Hi everyone. Welcome back to the podcast again. Today we're looking at a short passage

but continuing the Gospel of Mark. So Mark chapter 8, verse 11 to 13.

The Pharisees came up and started a discussion with Jesus.

They demanded of him a sign from heaven to test him.

And with a sign that came straight from the heart, he said,

Why does this generation demand a sign?

I tell you solemnly, no sign shall be given to this generation.

And leaving them again and re-embarking, he went away to the opposite shore.

So the last time we heard from Jesus,

he fed the 4,000.

That was the last thing that happened in the Gospel of Mark.

It appears that some time has passed since then.

So Mark has skipped ahead a little bit in time.

Now, the Pharisees come up and start a discussion with Jesus. So remember the Pharisees are the popular Jewish leaders of the common man. It appears that

they did have legitimate religious authority from God. They did sit on Moses's seat and they could

make laws and restrictions, etc. that were binding on the Jewish people.

So they were exercising a legitimate religious authority.

The problem was they were wrong about a lot of things, and a lot of the things they were saying

were not God's intention for the people.

So these Pharisees could be the ones from Galilee, or they could be sort of higher-ranking ones

from Jerusalem.

The text doesn't tell us.

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