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gmark - Denigration of Peter et al. (was: Peter's Denial)

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  • From: "Ron Price" <ron.price AT virgin.net>
  • To: GMark <GMark AT franklin.oit.unc.edu>
  • Subject: Denigration of Peter et al. (was: Peter's Denial)
  • Date: Wed, 22 Mar 2000 13:52:49 +0000


I wrote:

>> A more consistent hypothesis is that all the original
>>leading followers of Jesus were being deliberately denigrated, as
>>(first?) pointed out by E.Trocme in _The Formation of the Gospel
>>according to Mark_.

Ted Weeden replied:
>The denigration, according to Trocme ....... is of the Jerusalen church, not
>as far as I can see against " all leading followers of Jesus," which would
>include Peter and the disciples. Have I missed something????

Ted,
Yes.
One key feature you may have missed is Trocme's unorthodox view that
there were two editions of Mark, the first comprising chs.1-13,
supposedly written ca. 50CE. On that basis James would have been the
leader of the Jerusalem Church at the time when chs. 1-13 were written
and it would have been impossible to criticize the Jerusalem Church
without implying criticism of James (and for that matter, of Peter, c.f.
Gal 2:9). Although I have great admiration for the first part of
Trocme's book, I think his idea of two editions is quite untenable.
(By the way I also had missed something, for because Peter's Denial is
in ch.14 in the 'Second Edition', Trocme does not seem to count it as
part of the evidence of an anti-Peter slant in Mark.)

The relevant sub-sections are "Implied criticisms of Christians" and
"Explicit criticisms of Christians". These are pages 107-137 in the
English translation (London, SPCK, 1975).
Here are a few gems from these pages.
"Once again the author of Mark is directing sharp thrusts at certain
leaders of the Church ....... The church leaders thus attacked are easy
to identify ....... Peter ....... James ....... and Andrew." p.125
"The author of Mark is accordingly practically as reserved towards the
sons of Zebedee as towards Peter." p.130
"We must therefore consider the author of Mark ....... as the avowed
enemy of James, the Lord's brother, sole head of the church of Jerusalem
for many years ......." p.136

Incidentally I was also very favourably impressed by your _Mark -
Traditions in Conflict_ when I read it some years ago, and it wasn't
lumbered with an untenable hypothesis about Mark's composition!

Ron Price

Weston-on-Trent, Derby, UK

e-mail: ron.price AT virgin.net

Web site: http://homepage.virgin.net/ron.price/index.htm





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