The following is a section which didn't make it into the final edit of an paper I've written. It was an important part of my process but didn't really contribute to the (overlong) final article. So it had to go. But I put a fair bit of work and thought into it, and who knows it might be useful to someone somehow. It also gives you a bit of a taster for my forthcoming article! (aren't you lucky?!)
image credit: https://youthguytad.wordpress.com/2012/06/12/moving-mountains/
Mountain Moving Elsewhere
in the NT
The interpretation of Mark 11:23 is complicated by mountain
moving and related traditions elsewhere in the New Testament.
This is most apparent when early readers of Mark adapt Mark’s traditions or
employ similar traditions from a different source. As Samuel Sandmel suggests,
“Mark in many treatments is explained incorrectly because Matthew and Luke (and
John) are read with him.”
It is critical, therefore, to be aware of the distinctives of the Matthean and
Lukan variations of the saying so as not to read these unconsciously into Mark.
a)
The Synoptic Parallels
In the closest parallel in the Gospel of Luke, Jesus does not promise
his disciples the ability to move “this mountain,” but to move a “this mulberry
tree” (συκάμινος, Luke 17:5-6).
For this horticultural miracle, faith need only be “as a mustard seed,” nothing
is said of undoubting hearts. The assonance between συκῆ and συκάμινος is
intriguing but of unclear significance.
Likewise, there is no clear connection between Luke 17:6 and Mark’s mustard
seed parable (4:30-32).
That said, in the Lukan context of 17:1-10 the theme is forgiveness, and the
disciples’ request for an increase in faith is in response to the challenge of
forgiving a repentant brother seven times a day. Thus, Luke’s tree-moving
saying provides a double parallel not only for Mark 11:23 but for the whole of
11:22-25, in that it connects faith and forgiveness. However, in Mark the
instruction to forgive comes after the exhortation to faith. Luke’s image of
planting a tree in the sea “is a paradoxical image […] designed to graphically
and hyperbolically illustrate that faith can do the amazing.”
It is likely that Luke’s “say to this mulberry tree” preserves a tradition from
Q,
the latter of which appears in Matthew, apparently combined with Mark’s version
(Matt 17:19).
In Matthew 17:14-20, it appears that the Matthean evangelist
has added the Lukan Mulberry moving saying (Luke 17:6) to the end of a
significantly truncated version the story of the exorcism of the boy from Mark
9:14-29, probably in replacement of the “all things are possible” of Mark 9:23
which is excised. But the mulberry tree is transfigured into a mountain,
presumably influenced by Mark 11:23.
Here, in contrast to both Mark and Q sources, there is no sea, only general
relocation. In doing so Matthew not only “enhances the theme of faith,”
but radically changes the context in which both Mark and Luke’s sayings occur. Mark’s
Jesus asks for undoubting faith (11:24) but Matthew’s only requires a mustard
seed. Luke’s Jesus hyperbolically extols the power of faith to forgive others,
while Matthew’s Jesus turns the exorcism into a prompt to discuss wonderworking
faith where “nothing is impossible for you” (οὐδὲν ἀδυνατήσει ὑμῖν. Matt 17:20).
Matthew also contains a truncated version of the fig tree
curse and mountain moving dialogue from Mark (21:18-22).
After cursing the fig tree and it instantly withering, Matthew’s Jesus tells
his disciples that with undoubting faith they may also curse fig trees, but
that this is just a starting point, and that they could even speak to “this
mountain” to move it (Matt 21:21). Thus Matthew inserts an explicit connection of escalation between the
fig tree cursing and the mountain moving.
Moreover, standing in such a relation to an event which has just transpired,
Matthew’s mountain moving here is apparently literal.
In Luke there is also a fruitless fig tree (συκῆ), not as a
miracle but in a parable (Luke 13:6-9). Rather than a judgement already made,
Luke’s parable signals a grace period in which the tree might still bear fruit.
In the Lukan context it is presented as a parable of the possibility of
repentance in the face of impending judgement.
In Mark there is an actual fig tree which stands withered as a symbol of a
judgement already made.
The other Synoptic Gospels, as early readers of Mark 11:23,
have either radically transformed the saying (Matthew) or ignored it in favour
of another similar tradition (Luke). Consequently, their evidence for Mark’s
meaning is limited. As I will argue, Matthew’s focus on literal wonderworking
and Luke’s absurd hyperbole do not lead us to the most compelling reading of
the Markan text.
b)
Parallels in 1 Corinthians
and Revelation
Paul’s use of the mountain moving motif in 1 Corinthians
13:1-3 occurs within his discussion of orderly and mutually-edifying worship
within the Body of Christ (1 Cor 12-14). He lists a number of spiritual gifts,
all of which are revealed to be worthless without love. The list appears to mix
gifts that were in operation within the Corinthian Church with those which are
hyperbolic. The gifts of tongues and prophecy are expected to function in the
Corinthians' own gatherings (1 Cor 14:26; cf. 13:1-2). Paul boasts later about
giving over his body to hardship (2 Cor 11:16-33; cf. 1 Cor 13:3). However, his
suggestion that someone might “fathom all mysteries and knowledge” (1 Cor 13:2)
is likely to be hyperbolic.
The two remaining expressions appear to connect with dominical tradition,
“faith that can move mountains” (1 Cor 13:2) and “if I give away all my
possessions” (1 Cor 13:3; compare Matt 19:21; Mark 10:21; Luke 14:33; 18:22).
For Paul, these two may describe possible spiritual gifts. It is possible to
give away all your possessions and it is possible to have great faith (even if
no one is claiming to have moved mountains).
However, the extremity of these expressions suggests hyperbole.
Moreover, while in Mark 11:23 Jesus’ words are for all his disciples, in 1 Corinthians
13 this level of faith is a gift only given to some. Luke’s Jesus asks for
faith as a mustard seed (17:6), and Mark’s Jesus asks for undoubting faith
(11:23), but with Paul it is not clear whether mountain-moving faith is a
matter of type (as a mustard seed) or purity (untainted by doubt), his point is
simply that even such effective faith requires love to be meaningful.
Alongside mountain moving in the Synoptics and Paul it
should also be noted that the moving of mountains is part of the apocalyptic
imagery of the Revelation to John. In Revelation 8:8, “The second angel blew
his trumpet, and something like a great mountain, burning with fire, was thrown
into the sea.” This language here (ἐβλήθη εἰς τὴν θάλασσαν) is very close to
Mark 11:23 (βλήθητι εἰς τὴν θάλασσαν). In Rev 16:20 shortly after the assembly
of the world’s kings at Harmageddon (i.e. Mount Megiddo, 16:16) the description
of the final destruction of Babylon includes, “every island fled away, and no
mountains were to be found.” However, no one addresses the mountains in
Revelation and neither is prayer associated with these eschatological events.
Instead, they unfold according to the trumpets and bowls administered by
angels. Thus, it seems unlikely that John of Patmos has a dominical saying in
mind here and more likely has in mind Jeremiah’s prophecy against Babylon: “I
am against you, O destroying mountain, says the Lord . . . [I will] make you a burned-out mountain” (Jer
51:25).
In the LXX this oracle of Jeremiah has similar language and phrase construction
to Revelation 8:8,[21] while
the prophecy against “Babylon” in Revelation 16:20 provides an obvious thematic
connection.
Outside of the Synoptic Gospels then, we have NT
mountain-moving expressions in both a hyperbolic usage (1 Cor 13:2) and an
eschatological usage (Rev 8:8). These correspond to the main interpretive
options typically given for Mark’s use of the expression in 11:23. However, I
find neither of these options satisfactory. Firstly, these interpretive options
create inconsistencies in Mark’s presentation of Jesus’ teaching and example.
Second, these interpretations do not take into account a distinctive feature of
Mark’s mountain moving saying, that the mountain is to be spoken to. As I will argue, this motif serves to connect the
saying with scriptural prophetic texts where mountains are spoken to and opens
up a third possibility that has not to my knowledge been considered in the
literature, that the mountain to be moved is a scriptural metaphor for human
opposition. This third possibility coheres with the minority view of Christopher
Marshall who argues that “Mark uses ‘this mountain’ as a figure for the
unbelieving temple system as such, with its hostile ruling authorities and
entrenched resistance to the message and demands of Jesus.”
That is, Marshall argues that it is the human opposition of the temple
leadership that is in view in the mountain language. However, Marshall does not
buttress his argument here with any scriptural background, a consideration
which appears determinative for most interpreters. Consequently this study will
arrive at the same conclusion as Marshall, but from a different direction, that
of scriptural background.
Compare ὡς ὄρος μέγα πυρὶ καιόμενον (Rev
8:8) with ὡς ὄρος ἐμπεπυρισμένον (LXX Jer 28:25 (= MT 51:25)).
