Who Did Mark Think Jesus Was?
Who Did Mark Think Jesus Was?
Besides the text about Jesus being David’s “Lord” and texts about Jesus’ return, addressed earlier, Mark seems to indicate an exalted role for Jesus elsewhere (although it is not his focus). We will note here his understanding of how Jesus functioned as John’s successor in light of Scripture, and Mark’s report that Jesus claimed to be “Lord of the Sabbath.”
In Mk 1:3, Mark quotes Is 40:3 with reference to John the Baptist’s mission of preparing the “way of the Lord.” This text is presumably earlier than Mark, since not only Matthew and Luke, who follow Mark directly, but also the Fourth Gospel (Jn 1:23), which probably does not, cites the verse.109 Some even suspect that John himself used this text (Is 40:3) to explain his own sense of mission (as in Jn 1:23).110 In view of a Qumran parallel, use of this Isaiah text is more plausible in a Palestinian Jewish environment — indeed, especially in John’s wilderness — than anywhere else. The Qumran community applied the same Isaiah text to their own mission in the wilderness,111 especially to their knowledge of the law.112
At the very least, the usage tells us Mark’s view about Jesus: the one whose way John prepares is none other than the “Lord” himself (Is 40:3).113 If Mark was at all biblically literate, then, he would have understood that applying this passage to John meant that John was preparing the way for God himself, though in Mark’s narrative John prepares the way for Jesus. This connection would fit his inclusion of John’s sayings about being unworthy to deal with the “coming one’s” sandals, and that the coming one would baptize in God’s Spirit, language apparently implying the divine status of the coming one.
Most of all, it is consistent with the quotation that Mark links with this one (Mk 1:2), from Mal 3:1, where again the messenger prepares for God’s own coming. In Malachi that messenger is Elijah, sent before the great day of the Lord’s judgment (Mal 4:5). Not surprisingly, a few verses after quoting Malachi’s promise of God’s messenger, Mark describes John coming in the wilderness with a leather girdle around his waist — an image all biblically informed hearers would associate with Elijah (2 Kgs 1:8).114 If Mark believes that John is Elijah preparing the way of God, and in Mark John prepares for Jesus (cf. Mk 9:11-13), Mark plainly has an exalted view about Jesus.
In Mk 2:28, Jesus claims that the Son of Man is Lord of the Sabbath. Such a claim might not generate hostility.115 Because the Semitic expression “son of man” usually just means “human being,” even some modern commentators have read Jesus’ Son of Man statement here as a teaching about persons in general. 116 In the immediately preceding context, Jesus claims that “The Sabbath was made on account of humanity, rather than humanity on account of the Sabbath” (Mk 2:27). Many other Jewish teachers uttered such a sentiment117 and similar logical constructions.118 Thus one could infer that Jesus simply claims that the sabbath was made for humans, so humans are “lord” of the sabbath. While such an interpretation may have occurred to Jesus’ hearers within the narrative, however, those familiar with his self-designation as “son of man” would find here a self-claim resembling other hints in his teaching. In the context of Mark’s larger Gospel, Jesus’ identity as “son of man” is clear. Thus David’s “lord” was lord of more than David and his kingdom, but lord even of God’s sabbath.119