Endnote 14 – Triumph over Temptation

Crucial to the understanding of this episode is Mark’s technique of structuring a narrative in an A-B-A’ pattern, in which two parts of a single story are separated in order to bracket an entirely different narrative (as in Mark 5:21–43, 6:7–30, 11:12–25, 14:1–11). In this case, the intrusive element (B) is made up of the two accusations of the scribes and Jesus’ responses to them in inverse order (Mark 3:22–30). If we leave these verses out of consideration, we find a coherent narrative.