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Jesus ' Ministry On Jesus And His Disciples

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4. Commentary.
8:27.While Mark has been clearly focusing on Jesus’ ministry in Galilee where his authority was exhibited in his teaching and the miraculous, he now transits by altering his scene of action from Galilee to the ‘the way’ to Jerusalem via Caesarea Philippi. The construction ‘Jesus and his disciples’ is not frequently employed by the author especially when reporting on Jesus’ journeying episodes. Often times he renders the verbal form in singular when referring to Jesus alone or the third person plural ‘they’ for both Jesus and his disciples . This pointing is significant for it marks a turning point on what is to follow. This path is exclusively Jesus’ as it will climax with Jesus alone at the cross when all his disciples will have deserted him.
With his disciples, he journeys into the Caesarea Philippi. This is significant geographical shift for most of Jesus’ ministry had been in Galilee. He now goes north east of Bethsaida, into a popularly Hellenistic city. At the territorial border exiting into non-Jewish territory. It is a city that was built by Philip and named after Roman emperor and Herod Antipas’s brother Philip. It had long been a center of Pagan worship and prominently a site for emperor worship . Importantly it was a city for political rulers. The significance of Jesus choice to visit this city has been highly disputed by various scholars. Stain argues that, “this geographical designation must be a historical reminiscence since there is no known

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