This Is Not the End: The Present Age

and the Eschaton in Mark’s Narrative

BENJAMIN A. EDSALL
Australian Catholic University
Fitzroy, VIC 3065, Australia

Abstract: Although many scholars continue to read Mark’s eschatology, and particu-
larly the eschatological discourse in Mark 13, as a narrative of decline into increasing
persecution, this is unsettled by careful attention to the narrative logic of Mark 13 and
to the characterization of the present age throughout Mark’s work. In the present study,
I argue that a close reading of Mark 13 in relation to the whole narrative places Mark’s
readers in the Zwischenzeit, between the resurrection and the parousia, the present age,
which is characterized by a mixture of abundance and suffering, success and opposi-
tion. It is into this situation that the abomination of desolation erupts as the green bud
to the eschatological blossom, established eschatological labor leading to the arrival
of the Son. In the present age, however, Mark’s eschatology is one of imminence
without immediacy, where no narrative of decline can be established amid the varying
experiences of abundance and penury.

Key Words: Mark · eschatology · present age · eschatological discourse ·

narrative of decline

The following argument arises out of a double distrust. First is a distrust

of narratives of decline, whether in contemporary discourse or ancient texts. By
narrative of decline I mean a historical narrative that attempts to articulate the
decline in a society or community by means of concrete and recognizable examples
(culture, expertise, ethics, religious observance, etc.). Akin to a nostalgic impulse,
the gist of the narrative is that things “back then” were so much better than things
“now.” Nostalgia itself indicates the problem here, however: the fact that some are
nostalgic about the state of East Germany behind the Iron Curtain or the events of
the cultural revolution in China highlights the selective nature of such recollec-
tions.1 As historians have noted for much of the last century, events are potentially

1 See Janelle L. Wilson, Nostalgia: Sanctuary of Meaning (Lewisburg, PA: Bucknell

429
 430 THE CATHOLIC BIBLICAL QUARTERLY | 80,2018

innumerable and they only acquire meaning when placed in a narrative representa-
tion, standing in for the events themselves. In the justly famous words of Marc
Bloch,
Reality offers us a nearly infinite number of lines of force which all converge together
upon the same phenomenon. The choice we make among them may well be founded
upon characteristics which, in practice, fully merit our attention; but it is always a
choice.2

Producing a narrative of decline, then, requires one to suppress certain negative

elements of the “back then” as well as positive elements of “now.” This applies,
mutatis mutandis, also to narratives of progress. In both cases, the words of
Augustine ring true: “People, whose life on the earth is short due to their mental
disposition, are not able to weave together the conditions of previous ages and
other people of which they have no experience with those they have experienced”
(Conf. 3.7.13; my translation).3 No doubt some things for some people in some
places are worse than before but, at the same time, other things/people/places are
better. The “now” is different from the “back then,” but it is very difficult to say
more beyond that about the movement of time as a whole.
The second distrust is of eschatological speculation. Quite apart from the
occasionally disastrous results—as in the case of Melanesian cargo cults in the
twentieth century or the Muntzerite movement in sixteenth-century Westphalia—
if constructing a narrative from historical events is problematic, projecting one
onto the future is much more so. Some are tempted to extrapolate from historical

University Press, 2005) 21 -29, though her concern is with nostalgia specifically construed as “a type
of autobiographical memory.” Narratives of decline are not limited to personal nostalgia.
2 Marc Bloch, The Historian ’s Craft, trans. Peter Putnam (Manchester: Manchester University
Press, 1954) 193. The active role of the historian is anticipated in R. G. Collingwood’s emphasis on
historical imagination and his “question-and-answer” approach (respectively in The Idea ofHistory
[Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1956] 231-49; and An Autobiography [Oxford: Oxford Univer-
sity Press, 1939] 29-43) and is prominent in Paul Ricoeur, Time and Narrative, trans. Kathleen
McLaughlin and David Pellauer (3 vols.; Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 1984-88) esp.
vol. 1, from whom I borrowed the language of historical narratives “standing in” for events.
Collingwood’s work is explicitly picked up by Hans-Georg Gadamer (Truth and Method [trans.
William Glen-Doepel; 2nd ed.; London: Sheed & Ward, 1979] 333-41) and Hans Robert Jauss
(“Literary History as a Challenge to Literary Theory,” in Toward an Aesthetic of Reception [trans.
Timothy Bahti; Theory and History of Literature 2; Minneapolis: University of Minnesota Press,
1982] 28-32). For an excellent survey of developments in historical and literary theory in the
twentieth century, see Graham Ward, Theology and Contemporary Critical Theory (Studies in
Literature and Religion; Basingstoke: Palgrave Macmillan, 2000) 38-79.
3 “Homines autem, quorum vita super terram brevis est, quia sensu non valent causas contexere
saeculorum priorum aliarumque gentium, quas experti non sunt, cum his quas experti sunt.” He
continues by noting that the knowledge of a person is limited to the proper proportions or actions
of “one body, day, or house” (“in uno ... corpore vel die vel domo”) in which one participates.
 THE PRESENT AGE AND THE ESCHATON IN MARK 431

data and posit a developing trend, though subsequent developments usually disap-
point such prognostication.4
At the intersection of these two tendencies is the view that things are only
going to get worse, hostile forces (whether secularization or extremists) will slowly
push Christians into hiding, and eventually things will get so bad that the Lord will
return. Such a narrative is regularly found in Mark 13. There will be wars and
rumors of wars, things will go downhill, until finally the abomination of desolation
will appear as evil “boils over” and believers must run for the hills to await the
intervention of the Lord in judgment.5 Such a reading, however, is unsettled by the
narrative flow of Mark 13 and is undermined by the wider context of the Gospel.
A close reading of Mark 13 in relation to the whole shows that Marcan eschatology
is not attended by a narrative of decline so much as by a narrative of eruption. The
present age is characterized by both abundance and suffering, success and opposi-
tion, and it is into that situation that the abomination of desolation erupts, the green
bud to the eschatological blossom, established eschatological labor leading to the
arrival of the Son.6 The ministry of Jesus, the overlapping and subsequent ministry
of his disciples, the growth of the kingdom of God are all part of the present age,
“this time with persecution” (Mark 10:30).
In what follows, I will first examine Mark 13 to highlight the difficulties with
reading it to describe a continuous narrative development. The argument will then
turn to wider narrative features that make clear the abundance/suffering dialectic

4 This point is made emphatically in Richard J. Evans, In Defence ofHistory (London: Granta,
2001) 61-62. Anecdotally, in 1831 the Scottish polymath Thomas Carlyle claimed that Europe’s
“tendency is to a universal European Commonweal; that the wisest in all nations will communicate
and co-operate; . . . wars will become rarer, less inhuman, and in the course of centuries such
delirious ferocity in nations, as in individuals it already is, may be proscribed, and become obsolete
forever” (“Taylor’s Historic Survey of German Poetry,” in Critical and Miscellaneous Essays:
Collected and Republished [Cambridge Library Collection; Chicago: Belford, Clark, 1890] 34243‫)־‬.
In 1848, seventeen years later, there were a number of revolutions in Europe. Five years later the
Crimean war began, followed seventeen years after that by the Franco-Prussian war, which was
followed in turn by World War I in 1914.
5 The language of evil boiling over is borrowed from Brendan Byrne, A Costly Freedom: A
Theological Reading of Marks Gospel (Collegeville, MN: Liturgical Press, 2008) 200.
6 This is in contrast to David S. du Toit, Der abwesende Herr: Strategien im Markusevange-
Hum zur Bewältigung der Abwesenheit des Auferstandenen (WMANT 111; Neukirchen-Vluyn:
Neukirchener Verlag, 2006) passim; du Toit characterizes the period between the resurrection and
parousia in strictly negative terms, as an Unheilszeit, which requires coping (Bewältigung); see
further below. In a different context, Dan O. Via Jr. speaks of the “process of amelioration and
degradation” in Mark that is evident in “redemptive” and “oppositional” processes during Jesus’s
ministry (The Ethics ofMark’s Gospel: In the Middle of Time [Philadelphia: Fortress, 1985] 48, 76,
and passim); see further below.
 432 THE CATHOLIC BIBLICAL QUARTERLY | 80,2018

in the present age. The guiding issue is to discover what sort of temporal narrative
the text plots for its readers, in which they are led to emplot themselves.7

I. Reading Mark 13

A. Narrative Flow
Put briefly, Mark 13 falls roughly into five main sections, framed by temporal
markers and the actions demanded of the disciples. After the narrative setup
(vv. 14‫)־‬, Jesus discusses two different periods (vv. 523‫־‬13, 14‫ )־‬leading up to the
“end” (vv. 2431‫)־‬. These periods have some overlapping dangers (vv. 6, 2123‫)־‬
but call for two distinct sets of actions from the disciples (vv. 919‫־‬13, 14‫)־‬. The
discourse closes with crucial final warnings that drive home the principal message
of the passage (vv. 3237‫)־‬. The question about the destruction of the temple, which
opens the discourse, is answered as it is interpreted through the lens of Daniel. The
remembered event is thereby slowly translated into an incident of cosmic signifi-
canee far surpassing the destruction of physical buildings and pointing forward to
the “end,” beyond the narrated time of the disciples and beyond the present of
Mark’s initial readers.8
The setup (vv. 1-4). As Jesus exits the temple with his disciples, he responds
to their admiration of it with a prophecy of its destruction (13:12‫)־‬. Once they reach
the Mount of Olives, away from the Passover crowds in Jerusalem, four of the
disciples come to Jesus privately (κατ’ ιδίαν) to ask “when will these things be and
what is the sign that these things will be brought about?” (vv. 39.(4‫ ־‬Jesus responds

7 See du Toit’s helpful comments on the implication of readers in Mark’s historical narrative
{Der abwesende Herr, 17).
8 See the discussion of Mark 13 and the dating of the Gospel in Eve-Marie Becker, Das
Markus-Evangelium im Rahmen antiker Historiographie (WUNT 194; Tübingen: Mohr Siebeck,
2006) 76100‫־‬. She helpfully notes there that the abomination of desolation in 13:14 does not offer
a precise predestruction date {pace Adela Yarbro Collins, Mark: A Commentary [Hermeneia;
Philadelphia: Fortress, 2007] 14) on analogy with other Jewish and Jewish Christian apocalyptic
texts; see also the discussion in Joachim Gnilka, Das Evangelium nach Markus (2 vols.; EKKNT
2; Neukirchen-Vluyn: Neukirchener Verlag, 1978-79) 1:34; Moma D. Hooker, The Gospel
according to Saint Mark (BNTC 2; Peabody, MA: Hendrikson, 1991) 5-8; Benoît Standaert,
Évangile selon Marc: Commentaire (3 vols.; EBib 61; Pendé: Gabalda, 2010) 1:13-14. Further
narrative aspects relevant to dating Mark will be addressed below.
9 The suggestion that the narrative setup and closing parables are later additions to an already
circulated mini-apocalypse, though compelling in some regards, is immaterial to the question at
hand, which is concerned with the way in which Mark constmcts a temporal framework for his
readers. Moreover, questions of redaction are particularly difficult in Mark, given the fact that we
lack his sources and he makes no effort to identify them for us.
 THE PRESENT AGE AND THE ESCHATON IN MARK 433

to the disciples’ questions, outlining three periods of time, in each case beginning
with events and ending with imperatives to the disciples.10
Period 1: The άρχή ώδίνων (vv. 5-13). Although some commentators divide
their discussion of this passage at v. 9, this division obscures the temporal connec-
tion that runs throughout these verses.11 Jesus’s response begins by warning the
four disciples to “look out” lest they be deceived, a note that runs throughout the
discourse. In this first period between the resurrection and the parousia, some will
come claiming to be the Christ; believers will hear of wars, earthquakes, and fam-
ines. In all these cases they should not be deceived. None of these events, indi-
vidually or collectively, are indicative of the parousia. “It is necessary that these
things happen, but it is not yet the end”; they are simply the “beginning of the birth
pangs” (vv. 78‫)־‬. As David du Toit has rightly noted, the Zwischenzeit described
by Mark in this passage is characterized by the absence of Jesus; any claim to his
physical presence, therefore, is necessarily false.12 Similarly, Mark wants to dis-
tance individual or collective conflict from being seen to precede the “end” directly;
the disciples should not be deceived by such speculation any more than by mes-
sianic claims.13 While Mark wants to validate such experiences as eschatologically
significant, the fact that they are “necessary” should be taken in the sense that they
are intrinsic to the Christian experience of the present age even while they are not
indicative of the final time line as such.14
The question naturally arises, then, what does such a situation require of the
disciples (or, indeed, of Mark’s readers)? Jesus’s answer is that the disciples should
not look for the “end,” since he has just said that catastrophic events and false

10 See Cilliers Breytenbach, Nachfolge und Zukunftserwartung nach Markus: Eine methoden-
kritische Studie (ATANT 71 ; Zürich: Theologischer Verlag, 1984) 283; and du Toit, Der abwesende
Herr, 193-96; pace Elizabeth E. Shively, Apocalyptic Imagination in the Gospel of Mark: The
Literary and Theological Role of Mark 3:22-30 (BZNW 189; Berlin: de Gruyter, 2012) 199, who
separates the imperatives in vv. 28-29 from the description of the “end” in vv. 24-27, arguing that
the latter description does not have a close chronological link to vv. 14-23.
11 An exception to this is Yarbro Collins, who sees both vv. 5-7 and 9-13 as part of the “birth
pains” {Mark, 607). See the textual divisions in Egon Brandenburger, Markus 13 und die Apokalyptik
(FRLANT 134; Göttingen: Vandenhoeck & Ruprecht, 1984) 164-65 (vv. 7-8,14-20, and 24-27, with
paraenetic insertions in vv. 5b-6, 913‫־‬, and 21-23). Joel Marcus (Mark 9-16: A New Translation
with Introduction and Commentary [AYB 27A; New Haven: Yale University Press, 2009] 881)
provides a section division here despite the fact that he notes the close relation with the labor pains
(p. 884); a similar approach is that ofM.-J. Lagrange, Évangile selon Saint Marc (1947; EBib; repr.,
Paris: Gabalda, 1966) 337.
12 Du Toit, Der abwesende Herr, 220, and passim.
13 For a survey of the role of “wars” and so on in Jewish eschatological and apocalyptic
discourse, see Shively, Apocalyptic Imagination, 105-12; and du Toit, Der abwesende Herr, 197-
200, among others.
14 On the metaphor of “birth pangs” and timing, see further below.
 434 THE CATHOLIC BIBLICAL QUARTERLY | 80,2018

messiahs are not indicative of it; rather, they should look to themselves (v. 9).15 In
the chaos of fratricide and intrafamilial conflict described in vv. 78‫ ־‬and 12, the
disciples are to “endure to the end” (v. 13), further indicating that the experiences
in vv. 9-13 should be read with those in vv. 58‫־‬. When the conflict overtakes the
disciples and they are arrested, however, that is an opportunity for them to proclaim
the gospel. The arrest and trial of the disciples on account of Christ are themselves
a witness to the persecutors (v. 9), and the necessary preaching of the gospel to all
nations will only be furthered by the inspired speeches given in court (vv. 1011‫)־‬.
Period 2: Thefinal θλϊψις (vv. 14-23). The situation changes for the disciples,
however, once the abomination of desolation is set up “where it should not be”
(v. 14).16 While the time preceding the abomination of desolation was character-
ized by Spirit-empowered mission and was a continuation of the task set for the
disciples by Jesus while present with them, a change in circumstances requires
something new. They are no longer to proclaim the gospel. Rather, those in Judea
are to flee for their lives (w. 1418‫)־‬. The restriction of this injunction to “those in
Judea” (οί έν τή Ίουδαία) appears to suggest that the circumstances initiated in
v. 14 are geographically limited. It becomes clear by v. 20, however, that what may
have begun from Judea has come to threaten everyone (πάσα σάρξ), and it is the
danger to the elect as a whole group that brings God to cut the oppression short.
While those in Judea, then, will be the first to see and react to the new circum-
stances, “those days” (αί ήμέραι έκεΐναι, v. 19) initiated by the abomination of
desolation will see the worst oppression (θλιψις) ever experienced in the history
of the world.17 The events of the Jewish war are here transformed through the lens
of Jewish eschatological prophecy, principally from Daniel 9-12. While an expe-
rience of war is not indicative of the end, nevertheless the end will similarly begin
in Judea with the desecration of a sacred place but will engulf the whole world.
The final tribulation will be similar but worse.
What remains the constant across each of these two periods between the
resurrection and parousia is the warning against deception. Elizabeth Shively,
among others, has rightly noted the βλέπετε inclusio that marks Jesus’s instructions

15 The imperative βλέπετε without the negative μή should be read as a positive injunction to
look or consider something rather than to “beware,” as in the negative construction of v. 5; cf.
Marcus, Mark 9-16, 882.
16 So also, Hooker, Gospel according to Saint Mark, 313; Yarbro Collins, Mark, 607; Gnilka,
Das Evangelium nach Markus, 2:195; in addition to du Toit, Der abwesende Herr, 19396‫ ;־‬and
Breytenbach, Nachfolge und Zukunftserwartung, 283; pace Shively (Apocalyptic Imagination,
199), Marcus (Mark 9-16, 895), and Francis J. Moloney (The Gospel of Mark: A Commentary
[Peabody, MA: Hendrickson, 2002] 258), who emphasize continuity with the previous mention of
“wars and rumors of wars” to the expense of acknowledging the shift in tone and required actions
in v. 14.
17 See the discussions of persecution in Jewish eschatological expectation in Marcus, Mark
9-16, 892-93; Brandenburger, Markus 13, 4954‫ ;־‬and Shively, Apocalyptic Imagination, 10512‫־‬.
 THE PRESENT AGE AND THE ESCHATON IN MARK 435

in vv. 523.18‫ ־‬As the parousia of Jesus remains a future expectation, any claims for
his presence remain deceptive. Verse 26 makes it clear that the arrival of Jesus will
not be a question of individual knowledge; “they” will see the Son of Man. There-
fore, deception remains an important issue. This warning goes further than that in
vv. 56‫־‬, however. The initial concern is that those who will come in the name of
Jesus will deceive many. After the abomination of desolation, false messiahs and
false prophets not only will speak deceitfully but will perform deceptive miracles.
In this second eschatological period, however, it is not the time for miracles any
more than it is the time for mission. Fortunately, for the sake of the “elect,” the
days of tribulation will be shortened.
Period 3: The end (vv. 24-31). During the same days that are initiated by the
erection of the abomination of desolation, though after an unspecified time from
the ultimate tribulation, the end will arrive with cosmic signs. The parousia of the
Son of Man follows closely on the heels of the signs (τότε). He is seen arriving on
the clouds, and he gathers the elect, those who have endured (vv. 13), to meet with
him in the clouds.19 As with the previous periods presented by Jesus in the
discourse, even this is followed by a series of imperatives.20 As the previous

18 Shively, Apocalyptic Imagination, 199, though her effort to use the inclusio to distance the
narrative ‫׳‬of vv. 14-23 from what follows is only partially helpful. See below; and du Toit, Der
abwesende Herr, 162-66.
19 See particularly Standaert, Évangile selon Marc, 3:939-42, who provides helpful points of
contact with the Pauline eschatological tradition. See also Edward Adams, “The ‘Coming of God’
Tradition and Its Influence on New Testament Parousia Texts,” in Biblical Traditions in Transmission:
Essays in Honour of Michael A. Knibb, ed. Charlotte Hempel and Judith M. Lieu (JSJSup 111;
Leiden: Brill, 2006) 1-19; and also Marcus, Mark 9-16, 904-5, for Jewish material in which the
“coming of the Son of Man” is presented as an arrival rather than ascent/departure (e.g., b. Sank.
98a; attributed to Joshuah ben Hannaniah [d. 131 c.e.]). Others who read this quotation from Daniel
7 in terms ofthe parousia are Hooker, Gospel according to Saint Mark, 319; and Shively, Apocalyptic
Imagination, 207; contra R. T. France, The Gospel of Mark: A Commentary on the Greek Text
(NIGTC; Grand Rapids: Eerdmans, 2002) 534-35; Peter Bolt, The Crossfrom a Distance: Atonement
in Mark’s Gospel (New Studies in Biblical Theology 18; Downers Grove, IL: InterVarsity, 2004)
90-99, with further bibliography; and Ma’afu Palu, Jesus and Time: An Interpretation ofMark 1.15
(LNTS 468; London: T&T Clark, 2012) 175. The arguments that the description here in Mark is
either about the destruction of Jerusalem and the glorification of Christ (France) or about the
crucifixion and resurrection (Bolt and Palu) encounter difficulty in accounting for the perspectival
quality of the verb “coming,” which is seen by “them.” As an antidote to the false signs in 13:22,
Mark presents the parousia as a visible event for all, including non-community members. Further,
the parables that follow in vv. 28-29 and 33-37 both emphasize movement toward the disciples (and
readers)—the master of the house is returning, the Lord is at the very door. Further, one can hardly
argue that, between the discourse and the resurrection, the material predicted by Jesus in the dialogue
has come to fruition. The end remains a future expectation for the readers of Mark who are to await
the return of the master.
20Pace Shively, Apocalyptic Imagination, 199-200, who separates the imperatives in
vv. 28-29 from what precedes.
 436 THE CATHOLIC BIBLICAL QUARTERLY | 80,2018

imperatives supplied instructions for the disciples’ conduct during each set of
circumstances, here too the readers of Mark are to recognize their circumstances:
“learn from the fig tree,” and thereby know that “these things” indicate the nearness
of the parousia. Jesus concludes the discussion of the “end” by reiterating the
parousia’s continued imminence (v. 30), despite the fact that Mark’s readers are
firmly situated in the phase described in vv. 5-13, and declaring his (Jesus’s) trust-
worthiness (v. 31).
Closing instructions (vv. 32-37). Whatever eschatological immediacy is
sparked in vv. 30-31 is strongly qualified in v. 32, where even the Son is excluded
from knowledge of the day or the hour of the “end.” The final parable of the absent
master of the house speaks directly of the Zwischenzeit.21 It is a time of alert action:
the servants are to continue in their assigned tasks until the watchman sees the
master arriving (v. 34). In the context of the discourse from 13:5-31, the coming
of the master of the house is analogous to the budding fig tree. Those who under-
stand will recognize the erection of the abomination of desolation; until then the
disciples (and Mark’s readers) are to continue preaching the gospel. The principal
concern of the slaves left to care for the master’s house is not that they will miss
the signs of his coming but rather that they will be found sleeping on the job
(w. 35-37).

B. Dynamic of the Present Age: Mission and Opposition

This brief overview of the narrative logic in Mark 13 highlights the distinct
phases of Mark’s eschatological expectations. The first phase, one of continued
mission in the face of persecution, is strictly demarcated from the second phase,
one of flight and dire straits. The third phase is again clearly differentiated from
the prior two by the cosmic signs and the parousia of Jesus. The general develop-
ment here points to an underlying dynamic which is crucial for Mark’s character-
ization of the present age, of the period in which the disciples lived after Jesus’
resurrection and which Mark’s readers continue to experience.
In the first place, it is undoubtedly the case that, according to Mark’s Jesus,
the disciples—and so Mark’s readers—should expect difficult times ahead. Their
comfort is to be in the fact that Jesus had already told them about this beforehand
(vv. 23, 31). Nevertheless, the rather bleak picture of survival under persecution
presented in vv. 9-13, is mitigated somewhat by two factors. First, the spread of
the gospel is necessary and empowered by the Spirit such that the disciples (and
Mark’s readers) might expect some success even in the face of opposition. That
they can expect to be dragged before multiple leaders suggests that a trial or beat-
ing will not be fatal and may in fact lead to their release and further preaching.

21 See du Toit, Der abwesende Herr, 113-15.

 THE PRESENT AGE AND THE ESCHATON IN MARK 437

Second, in the notice that Jesus’s followers “will be hated by all” because of their
affiliation with Christ, the substantive πάντων is best read in connection with
πάντα in v. 10.22 That means that instead of expecting universal rejection on an
individual level, which would indicate a consistent failure in their attempt to
preach the gospel, the disciples should expect to be hated by all nations.23 There
is no group of people among whom they will find the gospel consistently accepted
—somewhat scandalously, not even in Israel.
The dynamic in play here is one of success amid persecution, a dynamic that
is also clearly in play in Jesus’s own ministry, as reported by Mark.24 Notably, this
dynamic was already faced by the disciples, if at a less extreme level, earlier in the
narrative. In Mark 6:713‫־‬, Jesus sends out the Twelve to preach the gospel and
alerts them to the possibility of rejection; even such rejection, however, results in
the disciples’ actions functioning as a witness to their rejectors. In other words,
then, in the midst of these birth pangs the disciples are to continue to do what they
are already instructed to do. Just as Jesus sent them out earlier to proclaim the
gospel of the kingdom, so they are to continue that task irrespective of whether
there is a war on or an earthquake in the area. Jesus’s instructions in 13:913‫ ־‬point
forward, “beyond the scope of the narrative,” to a time when Jesus is no longer
present and the disciples are dragged in for official proceedings.25 Further, Mark’s
readers are implicitly situated in the first phase of the Zwischenzeit between the
beginning of the birth pangs and the end. Their “present age” overlaps with that
described to the disciples and thereby is portrayed as participating in the same
dynamic.26
As noted above, the tone shifts in v. 14, the bud of the eschatological fig tree:
the dynamic of persecution/mission moves to one of sheer persecution and danger.
Although it is difficult to be decisive in identifying the referent for “these things”
in 13:29 or for “all these things in v. 30,27 two considerations weigh in favor of
v. 14.28 The first is the fact that seeing “these things” in v. 29 indicates to the viewer

22 Pace Marcus, Mark 9-16, 888, who reads this statement as “psychologically justified” by
one’s familial rejection, though “factually exaggerated.”
23 On the wider expectation of growth in the kingdom of God, see section II.B below.
24 Pace, du Toit, Der abwesende Herr, 22729‫־‬, who overemphasizes the negative aspects. On
Jesus’s example, see section II.C below; and Via, Ethics ofMark’s Gospel, 48, and passim.
25 The quotation is from Shively, Apocalyptic Imagination, 202; note also her more general
comments there on the temporal scope of the passage.
26 See Breytenbach, Nachfolge und Zukunftserwartung, 282: “Die Zukunft der Jünger in Mark
13 ist nur zum Teil Gegenwart der markinischen Gemeinde, denn auch für sie steht Mark 13,14-27
noch vor der Tür.”
27 Pace Marcus {Mark 9-16, 911), it is problematic to identify separate references for these
two phrases within the preceding discourse. Both follow the entire eschatological discussion and
both lack any specifying frame beyond the preceding context.
28 See George R. Beasley-Murray, Jesus and the Last Days: The Interpretation of the Olivet
 438 THE CATHOLIC BIBLICAL QUARTERLY | 80,2018

that “he” is at the gates.29 This is unlikely to include the material in vv. 78‫ ־‬because
the events noted there are specifically identified as not indicative of the end. They
may be a necessary part of the present age, but life for the sent disciples is to carry
on as usual. The language of birth pangs in v. 8 may appear to supply an image of
continuous escalation in suffering, though this is not the purpose of the metaphor.
People in antiquity knew as well as we do that birth pangs, though related to actual
birth and intrinsic to the process, do not provide any clear indication of a time line.
Contractions can start weeks before labor itself, on again off again, and even once
labor has started it can stall out.30 With the image of birth pangs, the events in
w. 7-8 are intrinsically related to the coming of the Son of Man but are not given
a place in any eschatological time line. The present suffering is valuable, but not
indicative. For the “bud” of v. 29 to be indicative, then, it must rather refer to the
event in v. 14. This referent also provides the space between noticing the bud and
the harvest of the ripe fruit suggested by the parable.31
This reading, locating Mark’s readers in the first eschatological phase of
vv. 9-13, also correlates closely with the closing instructions. Just as the servant
should continue following through his task, alert to the constant possibility of the
master returning (vv. 3337‫)־‬, so also should the disciples continue to spread the
gospel (as is “necessary”) and endure until “the end” (w. 9-13). This creates an
air for the parousia of constant imminence without immediacy. Verse 30, however,
poses a challenge to this view of Mark’s narrative flow.32
The statement that “this generation shall by no means pass away until all these
things take place” appears on the surface to foster the sort of eschatological imme-

Discourse (Peabody, MA: Hendrickson, 1993) 437; and Breytenbach, Nachfolge und Zukunfts-
erwartung, 300. Other proposals include a reference to the cosmic events in vv. 24-25 (e.g.,
Brandenburger, Markus 73,101-2; Jan Lambrecht, Die Redaktion der Markus-Apokalypse: Literari-
sehe Analyse und Strukturuntersuchung [AnBib 28; Rome: Pontifical Biblical Institute, 1967] 198;
Moloney, Gospel of Mark, 268; and cf. du Toit, Der abwesende Herr, 177) or to the discourse as a
whole, beginning from v. 5 (e.g., Karl Matthias Schmidt, Wege des Heils: Erzählstrukturen und
Rezeptionskontexte des Markusevangeliums [NOTA/SUNT 74; Göttingen: Vandenhoeck & Ruprecht,
2010] 75; Standaert, Evangile selon Marc, 3:948; Shively, Apocalyptic Imagination, 211). For
critiques of these other options, see further below.
29 The lack of a subject in the final clause of v. 29 renders it uncertain whether “he” (the Son
of Man) or “it” (the end) is at the gates. The difference is not great, though, since the advent of the
Son of Man is also the “end”; see the discussion in Hooker, Gospel according to Saint Mark, 321.
30 See the comments in du Toit, Der abwesende Herr, 198. Aristotle was already aware that
birth pangs (ώδιναν) and labor are sometimes disconnected (Hist. an. 7.5.4 [584a26-584bl]).
31 This is Beasley-Murray’s critique (Jesus and the Last Days, 437) of Brandenberger’s view.
32 The evident difficulty of integrating the eschatological discourse of Mark 13 (particularly
as read in the framework of a narrative of decline) with the rest of the Gospel has been noted
numerous times and still occasionally results in scholars arguing that 13:2-32 is a later interpolation;
cf. Schmidt, Wege des Heils, 71-78, with bibliography there. The present argument undermines such
a view on narrative grounds, on which see also the whole of Shively, Apocalyptic Imagination.
 THE PRESENT AGE AND THE ESCHATON IN MARK 439

diacy that vv. 913‫ ־‬and 32-37 undermine.33 The principal problem here is the
identity of “this generation” (ή γενεά αϋτη). If it is to be identified only with those
contemporaries of Jesus who were of similar age, then by 70 c.e. few of them
would be left and Mark 13:30 would supply a remarkably restrictive eschatologi-
cal time line. The term γενεά, however, need not have such a limited chronological
implication.34 Victor ofAntioch’s Catena in Marcam reports two other interpretive
options. The first, borrowed from John Chrysostom’s homilies on Matthew, treats
γενεά as a reference to a group identified by their similar characteristics rather than
constrained by historical proximity. Therefore, for Chrystostom, “this generation”
is identified with the faithful Christians who will endure until the end.35 The sec-
ond, perhaps culled from lost comments by Theodore of Mopsuestia, identifies the
generation with those who crucified Jesus, citing John 19:37 (Zech 12:10) for
justification—“they will look upon the one they pierced.”36
In fact, if we look more broadly at Mark’s use of the term γενεά, there is
internal justification for something like the view of Theodore, namely, identifying
the “generation” who witnesses the parousia with a broader group of those who
oppose the ministry of Jesus and his disciples, perhaps even including those who
oppose the work of Mark’s readers. Mark uses the term only four other times in
his Gospel and all four are negative characterizations. In 8:12 “this generation”
asks for a sign to test Jesus (see v. 11) but will not receive one. In 8:38 “this gen-
eration” is “adulterous and sinful,” and in 9:19 it is “faithless.” This referent for
γενεά, though still restricted, is considerably looser than the first interpretation
noted above. The generation who witness “all these things” are also those who will
see the Son of Man coming as a sign ofjudgment upon them, in line with his role
as judge in Daniel 7.37 The referent for the plural οψονται in 13:26 is clarified by

33 Shively, Apocalyptic Imagination, 200: “The point of Jesus’ speech is to enlarge his
followers’ vision of the end of all things, for it includes more than the destruction of the temple.”
34 Pace Marcus, Mark 9-16,911-12, who argues that the generation of Jesus’s contemporaries
is the only real option.
35 Victor of Antioch Catena 43 [414.20-28], reworking the comments in Chrysostom’s Horn.
Matt. 71.1 (PG 58:701.55-702.31); cf. William R. S. Lamb, The Catena in Marcum: A Byzantine
Anthology ofEarly Commentary on Mark (Texts and Editions for New Testament Study 6; Leiden:
Brill, 2012) 407 n. 91. The text for Victor’s Catena is in volume 1 of John Anthony Cramer, Catenae
Graecorum patrum in Novum Testamentum (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1838^4‫)־‬.
36 Victor of Antioch Catena 43 [414.29-415.1]; the source and attribution of this citation are
uncertain; see Lamb, Catena in Marcum, 407 n. 96, who is following the seminal work of Harold
Smith, “The Sources of Victor of Antioch’s Commentary on Mark,” JTS 19 (1918) 350-70.
37 This reading also thereby distinguishes the referent in 13:30 from the audience in 9:1, where
Jesus says to his disciples “Truly I say to you, there are some standing here who will not taste death
until they see the kingdom of God having come in power.” In the immediate context, the connection
between 8:38 and 9:1 is outweighed in the chiastic structure by the connection between 9:1 and 8:34
(see Marcus, Mark 9-16,623). The emphasis on the inauguration of the kingdom, then, is on Jesus’s
crucifixion, while the parousia in 8:38 and 13:24-31 is not inauguration but consummation.
 440 THE CATHOLIC BIBLICAL QUARTERLY | 80,2018

the shift to the second person plural οψεσθε in the later citation of the same Dan-
ielic passage: “they” who see the Son of Man coming in judgment in 13:26 become
the “you” who oppose Jesus in 14:62. Therefore, the wicked and adulterous gen-
eration, which includes those who test Jesus, who reject him and oppose his min-
istry, who drag the disciples before courts in 13:913‫־‬, who are the oppressors in
the final tribulation—they are the “generation” who will see “all these things”
described in 13:5-27.38 This group is much broader than simply Jesus’s contem-
poraries. Moreover, in relation to Mark’s audience, those who hear Jesus’s dis-
course spoken to them and who are explicitly addressed in 13:14 (“let the reader
understand”) broaden the boundaries of “this generation” yet again. As Mark’s
community still awaits the erection of the abomination of desolation, those who
will see the coming of the Son of Man now include their contemporaries and per-
secutors.39 In light of these considerations, then, Mark 13:30 continues the escha-
tological imminence without immediacy, though the emphasis here is certainly on
the side of imminence. The master of the house will still return, a fact that should
shape the way in which the servants go about their business, even though wars and
tragedies continue. Jesus’s words of encouragement here, it is declared, are more
firm than the created order itself. Mark 13:30, then, does not move the reader out
of the period framed by 13:913‫־‬. The present age, inhabited both by the disciples
and by Mark’s readers after the resurrection of Jesus, remains characterized by the
dynamic of mission in the face of opposition.
Mark’s own metaphor of birth, if carried through the passage, provides an
instructive and vivid summary of this reading of his eschatological vision. Wars
and persecutions are not directly indicative of the end; as birth pains, they are just
as likely to be eschatological Braxton Hicks contractions as they are full labor. The
appearance of the abomination of desolation in v. 14 functions like the breaking
waters (it is a watershed event and the levee has burst, etc.), indicating established
labor and the dilation of the eschatological cervix. When, “in those days,” the
ultimate tribulation comes upon the people (v. 19), time’s cervix moves from seven
centimeters to ten centimeters during transition, a painful stage shortened by the
mercy of God. Only after transition (“in those days, after that tribulation”), does
the cosmic pushing begin (vv. 2425‫)־‬, which results in the arrival of a son with all
his g(l)ory (and) power (vv. 2627‫)־‬.

38 See the comments of Standaert, Évangile selon Marc, 3:940, though he does not mention
Theodore of Mopsuestia; pace Marcus, Mark 9-16, 908, who argues that it is the shaken celestial
powers that will see the Son of Man.
39 Standaert, Évangile selon Marc, 3:948: “En parlant de ‘cette génération’ (ή γενεά αϋτη) le
texte vise à la fois la génération des personnes auxquelles Jésus s’adressa sur le Mont des Oliviers
et la génération que écoute la proclamation du récit évangélique au temps de Marc. De telles phrases
sont d’une certain façon toujours vraies. Elles tiennent le milieu entre l’écrit et l’oral.” On Standaert’s
reading, one might draw an analogy with Heb 3:13, where the “today” of Psalm 95 is absolutized:
every day is “today” for the person living it.
 THE PRESENT AGE AND THE ESCHATON IN MARK 441

II. The Present Age in Mark

From Mark 13:14 one can properly speak of “ever-increasing” pressure
caused by “all the posers of evil in their hopeless struggle with God who will strike
when the struggle reaches its approaching culmination.”40 But this narrative of
decline and persecution does not apply to the present age of the disciples or Mark’s
readers. Many interpreters, however, maintain an understanding of Mark’s narra-
tive (particularly in chap. 13) as one of decline into the eschaton. One commentary
that tries to bridge academic and pastoral roles illustrates the impact of this reading
quite clearly.
What does it mean for us to discern the signs of the times today, and to retain hope in
the face of so much violence and discouragement? War, famine, refugees, debt, envi-
ronmental destruction, poverty, arms trade, drug trade, economic instability. Imagine
a map of the world overlaid with words or symbols indicating the reality of life in
different countries or regions. How well the text from Mark 13 mirrors our global
reality! Every continent on the face of the earth is racked with desperate conditions
of hunger, poverty, violence, and strife. In our own times, we have witnessed a grow-
ing disparity between the rich and the poor—while a very few live in comfort, the
world is becoming uninhabitable for a majority of the human family. The environment
itself reflects this human upheaval with pollution, despoliation, and cataclysmic
change. What kind of future are we leaving for our children and grandchildren? It is
hard to believe that history has any redemptive purpose. Things seem to be getting
worse, not better.”41

The problems with this reading, we have already seen, are internal to Mark 13
itself. The present sufferings are not the end, and there is no clear line of deteriora-
tion prior to the eruption of persecution and violence after the abomination of
desolation is set up.42 Everything else is, explicitly, not the end. In the present age,

40 Lars Hartman, Prophecy Interpreted: The Formation ofSome Jewish Apocalyptic Texts and
of the Eschatological Discourse Mark 13 par (ConBNT 1; Lund: Gleerup, 1966) 69; cf. Byrne,
Costly Freedom, 202: “They may interpret dismaying external events... as pointing to the imminent
return of the Son of Man. But they would be wrong: all this will not be ‘the End,’ it is only the
beginning of the messianic woes that are to intensify before its arrivaF (emphasis added).
41 Ched Myers et al., “Say to This Mountain Mark’s Story ofDiscipleship (Maryknoll, NY:
Orbis, 1996) 174-75; emphasis added. To be fair to the authors, they do not ultimately advocate
eschatological speculation. Rather they conclude that watching the “signs of the times” involves
watching and waiting for the universal and healing “yes” of God, a hidden reality that “breaks out
in the most unlikely places” and will finally be realized fully at the eschaton. Nevertheless, the
linking of the narrative of decline with the “signs of the times” remains.
42 A different reading of Mark 13 without a narrative of decline is found in Moloney, Gospel
of Mark, 25265‫־‬, though I find his treatment of the narrative development of 13:531‫ ־‬less than
satisfying. Moloney wants to eliminate any temporal connection between vv. 2427‫ ־‬and what
precedes (as does Shively; see above), which allows him to argue that the whole of the persecutions
in vv. 523‫ ־‬are “the beginnings of the birth-pangs.” To achieve this, however, he has to dismiss the
 442 THE CATHOLIC BIBLICAL QUARTERLY | 80,2018

the disciples and Mark’s readers are not to watch for signs or chart the decline of
the world, marking “ever-increasing efforts” by evil powers. Moreover, if no one
knows the day or the hour, then the present sufferings are not “harbingers” of the
end, and one could not confidently construct a narrative in which things are “get-
ting worse, not better.”43 The character of the present age indicated in Mark 13,
furthermore, is a mixture of Spirit-empowered success and persecution. The
dynamic of mission in the face of opposition is present throughout Mark, both in
the actual and projected experiences of the disciples and in the ministry of Jesus.

A. The Disciples ’Experience in the Present Age

The whole of Mark’s Gospel is written with a view to the eschaton, beginning
in 1:2 with the Isaianic prophecy concerning preparation for “the way of the
Lord.”44 The gospel that Jesus preaches in 1:14-15 already signals the proximity
of the kingdom of God, which has drawn near. The beginning of the Gospel in 1:1,
should it signify more than simply the incipit, is nevertheless not the beginning of
the kingdom’s movement. Its prior movement is indicated by the fact that it has
already drawn near. Mark’s Gospel as a whole, therefore, positions itself in a period
between the beginning and the end, a time whose dynamic overlaps with that of
the Zwischenzeit of Mark 13, as we shall see.45
The experiences the disciples can expect in the present age, during the pres-
ence of the bridegroom and once he has been removed from their presence (2:19-
20), are addressed explicitly and implicitly throughout the Marcan narrative. A full
discussion of these is neither possible within the scope of an article nor is it neces-
sary for highlighting the dynamic of mission and oppression, success and opposi-
tion, noted above.46 On the one hand, the present age is one of mourning and

phrase “in those days” in 13:24 as something merely “traditional in apocalyptic writing” which,
pace Moloney, does not address the problem of their function in the present version of Mark. “Those
days” links back with the days cut short in v. 20, and the phrase μετά την θλΐψιν έκείνην points to a
particular tribulation in view. On the present reading, ή θλΐψις έκείνη is the erection ofthe abomination
of desolation in 13:14.
43 Pace Beasley-Murray, Jesus and the Last Days, 397, who argues that the events in 13:713‫־‬
are “early harbingers” of the end.
44On the significance and eschatological character of this phrase, see in particular Joel
Marcus, The Way of the Lord: Christological Exegesis of the Old Testament in the Gospel of Mark
(Louisville: Westminster John Knox, 1992) 31-47, 199, and passim; and Rikki E. Watts, Isaiah’s
New Exodus and Mark (WUNT 2/88; Tübingen: Mohr Siebeck, 1997) 53-90.
45 Cf. the comments of Via, Ethics of Mark’s Gospel, 46-47; pace Palu, Jesus and Time, 146-
59, 170-71 and passim, who argues that Mark’s Gospel includes both beginning and end within
itself. It is true that the “beginning of the gospel” is narrated in Mark, as Palu argues, but the
beginning of the gospel does not mark the beginning of the coming kingdom. Rather both the starting
and ending points of time for Mark are pushed out of the frame of the narrative.
46 For a detailed catalogue and brief analysis of passages relating to the Zwischenzeit in Mark,
 THE PRESENT AGE AND THE ESCHATON IN MARK 443

persecution. That much is clear beginning in the confrontation stories of Mark 2

through the discussion of cross-centered discipleship in 8:34-38 to the opposition
described in 13:7-13. In Mark, furthermore, the mission and opposition to be
expected in the Zwischenzeit are already in play for the disciples before Jesus’s
death and resurrection. As mentioned earlier, in Mark 6:7-13 Jesus sends out the
Twelve to cast out unclean spirits and proclaim repentance, on the model of Jesus’s
own ministry. He tells them, “Whichever house you enter, stay there until you leave
from that place. And whichever place does not receive you or listen to you, go out
from there and shake the dust from your feet as a witness to them [εις μαρτύριον
αύτοίς]” (6:10-11). Put more simply, in their mission the disciples can expect both
good and bad receptions and in both cases their actions and words are to be a “wit-
ness” to (and against) them. In 13:9-10 Mark’s Jesus tells the disciples that their
work even when dragged into court is similarly as a witness to (and against) them
(εις μαρτύριον αύτοίς, 13:10). Discipleship may well be a matter of taking up one’s
cross and losing one’s life—figuratively or literally—but it is also attended by the
possibility of finding receptiveness to the gospel and repentance.
This picture is also one that emerges from the parables of the kingdom in
Mark 4. The kingdom of God is like the seeds sown in various locations: there are
some seeds that do not flourish due to the innate inability of the ground and exter-
nal forces (spiritual and physical), while others will see an incredible abundance
result from sowing the word (4:2-20). “For the one who has, more will be given
to him, and for one who does not have, even what he has will be taken away”
(4:25). Abundance and penury are both in effect. The disciples, of course, are those
who have (v. 11). The parables of the secretly growing seed (vv. 26-29) and the
parable of the mustard seed (vv. 30-32) do not mention present or eschatological
suffering, but they do continue the picture of inexorable growth.47 The kingdom
of God, of which the disciples have the secret, will grow steadily until the harvest,
so much so that it will exceed the size of other, more obviously advantaged “seeds.”
The image of the seed, furthermore, suggests an organic connection between what
is and what will be; the plant and the seed are not identical, but there is a continu-
ity rather than disjunction between the present and the future.48

see du Toit, Der abwesende Herr, 113-49, who offers fuller analyses variously elsewhere in his
book. He highlights in particular 2:1837‫־‬20; 4:26‫־‬29; 13:33‫ ;־‬and 14:27.
47 Pace du Toit, Der abwesende Herr, 11730‫־‬, who argues that4:2629‫ ־‬reduces the Zwischenzeit
simply to a time of passive waiting. While Jesus is likely to be the main referent for the sower, the
parable by no means limits the referent to him. The emphasis is not on the waiting but rather on the
fact that growth from seeds of the gospel is up to the agency of God rather than the farmer. The
disciples, having already been sent out to preach (κηρύσσειν, 3:14), are included in the picture of
the man who sows and so, implicitly, are Mark’s readers. This is an example of where du Toit pushes
too far in search of his entirely negative characteristic of Mark’s Zwischenzeit.
48 There is an element, then, of Joachim Jeremias’s famous “sich realisierende Eschatologie,”
recently discussed and reaffirmed in Palu, Jesus and Time, 1719‫־‬.
 444 THE CATHOLIC BIBLICAL QUARTERLY | 80,2018

There are two particularly important passages in which Mark addresses the
character of the present age explicitly. In these places, Mark’s Jesus explains what
the disciples can expect in their present circumstances and future experiences. The
first of these is Mark 10:28-30. Here, Jesus has just quietly rebuked the rich man
for his abundant possessions and debriefed his disciples after the fact (10:1727‫)־‬,
when Peter exclaims, “Look, we have left everything and followed you!” Jesus
replies,
Truly I say to you, there is no one who has left house or brothers or sisters, or mother
or father or children or fields for my sake and the sake of the gospel that will not receive
a hundredfold now in this time with persecution—houses and brothers and sisters and
mothers and children and fields—and life eternal in the age to come.

The present age, “this time”—here including the time of ministry before Jesus’s
death and resurrection49—is the period of self-divestment; Peter and the others
have abandoned everything to follow Jesus. Further, “this time” is “with persecu-
tion” (μετά διωγμών), which is to say, persecution is an intrinsic part of the present
age.50
Contrary to what one may expect in such a two-age schema, however, the
present is not only a time for divestment, awaiting recompense in the age to come
(έν τω αιώνι τω έρχομένω/ΚΠΠ 51.(‫ העלום‬Jesus reassures his disciples that not only
eschatological rewards are due them. Even in the present age they will receive a
hundredfold of the things they have left.52 Certain elements of this list appear to
be easily fulfilled in terms of the nascent Christian community—brothers, sisters,
mothers, and children. It may be that the author of Mark also has in view the
expectation of sharing the houses and fields of other Christians, such that every-
thing that is lost on a personal level is gained again communally.53 What is notable
here is that receiving back “a hundredfold” is a picture of abundance and flourish­

49 On the two periods, see du Toit, Der abwesende Herr, 296: “Sie [the two periods] stellt ein
Stück struktureller Kontinuität zwischen den beiden Epochen her und weicht somit die scharfe
Diastase zwischen den beiden Zeiten ein wenig auf.”
50 See similar comments in Yarbro Collins, Mark, 48283‫ ;־‬Standaert, Evangile selon Marc,
2:753; pace Hooker, Gospel according to Saint Mark, 243, who views the phrase μετά διωγμών as
an “artificial addition” added to Jesus’s statement (so also Gnilka, Das Evangelium nach Markus,
2:91) once the hundredfold repayment was felt overdue. Du Toit considers persecution the conditio
Christiana (Der abwesende Herr, 31011 ‫)־‬.
51 Gnilka notes that Mark has altered a standard “Zweiäonenschema” to allow for compensa-
tion already in “diese Zeit” (Das Evangelium nach Markus, 2:93).
52 See Shively, Apocalyptic Imagination, 240: “Those whose minds are set on God’s ways
become part of a new household, albeit one whose members count the cost by enduring persecution
as they wait for the realization of God’s kingdom.”
53 So also Lagrange, Evangile selon Saint Marc, 272; Hooker, Gospel according to Saint
Mark, 243; and Yarbro Collins, Mark, 482, among others.
 THE PRESENT AGE AND THE ESCHATON IN MARK 445

ing—the early Christian community is awash with houses and fields54—despite

the fact that the present age is one of suffering persecution and despite the fact that
a prerequisite for following Jesus is giving up everything. There is no slide into
chaos in this picture, but rather a simultaneous presence of the good and the bad.
Moreover, the flourishing that the disciples can look forward to is not simply a
future spiritual reward; it also includes present material benefits.55
In Mark 11, the second of these principal passages, as the disciples and Jesus
pass the cursed fig tree, Peter remarks on the fact that Jesus’s imprecation against
the tree has come to pass. Jesus’s response is important for its characterization of
the disciples’ future experience in the world.56
And Jesus replied to them, “Trust God. Truly I say to you that whoever says to this
mountain, ‘pick yourself up and throw yourself into the sea,’ and is not divided in his
heart but trusts that it will be as he said, it will happen for him. Because of this I say
to you that everything which you pray and request, trust that you will receive it and it
will be yours.” (11:2224‫)־‬

The picture presented here is that of powerful and successful disciples. It is even
potentially triumphalist: whatever they ask for with faith will be theirs.57 The pres-
ent age may be one of frustration and disappointment—with fruitless trees and
fruitless people—and yet it is still one of incredible triumph and the disciples can
have faith that their needs will be met in concrete ways.58
Finally, the present and future success of the disciples in their ministry is
preceded by Jesus himself. On their way to Gethsemane, Jesus tells the disciples
of their coming abandonment, noting that Scripture had already foretold this event.
Nevertheless, he ends on a positive note: “But after I am raised, I will go before
you into Galilee” (14:2631‫)־‬. This prophecy is fulfilled in 16:7, when the angel at
the tomb tells the women that “he has gone ahead of you into Galilee. You will see
him there, just as he said to you.” This notice secures the validity of Jesus’s future

54 See the comments in Moloney, Gospel of Mark, 202.

55 This is downplayed in du Toit’s account, which focuses rather on the Christian community
as an ersatz family (Der abwesende Herr, 294310-11 ,98‫)־‬. One might also point here to the parable
of the tenant farmers in 12:1 12 ‫־‬, in which the “vineyard” is to be taken away from the present leaders
and given to others, a demonstrable improvement on the current relation of the disciples to the bad
“tenant farmers.”
56 Notably, this passage is not discussed for its implications for the present age in du Toit, Der
abwesende Herr. It features only in an excursus on “Faith” on pp. 9193‫־‬.
57 Pace Yarbro Collins, Mark, 53536‫־‬, who plays down the triumphalist note in light of the
cross-centered discipleship in 8:34-38.
58 Lagrange comments: “La foi nécessaire pour cela [videlicet moving mountains] n’est pas,
semble-t-il, la foi ordinaire, mais la conviction que dans le moment présent Dieu accordera le
miracle, ce que suppose une grâce surnaturelle spéciale. ... Jésus nous enseigne que qui prie avec
foi, la foi en Dieu, obtient tout ce qu’il demande; il demande selon Dieu” (Évangile selon Saint
Marc, 300).
 446 THE CATHOLIC BIBLICAL QUARTERLY | 80,2018

predictions for Mark’s readers. Just as Jesus said he would precede them to Galilee,
just as his word will not fail even in the destruction of the whole cosmos, so he has
done and will do. This example of Jesus leads directly to the final part of the pres-
ent argument, the example of his ministry for the disciples’ expectations of the
present age.

B. The Example ofJesus s Ministry

Throughout Mark’s narrative, Jesus’s ministry is characterized by wild sue-
cess in the face of opposition ranging from tentative to tenacious, culminating in
the mortal defeat of crucifixion and the ultimate victory in resurrection. Parallels
between Jesus’s ministry and that of his disciples are easy to identify and clearly
intentional in Mark’s narrative. The disciples are those who follow Jesus (1:16-18),
and, after his initial ministry of preaching, healing, and casting out demons (1:21-
2:12), the disciples are commissioned by Jesus to go out and continue his ministry
in preparation for the coming kingdom of God (3:1315‫)־‬. In his central discourse
on discipleship, the defining event in Mark’s narrative of Christ—the cross—is
presented as the defining stance for those who would be his disciples.59
Beyond the element of imitatio Christi in Mark’s narrative, however, the
dynamic of success and opposition that characterizes the disciples’ experience in
the present age—from the time of their ministry alongside Jesus into the Zwischen-
zeit—also attends Jesus’s ministry. In his work on Mark’s narrative ethics, Dan Via
has argued for this dynamic in terms of “the interweaving of ameliorative (redemp-
tive) and degrading (oppositional) processes” that is manifest particularly in Mark
10—the middle of a narrative about the middle of time.60 Jesus’s initial and con-
tinued successes among the people of Israel are such that he is surrounded by
crowds at every opportunity (10:1) even while the opposition from the Pharisees
and other leaders continues to escalate (10:2-9). The apogee of Jesus’s popularity,
his entry into Jerusalem (11:1-10), is also the occasion for his most antagonistic
action, clearing the temple (11:11-19). This is followed by the final straw: the par-
able of the vineyard, which leads to the plot to arrest him (12:1-12). Just as the
disciples are adjured to be faithful when dragged before the courts (13:9-10), so
Jesus sets the example in Mark’s account of his trial (14:55-65; 15:1-15). When
Mark’s readers hear Jesus’s words of comfort in 13:23—that he has already told
them all—they will also see that he has experienced all as well. Just as the mes-
senger went before Jesus to prepare the way (1:2-3), so now Jesus goes ahead of
the disciples to prepare their way (14:28; 16:8). As he experienced opposition and
success, so also will they.

59 See Via, Ethics of Marks Gospel, 84-85.

60 Ibid., 7677‫( ־‬quotation from 76); cf. 4749‫ ־‬and passim.
 THE PRESENT AGE AND THE ESCHATON IN MARK 447

III. Conclusion
Stepping back now, we can see the shape of Mark’s eschatology and its rela-
tion to the present age. The flow of Mark 13 places both the disciples and Mark’s
readers in the Zwischenzeit, between the resurrection and the parousia. This period
is characterized by a continued dedication to spreading the gospel even in the face
of opposition. Terrible events at the level of family, city, or nation, even natural
disasters, are all part of the present age and none of these is indicative of the end.
Like initial birth pangs, they are intrinsic to the birth of the kingdom, but they are
not something by which one could set one’s eschatological watch. This picture is
filled out in the rest of the Gospel with further details, particularly with respect to
the positive missional element of their task that the disciples and Mark’s readers
can expect to experience. Taken together, these passages indicate that the disciples
can look forward to success in their ministry and persecutions, material and spiri-
tual abundance amid self-divestment and in the face of opposing, fruitless leaders.
The present age is a simultaneous experience of suffering and flourishing, persecu-
tion and triumph. Prayers are answered, relational and material needs are met, the
gospel is preached throughout the world even while followers take up their cross.
Mark’s eschatology, then, does not feature a slow narrative of decline into more
and more chaos and persecution. The disciples are not to watch for signs, but are
rather to be awake—that is, continuing to work faithfully at their appointed tasks.
Their ignorance of the timing of his return creates the atmosphere of constant
imminence without immediacy, an almost spatial closeness in which eschatologi-
cal hope stimulates the disciples to continued vigilance in the Zwischenzeit.
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