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1Wilhelm Bousset, Kyrios Christos: Geschichte des Christusglaubens von den Anfangen des
Christentums bis Irenaeus (PRLANT; 4th ed.; Gottingen: Vandenhoeck & Ruprecht, 1935) 54.
2Ibid., 57-
3Ibid., 55-56; citation from 56: "auf griechischem Boden, in griechischer Sprache;" my
translation.
4Ibid., 55.
HTR 93:2 (2000) 85-*00
dynasty.8From the heroes of the iron age onward,Greeks were familiar with the
idea that greatwarriorsand wise men were physically descended from individual
gods.9Dionysos was the son of Zeus by a mortalmother,yet he was consideredto
be a god from birth.'°Heracleswas also a son of Zeus by a humanmother,but he
lived a toilsome humanlife until his death and apotheosis,when he was received
intothe circleof the Olympiangods." Accordingto Diogenes Laertius,Speusippos,
a nephew and close fnend of Plato, wrote abouta story, currentin Athens, which
narratedthat when Periktione, Plato's mother, was ready to bear children, his
fatherAristontriedbut failed to make her pregnant.Then, afterhe had ceased his
efforts, he saw a vision of Apollo. Thereforehe abstainedfrom any furthermarital
relationsuntil she broughtfortha child (from Apollo).'2
It is highly significantfor our purposesthatkings and otherrulerswere consis-
tently portrayedas descendedfrom gods or as "son of god," "son of Helios," "son
of Zeus."'3This was especially trueof Egypt in the Hellenisticperiod.At the oracle
of Ammon in the Libyandesert,Alexanderthe Greatwas called "sonof Ammon,"
"son of Zeus" in Greek. From the beginning, the Ptolemies, the successors of
Alexander in Egypt, claimed the same title.'4And in the early Roman imperial
period,the title eEOUulos was used for Augustus.Doubtless,residentsof the Medi-
terraneanworld familiar with the ruler cult would have associated the idea that
Jesus was the messiah, the king of Israel,with this usage.
With these remarksformingthe context, I would now like to turnto the text of
Mark and raise the question of how Greek and Roman interested parties or
converts would have understoodcertain passages.ls Such readerswere likely to
understandthe accountof Jesus' baptismdifferentlyfrom those who preferredor
wereunconsciouslyshapedby certainJewishtaditions. A featurethatled Bultmann
to define the accountas a legend is whathe called the miraculousmoment,the way
8Homer II. 1.544; Hesiod Theogony47. Compare Peter Wulfing von Martitz, "ulos,
ulo0ssia, A. uloS in Greek," TDNT8 (1972) 336.
9Hengel, The Cross of the Son of God, 29.
t°Hesiod Theogony940-42; von Martitz, ''uloS,ulo0ssia," 336; Petr Pokorny Der Gottessohn:
LiterarischeUbersichtundFragestellung(Theologische Studien 109; Zurich: Theologischer
Verlag, 1971) 11.
ttHesiod Theogony943-44,950-55; HomericHymns1; 26; von Martitz, "uloS, uio0ssia,"
336.
I2Diogenes Laertius 3.2. Compare with the English translation in David R. Cartlidge and
David L. Dungan, Documentsfor the Studyof the Gospels(Philadelphia: Portress,1980) 129.
I3The tyrant Clearchus of Heraklea (4th century BCE) called himself "Son of Zeus"; see
Pokorny, DerGottessohn,15; Ludwig Bieler, iEIOI ANHP:Das Bilddes "gottlichen Menschen"
in SpatantikeundFruhcSlristentum (2 vols.; Vienna: Buchhandlung Oskar Hofels,1935-1936)
1. 1, 10, 134; von Martitz, "uios, ulo0ssia," 336.
t4von Martitz, "uloS, uio0ssia," 336; Pokorny, Der Gottessohn,15.
15Iam assuming here that many Greek and Roman converts, who would have been in-
structed in both Jewish and early Christian traditions, were likely to attempt to integrate Greek
and Roman traditions with these new traditions, and, in any case, that they were likely uncon-
sciously to understand these new traditions in terms of the old.
l6Rudolf Bultmann, TheHistoryof the SynopticTradition(rev. ed.; New York: Harper &
Row, 1968) 247-48.
l7Forthe texts of the two Greek manuscripts and of a shorter Latin version, see Ben Edwin
Perry, Aesopica,vol. 1: GreekandLatinTexts(Urbana, IL: University of Illinois Press,1952);
for an English translation, see Lloyd W. Daly, Aesop withoutMorals (New York: Thomas
Yoseloff, 1961) or Lawrence M. Wills, TheQuestof the HistoricalGospel:Mark,John,and
the Originsof the Gospel Genre(London: Routledge, 1997) Appendix.
l8MaryR. Lefkowitz, TheLivesof the GreekPoets (Baltimore: Johns Hopkins University
Press,1981) 27-28. This story appears on an inscription discovered on the island of Paros and
published by Nikolaos Kontoleon in 1954. The marble orthostates on which the text was
inscribed belonged to the heroon of Archilochus that was built near the city of Paros in the
third century BCE. For the Greek text and discussion, see Carl Werner Muller, "Die
Archilochoslegende," ItheinischesMuseum fur Philologien. F.128 (1985) 99-151, especially
100-110. For the Greek text and a German translation of the story, see Max Treu, Archilochos
(Munich: Ernst Heimeran, 1959) 42-45.
l9Forfurther discussion of the similarities of Mark to the ancient popular biographies, see
Adela Yarbro Collins, "Finding Meaning in the Death of Jesus," JR 78 (1998) 175-96.
is attested in Syria and Palestine from the eighth century BCE onward.22There
were shrinesdedicatedto Asclepius in Epidaurus,Pergamon,Rome, Cyrene,Crete
and Cos. At Epidaurusvarious healings of Asclepius were commemoratedin
formal inscriptions,including the healing of a man with a lame hand, a woman
who was blind in one eye, a mute boy, two cases involving a blind man, two cases
involving a paralytic, and two cases involving a lame man.23There was also a
traditionthat the mortal Asclepius raised the dead Hippolytus and that, for his
audacity,Zeus punishedhim by killing him with a thunderbolt.24Thus, the storyof
Jesus raisingJairus'daughterwould also elicit a comparisonwith Asclepius. The
secrecy motif in both Markanpassages could be interpretedby Greekand Roman
writers in terms of the mysterious,hidden characterof the divine. In Augustan
times, Straboexplainedthe practiceof secrecy as follows: "thesecrecy with which
the sacredrites areconcealed inducesreverencefor the divine, since it imitatesthe
natureof the divine, which is to avoid being perceivedby our humansenses."25
In Mark 5:7 the demon-possessedman addressesJesus, "Whathave I to do
with you, Jesus, Son of the most high God?" In Greek, "Son of the Most High
God"is vios TOV 0£0V TOV V+IOTOV. In the Greektranslationsof the HebrewBible,
l'bX ("Elyon") is always translatedby (o) vEloToS,but in non-Jewish, non-
Christian Greek texts, the expression occurs as a divine name for Zeus. Zeus
Hypsistoswas reveredfromAthens,throughAsia Minor,Syria,andon intoEgypt.26
Thus, for members of Mark's audience familiar with this cult, the demon's
addressof Jesus is equivalentto "son of Zeus."
The account of the transfigurationof Jesus in Mark 9 must have had quite a
different impact on members of the audience more familiar with or inclined
toward Greek religious traditionsthan Jewish. Such listeners would be familiar
with the idea that gods sometimes walked the earth in humanform. This notion
finds expressionin the passage from the OdysseythatdescribesOdysseus's return
to Ithaca. He arriveshome disguised as a beggar and, when he is mistreatedby
Antinoos, one of the suitors,anothersuitorrebukeshim saying:
22S. Ribichini, "Eshmun," in Karel van der Toorn et al., eds., Dictionary of Deities and
Demons in the Bible (Leiden: Brill, 1995) 583-87, esp. 584.
23Epidaurusstele I.3, 4, 5, 9, 15, 16, 18; II.35, 37; see Emma J. Edelstein and Ludwig
Edelstein, Asclepius: A Collection and lnterpretation of the Testimonies (New York: Arno,
1975) 221-37.
240vid Fasti 6.743-62; see also Edelstein and Edelstein, Asclepius, nos. 1, 3-5, 8, 66-67,
69, 72, 75, and 94.
25Strabo10.3.9; see Jan N. Bremmer, "Religious Secrets and Secrecy in Classical Greece,"
in Hans G. Kippenberg and Guy G. Stroumsa, eds., Secrecy and Concealment: Studies in the
History of Mediterranean and Near Eastern Religions (Studies in the History of Religions 65;
Leiden: Brill, 1995) 61-78; the passage from Strabo is cited on p. 72.
26CiliersBreytenbach, "Hypsistos," in van der Toorn et al., eds., Dictionary of Deities and
Demons, 822-30, esp. 822-23.
2'Homer Od. 17.485-87; trans. from Robert Fitzgerald, trans., Homer: The Odyssey
(Anchor Books; Garden City, NY: Doubleday, 1961; Anchor Books ed. 1963) 327. See the
discussion in Dieter Zeller, "Die Menschwerdung des Sohnes Gottes im Neuen Testament und
die antike Religionsgeschichte," in idem, ed., MenschwerdungGottes-Vergottlichungvon
Menschen(Novum Testamentum et Orbis Antiquus 7; Freiburg, Schweiz: Universitatsverlag;
Gottingen: Vandenhoeck & Ruprecht, 1988) 141-76, esp. 160.
28COXET' EW avEpcoircov lroRzaSKai lriova Epya Et6OS apaAduvousa woCuvxpovov (Hymnto
Demeter93-94); text and trans. from Hugh G. Evelyn-White, trans., Hesiod: The Homeric
Hymnsand Homerica(LCL; Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press, 1967) 294-95. See
the discussion in Zeller, "Die Menschwerdung des Sohnes Gottes im Neuen Testament und die
antike Religionsgeschichte," 160.
29Hesiod Hymnto Demeter101, 118-22. The assumed name is similar to the divine one;
compare line 211, in which Anco (= tpnTnp) iS the goddess's (secret and true) name. She is
does, but is identified by the heavenly voice. Although certain conventions are
contradicted,the account of Jesus' transfigurationwould make sense to Greeks
familiarwith polytheistictraditionsas the self-manifestationof a deity. Similarly,
the motif of secrecy in Markhas an affinity with the notion of a deity disguising
himself or herself as a humanbeing. From the point of view of traditionalGreek
religion, the identificationof Jesus in this scene as God's son is equivalent to
identifyinghim as a divine being.
Jesusappearsas a prophetin Mark13. Althoughthecontentof his eschatological
discourse is Jewish in general and apocalyptic and eschatological in particular,
prophecy was a familiar phenomenonto Greeks and Romans. The main types
involved oracularshrinesthatpeople would visit with questions about the future;
technical diviners, who intexpreteddreams, the condition of sacrificial animals,
the flight of birds and other phenomenaas signs and symbols of the future;and
inspireddiviners,who utteredoraclesor propheciesin a state of divine inspiration
or possession.32Greeksand Romans would have found certainformalfeaturesof
Mark 13 familiar.The passageopens with a scene in which Jesus and his disciples
are walkingout of the Templeprecincts,andone of themcommentson the beauty
of the buildings.In response,Jesuspredictsthe destructionof the Temple.Whereas
listeners well educated in the Jewish scriptureswould respond to this saying in
terms of the prophetic traditionof Israel, those more at home with Greek and
Roman religions would perceive it as an inspired prophecy or an oracle. The
setting also evokes the Hellenic and Hellenistic literaryform of the peripatetic
dialogueor strollingconversation.33 This initialconversationis then followed by a
seated dialogue set in full view of the Temple. The disciples ask Jesus a two-part
question:"Tellus when this will be and whatthe sign will be when all these things
areaboutto be accomplished."Jesusthengives a long responseto these questions.
The formal structureinvolving a question concerningthe futureand a prophetic
responsewould have evoked for membersof the audiencefamiliarwith Greekand
Roman religions the traditionof the oracularshrine, where knowledge about the
future was granted in response to questions, or the tradition of the inspired
diviner.34Fromthis perspective,Jesus' statement"concerningthatday or the hour,
no one knows, not even the angels in heaven,andnot even the Son; [no one knows]
except the Father,"contraststhe inspireddiviner with the oraculargod. Apollo
was most esteemed as an oraculargod, butZeus was also so recognizedand spoke
throughsigns at Dodona and Olympia.35
36See Adela Yarbro Collins, "Mark and His Readers: The Son of God among Jews," HTR
92 (1999) 393408.
37Ifa noun follows another and the second is in the genitive case, the second noun usually
follows the first in having or lacking the article.
38EzraP. Gould interpreted the statement of the centurion in its context to mean that the
portent(s) accompanying the death of Jesus convinced him that Jesus was "a son of God, a hero
after the heathen conception;" idem, Criticaland Exegetical Commentary on the Gospel ac-
cording to St. Mark(ICC; Edinburgh: T. & T. Clark, 1896) 295.
39E.C. Colwell, "A Definite Rule for the Use of the Article in the Greek New Testament,"
JBL 52 (1933) 12-21.
40EarlS. Johnson, "Is Mark 15:39 the Key to Mark's Christology?," JSNT31 (1987) 3-22,
esp. 6-7.
4lCompare Johnson, ibid., 7-8.
42See Yarbro Collins, "Mark and His Readers: The Son of God among Jews," 406.
43VirgilGeorgics 1.463-68; trans. from Cartlidge and Dungan, Documentsfor the Studyof
the Gospels, 163.
44PlutarchCaesar69.3-5; trans. from Cartlidge and Dungan, Documentsfor the Studyof
the Goswpels,164.
45PlutarchRomulus27.6-7; trans. from Bernadotte Perrin, Plutarch'sLives (LCL; Cam-
bridge, MA: Harvard University Press, 1914) 1. 177.
46See the discussion of the death and apotheosis of Augustus in Charles H. Talbert, "Bi-
ographies of Philosophers and Rulers as Instruments of Religious Propaganda in Mediterranean
Antiquity," ANRW2.16.2 (1978) 1619-51, esp. 1634.
47Comparethe arguments of Philip H. Bligh, "A Note on Huios Theouin Mark 15.39,"
ExpositoryTimes80 (1968) 51 -53; Johnson, "Is Mark 15.39 the Key to Mark's Christology?,"
12-14; Tae Hun Kim, "The Anarthrous uioS 8sou in Mark 15,39 and the Roman Imperial Cult,"
Biblica 79 (1998) 221 -41.
48Stefan Weinstock, Divus Julius (Oxford: Clarendon, 1971) 391-92.
49See, for example, the letter of the emperor Claudius to the Alexandrians, which dates to
41 CE, in which the deified Augustus is referred to as (o) OEOsIE,SaaToS,"(the) god Augustus";
the papyrus was published by H. I. Bell in 1912; the Greek text and an English translation are
WaTpisos Kal TOU OUpWaVTOS T@V avEpurxv yevouS ("God Augustus Caesar Zeus Patroos, em-
peror and high priest, greatest father of the fatherland and of the entire race of human beings");
Buckler, "Auguste, Zeus Patroos," 18087.
s3Ehrenbergand Jones, DocumentsIllustratingthe Reignsof Augustusand Tiberius,no. 320
(b) line 31 (p. 147). Tiberius himself was named divifilius on coins from Rome; Mattingly, Coins
of the RomanEmpire,nos. 65-94 (pp. 128-33); and on coins minted in Commagene; ibid, nos.
174-76 (pp. 144-45).
54Thistitle is documented for the period from 5 to 3 BCE; Buckler, "Auguste, Zeus Patroos,"
179. Compare S. R. F. Price, Ritualsand Power:TheRomanImperialCultin Asia Minor(Cam-
bridge: Cambridge University Press, 1984) 76. In the period from 2 BCE until 14 CE, the title of the
high priest was longer, but it still began with these names; Buckler, "Auguste, Zeus Patroos," 180.
68Bousset, KyriosChristos,151-52, n. 3.
69Dolger, IX#9YI: Das Fischsymbolin fruhchristlicherZeit, 1. 394-95.
70Ibid., 395-96.
7'Ibid.
72Ibid-,397-99
73Ibid., 396.
74See Herbert Braun, "Der Sinn der neutestamentlichen Christologie," ZThK54 (1957)
341-77; reprinted in idem, GesammelteStudienzumNeuenTestamentundseiner Umwelt(2d
rev. ed.; Tubingen: Mohr/Siebeck, 1967) 243-82; Hans Dieter Betz, "GottmenschII,"Reallexikon
fur Antikeund Christentum12 (1982) 234-312.
75Forthe evidence from Egypt, see Paul Bureth, Les titulaturesimpe'rialesdans les papy-
rus, les ostracaet les inscriptionsde I'kgypte(30 a. C. -284 p. C.) (PapyrologicaBruxellensia
2; Bruxelles: Fondation Egyptologique Reine Elisabeth, 1964).
76Adolf Deissmann, Bibelstudien:Beitrage, zumeistaus den Papyri und Inschriften,zur
Geschichteder Sprache,des Schriftumsundder Religiondes hellenistischenJudentumsund
des Urchristentums(Marburg: Elwert, 1895) 166-68.