Martin wrote:
Are you thinking to combine the stories into one for the evaluation?
Yes, I will start first with the daughter of Jairus, which sets the pattern. Miracles with numbers that indicate the ages when women’s bodies undergo developmental changes. The woman is said to suffer from this affliction for so many years, actually representing the age that the change occurs. Twelve for menstruation and fifteen to eighteen for breast development.
Martin wrote:
Celebrating the death of a maiden - you may be onto something with both parts of the Markan “sandwich” (a pad with different layers?) referring to the same female, and how to stop the flow of blood. I woke this morning and was thinking about this. I guess that I’m a little slower thinking at 60 than I was at 20. When I first read your article it didn’t really stick - perhaps not that interesting to me initially, or maybe I was just tired and mindlessly scrolling.
I think that it is designed not to stick.
Martin wrote:
But, it seems there is actually more to it. At least I think that’s why I was thinking on it this morning before my mind got polluted and confused and distracted by checking email, etc.
In Mark, this sandwich (Celebrating the Death of a Maiden) falls at the very end of chapter 5. Mark 6 is my favorite chapter, and perhaps I will get that written up some day. I started working on it a couple days ago, but got interrupted by my wife, asking me to fix something, and just didn’t get back to it.
Thankfully my wife allows me the freedom to stay up till the next day to follow my obsessions without interruptions.
Martin wrote:
What I’m wondering in regards to “12 years” for the maiden, is could the story be related to the two mentions of 12 disciples in Mark 6? The only two times the 12 disciples were sent out without Jesus, is recorded in Mark 6. Allow me to point this out with a basic outline of the chapter:
a Jesus in hometown, people lacked faith
b Jesus sends the 12 with authority over “unclean spirits”
I think that you are correct. Jesus has decided that this miracle is one that can be taught to the disciples and that they could handle on their own.
3 Is not this the carpenter, the son of Mary, the brother of James, and Joses, and of Juda, and Simon? and are not his sisters here with us? And they were offended at him. (Mar 6:3 KJV)
Notice the way they mention the sisters of Jesus being there with them. This may be connected with Jesus trying to pass on knowledge about menstruation and absorbent pads. Who does Jesus think he is with this idea? His sisters live here. Are they concealing when they are menstruating?
More importantly, I think you are correct that all of chapter six has to be understood in light of the miracle and the cloth to absorb the bleeding.
Martin wrote:
c Feast of Herod’s birthday (coming of age) - served on a platter is blood (with the head of John the baptizer) - a reward for a dancing “daughter”? Was the offer of a reward (up to half my kingdom) potentially an indecent marriage proposal? Was it really a party to celebrate her coming of age, such as a bat mitzvah or quinceanero?
You are quite close with this. I believe that a marriage proposal was planned, though with a different partner. The intention, as I see it, was to join the princess with a man admired by the rebellious masses. Unfortunately, someone spoke to the princess during the party and changed her mind.
(61) Jesus said, “Two will repose on a couch: one will die, one will live.
Salome said: Who are you, man, whose son? You have mounted my bed and eaten from my table.”
Jesus said to her, “It is I who come from that which is integrated. I was given the things of my father.
<Salome said:> I am your disciple.
<Jesus said to her:> “Therefore I say that such a person, once integrated, will become full of light; but such a person, once divided will become full of darkness.
The text above comes from the Gospel of Thomas. Notice how Jesus says that he was given the things of his father. I suspect that this is a reference to the younger son in the parable of the prodigal son. If Jesus is the younger son, then that would make John the Baptist the older son who stayed behind doing his father’s work. His angry and jealous older brother.
The death of John the Baptist also has something in common with that of the daughter of Jairus in that it may have been less a death and more a transformation.
Consider the following from The Secret Book of James:
Then I asked him, “Lord, how shall we be able to prophesy to those who request us to prophesy to them? For there are many who ask us, and look to us to hear an oracle from us.”
The Lord answered and said, “Do you not know that the head of prophecy was cut off with John?”
But I said, “Lord, can it be possible to remove the head of prophecy?”
The Lord said to me, “When you come to know what ‘head’ means, and that prophecy issues from the head, (then) understand the meaning of ‘Its head was removed.’ At first I spoke to you in parables, and you did not understand; now I speak to you openly, and you (still) do not perceive. Yet, it was you who served me as a parable in parables, and as that which is open in the (words) that are open…
“Do not allow the kingdom of heaven to wither; for it is like a palm shoot whose fruit has dropped down around it. They (i.e., the fallen fruit) put forth leaves, and after they had sprouted, they caused their womb to dry up. So it is also with the fruit which had grown from this single root; when it had been picked (?), fruit was borne by many (?). It (the root) was certainly good, (and) if it were possible for you to produce the new plants now, <you> would find it.”
Without the head of prophecy, it is impossible to produce seed. Also, if the head of prophecy is removed at its root, strapping a bandage on the bleeding womb might not be a bad idea.
Martin writes:
c1 Feast of 5000, Jesus has compassion and teaches
These five thousand are likely the followers of John, who are now without a leader. Jesus giving them the sacred bread was like strapping a bandage on a bleeding wound.
Martin writes:
b1 Jesus sends the 12 to Bethsaida (and they end up in Genessaret - a nightmare of sorts with making no progress against the waves, and having a vision of a ghost on the water)
a1 Jesus in Genessaret, people rushed all around to bring the sick to the marketplaces that they may touch the clothing of Jesus.
One other thing is interesting. In his hometown, the only healing that is done is accomplished by laying hands on the few who were healed. In Genessaret, the people had faith and the healing was done by them touching the garment of Jesus. Could it be this is an extension of what he taught regarding the maiden? (In one instance he is touched, in the other he does the touching). Jesus’ teaching was rejected in his hometown, and accepted elsewhere. So, were menstrating women brought to the marketplaces that they might get their hands on this miracle cloth?
Absolutely. This is Jesus spreading the concept of using a clean cloth as a bandage to stop bleeding. The idea was catching on.
Martin writes:
I have my own theory about the function of the two feasts at the center of Mark 6. This is what I would like to get written up. I believe the story of Herod’s birthday party is intentionally placed before the feeding of the 5000. It interrupts the flow of narrative, and would otherwise seem appropriate to be placed in Mark 1 with other dialogue regarding John the baptizer. I look at the worldliness of this feast, who would have been invited, what exquisite foods they likely had, and yet the only thing specifically mentioned as being served is death.
Cut for length.
I see the whole of chapter six as having to do with the miracle of the daughter of Jairus, thanks to your comments. Jesus’ sending out the twelve disciples, the “beheading” of John. Jesus’ feeding the flock without a shepherd, the militant followers of John the Baptist, another bandage. And then in the end, the people finding themselves healed after touching the robe of Jesus.
Through it all, the unspoken device to capture blood from the womb.
Thank you, Martin, for this opportunity to give this chapter a closer look. Let’s hope something sticks for the both of us.
