Jesus in a World of Colliding Empires, Volume One: Introduction and Mark 1:1—8:29: Mark’s Jesus from the Perspective of Power and Expectations

Jesus in a World of Colliding Empires

Mark’s Jesus from the Perspective of Power and Expectations

Volume One: Introduction and Mark 1:1—8:29

Mark J. Keown

Dedication and Acknowledgments

I dedicate this work to the Lord Jesus Christ who, although being God and fully equal with God, did not plunder our world to claim it as his own; rather, he became one of us and poured himself out in our service. He allowed himself to be utterly humiliated dying on a cross to save us. His voluntary decision to leave eternity and the fullness of deity to come to us in this way and to live as he did shows us what it means to be God and what it means to be human. I thank you, Lord Jesus, and pray you use this book for your glory.

I also thank my beloved wife Emma and my three children for being who you are. May you live out of the Christ-pattern, for there is no other real way to live.

I thank my wonderful mum, Nolarae, for teaching me to read and think and especially for reading me Lewis’s The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe as a boy. Love you, Mum. Rest in peace, Dad.

I thank Laidlaw College for believing in me, employing me, and supporting me in so many ways. May the college ever live out of the cruciform pattern we have received in Christ. May all Christians renounce the patterns of this dark world and live this way.

Table of Contents

Title Page

Dedication and Acknowledgments

Abbreviations

Introduction

Chapter 1: The Background of Mark

The Setting for Mark

The Importance of Mark

Approach

Chapter 2: A World of Colliding Empires: The Roman World

Rome

Greece (Macedonia)

The Persians

The Babylonians

Before the Babylonians

Beyond the Mediterranean

Augustus and Tiberius

Nero

Chapter 3: A World of Colliding Empires: The Rest of the Known World at the Time of Christ

China’s Dynasties

Central Asia

India’s Dynasties

Southeast Asia

Southern Russian Region (The Scythian Kingdoms)

Iran (the Parthian Empire)

Middle East

Africa

Europe

The Rest of the World

Conclusion

Chapter 4: Israel in this Clashing World

War, Violence, and Empires in the Old Testament

Wilderness

Conquest

The Time of the Judges

United Monarchy

Divided Monarchy

The Decline and Exile of the North

The Decline and Exile of the South

Foreign Rule

The Maccabean Revolt

Chapter 5: The Hope of a Deliverer (Theo = the Expected One)

The Old Testament

The Apocrypha, Pseudepigrapha, Philo, Josephus, and the Rabbis

A Composite Picture of Theo

Chapter 6: The Messiah Revealed (Mark 1:1—8:29)

The Prologue (Mark 1:1–13)

Jesus the Davidic Messiah King Revealed (Mark 1:14—8:29)

The Moment of Truth: The Disciples Recognize Jesus Messiah (Mark 8:27–29)

Bibliography

Abbreviations

AB Anchor Bible

ABD Freedman, David Noel, Gary A. Herion, David F. Graf, John David Pleins, and Astrid B. Beck, eds. The Anchor Yale Bible Dictionary. New York: Doubleday, 1992.

ABRL Anchor Bible Reference Library

ANET Ancient Near Eastern Texts Relating to the Old Testament. Edited by James B. Pritchard. 3rd ed. Princeton: Princeton University Press, 1969.

ANF The Ante-Nicene Fathers

ATR Australasian Theological Review

BA Britannica Academic, Encyclopædia Britannica.

BAGD Arndt, William, F. Wilbur Gingrich, Frederick W. Danker, and Walter Bauer. A Greek-English Lexicon of the New Testament and Other Early Christian Literature: A Translation and Adaption of the Fourth Revised and Augmented Edition of Walter Bauer’s Griechisch-Deutsches Worterbuch Zu Den Schrift En Des Neuen Testaments Und Der Ubrigen Urchristlichen Literatur. Chicago: University of Chicago, 1979.

BBB Bonner biblische Beiträge

BDAG Arndt, William, Frederick W. Danker, and Walter Bauer. A Greek-English Lexicon of the New Testament and Other Early Christian Literature. Chicago: University of Chicago, 2000.

BDF Blass, Friedrich, Albert Debrunner, and Robert Walter Funk. A Greek Grammar of the New Testament and Other Early Christian Literature. Chicago: University of Chicago, 1961.

BEB Elwell, Walter A., and Barry J. Beitzel. Baker Encyclopedia of the Bible. Grand Rapids: Baker Book House, 1988.

BECNT Baker Exegetical Commentary on the New Testament

BJRL Bulletin of the John Rylands University Library of Manchester

BNTC Black’s New Testament Commentary

CBC Cornerstone Biblical Commentary

CD Cairo Genizah copy of the Damascus Document

CGTC Cambridge Greek Testament Commentary

CCGNT Classic Commentaries on the Greek New Testament

Colloq Colloquium

COQG Christian Origins and the Question of God

CPNIVC The College Press NIV Commentary

DBLH Swanson, James. Dictionary of Biblical Languages with Semantic Domains: Hebrew (Old Testament). Oak Harbor: Logos Research Systems, Inc., 1997.

DNTB Porter, Stanley E., and Craig A. Evans. Dictionary of New Testament Background: A Compendium of Contemporary Biblical Scholarship. Electronic ed. Downers Grove, IL: InterVarsity, 2000.

DJG Dictionary of Jesus and the Gospels

EDB Freedman, David Noel, Allen C. Myers, and Astrid B. Beck. Eerdmans Dictionary of the Bible. Grand Rapids: W.B. Eerdmans, 2000.

EDNT Balz, Horst Robert, and Gerhard Schneider. Exegetical Dictionary of the New Testament. Grand Rapids: Eerdmans, 1990.

EEC Evangelical Exegetical Commentary

EKK Evangelisch-Katholischer Kommentar zum Neuen Testament

ERE Matthew Bunson, The Encyclopedia of the Roman Empire. Revised Edition. New York: Facts on File Books, 1994, 2002.

ESV English Standard Version

ExpTim Expository Times

FBBS Facet Books. Biblical Series.

HBM Hebrew Biblical Monographs

HNT Handbuch zum Neuen Testament

HNTC Holman New Testament Commentary

HTKNT Herders theologischer Kommentar zum NT

HTR Harvard Theological Review

HUCA Hebrew Union College Annual

ISBE The International Standard Bible Encyclopedia, Revised. Edited by Geoffrey W. Bromiley. Grand Rapids: Eerdmans, 1979–1988.

ISBE (1) Orr, James, John L. Nuelsen, Edgar Y. Mullins, and Morris O. Evans, eds. The International Standard Bible Encyclopaedia. Chicago: The Howard-Severance Company, 1915.

ITC International Theological Commentary

JBL Journal of Biblical Literature

JETS Journal of the Evangelical Theological Society

JQR Jewish Quarterly Review

JRS Journal of Roman Studies

JSNTSup Journal for the Study of New Testament Supplement Series

JSP Journal for the Study of the Pseudepigrapha

JTS Journal of Theological Studies

KJV King James Version

LAD Liber Antiquitatum Biblicarum

LBD Barry, John D., David Bomar, Derek R. Brown, Rachel Klippenstein, Douglas Mangum, Carrie Sinclair Wolcott, Lazarus Wentz, Elliot Ritzema, and Wendy Widder, eds. The Lexham Bible Dictionary. Bellingham, WA: Lexham, 2016.

LNTS Library of New Testament Studies

LSJ Liddell, Henry George, Robert Scott, Henry Stuart Jones, and Roderick McKenzie. A Greek-English Lexicon. Oxford: Clarendon, 1996.

LXX The Greek Old Testament, the Septuagint

MS(S) Manuscript(s)

NAC New American Commentary

NASB New American Standard Bible

NICNT New International Commentary on the New Testament

NIV New International Version

NKJV New King James Version

NRSV New Revised Standard Version

NovT Novum Testamentum

NTS New Testament Studies

OTSS Old Testament Survey Series

PNTC Pillar New Testament Commentary

P.Oxy. Oxyrhynchus papyri

RB Revue Biblique

REB Revised English Bible

Rev Qum Revue de Qumran

RSV Revised Standard Version

SBT Studies in Biblical Theology

s.a. See also

SNTSMS Society for New Testament Studies Monograph Series

SNTW Studies in the New Testament and Its World

SP Sacra Pagina

SSEJC Studies in Scripture in Early Judaism and Christianity

Str-B Strack, H. L., and P. Billerbeck, Kommentar zum Neuen Testament aus Talmud und Midrasch. 6 vols. Munich, 1922–1961.

SVTP Studia in Veteris Testamenti Pseudepigrapha

TDNT Kittel, Gerhard, Geoffrey W. Bromiley, and Gerhard Friedrich, eds. Theological Dictionary of the New Testament. Grand Rapids: Eerdmans, 1964.

Theo The Expected One

Tijd. Theol. Tijdschrift voor Theologie

UBSHS United Bible Society Handbook Series

WBC Word Bible Commentary

WissWeis Wissenschaft und Weisheit

ZNW Zeitschrift für die neutestamentliche Wissenschaft und die Kunde der älteren Kirche

Jesus in a World of Colliding Empires, Volume One: 
Introduction and Mark 1:1—8:29

Mark’s Jesus from the Perspective of Power and Expectations

Copyright © 2018 Mark J. Keown. All rights reserved. Except for brief quotations in critical publications or reviews, no part of this book may be reproduced in any manner without prior written permission from the publisher. Write: Permissions, Wipf and Stock Publishers, 199 W. 8th Ave., Suite 3, Eugene, OR 97401.

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An Imprint of Wipf and Stock Publishers

199

W.

8

th Ave., Suite

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Eugene, OR

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paperback isbn: 978-1-5326-4133-6

hardcover isbn: 978-1-5326-4134-3

ebook isbn: 978-1-5326-4135-0

Manufactured in the U.S.A.

April 2, 2018

Scripture quotations marked (ESV) are from The Holy Bible, English Standard Version® (ESV®). Copyright ©

2001

by Crossway, a publishing ministry of Good News Publishers. Used by permission. All rights reserved.

Introduction

The idea for this book on Mark’s Gospel came as I taught the subject in one of my New Testament classes at Laidlaw College, Auckland, NZ; and as I was working on my EEC commentary on Philippians, and especially spending time thinking about Philippians 2 : 6 – 8 . ¹ As he wrote the letter to little Rome, Paul was likely sitting in prison in Rome chained to a Roman guard. The Philippians were a great bunch, loving Jesus, giving generously, and sharing the gospel—truly one of Paul’s best churches. However, there was a problem in their midst; namely, that they had allowed their Roman culture to mar their mindsets and affect their behavior away from a life formed in the gospel of a crucified messiah (e.g. Phil 2:1–4, 15–16; 4:1–3 ²). Put simply; they were seeking to elevate their position within their church structures. They were vying for position.

We should not be hard on them for this; it is common in many churches, denominations, and human life. In fact, whether we recognize it or not, we are all, to some extent or another, infected by our culture. Anyway, that aside, these Philippians were falling prey to patterns of power which are found in the Roman world (and all worlds). They were looking to increase their status and esteem through selfish ambition and some good old-fashioned envy and pride. Paul understandably was concerned and wrote the letter to remedy things so that they didn’t become like the almost-out-of-control Corinthian church down the road in Achaia (see 1 Cor 1—4; 11:18). So, Paul wrote to them, and placed in the center of his letter a reminder of the pattern of life Jesus laid down for them to emulate. Perhaps using or adapting an old hymn written in the first days of the Palestinian church, he gives a nice summary of this pattern:

5

Have this attitude in you, which was also in Christ Jesus,

6

Who, being in form God,

did not consider equality with God something to be exploited,

7

but he emptied himself,

taking the form of a slave,

being born in human likeness

and found in appearance as a man,

8

he humbled himself,

becoming obedient to the point of death,

even death on a cross.

9

Therefore, God highly exalted him and gave him the name above all names.

10

That at the name of Jesus,

every knee will bow in heaven and on earth and under the earth,

11

and every tongue acknowledge that Jesus Christ is Lord,

to the glory of God the Father.

This hymn has got me (and not a few others) thinking about patterns of power then and now. Having also taught Mark for a few years I have noticed that central to Mark is the question of whether Jesus is Messiah and the way in which Jesus redefines the idea of messiah away from presumed patterns of power in the ancient world. The world then, and to a considerable extent, now, revolves around power through political intrigue, status, wealth, and force. The ancient world was ruled by empires wielding spear and sword. Its story is one of clashing empires seeking dominance. Where one empire did not dominate, tribalism and territorialism were strong with rivalry and imperialism waxing and waning.

In Jesus’ day, the dominant force in the Mediterranean region was Rome (27 bc–476 ad).³ Before Rome, there was a series of empires such as the Macedonians/Greeks, the Medo-Persians, the Babylonians, the Assyrians, and the Egyptians. Outside of the Mediterranean region, the world was mostly tribal with a range of dynasties, empires, and tribal contention across Southern Russia, Asia, Africa, and Europe.

Since Christ, the quest for power has gone on endlessly, with Rome eventually overthrown (ad 476). There have been many invaders and empires since that time. Of prominence are the many Chinese dynasties, the Byzantine Empire (330–1453), Holy Roman Empire (962–1806), the Aztecs (1428–1521), the Ottoman Empire (1299–1922), the British Empire (1603–1997), the colonial powers of Europe, Communism (particularly the Soviet Union and China), Islam, the Reiches of Germany, the empire of capitalism and consumerism, and more. The spread of western culture today suggests a kind of ongoing cultural imperialism from dominant western nations.

As recently as last century, there were two massive world wars between collectives of nations forming competing forces within Europe, North Africa, America, Asia, and the Middle East, the rise and fall of communism (especially the Soviet Union), despotic local rulers such as Idi Amin (Uganda), Pol Pot (Cambodia), Robert Mugabe (Zimbabwe), the North Korean dynasty, and the rise of Islamic powers. Today, ironically, all that seems to hold humanity back from continuing this desperate fight for dominance is the immense power of weapons of mass destruction, meaning that the cost of conflict is so great that such forces are withheld. It seems only a matter of time before someone decides to unleash ultimate force and the world will descend into what might be the final conflict of human history.

The point is this; humanity continues to be held captive by a lust for power and a desire to dominate. Some would see this as a product of our evolutionary development. Most Christians would explain it by the fall of Adam and Eve. However we explain its origins; we are a world in conflict vying for power. Power is wielded in many ways, usually linked with brute force, wealth, attractiveness, charisma, shrewdness, and the philosophical, ideological, and religious constructs that undergird it.

Where Philippians 2 is concerned, the immediate backdrop is Roman might. As we consider Mark, we will see that Jesus completely and utterly clashes with the Roman story. Where Israel’s story is concerned, as this book will show, her history was based on similar patterns, with most placing their hope on God’s spiritual and military intervention, whether directly through God himself, a transcendent supernatural semi-divine kingly figure, or a Davidic Messiah. God would intervene to put things right. He would vanquish these Roman upstarts, and take the world for Yahweh.

Jesus turned the world on its head. Jesus came and simply refused to play the Game of Thrones which dominated the ancient world. Or better yet, he played it in a unique way. He did not allow himself to become a player in the game of world domination. He did not seek to win the world through this pattern. He knew that this blueprint had its origins in hell itself, the master plan of Satan. Satan knows that if he can get the world to keep playing these games, humanity will ultimately self-destruct. Rather, Jesus came and showed humanity where real power lies, and what it looks like. Real power is not found in governments, tanks, bombs, WMDs, looks, money, wisdom, giftedness, political intrigue, force, etc. Rather, it is found in the appearance of weakness and powerlessness; namely, selflessness, service, sacrifice, suffering, and humility, i.e. love! This is seen most vividly in the Theomorph or form of God, Jesus, pre-existent, in the flesh, and on a cross. The deep magic before the dawn of time is that the real power is love (C. S. Lewis).

Jesus came to put to an end all power games and establish a new paradigm of being that renounced force. He came to set humanity free from its inability to live any other way and to live out of love. He came to end war. He came to establish peace. He came to show all people, leaders and otherwise, how to live and lead. Leadership is not about coercive force to get people to see things our way and conform to the vision and strategy we concoct in our hubris; rather, it is to take up a cross and towel and follow Jesus in the path of humility, self-denial, sacrifice, service, suffering, and, if need be, even death.

Some pit Paul against Jesus and suggest Paul created a new religion. This is far from the truth—Paul got it better than anyone. But that is another story. As I have pondered Mark in the light of rereading Paul again and again and noticing that this Christ-pattern to some extent or another undergirds every letter, I realized that Mark fully understood what Jesus was about, too. Set against the backdrop of the power patterns of the world, Mark’s story is laced with what is, at times, hilarious, yet bitter irony. In a nation that anticipated The Expected One (Theo)⁴ to be a man of war, a warrior-king to establish a dynastic empire, he came as Servant and died to save the world. More than that, he lived and died to show the world how to live. All this I will explore in diverse ways through the book.

I will begin in chapter 1 by putting Mark in its context to ensure that we grasp more firmly the forces that were at work at the time of its writing. In chapter 2, I will briefly sum the colliding empires which had affected Israel in the centuries before the time of Christ. In chapter 3, I will examine what was going on at the time of Christ beyond the Roman Empire showing that the whole known world was caught up in a battle for power based around powerful men with armies. Jesus came in vivid contrast to an entire world of colliding empires. In chapter 4, I discuss Israel’s story which shows that she too was caught up in this same pattern of kingship, violence, and power. In chapter 5, I will summarize Israel’s hope of intervention which, while varied, inevitably involved violent military intervention and the establishment of God’s reign. Common to this story was the expectation of an expected ruler (Theo = The Expected One) who would be God’s key instrument in establishing his reign. After this background work, in chapters 6–8, I will explore Mark, reading it against the backdrop of the pattern of a warrior-king and a military/religious empire, and drawing out the deep irony in the story as read against this backdrop. In so doing, we will realize why many Jews did not understand the story (and still don’t). We will see how utterly subversive, world-changing, and monumental it is. Then in chapter 9 I will draw conclusions and implications of this for Christian life in a range of ways. I will suggest that what is needed is a new revolution whereby the global church rediscovers its call to live the essential principles of Christianity, a renunciation of paradigms of power based on might and force and living out of the pattern of the cross.

Essentially, we need to rediscover this Jesus and recognize what he was about. He died to save the world, yes! We cannot downplay this; his death and resurrection is the salvation of the world, if people would only believe! God’s offer in Christ is a gift of grace with no strings attached!⁵ But that’s not all. Jesus died not only to save us (priority one though this was), but to show us what true life looks like. That is, true life is living out of love seen in sacrifice, self-denial, selflessness, service, and suffering to the point at which it hurts.

If believers can only grasp this truth, and seek to live it out with unwavering intent, the church will look more and more like it was always intended to be. This will spread from us to the world. This is God’s dream for us: to live out the Christ-pattern and see the world transformed. What is needed is an army⁶ of Christians who rediscover the fullness of the Christ-story and live it in the power of the Spirit with the only weapons in our hand being the story itself and lives of love and service. We need to lay down our false reliance on human patterns of power in church and beyond, and we will see a new world dawn. My prayer for this book is that people will read it and, like Paul and Mark, get it and live it. Amen. Shalom!

1. For discussions defending the ideas in this introduction related to Philippians, please see the Introduction to Keown, Philippians

1

–

92

. See also my earlier book Congregational Evangelism in Philippians,

37

–

70

.

2. Unless otherwise noted, the author uses the ESV throughout this volume.

3. In this book, I choose to use

bc

and

ad

(before Christ, and Anno Domini, in the year of our Lord) rather than the increasingly common

bce

(Before the Common Era) and

ce

(Common Era). This is due not only to my own convictions concerning Jesus Christship and Lordship, but because I believe that even if some in the world are seeking to distance themselves from Christianity, Jesus still reigns as Lord and is the ultimate divider of history.

4. This is an acronym I have coined for the one Israel expected—which is a composite core of a range of ideas from the direct intervention of God himself, a Messiah, a Prophet, Elijah, a Son of Man, an Elect One, and so on.

5. You can get my take on the Christian story in Keown, What’s God Up to On Planet Earth.

6. Throughout this work, if referring to military imagery for Christian life, I am using it in a non-military and non-violent sense. In one sense, it is anything but a war and we anything but an army. But we can use the imagery, if we recognize its limitations.

1

The Background of Mark

Before setting out on this journey, it is important to get a good grip on the setting of Mark’s Gospel. Understanding when an ancient document was written, where it was written, the audience the writer has in mind, who wrote it, the influences on the writer, their possible sources, and other background questions, helps us grasp its force. In this short section, I will establish a setting for the Gospel of Mark. This need only be done in general terms, as the details are secondary to the discussion that will follow.

The Setting for Mark

Most of the background details of Mark’s gospel are disputable. Based on the tradition of Papias, the Bishop of Hierapolis around ad 130, some argue that Mark’s Gospel is a record of the essence of the message preached by Simon Peter.⁷ If so, it was written somewhere either before or after Peter’s death at the hands of Nero in the mid-to-late 60s ad. Supported by a wide range of early church tradition,⁸ it is argued that the writer is John Mark of Jerusalem, a traveling companion of Paul and, in later life, Peter (Acts 12:12, 25; 15:37, 39; Col 4:10; Phlm 24; 1 Pet 5:13). If this is correct, Mark was written in Rome where Peter died at the hands of Nero,⁹ and where Mark was his companion (ca. 64–68 ad). This would mean that it was penned near the end of the Roman emperor Nero’s reign. In this period, Rome was witness to the horrific persecution of Christians amidst Nero’s other acts of brutality and madness.¹⁰ In many ways, Nero represents the limits of absolute power. So then, Mark was written with the Roman context in mind, seeking to preserve Peter’s memory of Jesus and give a base for the faith and its spread. It would also have sought to encourage Christians under Nero’s lunacy. The pattern of Jesus’ kingship stands in stark contrast to the living example of Nero in Rome the time. It is likely that Rome had a substantial Christian population at the end of the 60s.¹¹ The backdrop for Mark’s Gospel would then be Rome and Nero’s despotism.

Others dispute the reliability of Papias and claim that Mark is better placed during or after the time of the Roman destruction of Jerusalem in ad 70. Such thinkers argue that that the author is not necessarily the John Mark of the New Testament, but is an unknown writer perhaps with the common name Marcus and of non-Palestinian origin. That he is argued to be non-Palestinian is due to perceived errors in detail concerning Palestine.¹² It is also postulated that the accurate details of Mark 13 suggest it was written after the destruction of Jerusalem, a kind of prophecy after the event (postdiction or vaticinium ex eventu). If so, the precise setting for Mark is unclear with any non-Palestinian setting possible. If this perspective is correct, Mark is set after Nero’s reign in the time of Vespasian, perhaps (ad 69–79), during which Rome was wielding considerable military force. This included the ransacking of Judea to quash the Jewish rebellion with the proceeds of this plundering used to begin building the Colosseum, The Temple of Peace, a massive statue of Apollo, and other monuments to the glory of Rome.

Another possible angle is that the name Mark is a cipher for an unknown author, a name chosen because of its meaning and the ironical nature of the Markan material. Being named Mark myself, I am well aware that the name Latin name Marcus derives from the Roman god Mars, the god of war.¹³ Tentatively, I have pondered whether Mark was chosen as a title for this book because of its irony. Set in a world defined by military force and expansion through war, the Jesus’ story turns this on its head with Jesus waging war with weapons such as healing, preaching, service, and his sacrificial death. He raised an army of disciples to combat Satan and his power, and to overcome human hubris with cross-bearing service. It could be in the sovereignty of God that the Gospel of Mark was written by a disciple of that name, but that his name has a double-barreled edge.

While I quite like the latter idea because of its novelty and intrigue, the first perspective that the writer is John Mark of Jerusalem writing Peter’s gospel somewhere near his point of death is to be favored. I believe we can be utterly confident it was written during the period of Nero’s reign or in the subsequent period during or after his death in the early years of Vespasian and the destruction of Jerusalem. Mark’s Gospel then is set during a time of Roman rule by might and force. More broadly, (as I will show), it is unquestionably set during a period in which human history was built around men vying for power through military might. It is the period of the warrior-ruler and his dynastic successors. It is into this world that Jesus enters. As such, I will use the name Mark for the writer of the Gospel and assume it is written sometime during the period ad 60–72. I will explore Mark in the context of colliding imperial forces.

The Importance of Mark

Grasping the importance of Mark’s Gospel is vital. While it is traditional to see Matthew as the first Gospel, a view held by a small group of scholars today (the so-called Griesbach hypothesis),¹⁴ the overwhelming majority of contemporary scholars from all theological persuasions hold that Mark’s Gospel is the first Gospel.¹⁵ As such, Mark has a certain historical primacy being the first recorded and surviving story of Jesus.¹⁶ The importance of Mark is seen through a cursory glance at the material in the other three Gospels. Clearly, both Matthew and Luke have used Mark’s account as the basis for their accounts of Jesus. Of the four Gospels, only John diverges from this pattern as he utilized his own independent sources and/or perspective.¹⁷

It is clear then that Luke and Matthew supplemented Mark’s material with other sources. Some material is unique to Matthew and Luke, and this indicates that they gathered some of their own data independently (so-called M and L material). Other material is common to both Matthew and Luke but not found in Mark. Scholars debate the nature of this material and whether it originally existed as some written document—a collection of sayings, ethical teachings, and parables. Some argue it is even an earlier written gospel. Others prefer to see it not as a written source but as oral material, or a combination thereof. Some argue Q never existed at all, and that Matthew used Mark and Luke used both Matthew and Luke, or vice versa. Indeed, there are a multiplicity of theories on all this.¹⁸ The majority, however, agree that Matthew and Luke had access to material that was passed down in written and oral form and give it the label Q, from the German Quelle, meaning source. It could be that Q is one of the sources Luke refers to in Luke 1:1 when he says, many have undertaken to draw up an account of the things that have been fulfilled among us.

If this is correct, what matters is that both Matthew and Luke in their subsequent accounts of Jesus utilize Mark’s material as the basis for their Gospels. Its use shows that Mark’s Gospel was held in very great esteem by these authors and in some sense seen as a primary and vital record of the Jesus-story. It also supports that the material originated from Simon Peter.

Leaving this and other nuances of the debate about source aside, what matters is that Mark is highly important and seen as the primary source for the narrative of Jesus. Luke and Matthew effectively leave Mark’s shape to the Jesus-story intact but add in other material as they work it toward their own goals. This all means that understanding Mark’s Gospel is utterly critical for people who want to make sense of Jesus. As such, this study will initially focus on Mark’s Gospel. After this, we will notice how Matthew and Luke have the irony implicit in Mark and amplified and moved it in different directions for their purposes.

Approach

Aside from accepting that Mark is the first full Gospel of Jesus we have, I will take the text as is without concern for the complexities of debates over its historicity. I will approach the text as found deemed to be the best text by Nestle Aland 28 with trust, assuming that Mark’s record of events is true in the sense that he has sought to faithfully give an account of Jesus. Of course, what is written in Mark’s Gospel is one moment in time from one man with all his biases. It is his take on the Jesus-story and so not complete. Even Luke felt this, as he took Mark and reshaped it for Theophilus (Luke 1:1–4). Yet, in my view, despite the significant efforts of decades of biblical scholarship with all its criteria for authenticity, we still have no absolute means of testing the veracity of Mark’s component parts. Such analyses often reflect the biases of those who argue for or against this or that part of Mark’s story being true or otherwise. I am accepting that what we have reflects a real situation in which the events, as Mark has summarized, happened. As such I will read Mark as a literary whole with a hermeneutic of trust.¹⁹

My approach to reading the text will be