Mark and
The Wirkungsgeschichte of Mk 7:1-23
In Jewish and
Christian Discourse
Dr. Jesper Svartvik
Paper to be read at the Studiorum Novi Testamenti Societas
57th General Meeting —
“It was the best of times, it was the
worst of times”
Charles Dickens, A Tale of Two Cities
Introductory Remarks
It is often said that we live in a “Dickensian era”.[1] The twentieth century held both the worst and the best moments in interfaith relations. On the one hand, the Shoah besmears not only the European continent and modernity, but also Christendom. On the other hand, the post-war inter-religious colloquies—characterised by an hitherto unsurpassed mutual respect and candour—belong to the most promising phases ever in the history of inter-religious relations.
Needless to say, the growing awareness of the need for a theology of religions—i.e. the articulation of how other religious traditions are to be approached and described in the nomenclature of one’s own religion— influences one’s understanding of the abstruse concept of “mission.” Much ink and a great deal of effort has been devoted to the efforts to provide the word “mission” with new and contemporary definitions. A major obstacle for the inter-religious discussions to take place and for the results of them to be implemented in the wide variety of denominations is the practice of defining oneself and one’s own conviction over against the Other: “We do what they ignore”, “we ignore what they do”. Nowhere is this more obvious than in Jewish-Christian relations. The problem of the vis-à-vis theology is, of course, not restricted to the Jewish-Christian encounter, but it is certainly nowhere as firmly cemented as in this area.
Coming from a European-Lutheran context, I feel a need to mention that Lutheran theology in particular has to consider carefully the implications of the binary pair of opposition: Law vs. Gospel. A vulgarisation of this theological language has had a profound and negative impact upon Christians’ understanding of Judaism; in the words of Fjärstedt: “The law, if not bad, is at least dangerous, because it may tempt you to think that by obeying it you may earn merit in the eyes of God.”[2] Thus, according to this line of thought, Judaism ceases to be an independent religion per se, and becomes a Christian heresy. I am inclined to suggest that the antithesis between Law and Gospel, which has governed so much of Lutheran thinking, in fact, distorts both Judaism and Christianity.
This paper will focus one specific NT pericope, which has played a significant rôle in the anti-nomistic presentation of Christianity. As a matter of fact, few pericopæ in the NT Gospels can compete with Mk 7:1-23 when it comes to the history of influence in biblical scholarship. Generations of scholars have turned to these twenty-three verses in order to find the message of the historical Jesus and the theology of early Christianity. Indeed, quite a few have even argued that, within these lines, das Wesen des Christentums stands out in its right light; hence this text is often a litmus test not only of how scholars understand the Markan text, but also of how they reconstruct the message of the historical Jesus.
Since Mk 7:1-23 has played such an extremely influential rôle it is only natural to presume that the pericope played a similar rôle in early Christian writings. However, even a rapid run-through gives a completely different result. As Heikki Räisänen has pointed out, it is remarkable that Mk 7:1-23 on the whole lacks Wirkungsgeschichte.[3]
Before listing relevant
passages in early Christian texts, it is necessary to consider the importance of food laws in second-temple
Judaism. To be sure, not only Judaism had regulations, which governed
meals, but Jews were notorious for their persistence in keeping their ancestral
food laws, and the prime symbol for their religiously motivated abstinence was
pork. John M.G. Barclay argues that, in general, the dietary laws were kept in
the Diaspora, at least in what he calls “key respects,” to which pork belonged.[4] The revulsion in
second-temple Judaism against forbidden foods, primarily pork, is manifest in
the stories of Eleazar, one of the leading teachers of the Law, and of the
seven boys and their mother who, rather than transgressing the commandment to
abstain from pork, let themselves be executed (2 Macc 6:18-7:42). The earlier
version in the Maccabean literature has been elaborated in a later version
found in the Babylonian Talmud (b.Git.
57b). In this text the seven boys are tempted to blaspheme by words, rather
than by eating pork. Thus, we see here a remarkable development of this moving
narrative—while the Maccabean text focuses on what goes into the mouth (i.e.
forbidden foods), the talmudic text focuses on what goes out of the mouth (i.e.
blasphemy). Hence, both versions of the tradition, in a way, may be understood
in relation to the NT saying. While Christians themselves soon had to suffer
martyrdom when refusing to make solemn vows to the Roman emperors with words
going out of their mouths, church
history shows no abundance of Christians who suffer the death of martyrs rather
than taking part of forbidden things going
into their mouths. For Jews in late antiquity, however, such a distinction
cannot be maintained. Therefore, latter-day students should not reduce Jewish
food laws to minutæ trivialities of no spiritual meaning whatsoever.
The Maccabean literature thus testifies to the willingness of contemporary fellow Jews to become martyrs over the food laws. It is no exaggeration to say that the food laws were sealed by the blood of innumerable such martyrs.[5] To bring matters to a head in one sentence: such a bold statement as Mk 7:15 in combination with v. 19b would have put an indelible mark on early Christian literature, were it an original saying of Jesus.[6]
A survey of the earliest history of influence shows a remarkable lack of interpretations of the saying in
Mk 7:15. With Räisänen it may be argued that Paul did not refer to an
authoritative saying in Rom 14:14. First, nothing in that verse suggests that
Paul quotes Jesus and, secondly, Paul’s principal theological source of
inspiration is not the teaching of Jesus, but the soteriological implications
of his death and resurrection. The Matthean redaction of the Markan pericope is
so thorough that not a trace of a Markan anti-nomism can be detected in it.
Indeed, the Matthean conclusion in
In the discussion of the Wirkungsgeschichte of the saying in the Lukan writings a number of questions has to be considered. While Jesus nowhere in the Gospel gives a general statement on food laws, several texts, which have implications for the discussion of food laws, are found in Acts. Peter’s vision-audition in Acts 10, in order to make sense, implies that the Lukan Jesus did not abrogate the food laws. Indeed, the narrative flow in the Lukan presentation makes it impossible for the protagonist in the Gospel to declare all foods clean. We argue that the common denominator in the Apostolic Decree is that all four prohibitions refer to actions which ritually defile and that Luke therefore not only acknowledges purity and impurity categories, but even affirms their remaining validity.
Finally, it is likely that the discussion of foods in the Pastoral Epistles must be understood in relation to sexual matters and early Christian asceticism. A simplistic word-to word comparison between Mk 7:1-23 and a number of verses in the Pastoral Epistles does justice neither to the width of early Christianity nor to the particular context of the Pastoral Epistles. The Pastoral Epistles mirror an evolving domestication in Christianity withdrawing from the ascetic way of life which partly appears not only in the Synoptic tradition but also in the Thomas tradition to which we now turn.
We would like to suggest that logia 6a and 14 should be understood together: It does full justice to the ethical imperative in logion 6b, the questions in logion 6a receives the necessary answers and, similarly, the answers in logion 14 do not hover in the air, but are answers to specific questions. Furthermore, the last part of logion 14 is thus an answer to the fourth question in logion 6a. Thus, all four questions posed in the former logion are answered in the latter logion.
What are the overarching theological justifications for the attitude to ritual laws in the Thomas tradition? The saying in log. 14 is neither Markan, since it is not related to purity rules per se, nor Matthean, since it is clearly anti-nomistic, nor Lukan, since it is on the lips of Jesus, not Peter or any other representative of the post-resurrection church. log. 14 represents a distinct and separate line of interpretation of this saying.
While many scholars today tend to regard Th as an early para-synoptic—perhaps even pre-synoptic—text, not all scholars are convinced. If Th were a post-synoptic text, which knows and uses the synoptic tradition, we must recognise that—while close to Mt in form—it is tremendously anti-nomistic, far more than is Mk. On the other hand, if Th actually represents a para- or pre-synoptic tradition, we must consider the suggestion that the Th-Mt version—having the wording into and out of the mouth (stovma, tapro)—may well be more original. In both cases the Thomas tradition has proven to be of utmost importance and must not be ignored by the student of the NT.
Confining ourselves to merely two of the Apostolic fathers—the First Epistle of Clement and the Epistle of Barnabas—we see that
earliest Christianity outside the NT presents two profoundly different
applications of the Sinai pericopæ. While Clement prizes Moses for refusing to
take part in the creation of a New Israel, Barnabas twists the text in order to
prove his point that the New Israel—to which he himself belonged— is a worthy
successor to the old and obsolete
We suggest that 1 Clem. 15 should be understood as part of the Wirkungsgeschichte of Mk 7:1-23. If this be the case, it is striking that Clement avoids both the anti-nomism of the Markan parallel and the anti-Pharisaic touch of Matthew. Clement’s epistle shows us that Isa 29:13 may be used not only in inter-religious polemics, but also in intra-religious parænesis.
Barnabas was spurred by a burning desire to convince the readers that the covenant could not possibly enclose both “them” and “us.” There is no hint in Barn. that the author knew the tradition that Jesus declared the food laws void and null, but, on the other hand, such a text would not appeal to him since, according to his theology, the food laws were actually never in force. Instead Barnabas argues that there never was a divine intention that the laws be interpreted literally.
In sum, the two texts, which both were part of the Christian canon for a period, are amazingly different in theology and tone and may well make up the very edges of the debate in early Christianity on these matters. In neither text do we find a theology in which Jesus declared all foods clean. Thus, there is no Wirkungsgeschichte of Mk 7:15 (as understood in 19b) in the writings of the Apostolic fathers.
While in no way exhaustive, this paper endeavours to highlight the broad variety of principal theological interpretations of the enigmatic statement from Justin to John Chrysostom, i.e. during c. 250 years.[7]
The literature on Justin from Neapolis—Nablus of today—is vast and we need not go into a thorough discussion of settled as well as yet unsettled questions concerning Justin of history or intended readership of his Dialogus cum Tryphone.[9] Nor is it necessary to treat Trypho as an historical figure. As we see it, he is primarily a literary character in the hands of Justin, the almighty author.[10] Trypho of the dialogue is a Jew who has fled from the second revolt against the Romans (132-135) and Justin composed the text presumably in the mid-second century (c. 155-160).[11]
One of the chief purposes of Iustini Martyris Dialogus cum Tryphone is to present Jesus as the new lawgiver, who is not only predicted in the Scriptures, but also in a certain sense makes void the parts of Scriptures which Jewish tradition has understood as binding halakhah. According to Justin, the grace has been transferred to the Christians—the New Israel—and imperfect signs, e.g. circumcision, have been replaced by perfect ones, e.g. baptism. Although it seems reasonable to assume that Justin was acquainted with at least parts of the Markan-Matthean tradition, there is nowhere in the Dialogue a hint of the parabolic saying, the subject of this investigation. The shift from Vetus Israel to Novus Israel and the abolishment of Jewish halakhah are not the results of the teachings of Jesus—in a sentence, there is no Wirkungsgeschichte of Mk 7:15 in Justin’s Dialogue with Trypho.
In the texts handed down to posterity, Clement of Alexandria refers to the Markan-Matthean saying in two ways.[13] In the first context, he connects the statement with quotations from both Pauline and Lukan texts. The consequence of these combinations is that the Lukan understanding overshadows the Markan. When the official cleansing is postponed until apostolic times (see Acts 10), the Markan conclusion in Mk 7:19b is severely weakened. Thus, we fail to see that Clement uses the statement as the decisive dominical saying which once and for all settled the issue. Rather, the statement is used merely as support of the more weighty reasons.
The second application of the saying is undoubtedly even less Markan in nature. In the warnings against evil speech in both Pædagogus and Stromata, Clement uses the latter half of the saying; i.e. he stresses that what goes out of the mouth defiles a person. Hence, we fail to see that the writings of Clement of Alexandria constitute a vehicle for the typical Markan accent of the saying—there is no Wirkungsgeschichte of Mk 7:15.
Tertullian applies the saying to two different contexts. In De patientia he emphasises the second part in the saying (“what goes out of the mouth”) when giving a word of caution of the dangers of evil speech. In the other text, De jejunio adversus psychicos, composed during the period of transition to Montanism, he lays stress on the first part of the saying (“not what goes into the mouth”) in order to distinguish between, on the one hand, his own reasons for abstaining from certain foods and, on the other hand, those who advocate perpetual abstinence. He is eager to emphasise that it is not contempt of the world which motivates his fasting.[15]
None of the two works we have discussed belongs to his famous apologetic and dogmatic corpora. Instead, both are examples of his corpus of disciplinary texts on moral and ascetical topics. Eric Osborn has pointed out that the tone and style became more strident in Tertullian’s later writings.[16] In a way, Tertullian’s interpretation of the saying may be seen as a litmus paper displaying this development from patientia to the adversus psychicos.
There are evidently two separate lines of thought in Origen’s texts
on Mk 7:1-23/Mt 15:1-20. On the one hand, Jesus does not oppose the Law, only
the traditions of the elders. Indeed, the antagonists could not bring a charge
against him in regard to the Law. Origen explicitly states that both Jesus and
his disciples kept the commandments as long as Jesus lived. Instead the
observant Jesus accuses the Pharisees and the scribes of transgressing the
commandments of God, which he himself obeys. According to the other line of
thought, the Jews misinterpret the Scriptures. The true interpretation of the
food laws is not literal, but spiritual. Do these two lines of thought ever
cross? No, one relates to the behaviour of Jesus, the other to the Jews’
intellectual understanding of the Scriptures. Origen states that it would be
wrong to accuse Jesus of transgressing the Law—neither he nor his disciples
ever transgressed it—but after the sufferings of Jesus, the Jews are
ridiculed—being in bondage to the Law—for doing exactly what Jesus did. In sum,
there is a fundamental inconsistency in Origen’s evaluation of (a) Jesus’
observance of the Law and (b) Jewish observance of it after his death. We see
the discrepancy between, on the one hand, Contra
Celsum and, on the other hand, Comm.
in Matthæum. As a matter of fact, the inconsistency is met in the
commentary itself as we have attempted to point out. He tries to have it both
ways, but can one have one’s cake and eat it? An answer to this question in
conformity with theological conventions would be that the Law had its time of
authorisation until the cross was raised on
On the whole, it is striking how seldom Novatian forwards quotations from the Gospels and how obvious is his preference for corpus paulinum. There is, however, one sentence in De cibis Judaicis which is of particular interest for this investigation:
Deus uentre non colitur nec cibis, quos Dominus dicit perire et in secessu naturali lege purgari.
God is worshipped by neither belly nor foods, which the Lord says [will] perish and are purged by natural law in the privy.[19]
It is the latter half of the sentence in which we take an interest.
The expression is similar to Mt
Novatian argues that the
scriptural food laws must be understood spiritually rather than literally. He
puts forward a series of arguments: it is pure blasphemy to suggest that parts
of God’s creation be impure, the manners of the animals constitute a mirror of
human life in order to exhort us to a moral conduct, spiritually understood the
food laws may function as means of moderation for Christians and—finally—since
Christ is the end of the Law, he has disclosed all the obscurities in it. We
suggest that the motif for his writing the treatise is not Jewish halakhah, but rather contemporary
Christian deprecation of the creation. We may detect a possible allusion to Mk
In a canonical epistle to an unknown bishop, Gregory quotes Mt 15:11
in the first paragraph. The reason for his writing the epistle was the invasion
of
In the same canon Gregory also writes concerning those women who have had sexual intercourse with the occupiers. Whereas he states that some women would have lived a wanton life also when not imprisoned, he argues that those who have previously lived in the utmost chastity can in no way be blamed for having been raped and adduces Deut 22:26f. as a proof-text for exculpating them.
In his canonical epistle Gregory does see the Matthean saying as an act of cleansing. He first quotes Paul (ÔO de; ∆Apovstolo" fhsi) and then draws attention to the fact that the Saviour also had cleansed all foods (kai; oJ Swthvr)—thus, a Markan interpretation of the Matthean version of the saying. In the end, however, Gregory Thaumaturgus did not to prove to be as radical in relation to scriptural legislation as one may suspect. He argues that Deuteronomistic laws are applicable in times of war and that prison food may be eaten not because absolutely all foods are clean, but rather because the risk that they had been subject to improper actions was minimal.
Since our chief concern in this paper is to illuminate the influence a particular NT saying has exerted upon the early church fathers, the following survey will be restricted to the single most relevant text of the famous Alexandrian bishop and leave aside his highly influential Orationes as well as his festal epistles.[22]
Athanasius refers to the
saying in the short, yet significant letter to Ammoun, written in the early
three hundred and fifties. It is fascinating to note that the letter gives us
not one but, in fact, two interpretations of the saying. From the content of
the letter we may conclude that the topic on the agenda was not whether the
food laws in the Scripture should be observed, but whether natural excretions
render a man unclean.[23] An unknown number of Egyptian
ascetics, well-versed in the Scriptures, evidently interpreted the saying not
as an exhortation to lenience concerning food laws (“what goes in”), but to
austerity concerning nocturnal emissions (“what goes out”), and one must admit
that they did have something of a biblicist case there. If celibacy were
preferred to marriage and if sensuous dreams were understood as coming from the
heart, one may very well draw the conclusion that nocturnal
emissions—proceeding as they do from the
heart and going out of man—may
render a person unclean.[24] Hence, we have come across
proof that a group of Christians at the time of Athanasius (i.e. fourth century) argued that the saying,
actually, reinforced Levitical purity laws—in Lev
How does Athanasius respond to this line of thought? His counter-argument is threefold: in the first place, he asserts that those who argue that the statement may be used as a justification for upholding purity categories have twisted the saying. We cannot know which version of the saying the opponents of Athanasius used—the only thing we do know is that the version in the letter to Ammoun is less Matthean than usual. In our survey we have already seen that the early church fathers often quote the verse with the distinctive Matthean word stovma, but this word is actually absent in the letter to Ammoun. It goes without saying that the Matthean expression ejk tou' stovmato" would render their interpretation invalid. Thus, the opponents seem to have used a more Markan version than we are used to, but they interpreted the verse in a distinctly non-Markan way. Athanasius counters by stating that they actually distort the Gospel (parafevrousi kai; rJhto;n eujaggelikovn). He explains that the divine intention ( “Ecei de; to; qei'on ou{tw lovgion) is that it refers to foods (peri; brwmavtwn). Then he quotes the saying a second time—once again without the word stovma which, indeed, would have strengthened his case. The statement was uttered in order to dispel their ignorance, that is to say, sequester deceitfulness (… luvwn aujtw'n th;n a[gnoi>an, h] g∆ ou\n th;n ajpavthn dhmosieuvwn). Thus, in contrast to his opponents, Athanasius understands the saying as an annulment of food laws. His second argument is that Paul teaches the same thing as did Jesus before him, however more concisely (Suntomwvteron). Does he actually mean that the saying of Jesus is obscure and that Paul is more to the point? Yes, so its seems. After all, we must remember that it is the dominical saying which, according to Athanasius, is misunderstood by his opponents. He goes on to quote 1 Cor 8:8—food will not commend Christians to God—and transfers the sense into his own context when stating that a natural emission (fusikhv ti" e[kkrisi") will not bring anyone closer to punishment (pro;" timwrivan). Thirdly, Athanasius pins his hopes on medical experts (pai'de" ijatrw'n) who hopefully (Tavca dev…) will support his assertion that it is necessary and natural to secrete superfluity from e.g. hair, head, belly and seminative channels.
We find in Athanasius’ letter to Ammoun two irreconcilable examples of a Wirkungsgeschichte of Mk 7/Mt 15. This doubleness in itself indicates that there was no one interpretation of the enigmatic saying. We cannot say how many held the opinion of the opponents, but we do know that the adherents were sufficiently numerous and sufficiently influential to compel Athanasius to write an entire letter because of their interpretation of the dominical saying.
Although Basil of Cæsarea wrote a considerable number of books on a variety of topics, it is only in Ta; hjqikav that he makes extensive use of the saying. In the thirty-third rule Basil seems to use the saying in relation to an on-going discussion whether Christians should abstain from the Eucharist. This is also the primary application of the saying in the perhaps pseudepigraphical Peri; baptivsmato". In the twelfth rule Basil refers to Mk 7 when briefly commenting on the necessity to give up human traditions in order to obey God’s commandments, but he never interacts with e.g. food laws, so we may conclude that on the agenda was an intra-Christian discussion about Christian traditions vs. God’s commandments. In Peri; nhsteiva" a Matthean-like version of the saying is used in order to warn against evil speech. In a sentence, we failed to see in the writings of Basil a clear-cut application of the saying as a total invalidation of the biblical food laws.
Gregory of Nyssa uses a Matthean-like version of the saying twice in his homilies on the Song of Songs. While the quotation in the prologue obviously serves the purpose of advancing the allegorical method, the same saying in the fifth homily is more specifically directed against interpreters of the Bible who practise circumcision and observe the laws of the Sabbath and foods. Thus, Gregory’s very dispatching of literal hermeneutics proves that the issue was not yet settled—not everyone was convinced that allegory was the best way to understand the biblical texts, nor that allegorical interpretation of the Scripture necessarily invalidated a literal one. But Gregory himself in his fifth homily on the Song of Songs, composed c. 390 C.E. applies the Matthean version of the saying in a clearly Christian context as a proof-text for a non-observance of the biblical commandments.
Unfortunately many of the writings of Amphilochius of Iconium are lost and the one which we will examine below—Contra hæreticos has been handed down to posterity with neither beginning nor end. It was probably composed during the period 373-381. Since it seems likely that Amphilochius in the lost introduction presented the heretics he opposed, we do well not to try to establish exactly which were these groups, but we do know that he turns upon ascetics who repudiated marriage, wine, certain foods—inter alia egg—and the Eucharist.[29]
Amphilochius states that
neither of the two testaments (palaia; diaqhvkh and
kainh; diaqhvkh) presents evidence prohibiting
indulgence in these respects. Of his LXX quotations from the Pentateuch,
fifteen are from Gen, one, respectively, from Ex (
Kai; ejn eJtevrw/ aujto;" oJ kuvrio": Ouj ta; eijsporeuovmena koinoi' to;n a[nqrwpon, ajlla; ta; ejk th'" kardiva" ejkporeuovmena, tau'ta miaivnei to;n a[nqrwpon.
From considerations of space we are unfortunately prevented from giving a detailed description of all the NT passages Amphilochius uses in this paragraph—thirteen in sum. Suffice it to mention that he combines Synoptic and Pauline material in order to show that Christ and the Apostles both by words and deeds invalidated the position of Amphilochius’ opponents—and with such a company, Amphilochius argues that if they persevere in their heresy, they will fight against God and oppose the truth (Tiv" tolmhvsei e[ti qeomach'sai kai; th'/ ajlhqeiva/ ajntisth'nai;).
Amphilochius takes pains to demonstrate that the asceticism of his opponents is unfounded and the saying from Mk 7/Mt 15 is but a brick in this building. He obviously sees no reason to enter into a discussion whether the LXX food laws are in force. While we acknowledge that only few of Amphilochius’ writings have been handed down to posterity, we must, nevertheless, draw the conclusion that the saying from Mk 7/Mt 15 does not play a rôle of importance in his argumentation. He never states that the saying per se is an invalidation of the biblical food laws, since neither he nor his opponents ever saw them as valid.
Chrysostom quotes the Matthean form of the saying once in the famous
course of sermons, De statuis ad populum
Antiochenum. A riot had risen in
Nhsteuevtw kai; ajkohv: nhsteiva de; ajkoh'" mh; devcesqai kakhgoriva" kai; diabolav": ∆Akoh;n ga;r mataivan mh; paradevxh/, fhsiv. Nhsteuevtw kai; stovma ajpo; rJhmavtwn aijscrw'n kai; loidoriva".
Let the ear fast
also. The fasting of the ear [consists in] refusing to receive evil speakings
and calumnies. It says: you shall not
receive an idle report (Ex 23:1). Let the mouth fast also from disgraceful
words and railing.[33]
Thus, he exhorts his contemporary listeners and readers to expel from their mouth all slander and refers a few paragraphs below to the cardinal saying: Ouj ga;r ta; eijsercovmena koinoi' to;n a[nqrwpon, ajlla; ta; ejxercovmena ajpo; tou' stovmato".[34] It is noteworthy that Chrysostom, by using the word stovma only in the second part, emphasises the parænetic aspect of the saying. As he presents the statement its main purpose is to dissuade listeners and readers from evil speech. In other words, Chrysostom uses the Matthean version of the saying in a very Matthean and, indeed, rabbinical way (cf. the terminus technicus [rh ˆwçl).
Chrysostom uses the saying in several ways. In polemical contexts against Jews and Judaizers—but not in the texts which deal with those questions exclusively—he interprets the saying as an annulment of the biblical food laws. In the heat of the debate he emphasises the first part of the saying—nothing which goes into the mouth makes a person impure. In other contexts, he stresses the second part instead—it is what goes out of the mouth which makes a person impure. Thus, in parænetical congregational life the saying becomes a warning against deadly and hurtful evil speech. In other words, in this case he drops the Markan hypertext and interprets the Matthean text more on its own terms.
Texts written by a dozen authors during a period of some 250 years
have been analysed above. Considering the vastness of the corpus patristicum it is quite remarkable that it has been possible
to present this summary in a few pages, in itself an indication of the
comparatively insignificant rôle the church fathers gave this saying. When they
did discuss it they often emphasised its relative sense; i.e. they interpreted not only the first part, but also the second
part. Clement of
Another observation from the previous discussion is that the range of interpretations constitutes a striking reminder of the enigmatic character of the saying. The best example of its vagueness is, no doubt, the correspondence between Athanasius and Ammoun as late as the fourth century.
A third remark is related to Origen’s discussion of the saying. We saw that he emphasised that while the historical Jesus did not oppose the Law, post-Golgatha Christians, nevertheless, need not keep the Jewish Law, since Jesus, through his sufferings on the cross (and not through the cardinal saying! ), liberated his disciples from the curse of the Law. Thus, in a fascinating way he outlines a Law-abiding Jesus within the boundaries of first-century Judaism, but also a justification for Christians’ not observing Jewish halakhah. He tried to have it both ways, but can one?
When the saying is understood in a relative sense, both parts of the sayings are interesting and need a thorough investigation. With such an emphasis, the essence of the saying is that it serves as a warning against evil speech. The sages were certainly aware of the prevalence of evil speech:
grv iuakc kfvu ,uhrgc yughnu kzdc cur cr rnt vsuvh cr rnt
R. Judah said in the name of Rav: Most [people are guilty] of robbery, a minority of unchastity and all of evil speech (grv iuak).[35]
Our aim is to trace, from the biblical epoch to the rabbinical period, the development of an aggadic figure, the metaphor of grv iuak (“the evil tongue,” “evil language” or “evil speech”)[36] in order to determine whether this and related aggadic teachings constitute a not only possible but also plausible ipsissima structura Jesu for the cardinal saying in Mk 7:15.[37]
There are in the Hebrew Bible a large number of admonitions and
prohibitions of evil speech. The most common expression in biblical times was
“a lying tongue” (rEa iuak).[38] Probably the most outright
ban on evil speech is found only two verses above the great commandment in Lev
(
In Sirach it becomes obvious that eventually religious writers found
it necessary to extend the warnings of perilous speech. They wanted to
dissociate themselves not only from untruthful speech, but also utterances
which may be true, but are uttered in order to hurt other persons. Sirach 19
deals with gossiping in general—it admonishes the readers not to repeat a
conversation (19:7a: mhdevpote deuterwvsh/" lovgon) but rather to let it die within oneself (
Whereas numerous verses in the Hebrew Bible and the LXX do discuss the topic of evil speech, most of these are to be found in the wisdom literature but, as is well-known, rabbinic Judaism takes as a starting-point verses in the Torah, not the prophets or the writings. Therefore, these admonitions against evil speech in the wisdom literature have not played a decisive rôle in the rabbinic corpus. Instead, rabbinical literature sorted out a few master-stories in the Pentateuch in order to support their discourses against evil speech.
A group of pericopæ which narrates the failure of the spies sent
into the Land (Num 13f.) became one of the most important master-stories in the Torah. The spies decided to bring an
unfavourable report of the Land which they had spied out (Num 13:32: ktrah hbc kt v,t
Thus, grv iuak ultimately causes the Heavenly Presence (vbhfa) to depart. It must also be noted that evil speech in this pisqa is mentioned together with the three cardinal sins, a fact which brings us to the fifth text, yet another passage in the Tosefta. The paragraph from