- 10 And straightway he entered into a ship with his disciples, and came into the parts of Dalmanutha. 11 And the Pharisees came forth, and began to question with him, seeking of him a sign from heaven, tempting him. 12 And he sighed deeply in his spirit, and saith, Why doth this generation seek after a sign? verily I say unto you, There shall no sign be given unto this generation. 13 And he left them, and entering into the ship again departed to the other side.
- Compare: Matthew 16:1-4; Luke 12:54-56
Jesus and the Pharisees
In this famous passage, Jesus refuses to provide a “sign” to the Pharisees who are “tempting” him. Christians today use this in one of two ways: to argue that the Jews were abandoned because of their unbelief and as a rationale for their failure to produce “signs” themselves (like casting out demons and healing the blind). The question is, however, just what is meant by “signs” in the first place?
Or more precisely, what exactly are the Pharisees looking for signs of? That Jesus is a healer? He does that all the time. That Jesus has the authority to cast out unclean spirits? Again, there’s lots of that going on. There’s no reason for Jesus to say that “no sign” will be given of such things because just about all of Mark is filled with such signs.
Perhaps the Pharisees mean something like a “sign” of Jesus being the Messiah. That would make a lot of sense and it is what Christians usually see here, but there is a problem: Jesus hasn’t made this claim about himself. Yes, he calls himself the Son of man and does many wondrous things, but he hasn’t referred to himself as the Christ yet — and no such reference is made by anyone until the end of this very chapter.
If we assume that the Pharisees are looking for Jesus to show them some “sign” that he is the Messiah, then we must also assume that they and others believe that he thinks he is the Messiah. How would they reach such a conclusion if he hasn’t gone around saying it? Presumably by his actions: healing the blind, casting out unclean spirits, and raising the dead.
But wait, wouldn’t that then mean that such actions qualify as “signs” of the Messiah? Yes. Unless Jesus is going around saying “Hi, I’m the Messiah,” then anyone thinking that he could be the Messiah or that Jesus believes himself to be the Messiah must be doing so on the basis of outward “signs” of some sort. This means, however, that Jesus is indeed providing signs all over the place and his insistence that that “There shall be no sign” for “this generation” is just nonsense.
In fact, we can find more than one passage in the New Testament where people perceive Jesus as providing signs. John 3:2 states “The same came to Jesus by night, and said unto him, Rabbi, we know that thou art a teacher come from God: for no man can do these miracles that thou doest, except God be with him.” John 20:30 states: “And many other signs truly did Jesus in the presence of his disciples, which are not written in this book.” Finally, Acts 2:22 says: “Ye men of Israel, hear these words; Jesus of Nazareth, a man approved of God among you by miracles and wonders and signs, which God did by him in the midst of you, as ye yourselves also know...”
Even if we were to completely ignore all of that, we can’t forget that the audience knows something that the characters don’t: Jesus will die, be entombed, and then will rise again after three days. If that doesn’t qualify as some sort of “sign” of something pretty important, I’m not sure what does — and there’s no question but that all sorts of people in “this generation” are supposedly made of aware of these events.
Now, Jesus might be justified in not wanting to put on a dog and pony show for the Pharisees, but that would lead to him saying something like “Why bother giving you signs? You won’t believe anyway so stop wasting my time.” That, however is quite different from what the text actually has him saying.
The location of Dalmanutha, by the way, is uncertain. Some texts record the place as Magdala, which was was town (modern Tarichaeae) on the western shore of the Sea of Galilee with Capernaum to the north and Tiberias to the south. This was the origin of Mary “of Madgala” (Magdalene).
