1. Wrong Prophet
The very first error in the Gospel of “Mark” appears in Chapter One and is as follows:
It began as the prophet Isaiah had written: God said, ‘I will send my messenger ahead of you to clear the way for you’. (Mark 1:2)
If you read the book of Isaiah, you will find that he did not say this and in fact, the above passage was mistakenly sourced from the book of Malachi (3:1). Such an error betrays “Mark’s” ignorance with regards to the very scriptures upon which his religion had been built. This error seems to suggest that he was neither a divinely inspired Jew nor was he recording the account given by one.
2. Wrong Priest
Further evidence that the author of “Mark” was neither an associate of a Palestinian Jew nor inspired by an all-knowing God, can be demonstrated by the second scriptural error of this Gospel.
Have you never read what David did that time when he needed something to eat? He and his men were hungry, so he went into the house of God and ate the bread offered to God (the Shew-bread). This happened when Abiathar was the High Priest. (Mark 2:25-26)
The crux of the message contained within this verse was that the Sabbath need not be observed which is in direct contradiction to “God’s word” in the Old Testament (Exodus 16:23-30). The rule of the Sabbath day as a rest day was so important to the tribal deity of the Hebrews that he commanded Moses to tell his people that anyone caught breaking this rule was to be put to death (Exodus 31:14).
The second and most damning problem with this passage is that Abiathar was not the High Priest at the time David ate the bread, as the author of this Gospel alleged, Abiathar’s father, Ahimelech was (1Samuel 21:1-6). This clumsy error by the author of Mark was later corrected by the author of “Matthew” (Matthew 12:1-8), who deleted the reference to Abiathar as High Priest, which was one of the details that betrayed “Mark’s” ignorance of the Hebrew Scriptures, although “Matthew” wasn’t much better in this regard.
I think you should add the other half of the verse quoted in Mark 1:2 that you left out, that is in Isaiah.
Actually it was in Isaiah 40:3 that speaks of a messenger being sent.
Mike often when dealing with prophetic genre a revelation will be given which will include multiple sources, (multiple authors) and only quote one author. In many instances no author is quoted. And furthermore, some prophets will quote the same prophetic statement, and other times it may be nuanced a bit differently. Hebrews 1:1-2 “1 Long ago, at many times and in many ways, God spoke to our fathers by the prophets, 2 but in these last days he has spoken to us by his Son, whom he appointed the heir of all things, through whom also he created the world.”
many times and many ways…God can utilize any mode or vehicle to orchestrate his communication.
Hi Michael,
Just dropping a line to let you know that I’ve linked to your blog post in one of my blog posts discussing the book ‘The Case For Christ’, which can be found here – https://www.idontneedfaithtobeanatheist.com/2018/12/the-case-for-christ-examining-record.html
Keep up the handy work. I like it!
Regards,
Damien