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<\/a><\/p>\nBEN: Another thing that is obvious early on in your study is that ancient biographies tended to have ethical aims of forming character, promoting virtues and prohibiting vices, and unless I\u2019m mistaken you see Mark\u2019s Gospel as also an attempt at that sort of identity and character formation. Right? But what kind of identity formation and how does the theological content and the uniqueness of Jesus fit into such an aim?<\/p>\n
HELEN:<\/p>\n
Yes, I think identity and character are very much intertwined in Mark\u2019s description of Jesus. As episode follows episode, we learn not only that he\u2019s God\u2019s adopted Son and anointed one but also something of his character traits \u2013 at first, he\u2019s a manly man who bests opponents in the public sphere, who shows human kindness and benevolence to all, a great benefactor, someone who scores well against \u2018King\u2019 Herod and even Moses of old. But as he starts to journey towards Jerusalem and his fate, we learn that his teaching involves self-denial and obedience, humility and restraint, courage and steadfastness under trial. Not all of these would necessarily be virtues in Roman eyes (Mark\u2019s view of honor would be especially odd), but they are virtues that Mark calls on his audience to emulate as they seek to \u2018follow\u2019 Jesus.<\/p>\n
I\u2019m glad you\u2019ve asked about the uniqueness thing, because it\u2019s something that all ancient biographers wrestle with to some extent. On one hand, biographies are monuments to great people (usually men), but on the other hand they are nearly always written to encourage others to emulate them. So there\u2019s always a pull between emphasizing the uniqueness of your subject (that\u2019s why you are writing a bios in the first place!) and the presentation of traits for others to follow. The audience aren\u2019t expected to do exactly what the heroes do (they aren\u2019t called to fight wars, rule over nations, or teach philosophy to Indians) but to discern the virtues exhibited by the heroes as they live their lives. So Mark\u2019s audience clearly won\u2019t have Jesus\u2019 great powers to do miraculous works, but they can learn from his kindness and willingness to engage with even the grubbiest most annoying beggar, his unwavering devotion to God\u2019s will, or his courage under trial.<\/p>\n
The bios does have \u2018theological content\u2019, of course, but much of it stems from Mark\u2019s Jewish heritage and his concept of the God of Israel\u2019s plan for humanity as expressed through the Scriptures, rather than what we might call the \u2018person and uniqueness\u2019 of Jesus (which I would see as a rather later development). Mark does have a Christology, and he does have some sort of theology of the cross, but none of this stands in the way of presenting the life of Jesus as a model for others. (The frequent call to \u2018follow\u2019 Jesus, along with the structure of the work in which Jesus follows John and is himself followed by others \u2013 see chapter 13 especially \u2013 underlines the motif of imitation). It\u2019s also the case that many bioi<\/em> take divine figures as their subjects \u2013 not only Suetonius\u2019 emperors, but Philostratus\u2019 Apollonius, Philo\u2019s Moses and plenty of others. It\u2019s not clear to me exactly how Mark understood the relationship between Jesus and the God of Israel \u2013 Jesus is clearly God\u2019s adopted Son in a way that his followers will never be, though devoting their lives to him allows them to become Jesus\u2019 brothers and sisters. I tend to think that the \u2018higher\u2019 the Christology the more difficult imitation becomes \u2013 in John\u2019s Gospel, for example, it\u2019s very difficult to imagine Jesus as a model, hence the need for the Beloved Disciple to step in as an idealized disciple.<\/p>\n<\/body><\/html>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"BEN: Another thing that is obvious early on in your study is that ancient biographies tended to have ethical aims of forming character, promoting virtues and prohibiting vices, and unless I\u2019m mistaken you see Mark\u2019s Gospel as also an attempt at that sort of identity and character formation. Right? But what kind of identity formation […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":91,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-36010","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"yoast_head":"\n
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