Re: EUQUS in Mark
Carl W. Conrad (cwconrad@artsci.wustl.edu)
Sun, 10 May 1998 12:30:46 -0400
At 12:16 PM -0400 5/10/98, Jack Kilmon wrote:
> How about this scenario? Young John Mark, bilingual, becomes
>a traveling companion of the Aramaic-speaking Kefa/Simon/Peter. Judea
>consists of solely Aramaic speaking Jews (hEBRAISTI), solely Greek
>speaking Jews (the hELLHNISTAI of Acts 6.1) and bilingual Jews like
>Mark. As Kefa spoke to these groups in Aramaic, Mark also translates
>to Greek so everyone present understands. In Kefa's eyewitness
>account of the words and deeds of Jesus, he uses a word <Aram>mxd)
>that actually describes a characteristic of the HJ..that he was
>always in a hurry, as if with some sense of urgency. He would
>say what he had to say and "immediately" move on to the next
>town, walking quickly with what later accounts would describe
>as a hurried loping walk. Kefa may have told a group <Aram>
>wmxd) dslq mn my) and Mark translates behinD him <Gk> KAI EUQEWS
>ANABAINWN APO TOU UDATOS. Kkefa relates over and over from
>one occasion to the next, that Jesus "hurried" to do this, and
>"hurried" to do that, young Mark translating to EUQEWS, EUQEWS,
>etc.
> Whether Mark wrote down the things that he translated
>during the lifetime of Kefa, or wrote them down from his often
>repeated translating and memorization after the death of Kefa,
>we do not know. But this word, rather than being a literary
>device for connecting acts, is really a brief peek at a
>characterictic of the HJ, related by one of his followers.
Well, that's a view as interesting and perhaps as plausible as any of the
others. I suppose it's building upon the possibilities of the Papias
comment on Mark, one which I've personally never found very persuasive. But
that carries the matter on more directly into Higher Criticism. Personally
I think that all the suggestions about EUQUS in Mark are speculative, and
the only reason I posted my note was that I thought one of the conventional
views had been omitted. Undoubtedly there are several other unconventional
views.
Carl W. Conrad
Department of Classics, Washington University
Summer: 1647 Grindstaff Road/Burnsville, NC 28714/(828) 675-4243
cwconrad@artsci.wustl.edu
WWW: http://www.artsci.wustl.edu/~cwconrad/