Tool Beta
The Ancient World Behind the Text
Pick a passage anywhere in the New Testament. See the customs and ideas a first reader knew without being told.
Mark 11:1-11, The ride into Jerusalem
Jesus sends for a colt no one has ridden and rides into Jerusalem over cloaks and branches while the crowd shouts Hosanna.
Mark 11:1-11, in every translation this tool compares.
Near Bethphage and Bethany, Jesus sends two disciples for a colt, with the words that the Lord needs it. He rides toward the city while people spread their cloaks and cut branches, shouting blessings on the one who comes and on the coming kingdom of David. He goes into the temple, looks around, and goes back to Bethany for the night.
- {"u":"https:\/\/jayms.com\/bible-study-tools-2\/ancient-world-ideas\/wilderness\/","n":"The wilderness","s":"The dry, empty country beyond the Jordan where John preached, Jesus was tested and a crowd was fed. It was hard ground, and it was where Israel's story with God began.","r":""}
- {"u":"https:\/\/jayms.com\/bible-study-tools-2\/ancient-world-ideas\/passover-pilgrims\/","n":"Passover and the pilgrim crowds","s":"The spring festival that retold God's rescue of Israel from Egypt. Jerusalem filled with pilgrims, and hopes of freedom ran high.","r":""}
- {"u":"https:\/\/jayms.com\/bible-study-tools-2\/ancient-world-ideas\/hailing-a-king\/","n":"Hailing a king","s":"A colt nobody had ridden, cloaks on the road, waving branches, kneeling, the cry Hail, and the delegation that went out to meet a visiting ruler: the public gestures that greeted a king.","r":""}
- {"u":"https:\/\/jayms.com\/bible-study-tools-2\/ancient-world-ideas\/messiah\/","n":"The Messiah, son of David","s":"The anointed king most Jews expected from David's line, who would free Israel from its enemies. Nobody expected him to be killed.","r":""}
- {"u":"https:\/\/jayms.com\/bible-study-tools-2\/ancient-world-ideas\/temple-and-courts\/","n":"The temple and its courts","s":"Herod's huge rebuilt temple in Jerusalem, believed to be God's dwelling, laid out in courts that kept Gentiles, women and Jewish men at set distances.","r":""}
Keener places Bethphage about three quarters of a mile east of the top of the Mount of Olives and Bethany about two miles east of Jerusalem, and notes that getting back to the village before dark mattered. Wright reads the climb from Jericho to the Mount of Olives as a long climb through the Judaean wilderness that was, for the pilgrims, the climb to the kingdom. Each detail, the colt no one had ridden, the cloaks, the branches and the shout about David's kingdom, belonged to the greeting of a king (Keener's notes). The Mishnah says no one else may ride a king's mount, men spread their garments under Jehu when he was proclaimed king (2 Kings 9:13), and Simon Maccabee entered Jerusalem with palm branches (1 Maccabees 13:51) (Garland). Bethphage means house of early or unripe figs (Garland; Wilkins). Distances differ a little: the Zondervan Atlas puts Bethany about a mile and a half from Jerusalem. The cultural backgrounds map of Passion Week sets the entry on Sunday, the clearing of the temple on Monday, and the debates on Tuesday.
- NIV Cultural Backgrounds Study Bible, notes on Mark 11:1, 11:2, 11:3, 11:7, 11:8 and 11:11
- ESV Study Bible, study notes on Mark 11:8 and 11:9
- N. T. Wright, Mark for Everyone, comment on Mark 11:1-11
- David E. Garland, Mark, in Zondervan Illustrated Bible Backgrounds Commentary, ed. Clinton E. Arnold, on Mark 11:1, 11:2 and 11:9
- Carl G. Rasmussen, Zondervan Atlas of the Bible, Jerusalem
- NIV Cultural Backgrounds Study Bible, article Passion Week: Bethany, the Mount of Olives and Jerusalem
- Michael J. Wilkins, Matthew, in Zondervan Illustrated Bible Backgrounds Commentary, ed. Clinton E. Arnold, on Matthew 21:1
