GREAT THINGS ENTERPRISE
CLAUDE BLACK
Mark 12:35
Presuppositions
The blabosphere is rife with misinformation. There are stories that the earth is flat, that the Apollo 11 moon landing in 1996 was fake, that… well… the list goes on. There are also groups dedicated to verifying many of these rumors—Snopes.com, FactCheck.org, Reuters.com, Fullfact.org, etc. Nevertheless, unfounded, false, often harmful globs of information persist—they always have and they always will. For example, Benjamin Franklin knew that sensational stories sold newspapers, so his paper, the Pennsylvania Gazette, often printed exaggerated stories, hoaxes, and sensational material. He often used pseudonyms as his byline, such as “Mrs. Silence Dogood.” That practice has only exploded with the advent of the internet.
In the Palestine of the New Testament, there was a belief that a descendant of King David would rise to throw off the Roman overlords and establish Palestine as a center of power and wealth. In an attempt to clarify that teaching, Jesus approached the subject head-on.
Following his confrontation with the Sadducees’ question about the resurrection and the scribe’s question concerning the greatest commandment, Jesus approached the subject of the coming Messiah. “And answering, Jesus said, as he was teaching in the temple, ‘How do the scribes say that the Christ is the son of David?’” (Mark 12:35)
Using a sound pedagogical method, Jesus started this lesson right at the core of the issue with a question. He began with a concept that everyone understood, for the scribes taught that a great warrior—a son of David—would arise. He went straight to the presupposition. A presupposition is something one holds to be true upon which other concepts are also held to be true. Presuppositions, which every person possesses, are foundational. In modern parlance, presuppositions are intellectual metadata. As such, they are very, very difficult to change, especially when they are established by society, instilled from youth, and reinforced by culture.
The word “pedagogy” derives from two Greek words meaning “child” and “leader,” emphasizing the importance of the parental role in establishing good presuppositions in children. In this instance, Jesus demonstrates how difficult it is to correct an erroneous concept—one established in youth and reinforced by culture.
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