Kata Markon

["Ted Weeden" <weedent AT atw.earthreach.com>]

Joe Alward wrote on Thursday, February 22, 2001 3:48 PM:
Subject: [gmark] Judas and Jesus


> If anyone knows of a betrayal with a kiss in first century literature that
a
> Mark might have had access to, and a reason to use here, that might solve
our
> problem.
>
> The middle passage below is the one that doesn't seem to belong:
>
> Then Judas Iscariot, one of the Twelve, went to the chief priests to
betray
> Jesus to them.  They were delighted to hear this and promised to give him
> money. So he watched for an opportunity to hand him over.  (Mark
> 14:10-11)..."The hour has come. Look, the Son of Man is betrayed into the
> hands of sinners.  Rise! Let us go! Here comes my betrayer!"  Just as he
was
> speaking, Judas, one of the Twelve, appeared. With him was a crowd armed
with
> swords and clubs, sent from the chief priests, the teachers of the law,
and
> the elders.  (Mark 14:41-43)
>
> Now the betrayer had arranged a signal with them: "The one I kiss is the
man;
> arrest him and lead him away under guard." Going at once to Jesus, Judas
> said, "Rabbi!" and kissed him.  (Mark 14:44-45)

My response:

In a post some time ago on Xtalk, I argued that Mark drew upon II Sam. 15-17
for creating his Gethsamene story.  Since then I have been slowly working on
an essay to show Johannine dependency on Mark for John's passion narrative
and other Markan texts.  In working out this dependency I first draw
attention in the essay to Mark's dependency on other sources in his passion
narrative, in particularly II Samuel 15-17 for material and motifs for his
Gethsamene episode.  In response to your question, Joe,  I share the
following snippet from that part of my essay dealing with Mark's creation of
his Gethsamene story:

I turn now to the striking parallels between the Markan Gethsamene story and
the story about David in II Sam. 15-17.  I do so by calling attention to the
argument for parallels as presented in a cameo in Robert Funk and the Jesus
Seminar's _Acts of Jesus_150f.    According to the story in II Samuel 15,
David upon learning of his son Absalom's conspiracy against him (15:1-7,
12b-13),  flees from Jerusalem (15:14) across the Wadi Kidron (15:23), and
ascends the Mt.of Olives weeping with his head covered (15:30).   Jesus
takes the same route from Jerusalem following the last supper announcement
to his disciples of the conspiracy against him (14:17-21), a conspiracy
which Mark has already alerted his hearers is underway (14:1, 10-11).  David
climbs the heights of the Mt. Olives in what appears to be an attitude of
prayer. Funk/Jesus Seminar cameo essay describes David's demeanor in this
way, "As David climbs the Mount of Olives to the place where God is
worshiped, his head is covered and he is barefoot; he weeps because of the
tragedy that looms before him (2 Sam 15:30).  When Hushai, a loyal friend,
comes to David, his clothes are torn and he has dirt on his head (2 Sam.
15:32).  These are signs of prayer and repentance" (see cameo).   In similar
fashion Mark dramatizes Jesus climbing the Mt. of Olives.  Apprehensive and
distraught about the tragedy that certainly faces him, Jesus goes there,
deeply grieving, "even to death," to offer an anguished and soulful prayer
for God's intervention (14:33-35).   Like David, before him, Jesus is
presented by Mark as engaging in a soul-searching struggle with respect to
the will of God.   In II Sam. 5:25f., David acknowledges to the Levites,
Abiathar and Zadok, that he does not know whether or not he will be in God's
favor with respect to his future in face of the impending battle between his
forces and the forces of his conspiratorial son.

I find the parallel between Jesus' sole-searching prayer and David's
anguished resignation to Zadok to be stunning.  David says to Zadok: "If  I
find favor in the eyes of the Lord, he will bring me back and let me see
both it [the ark] and his habitation; but if he says, 'I have no pleasure in
you,' behold, here I am *let him do to me what seems good to him.*" The part
of the speech  which I have set off by asterisks is so close to Jesus'
words-albeit set in the first person, singular rather than the third person,
singular-"not what I will but what thou wilt," that I can hardly see how the
similarity is accidental.  Mark, in my judgment, patterned part of Jesus'
prayer after David's statement of resignation to the divine will (so also
the Funk/Jesus Seminar cameo)..   .

But Mark has also drawn upon other material to frame both the psychological
disposition of Jesus and also the content of the prayer.   The Markan Jesus'
psychological state of being distressed and apprehensive in the face of
personal peril in the garden (14:33) is similar to that often expressed by
the psalmists in their prayers to God (cf., Pss. 13; 22; 31; 42:  43:2, 5;
55:2-6).   The similarity is hardly accidental and thus, I posit, that the
echoes of the psalmists' plaintive
cries were in Mark's mind when he dramatized Jesus' psychological state as
Jesus prepared to engage God in his own plaintive prayer.   Brown observes
(_Death of the Messiah_, I:153) with respect to Ps. 55:5-6 (LXX) that
although the vocabulary is not the same, nevertheless the Markan Jesus'
situation is analogous to the Psalmist's when he prayed, "My heart was
disturbed within me; and the horror of death fell upon me; fear and
trembling came upon me, and terror [LXX: darkness] covered me" (translation:
Brown's).   Brown (I:154) also sees an echo in Mk. 14:34 of Ps. 42:5-6 [LXX:
41:6-7], an echo I shall return to in discussing John's incorporation of
Mk.14:34, 36 in Jn. 12:27-28. [See Brown's suggestion (I:154)that both Mark
and John drew from II Sam 15.  So likewise there was a common tradition
which used the psalm and each drew from different parts of the tradition.]

To pursue the parallels between the Gethsemane story and the II Samuel story
of David further,  Ahithophel, one of David's counselors, betrays David by
joining Absalom in a conspiracy against David (II Sam. 15:12, 13).  As the
Funk/Jesus Seminar cameo essay puts it, "Ahithophel was to David as Judas
was to David' (p. 150).   Like Judas with respect to Jesus, Ahithopel
intends to lead his forces against David at night, "while he is weak and
discouraged" (17:1f.). Of course Ahithopel's plans to attack David never
materialize for Absalom, while initially attracted to Ahithopel's plans, in
the end rejects Ahithopel' counsel and plans (17:4-14).  The similarity
between Judas coming with forces to arrest Jesus at night, when Jesus is
soulfully distraught, and Ahithopel's plans to mount troops and attack David
at night, when David is discouraged, cannot be accidental.  Mark's mind was
clearly upon the betrayer of II Sam. 17:1-2 when he scripted his Gethsamene
story of Judas' betrayal.

It cannot be accidental either that Mark chose a betrayal kiss as the sign
Judas gave the arresting party to identify Jesus.  As the Funk/Jesus Seminar
notes Absalom, who was the first in this II Samuel saga to betray his father
David, "launched his revolt by exchanging a kiss with David (2 Sam. 14:33)."
Moreover, II Sam. 15:5f. states that Absalom, who engineered the conspiracy
against his father David, "stole the hearts of the men of Israel" from his
father (15:6), by this cunning practice: "whenever a man came near him to do
obeisance to him, he would put out his hand, and take hold of him and *kiss
him.*" (15:5).  It is clear to me that Mark's idea to have Jesus betrayed by
a kiss came from Absalom's betrayal kisses.

There are yet other parallels between II Samuel 15-17 and Mark's Gethsamene
betrayal story.  And I shall return to them shortly....

Ted Weeden