Anti-Semitism in St. Mark's Gospel

Abstract

St. Mark's attitude to the Jewish nation is somewhat complicated and could not be adequately characterised in a simple, unqualified statement. Thus while he may believe that the Jews 1) enjoy the God-given prerogative of being the first among men to have the gospel addressed to them 2) and even that the heathen can only have the opportunity of knowing the way of salvation after the Messiah has actually been rejected by his own people 3), yet he seems to take the view that Jesus in some measure anticipates the work of the church's mission to the Gentiles. For in v I ff. Jesus passes into heathen territory and, in consequence of the marvellous cure which he performs there, his fame as a mediator of the mercy of God is spread abroad among the inhabitants of Decapolis; and in vii 24 ff. he journeys as far north as the region of Tyre and effects a miraculous exorcism from a distance on the daughter of a Syrophoenician woman. It may be unfair to take the children's bread and throw it to the dogs, but there is no good reason why the latter should not eat of the crumbs which are left under the chil-