Archer vs. Malik

The Purpose of Parables in Mark 4

The reason that Jesus spoke in parables, I'm trying to show that the doctrine of inspiration does not apply to these texts. What is the reason for Jesus speaking in parables according to the gospel writers according to Mark chapter 4 verses 10 -12 and when he was alone they that were about him with the twelve asked of him the parable and he said unto them unto us it is given to know the mystery of the kingdom of God but unto them that are without all these things are done in parables.

What reason? Verse 12 of Mark chapter 4 verse 12 that so that the Greek word there h-i-n-a in order that so that seeing they may see and not perceive and hearing they may hear and not understand lest at any time they should be converted and their sins should be forgiven them is the Greek word the way it looks.

Isaiah 6 and Judicial Hardening

Now, I don't know if you gave the right verse, I'm just asking, who just wants confirmation. What is your first Matthew 4 passage, Matthew 4 verse 12 -10. You said Matthew, I'm sorry Mark, that's why I'm confused, I'm sorry Mark, let's start over again, Mark chapter 4 verse 10 -12, all right, okay now what is your point, I want to know what is the purpose set forth here, why Jesus spoke in parables and in verse 12 it gives the purpose so that in order that seeing they may see and not perceive, he doesn't want them to comprehend, understand here, and hearing they may hear and not understand, I'm speaking in parables like a foreign language, I speak English, you come around I speak Arabic, I don't want you to understand what my conversation is about, why lest at any time they should be converted and have their sins forgiven them.

Well you see the problem is Jesus is quoting a passage from the book of Isaiah and this is in chapter 6 of Isaiah, the tragedy that befell the Jewish people was that even though they were presented with the truth of God, they did not accept it as the truth of God.

And this causes a process of judicial hardening, which of course is true to all ages of biblical history and even true today. The testimony came to them, this is the truth of God, they refused to respond to it with obedience and therefore instead of it being a benefit to them, it simply made them harder in their rebellion.

The Charge of Contradiction Between Matthew and Mark

And so Jesus is saying, in general this is what we are seeing fulfilled in my generation, I teach them the truth of God, but they don't perceive it because they don't want to. Give us the theological battle here because you're going back to Matthew, you have this great theological contradiction going on, this battle which I simply want to say is the basis for all of your argumentation, very weak argumentation at best, but it is on an unproven assumption.

You set up an assumption that there is a battle and then you read all these texts to prove the battle. Wonderful, I mean, but your underlying assumption, there's no way in the world for you to establish.

But go ahead, give us Matthew now so we'll see where Matthew contradicts Mark. You're correct, you're correct, there is a theological battle going on here and this is the idea. I would deny that. These gospel writers, Matthew, Mark, Luke and John, were just that, theologians.

They were theologians who were having theological battles and this is why you have these different theologies in the gospels.