The key to Jesus’ enigmatic statement about making all foods clean

Today we will finish a few more hermeneutical observations and then get to the key to understanding what Jesus meant in Mark 7.19b: his audience.

But first a few more hermeneutical observations.

1. Notice what the Mark 7 story is sandwiched by–two stories that provide further clues.  Just before this story of Jesus’ debate over hand washing is the story of the sick who were healed by touching “the fringe” of Jesus’ cloak.  The Greek word is kraspedon, which is the Greek word for the tassels that all Jewish men were commanded to wear by Torah to remind them of the commandments of Mosaic law (Nb 15:37-41).  In Jewish popular culture, it was believed that healing could come through a prophet’s tassels.
2. Then notice what comes just after the handwashing dispute: the mission to the Gentiles.  Jesus goes to Tyre, a notoriously Gentile area.

To recapitulate: Just before our disputed passage is a story that emphasizes Jesus’s observance of Torah and just after is the beginning of a mission to Gentiles.  In other words, Jesus is a Jew who is devoted to Torah but is also ministering to Gentiles.

In fact, it is the scholarly consensus that the intended audience for Mark’s gospel is Gentiles.  As David Rudolph has pointed out in his groundbreaking article “Jesus and the Food Laws” (Evangelical Quarterly 74:4 [2002], 291-311), Mark translates seven Aramaic words into Greek to help his Greek (Gentile) audience.  A Jewish audience would have understood the Aramaic, which is very close to Hebrew.

So, according to Rudolph, the meaning of Jesus’ cryptic words in Mk 7.19b is that all foods are clean for Gentiles.  Why?  Because Torah is addressed primarily to Jews, not Gentiles.  This is why the Jews in leadership at the Jerusalem Council in Acts 15 made the decision they did: the Gentiles don’t have to practice circumcision and kosher because they are Torah commandments and Torah is primarily addressed to Jews.

Rudolph thinks Mark quoted Jesus in 7.19 because the early church was still wondering by this time (between 64 and 75 AD/CE) if it was true that gentiles did not have to keep kosher.  The Jerusalem Council (about 49 AD) never quoted Jesus for support.  So perhaps both Jews and Gentiles wondered if it was right, and if Paul was right when he wrote in Romans (probably written 55-57 AD) nearly the same words in Greek in Rom 14.14: panta bromata men kathara (all foods are clean).  Paul was addressing the same issue, differences in eating between Jews and Gentiles.

Rudolph thinks that Mark recalled Jesus’ using nearly these same words in order to reassure Gentiles that kosher commandments did not apply to them–even if they were still required of all Jews, even Jesus-believing Jews.

Tomorrow we will get into the Mark 7 passage, going line by line to see how the particular words of this story reinforce everything I have been saying so far.