podcast 305 – Two Readings of Mark – popular or esoteric? – Part 1

What should the reader conclude about Jesus based on the earliest gospel, the gospel according to Mark?

In this and the next episode I present and compare two different approaches to interpreting Mark: treating it as a “popular” writing meant for the masses which wears its message on its face, or as an “esoteric” writing which encodes its most important point about Jesus in all sorts of clever ways, so that only the most discerning reader can retrieve the message.

In this episode I explore the popular reading, explaining how the author employs five devices to repeatedly assert his main claim about Jesus: that he is God’s Christ/Messiah.

We have to then ask: what about the author doesn’t say here?

And what is the significance of this simple main thesis, when it comes to claims that the author slyly implies Jesus’s “deity,” e.g. by showing him walking on water, or as asserting the right to forgive sins?

Next week: a strikingly different reading of Mark by a Reformed scholar.

Links for this episode:

podcast 252 – Fred Sanders on Seeing the Trinity in Scripture, and his Secret

Do the Gospels disagree about Jesus and God? Part 1 – Three Options

Do the Gospels disagree about Jesus and God? Part 2 – Counting the Costs

podcast 276 – How is the Trinity Central to the Gospel? Or: How The Gospel Coalition Prioritizes Speculation over Scripture

podcast 235 – The Case Against Preexistence