Home > Jesus is God in Mark's Gospel
The "Secret" of the Kingdom: Jesus tells His disciples, "To you has been given the secret (mysterion) of the kingdom of God." Commentators argue that this mysterion is not a set of facts, but Jesus Himself.
Mark 4:10–13 - And when he was alone, those around him with the twelve asked him about the parables. And he said to them, “To you has been given the secret of the kingdom of God, but for those outside everything is in parables, so that “ ‘they may indeed see but not perceive, and may indeed hear but not understand, lest they should turn and be forgiven.’ ”And he said to them, “Do you not understand this parable? How then will you understand all the parables?
Jesus quoted the words that Yawheh spoke to Isaiah when commissioning him to ministry.
Isaiah 6:9–10 - And he said, “Go, and say to this people:" ‘Keep on hearing, but do not understand; keep on seeing, but do not perceive.’ Make the heart of this people dull, and their ears heavy, and blind their eyes; lest they see with their eyes, and hear with their ears, and understand with their hearts, and turn and be healed.”
By speaking in parables to "those outside," Jesus is exercising the divine prerogative of judicial hardening (citing Isaiah 6:9–10).
In the Old Testament, only Yahweh has the authority to open or close the spiritual eyes of a nation. Jesus assumes this role as the one who determines who "perceives" the Kingdom.