given Mk. 7:31, he was doing a lot of traveling. Perhaps Mark was just giving a very general description of Jesus’ travels.

 

[patrick457]

Okay, here is another thing from the book “Reading the New Testament.”

“Mark 7:31 suggests that the author was not familiar with Palestinian geography. (Try tracing the proposed route on a map!)” (204).

Here is what Mark 7:31 says:

“Then he returned from the region of Tyre, and went through Sidon to the Sea of Galilee, through the region of the Decapolis.”

So I traced it on a map and I don’t see the problem. From Tyre he could go north to Sidon then south to the Sea of Galilee and then further south to Decapolis.

Am I reading the map wrong?

ccel.org/bible/phillips/CN600NTWORLD.htm

(Scroll down for a map of Syria and Palestine)

According to this website:

This one is a little more complex, but no more problematic. It has been interpreted to mean that Jesus and His company went through Sidon to GET TO The Sea of Galilee, which would indeed be the wrong way - but what it means is that they had an itinerary of 1) Tyre, 2) Sidon, and THEN 3) the Sea and the Decapolis region. The journey to Sidon is NOT a case of “what they went through to get there,” but, “where they went also.” Glenn Miller has passed on to me this quote from Douglas Edwards, who, in his essay, "The Socio-Economic and Cultural Ethos in the First Century," has noted:

Indeed, even the Jesus movement’s travel from Tyre to Sidon to the Decapolis depicted in Mark, which has struck some New Testament interpreters as evidence for an ignorance of Galilean geography, is, in fact, quite plausible. Josephus notes that during the reign of Antipas, while Herod Agrippa I was in Syria, a dispute regarding boundaries arose between Sidon and Damascus, a city of the Decapolis. It is therefore conceivable that the movement headed east toward Damascus and then south through the region of the Decapolis, following major roads linking Damascus with either Caesarea Philippi or Hippos. ([GLA:59-60])