The Biblical Teaching of Disciples--14

Mark 5-8 contain 17 references to disciples. Most of these also appear in Matthew. Thus, in this blog, we will deal only briefly with the repetitions.

1. Mark 5:24-34 relates the account of the woman who had been suffering from hemorrhages for twelve years [parallel to Matthew 9:18-26]. Mark contains this detail not in Matthew in Mark 5:31: "And his DISCIPLES said to him, 'You see the crowd pressing in on you; how can you say, "Who touched me?"'" Mark does not relate how Jesus responded to his disciples, but he did heal this woman.
2. Mark 6:1 relates the detail not in Matthew 13:54 that Jesus left the house of the leader of the synagogue and came to his hometown [Nazareth] and HIS DISCIPLES followed him.
3. Mark 6:29 is like Matthew 14:12, relating that the DISCIPLES of John the Baptist heard about the beheading of John the Baptist, and they came and took his body and laid it in a tomb.
4. Mark 6:35 is like Matthew 14:15, stating that Jesus' DISCIPLES came to Jesus and suggested that they go into the villages nearby to buy some food.
5. Mark 6:41 is like Matthew 14:19, telling that Jesus' DISCIPLES told them to set before the crowd the loaves of bread and the fish.
6. Mark 6:45 is like Matthew 14:22, relating that Jesus made his DISCIPLES to get into the boat and go ahead to Bethsaida.
7. and 8. Mark 7:2, 5 is like Matthew 15:2 when the Pharisees criticize Jesus' DISCIPLES for not live according to the Law of Moses by eating with defiled or unwashed hands.
9. Mark 7:15-17 reports that Jesus told the parable: "There is nothing outside a person that by going in can defile, but the things that come out are what defile," his DISCIPLES asked him what this meant. Jesus told them simply that what defiles people is a corrupted heart: fornication, theft, murder, adultery, avarice, wickedness, deceit, licentiousness, envy, slander, pride, folly.
10-13. Mark 8:1-10 is like Matthew 15:32-39: (1) Jesus told his DISCIPLES that he has compassion on the great crowd; (2) Jesus' DISCIPLES responded by asking Jesus how they could feed such a great crowd; (3) Jesus fed the crowd with seven loaves of bread and a few fish and gave them to his DISCIPLES to distribute to the crowd; (4) After Jesus fed the 4,000, he got into the boat with his DISCIPLES and left.
14-15. Mark 8:27 is like Matthew 16:13, relating that Jesus traveled with his DISCIPLES to the villages of Caesarea and asked them, "Who do people say that I am?"
16-17. Mark 8:33-34 is like Matthew 16:21, 24, according to which Peter rebuked Jesus for saying that he would be arrested and killed in Jerusalem, when Jesus turned and looked and his DISCIPLES and rebuked Peter: "Get behind me, Satan!" Then Jesus told the crowd with his DISCIPLES, "If anyone wants to become my followers, let them deny themselves and take up their cross and follow me." This is another biblical text which emphasizes that DISCIPLES are FOLLOWERS, not leaders!!!

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John Willis