Hardness of Heart & the Organization of Mark
Hardness of Heart and the Organization of Mark
How are Pharoah, the Pharisees, and the Apostles connected? The Bible shows that each of them had hardened hearts for God’s sovereign purposes. The following excerpts come from a short paper that I first wrote for my Foundations of Translation class on the meaning of ‘hardness of heart’ in Mark 3:5 and 8:17. In it, I argue that Mark uses the concept of hardness of heart to organize the section of his Gospel account just before the Passion (Mark 6-10). In that section, Mark shows that neither the Pharisees nor the apostles truly understood the significance of Jesus’ words and deeds during His ministry on earth.
Here are two of my favorite sections:
Hardness of Heart in the Old Testament
The Hebrews used sensory organs as metaphors for higher-level understanding (Danker 1973). Danker states that the phrase “hardness of heart” belongs to a complex of ideas that denotes an inability to respond properly to God’s actions (Danker 1973). According to him, this term is related to “deafness,” “blindness,” and “uncircumcised hearts” (Isaiah 6:9-10; Lev. 26:41; Deut. 10:16). For example, Jeremiah 5:21 and Ezekiel 12:1-2 discuss rebellion in terms of the inability to see and hear. God both “hears” and “sees.” Likewise, God created ears for people to hear and eyes for them to see. Those who worship God hear and see. In contrast, those who worship idols become blind and deaf like their idols (cf. Deut. 32:6, 16-29; Psalm 115:2-8). Pharoah in the Exodus narrative becomes the prime example of how hardened hearts work: just as God makes man to see and hear for His purposes, He may also make man deaf, blind, or callous-hearted for His purposes (Exodus 4:21ff).
Mark’s Development of Hardness of Heart in His Gospel
Mark’s discussion of hardness of heart reflects how the early Christian community wrestled with the fact that so many Israelites rejected Christ. Matthew, Paul, and Mark all write extensively on this topic. These authors follow Christ’s example by drawing on Isaiah 6:9-10. Though the theme may start in chapter two, Mark does not make explicit mention of the term hardness of heart until 3:5 and does not record alluding to it until 4:10ff. The theme takes center stage in chapters 7-8 of Mark’s narrative (Danker 1973, 94; cf. Strauss 2014). In these chapters, Jesus restores hearing and speech to the mute and deaf (Mark 7:31-37) and sight to the blind (Mark 8:22-26). His disciples, though, remain hardened to the meaning of His works and words (6:45-52, 8:13-21, 31-33).
Mark heightens the drama around Jesus’ crucifixion in the next section (Mark 8-10) by continuing to develop the theme of the apostles’ hardness. In that section, they bounce between (a) failing to comprehend that Jesus will die and (b) demonstrating profound spiritual immaturity through their conduct. Between Jesus’ three misunderstood predictions of His death (8:31-33, 9:31-32, 10:32), Peter says something foolish during the Transfiguration (9:2-13), the remaining disciples failed to cast out a demon (9:14-29), they then argue about who will be the greatest (9:33-37), and they rebuke people bringing children to Jesus (10:13-17). To top it off, James and John ask Jesus to promise them the highest positions of honor and power in his kingdom, which, in turn, angers all the other disciples (Mark 10:35-45). Mark characterizes the disciples similarly during the Passion drama and after the resurrection. It appears that the disciples, just like the Pharisees, had hardened hearts.
Want the rest?
You may find the whole paper worth reading.
TL;DR (Too Long; Didn’t Read)
- ‘Hardness of heart’ is an important theme in the Old Testament.
- The early Christian community used the concept of ‘hardness of heart’ while wrestling with the reason so many in Israel rejected Jesus as the Christ.
- Mark uses the concept of ‘hardness of heart’ to organize a significant portion of his Gospel (chapters 6-10).