I’ve seen these assertions before, of course, and the object-level parts may well be correct. But when I “look closely” at this, it “sure looks like” a metaphor for the destruction of the Temple. To the point where it seems natural to doubt that Mark intended anyone to read any of his original work literally. And the oldest ending in our possession likewise “looks like” a metaphor for the same events.
Orson Scott Card put a lot of his religion in the first four Ender books, but I doubt you could ever converge on his actual beliefs if you only had the text to go on.
The genre of Mark seems to be what most scholars rely on to arrive at the failed apocalyptic prophet conclusion, reading Mark as a Greco-Roman biography (Ehrman’s position). But that looks to be seriously unfounded and, as you point out, it seems as though Mark is more like an allegorical Jewish novel.
The verses you linked to about the unripe fig tree? The area that Jesus is close to is called Bethphage… which means “house of unripe figs”.
I’ve seen these assertions before, of course, and the object-level parts may well be correct. But when I “look closely” at this, it “sure looks like” a metaphor for the destruction of the Temple. To the point where it seems natural to doubt that Mark intended anyone to read any of his original work literally. And the oldest ending in our possession likewise “looks like” a metaphor for the same events.
Orson Scott Card put a lot of his religion in the first four Ender books, but I doubt you could ever converge on his actual beliefs if you only had the text to go on.
The genre of Mark seems to be what most scholars rely on to arrive at the failed apocalyptic prophet conclusion, reading Mark as a Greco-Roman biography (Ehrman’s position). But that looks to be seriously unfounded and, as you point out, it seems as though Mark is more like an allegorical Jewish novel.
The verses you linked to about the unripe fig tree? The area that Jesus is close to is called Bethphage… which means “house of unripe figs”.