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This day only lasts for a month, so go and get some books. Welcome to the new books network. Hello, everybody, and welcome back to new books in the biblical studies podcast channel on the new books network. I'm Jonathan Buck, the host of the channel.
Today we'll be joined by Jonathan Bryant, who is talking about his new book, Compassion and the Characterization of the Mark and Jesus, published by Brill in 2024. Jonathan, welcome to the show. Thank you, it's great to be here. Yeah, thanks so much for being here.
It's really great to be able to talk about your book, Compassion and the Characterization of the Mark and Jesus. Before we dive into the book, could you start just a bit by telling us a bit about yourself and how you came to study the gospel of Mark? Yeah, absolutely. So I grew up in Cincinnati in the United States, some of a postal worker and a state-home mom, but for whatever reason, at an early age, I was deemed to be a pretty good writer, so I kind of always had that back in my mind.
I was raised in the church, late high school years, I kind of thought I would be going into pastoral ministry. So I went to Bible college, well, I went to Asbury University here in the States and got a Bible degree there, and then I went all the way across the street to seminary at Asbury and got my master's identity degree. While I was working on the master's identity degree, or MDiv, I grew more and more interested in biblical studies and the world of academia. So that's where I started to kind of have a notion that I might be giving further studies, PhD studies at some point.
I did do some a few years in full-time ministry while my wife was doing her grad work, and then after that kind of hiatus from studies, I wound up in the PhD program at Loyola in Chicago and in biblical studies program there. In the meantime, before I started my PhD work, I had kind of a random conversation with my wife. She had been talking to someone she was working with, who was familiar with the Bible, and was aware that I was sort of an up-and-coming biblical scholar that I was interested in at. And so this person just asked my wife to ask me, what does this word slachnidsomine mean?
And that sent me on a little kind of fun research project at that point. And so my interest in this particular topic actually started with the Greek term itself rather than gospel of Mark. As I got into my PhD studies at Loyola and started talking with the faculty there, they directed me to essentially focus on Mark, and I do hold to Mark and priority of the gospels. So it made sense to me to start there the terminology that I'm looking at does appear in the other synoptics, but I felt like I couldn't really go those places until I dealt with it in Mark.
So that's kind of how I came into studying Mark. But it really started with studying the topic itself first. That's really fascinating. Yeah, all from a question about the meaning of this Greek word.
That's really wonderful. Yeah, well, your book provides a detailed examination of an intriguing feature of the gospel of Mark, which you've just introduced, which is the role of compassion or spongments in my in-marks miracle stories. But before that, you provide readers with some context for the literary practices of the ancient world by looking at emotions and the Greco-Roman miracle stories. How prominent are emotions in these stories?
And is there a difference between the emotions of divine beings and human beings and ancient miracle stories? Yeah, so pretty early on in the writing, I came to a preliminary conclusion that this terminology that appears in Mark was pretty exceptional. And so writing a dissertation I had to provide evidence for that though I couldn't just say, if this word is not used of anybody else that's a miracle-workering figure before Jesus, I had to kind of show the data. So that's certainly on this trajectory of looking at miracle stories throughout Greco-Roman and Jewish literature.
So I spent a large amount of time just reading miracle stories that we have in the extant literature. And this was during, this was largely during COVID. So it was a little hard to get some of those sources sometimes, but we eventually got there. So to answer your question about how prominent these emotions are in the stories, not very.
So in the Homeric works, there's a lot of emotion language and there's a lot of divine beings interacting with human characters and a lot of this plot moves on the whims of the gods and sometimes they are responding in anger towards enemies, sometimes they're responding in pity towards the humans that they favor. So we do see it a good bit in the epics of Homer, but then it kind of, after that, we don't see a lot of emotion, language and miracle stories. The most surprising thing to me in that research was how little compassion or pity or mercy language is used of a god like Asclepius. So Asclepius is known as a compassionate healer in the Greco-Roman world and there are secondary sources that point to that.
But when you look at the actual miracle stories themselves, which what we have are mostly inscriptions, but there's not a lot there other than just bear facts of the miracle so-and-so came and spent the night at this dream facility of sorts. And they wake up and maybe they perform some kind of duty for the god and they wake up, they're healed, they move on. Where we do occasionally see emotion language in those stories, it's actually not compassion. Sometimes we see something like what you might call like a sarcastic kind of amusement, like almost a taunting by Asclepius that these petitioners need to do these certain things to be healed.
And similarly with some of the other divine beings in the Greco-Roman world that are associated typically with compassion like Isis or Heracles. There's just not a lot of extant stories of them actually displaying that compassion at least in terms that are used in the stories. So I thought that was interesting. Regarding the human figures, there are just very few accounts of human miracle workers in the Greco-Roman world.
It mostly is divine beings. You see emperors talked about sometimes, see Pythagoras and his followers. But the stories for these folks are usually much later after the time of the Gospel of Mark by quite a significant amount of time. Or there's just not emotion language talked about.
There's one instance where Vespasian performs a healing and he exhibits joy, but it's actually not at the fact that this person was healed. It's joy at the fact that he's getting credit for it and that it's a good look for him. So the actual stories that we have record of don't actually show in the terminology, miracle working figures who are displaying compassion in their actual interactions with the people in need or the petitioners. So that was an interesting find from this research.
It is a really interesting find. And I know one of the things that I appreciated while reading was the way that you walked through some of these stories and it wasn't a statistical analysis there. Yeah, you've pointed to the evidence and brought out the stories really well. So thank you for that.
Yeah. Well, in your book, you also mentioned or examined miracle stories from ancient Jewish texts, which are of course an important subset of literature from the Greco-Roman world. You argue that emotion language increases in Jewish miracle stories during the second simple period. What are some of the factors that might account without increase and how else do emotions play a role in Jewish miracle stories?
Yeah. So it's essentially the reverse of what we see in the wider Greco-Roman literature, which is that in older texts like the Homeric Epics, we see a good bit of emotion language, but then it kind of dissipates in miracle stories that we have that are roughly the second temple period in Jewish terms, maybe the Hellenistic early Roman period in Greco-Roman terms. But in the Jewish literature, as you mentioned, there seems to be an increase during that same time period, which is interesting. Now, the Septuagint in comparison to the Hebrew scriptures doesn't show a lot of difference, but it's really in the extra biblical literature that we see this increase in emotion language in miracle stories in the Jewish world.
So books of the Maccabees, Tovid, Josephus, Ilo, and those kinds of places. So I did that raise the question, which you have just raised. You know, why might that be? What are the factors that could contribute to that?
And I outlined a few, and these are all, you know, at least somewhat speculative, but it's fun to engage with possible reasons behind something. One thing that I identified was this dichotomy between the righteous people of God and the enemies of God, and you see this a lot in the scatological literature, you see Islam and Qumran. But, you know, if literature is posing this contrast strongly between the people of God and the enemies of God, it makes sense that, you know, favorable emotions would be tied to the people of God and unfavorable emotions would be tied to the enemies of God. And so God is often characterized as displaying pity towards his own people and anger towards the enemies of his people.
So I think the context in which the Jewish people were in subjugation during that time, during the Persian and Greek and Roman periods, allowed for some more stark vibrant language and how God is relating to both the people of God and the enemies of the people of God. Second factor, the Greek language itself is more explicit in a lot of ways in using emotion terminology, which is not to say that there's not emotion in the Hebrew scriptures. That is certainly the case that there is. The particular terms used are just more explicit in the Greek language.
Of course, you have lists of the Patha in Aristotle and elsewhere in Hebrew scriptures. It comes out more contextually in a lot of cases than using specific terms. Although you do see some use of particular body organs to describe, you know, sort of a seat of emotions, including kidneys, for instance. But there does seem to be more of a linguistic space in general in the Greek language for emotion, explicitly emotion terms.
And then the last thing I would say, and this comes mostly from the work of Francois Mirgé, a French scholar who's teaching Arizona State, I believe, here in the States, she's got a lot of work on emotions in biblical studies and particularly in the Hellenistic Jewish period. So she points to the fact that essentially the social status of the Jews during that time period landed itself to this increase in emotion language. It was a way for them to potentially present themselves more favorably in the wider culture. So if somebody is able to bestow a pity on another, that implies that they have the resources to do so, that implies that they are in a better position, societally, if you have the ability to bestow a pity or to share resources with others.
And by identifying their God as one who also bestows pity, that can be a way of sort of maneuvering themselves within society as just a more favorable group of people who has something to offer the rest of society, rather than just being sort of a subjugated people. So I thought, I found that very intriguing, very compelling. And it makes a lot of sense that emotion language could be employed in this way to sort of help one's own status within society. So I thought that was really interesting.
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That I guess pity usually is something that's kind of extended from someone in a higher position towards someone in a lower position. Right, exactly. Yeah, that's really fascinating. Well, speaking of pity or compassion, your book also explores this interesting Greek word that you mentioned.
Now we know maybe why that word was so central, it started from that question. But the word splagnets of mine. This is not the only term that can be used in Greco-Roman texts to describe mercy or compassion. So how did this verb develop from earlier uses of that splogged root, the splog word group before Mark was written?
Yeah. So as you mentioned, there are other words in the range that speak of pity, mercy, or compassion. Elle-a, celle-o, octoro, and cognates are examples. The splanc words take on a more sort of visceral, somatic, emotional elements than those other terms do, which that's just a very basic way of kind of describing a difference between those terms.
This, the splock terms show up frequently in ancient literature, and they primarily have a physical connotation as these inner parts that were used in sacrifices. And that's where we first see them as early as Homer. And these are vital organs. It's not exactly sure what specific organ, or if it's even the same across the centuries, which one is being talked about, intestines or womb or something else.
But it was definitely a vital organ. And it shows up in a lot of context of war as well, such that if somebody gets hit in the splot, they're not going to survive kind of thing. So these were core or crucial inner parts that were highly honored in sacrificial contexts, and they can be used in divination practices as well, which also speaks to sort of their vitality in the ancient context. So over time, this word sort of like kidneys in some Hebrew texts, certainly like heart, is in English context today.
These vital internal organs came to be associated with being the seed of our emotions. And so we started to see that over time in the Greco-Roman literature. And then a further development a little bit later is that specifically positive emotions can be associated with it, like compassion or love or pity or see those kinds of things. And so again, as it developed over time, compassion kind of one out is kind of the core emotion that seemed to be associated with that internal parts anyway.
But we don't really see it verbified, if I can use that word, but uses a verb until late Hellenistic, early Roman times. And the first instance we see in the LXX is actually a partaking of sacrifices. And this longness might be used in the context of sacrifice still, even at that point. So the physical connotations of this long term didn't go away by any stretch, even in the New Testament, when Judas hangs himself and his vowels spill out, it's still talking there, even about the actual physical organs there.
So it isn't a complete replacement, but we do see increasing metaphorical usage as we get closer to the first century. And then after it's used in the synoptics, it really takes off in the apostolic fathers and beyond based on how it's used in the synoptics. Yeah. That's really fascinating.
And I think that answer really brings out the visceral elements quite well. It is so embodied. So what are some of the ways that the author of Mark's Gospel uses this term to describe Jesus? Yeah.
So I think something we see come out strongly in Mark is that the actual encounters that Jesus has with people are important. There's a lot of 20th century discussions and Mark were crystallagically focused and there was a lot of focus on the titles, or a lot of focus on messianic secrets, there was a lot of focus on this idea that the powerful Son of God from the first half of Mark sort of is being squelched for this suffering son of man that we see in the second half of Mark. And I think what we're discovering through narrative studies, specifically character studies is that these encounters that Jesus has throughout the Gospels are meaningful and can tell us a lot about what Mark is trying to do. So the same can be said of the motion language.
And Slonk Nizami is not the only emotion that shows up in Mark with Jesus, but that is the one that I chose to focus on for this. And so Mark uses this term only in miracle stories. It appears at least three times. I say at least because there's a fourth in Mark one that is a very debated textual variance about whether it's Slonk Nizami or Gidzo.
And so I did treat that passage with sort of a caveat that we aren't entirely certain whether this term appears here or not. But nonetheless, all the appearances are in miracle stories. There's in both feeding stories, it appears, and it appears in a story of an evil spirit being driven out of a boy after the transfiguration. And in each of these cases, we see Mark presenting Jesus as somebody who has this visceral response to actual suffering in these encounters.
And based on all of the research of the other literature that we just talked about, the fact that this term in particular is used is striking. And we don't have record in the exten-literature of this being used of any other miracle working figure before Jesus. So that makes me think there's gotta be a reason why this term is being used. And I think it fits into Holt Mark's entire program of what the kingdom is that Jesus has brought and what Mark's vision of the kingdom of God is and that it is characterized by this service for others, this other's oriented kind of service.
And we see that come out in many ways, including Jesus's interaction with the disciples in Mark and every time there's a passion prediction, it's immediately followed by the disciples showing that they don't really grasp this others oriented nature of the kingdom, their clamoring for status. And aside from those teaching moments, I think we also see it in the miracle stories throughout that Jesus is demonstrating what it means to truly feel for those who are suffering. And to respond out of that with this compassionate action, I think the term sponged is so rich precisely because it has this internal visceral response to it that then is played out in action. So I see it as almost a combination of empathy and how one is feeling towards another and compassion and how one is acting out of that deep visceral kind of feeling.
So I think it's an incredibly rich term and I think it fits into Mark's overall goals here in characterizing Jesus as one who is bringing a kingdom that is not about self but is about orientation toward others. It's a very rich reading of those miracle stories. And so in a conversation that asks such broad questions about a really excellent historical study of compassion and Mark, I know that we can't discuss everything in your book, but is there anything that readers should know that we have not been able to discuss yet? Yeah, I think the main thing is that emotion language is worth studying and this is becoming more prominent.
There are certainly others working on emotions in the Bible now. There's even an SBL section on the topic which tells you that it's arrived to some degree, but there's some good work being done. But I do think there's a, for such a long time, there's been a stigma against emotions and that there's intentionality behind them. And I think there's some rich meaning that can be gleaned from studying emotions in scripture in a way that hasn't necessarily been recognized broadly.
And then I would also just say that I think that this work sort of meets at an intersection of a couple of different things, miracle studies, emotion studies and narrative studies. And I think that one thing that, when I was first starting out in this project, I kind of had this idea that I have to laser focus on one very specific field. And I realized that I think a lot more meaning could be gained from incorporating sort of these multiple angles, emotion studies, miracle stories, miracle studies, character studies, and sort of bringing it all together. Safe for Ontario means more police and prosecutors making sure my card doesn't get stolen.
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Learn how at ontario.ca slash safer Ontario paid for by the government of Ontario. Yeah, that makes sense. Yeah, it becomes almost by bringing in multiple points of focus, it almost heightens the focus of the study, I think. Yeah, well, as I'm sure that our listeners have noticed, much of your book is concerned with the study of ancient literature and its historical context.
But your book closes with a note that addresses present day readers. What do you hope that a close study of compassion in the Gospel of Mark brings out in 21st century readers? Yeah, so there you see some of my pastoral nature coming out when someone spends so many hours, years in this kind of research. I think it can be easy to lose sight of how this connects to the church, how this connects to people other than, you know, a select few in academia who are really interested in niche topics.
And I can't separate the church in academia very easily. And so I wrote this with specific people in mind and with the church in mind. And, you know, even though it's a pretty technical piece of work examining Greek terminology and Hebrew terminology and lots of ancient literature, I firmly believe that the message that was conveyed to Mark's audience is still vital for us today. And boy, could we use compassion in our interactions with others present day America?
That is very much true as, you know, where our country is wrestling with a lot of things related to how people are being treated, who are not citizens, for instance. And so it seems as alive as ever that this kind of gut felt compassion that Jesus in Mark presents is something that we can really think about as we interact with others. And I'm of the opinion that there is a cognitive side to emotions, there is some level of control to our emotions and how we respond to our emotions. And so I believe that, you know, there's an immatatio of Christi elements to the emotions and not just Jesus' teachings as well.
And I think that we can all benefit today from seeing how Jesus in Mark interacted with those who were actually in need and as we have our own encounters with people who are in need. So that's kind of the heart behind the whole book. I hope that comes out in some ways in spite of the technical nature of the study. Yeah, I think it comes out well.
And for his gut felt compassion does seem quite timely. So I really like that. Jonathan, I know we've taken up a lot of your time today. Can I ask what you're researching these days and what we might thus look forward to seeing from you in the future?
Yeah, thanks for asking. So you mentioned this book was published last year. There's definitely been a bit of a resettling period for me with my family and my work. So I mentioned a little bit of experience in pastoral ministry and interest in academia.
And I'm actually doing neither for my full time work right now. I'm an editor in Christian publishing. So, and I've been doing this for the whole time I was writing this book. So there's been some amount of just recovery and rest after writing.
And I do have four young children as well, all of whom were born while I was doing the PhD. So it's certainly still busy around here. But what I am interested in doing more of is this same kind of work for a popular level audience. So as we were talking about last chapter, I think there's a lot of import in this area for us today and for the church today.
And so I would love to spin off of this more technical work and write something that is for the church. And I think that all of the academic research provides the grounding to be able to speak meaningfully in those contexts. And then I would love to look more at other motion language. Anger is certainly one that's very intriguing to me.
And that comes out in the Synoptics as well. And of course, there's work that can be done in how Luke and Matthew also use this terminology. As I said, it only occurs in miracle stories in Mark, but in Luke it actually appears in a couple of parables with the prodigal son story and the good Samaritan story. And so that actually furthers this idea of this kind of gut felt compassion is something that we can experience as well.
And it's the Samaritan who is the only figure other than Jesus or God in the gospels who displays smoknids of my and his interaction with others. So that is very interesting to me. I don't know if a full book could come from that or maybe an article, but those are the things that I've been thinking about most. It's really fascinating.
And thinking about a popular book addressing the same topic for a popular audience is really an intriguing idea. Well, Jonathan, thank you very much for being on the show today to discuss your book, Compassion and the characterization of the mark in Jesus. I've really enjoyed it. Thank you, Jonathan.
I appreciate you reading it and taking the time to highlight it. This has been great. It's been so good. And thank you so much for being on the show.
And thank you to our listeners for listening. So thanks everyone. Take care.