Freethought & Rationalism Archive

rhutchin · 01-01-2010, 01:13 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by yalla

There are other bits of "Mark" which are thought to be geographic 'errors' suggestive of an author who was not familiar with the geography of the region of Palestine.

For example:

4.
"Mark" 10.1
"And he left there and went to the region of Judea and beyond the Jordan"
Not without going through Samaria and/or the Decapolis he didn't.
Nineham again;
"The variety of forms in which the MSS give the phrase show thatit was felt to be difficult and in need of correction from early times. [My emphasis].

For reference, this is what the Bible says.
Mark
9:33 And he came to Capernaum:...
10:1 And he arose from thence, and cometh into the coasts of Judaea by the farther side of Jordan:

Capernaum is located on the northeast coast of the Sea of Galilee. To travel to Judea meant heading south either through Samaria or Decopolis. Given that Mark says, “by the farther side of Jordan,” it is likely that they traveled through Decopolis rather than through Samaria.

The issue seems to be that Mark does not tell us that they went through either Samaria or Decopolis. Mark’s failure to give this information does not create a geographical error.

I don’t see a geographical error. Nineham does not seem to be writing about a geographical error as much as addressing textual issues. Can anyone explain what the alleged geographical error is supposed to be?

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