Mark 6 Contextual Analysis Essay

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Contextual Analysis First off, what is dealt with in Mark 6? At the beginning of Mark 6, Jesus had just left the country of Gerasenes to go to Nazareth. We see very few blocks here, because the passage fits into one entire, cohesive thought. The prescriptive thought here is taking nothing for the journey. We don’t need to pack much for the journey because we’re just passing through. Symbolically this would mean life eternal. We have to trust God to take care of us. The descriptive thought would obviously be the story of Jesus calling the 12 disciples. Their names are Peter, James (the son of Zebedee), John, Andrew, Philip, Bartholomew, Thomas, Matthew, James (the son of Alphaeus), Thaddaeus, Simon the Zealot and Judas Iscariot.
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It was written to the Gentiles. We see in Mark 6, that they sent people 2 by 2’s to spread the good news of Jesus. One may wonder the reason for this. In Greek and Jewish cultures, this was actually very customary, because it verified the message or testimony they were bringing to the people. The audience’s commitment here is somewhat undetermined, but their decision to follow Christ says a lot about how they feel about His work.
The disciples were instructed to take nothing along with them for the “road”, but rather, in faith, believe that all their needs would be supplied. Something that really stuck out to me in my research was that they were told to bring only a staff for their journey; no bag, no money, etc. What is a staff? What is it’s symbolism ? A staff is “a long stick used as a support when walking or climbing or as a weapon.” This is HUGE for this passage! Well let’s think back the book of Exodus. Moses was commanded to raise his staff whenever a miracle was happening, and this signified heavenly power. Just like Moses, the disciple’s staffs supported them and helped to empower them to bring the message to the

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