Latinisms,
Septuagintal Greek and Wax Tablets
Wherever an oddity in Greek
appeared in the gospels, Casey tended to see proof of an Aramaic source. Mark
2:23 offers a prime example. In this verse, Mark uses the rather unusual “making
a path.” While common in English and in Latin, we rarely find this idiomatic
expression in Greek, For Casey, this proved Mark used a written Aramaic source
(Casey, Aramaic Sources of Mark’s Gospel, p. 86).
Casey soberly asserted that not
only did Mark use an Aramaic document, but that he misread that document, which
is understandable since “Mark will have had a text written on something like a
wax tablet or a sheet of papyrus, and these could be difficult to read” (Casey,
Jesus of Nazareth, p. 65). It would appear he attributed Mark’s odd use
of Greek to a mixture of hard-to-read source material, bad eyesight, and the
fact that he was “a translator who was again suffering from interference” (24).
. . .We might be tempted to accept Casey’s argument as definitive, given his
expertise and undeniable zeal, were it not for the fact that the Septuagint
used the same turn of phrase.
. . . οδον ποιεισθαι [hodon
poieisthai] (to make one’s way) may correspond to οδευειν
[hodeuein], but this is not the same as οδον ποιειν [hodon poiein] (to construct a road). Thus, using
this criterion, the middle would be expected in Mark 2:23, but in fact the
active occurs. “And his disciples began to make their way (οδον ποιειν [hodon
poiein]) while plucking the heads of grain” (Mark 2:23). Yet this assumption
that the classical distinction is lost may be challenged. A possible
explanation is that the disciples began to make a way, i.e., to open a path, by
plucking the ears of corn. But this cannot be maintained as an inviolable rule,
for the LXX clearly uses οδον ποιειν [hodon
poiein] in the sense of to make one’s way, to journey. “Then the man
departed from the city, from Bethlehem of Judah, to dwell wherever he might
find a place, and he came to the hill district of Ephraim to the house of Micah
as he made his journey (του ποιησαι την οδον αυτου [tou poiēsai
tēn hodon autou])” (Judges 17:8). (George J. Cline, “The Significance
of the Middle Voice in the NT,” Grace Theological Seminary. [1983])
We know for certain that Mark had
access to the Septuagint, or at least something very much like it. See, for
example, Mark 7:6-7, in which Jesus quotes from Isaiah 29:13. Hence, we have no
need to postulate a lost Aramaic source when we can more easily imagine Mark
following a Septuagintal pattern. Upon review and more careful scrutiny, Casey’s
theory of transmission melts like a wax tablet exposed to the sun. (Timothy A.
Widowfield, “’Everything Is Wrong with This’ The Legacy of Maurice Casey,” in
John W. Loftus and Robert M. Price, eds., Varieties of Jesus Mythicism: Did
He Even Exist? [Hypatia Press, 2021], 364-93, here, pp. 373-74)