Based on Mark 12:28-34 there is a striking parallel in the stories of Josiah and Jesus. Interesting, no commentary I have read picks up the narrative similarities here. What I argue here is that the structure alone seems to indicate why the scribe may have looked so favorably on Jesus' response to the question of the greatest commandment.
The scribe here in Mark is different most other interactions with the Scribes and the religious authorities that Jesus had just prior to this passage. Before this point Jesus entered Jerusalem in his triumphant entry on a donkey, told a fig tree to die, overturned the tables in the Temple, and then started to get into heated arguments with all of the religious authorities. After this passage he starts talking about the destruction of the Temple, and begins to foretell the end of things as everyone knows it. He is tested, considered a blasphemer, and at this point pretty much despised so much by the religious authorities that they accuse him of blasphemy. That leads him right to the cross. But after this little dialogue with the scribe, as the story goes, “no one dared to ask him any question.” One way to look at this could be that they just thought he was nuts and decided not to continue. But the text tells a different story.
Rather, Jesus answers with about the most sane and orthodox response he could have at that point. The first commandment comes straight from Deuteronomy, unique to Mark, – the Shema. This sets the people of Israel apart from all the other people at the time and acts a as a proclamation of the redemptive grace of God as a basis for obedience. The love expressed in this statement comes from one’s heart, strength, and soul and signifies a total devotion like a child to a parent.
With this specific reference in Mark to the passage in Deuteronomy, the scribe would have recalled the history of Israel, of a nation founded by God that had lost its way. When Deuteronomy was found, as the story goes, Israel was on the brink of destruction, but because of the penitence of King Josiah, the wrath of God would be stayed. King Josiah read Deuteronomy and was literally brought to his knees.
From 2 Kings 23: “[The prophetess Huldah] declared to them, ‘Thus says the Lord, the God of Israel: Tell the man who sent you to me, Thus says the Lord, I will indeed bring disaster on this place and on its inhabitants—all the words of the book that the king of Judah has read. Because they have abandoned me and have made offerings to other gods, so that they have provoked me to anger with all the work of their hands, therefore my wrath will be kindled against this place, and it will not be quenched. But as to the king of Judah, who sent you to inquire of the Lord, thus shall you say to him, … because your heart was penitent, and you humbled yourself before the Lord, when you heard how I spoke against this place, and against its inhabitants, that they should become a desolation and a curse, and because you have torn your clothes and wept before me, I also have heard you, says the Lord. Therefore, I will gather you to your ancestors, and you shall be gathered to your grave in peace; your eyes shall not see all the disaster that I will bring on this place.’ They took the message back to the king.”
Josiah then cleansed the Temple, removed idols, got rid of references to other gods, deposed idolatrous priests and so on. Sadly, after Josiah, Israel continued in idolatrous ways and found itself further and further from God by latching on to idols once more. The parallels to the storyline in the Gospel of Mark are striking and seem to be meant to tell us something about Jesus' role here as prophet, priest, and king in one shot. Could it be that Jesus is the new Josiah cleansing the Temple and restoring obedience to God?
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