The Riddle of Mark 7:15

Abstract: Analyses of Mark 7:15 are absent from sustained discussion in studies of Jesus’s use of figurative language, despite its description as a παραβολή (“parable,” 7:17). Studies typically label this text a “riddle,” but this is generally undefined and its relationship to other figurative devices in language is mysterious. Accordingly, I discuss some modern categories of figurative language, like metaphor, riddle, and metaphorical riddle and consider how they are related to the topic of this article. I then analyze Mark 7:15 in the light of these discussions, concluding that the category of metaphorical riddle could be helpful in interpreting the Marcan text. In the context of the metaphorical riddle, Jesus, without providing a source domain, misleads the audience into thinking that the subject of 7:15b is something physical (probably excrement), when the true meaning relates to something abstract (sin). On this reading, Jesus’s metaphorical riddle implies something like, “excrement is to the body as sin is to the heart.” Regardless of one’s interpretation, I argue that greater clarity regarding definitions and methods would be beneficial to this conversation, which can be ad hoc and idiosyncratic. In my view, the interpretation can be improved by utilizing approaches of modern literary criticism concerning figurative language, which offers relatively coherent and stable terms by which we might continue this discussion.