A narrow stone street in a first-century town at dusk, robed figures walking past market stalls toward a glowing wheel of light at the end of the street.

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 3:13-35, The Twelve, his family and Beelzebul

Jesus appoints twelve. His family thinks he is out of his mind, and teachers from Jerusalem say he drives out demons by Beelzebul.

The GospelsMark

Mark 3:13-35

Mark 3:13-35, in every translation this tool compares.

What is going on here

Jesus chooses twelve men to stay close to him and to go out on his behalf. Back home, his own relatives think he has lost his mind, and teachers from Jerusalem claim he drives out demons by the power of their ruler. Jesus answers that Satan would never fight himself, and he redraws the lines of family around the people who do what God wants.

The ancient world behind it

{"u":"https:\/\/jayms.com\/bible-study-tools-2\/ancient-world-ideas\/the-twelve\/","n":"The Twelve","s":"Jesus chose twelve men to be with him and to be sent out. The number matched Israel's twelve tribes.","r":""}
{"u":"https:\/\/jayms.com\/bible-study-tools-2\/ancient-world-ideas\/family-first\/","n":"The family's name","s":"Families lived, worked and stood together. Walking out of the family business or putting kin second was a public offense.","r":""}
{"u":"https:\/\/jayms.com\/bible-study-tools-2\/ancient-world-ideas\/teachers-of-the-law\/","n":"Teachers of the law","s":"Trained experts in the law of Moses, also called scribes, some local and some from Jerusalem, who taught by citing earlier teachers.","r":""}
{"u":"https:\/\/jayms.com\/bible-study-tools-2\/ancient-world-ideas\/unclean-spirits\/","n":"Unclean spirits and exorcists","s":"Spirits that defiled and harmed people. Exorcists of the day used names, oaths, spells and foul smells to drive them out. Jesus gave an order.","r":""}
{"u":"https:\/\/jayms.com\/bible-study-tools-2\/ancient-world-ideas\/blasphemy\/","n":"Blasphemy","s":"Speech that dishonored God, including claiming what belonged to God alone. Under the law the penalty was death.","r":""}

Also in this passage

Keener notes that Simon was one of the most popular Jewish names of the day, so a nickname like Peter, meaning rock, helped tell Simons apart. Zealot could mean simply a person known for zeal, though in the next generation it came to mean those who fought foreign rule; the cultural backgrounds chart of Jewish sects dates the Zealots' origin to Herod the Great's reign, and the Zondervan Bible Dictionary reads Cananaean as an Aramaic word for zealot used before it named a party. Keener ties the binding of the strong man to Isaiah 49:25 and sets it apart from magical binding. Iscariot may mean man of Kerioth, which would make Judas a Judean among Galileans (Garland). A later rabbinic tradition says Jesus was executed because he practiced sorcery, which Garland takes as independent evidence that he was known as a wonder worker; the Testament of Solomon names Beelzebul prince of the demons.

Related passages

Mark 1:14-20, Fishermen called Mark 4:1-34, Parables by the lake Mark 14:53-72, At the high priest's house Matthew 9:35-10:15, The Twelve sent with nothing Matthew 12:22-50, Beelzebul, the strong man, Jonah and his true family Matthew 13:53-58, No honor in Nazareth Luke 11:14-26, By Beelzebul, or by the finger of God?

Sources

NIV Cultural Backgrounds Study Bible, notes on Mark 3:14, 3:16, 3:18, 3:21, 3:22, 3:27, 3:29 and 3:33
N. T. Wright, Mark for Everyone, comments on Mark 3:7-19 and Mark 3:31-35
Kenneth E. Bailey, Jesus Through Middle Eastern Eyes, ch. 14, Jesus and Women: An Introduction
NIV Cultural Backgrounds Study Bible, article Jewish Sects
J. D. Douglas and Merrill C. Tenney, Zondervan Illustrated Bible Dictionary, entry zealot
David E. Garland, Mark, in Zondervan Illustrated Bible Backgrounds Commentary, ed. Clinton E. Arnold, on Mark 3:19 and 3:22

All passages