people had expected. It was the general belief that the Messiah's coming would inaugurate the final victory of good over evil, and end all worldly suffering, thought to be a symptom of evil. Jesus entered Jerusalem in Mark 11 in the manner of the messiah who would bring God's kingdom on Earth, then cursed the fig tree outside the Temple in which he fought with the money changers. He then defeated the priests and taught the people, establishing his authority and the priests lack of it. He then ends with a prediction of the Temple's destruction and then uses the fig tree as metaphor to show how what Jesus has described will lead to the coming of God's kingdom. Yet whereas the Messiah entering Jerusalem as Jesus had done was to bring God's rule immediately, Jesus says that it will come later, at an unknown time after seemingly calamitous events. Jesus is speaking of these things on the Mount of Olives, where Zechariah 14:4 has the final messianic battle occurring. In the next and final section Mark shows the necessity of suffering, Jesus' Passion, as a part of God's plan. Jesus is crowned the King of the Jews only on the cross and only overcomes all suffering and evil by his resurrection from the dead. References Sources Brown, Raymond E. An Introduction to the New Testament Doubleday 1997 Brown, Raymond E. et al., The New Jerome Biblical Commentary Prentice Hall 1990 Kilgallen, John J. A Brief Commentary on the Gospel of Mark Paulist Press 1989 Miller, Robert J. Editor The Complete Gospels Polebridge Press 1994 External links King James Bible - Wikisource English Translation with Parallel Latin Vulgate Online Bible at GospelHall.org (ESV, KJV, Darby, American Standard Version, Bible in Basic English) Multiple bible versions at Bible Gateway (NKJV, NIV, NRSV etc.) Gospel of Mark chapters