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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 235 – The Case Against Preexistence
podcast 259 – Who is the one Creator? – Part 2
podcast 258 – Who is the one Creator? – Part 1
podcast 225 – Biblical Words for God and for his Son Part 2 – Old “Lord” vs. New “Lord”
podcast 224 – Biblical Words for God and for his Son Part 1 – God and “God” in the Bible
podcast 146 – Jesus as an Exemplar of Faith in the New Testament
podcast 277 – Was Christ tempted in every way?
podcast 227 – Who Should Christians Worship?
odcast 145 – ‘Tis Mystery All: the Immortal dies!
podcast 124 – a challenge to “Jesus is God” apologists
the Bible on another previous life of Jesus
“Only God can forgive sins.” False.
podcast 70 – The one God and his Son according to John
This week’s thinking music is “Into the J” by Admiral Bob.
