Kata Markon

[JFAlward AT aol.com]

This is a short response to Ted Weeden's recent post.  Ted listed several 
Psalms of David that he believes parallel the prayers of Jesus at Gethsemane. 
 I believe the most important Psalm used by Mark was the following one:

"I rise before dawn and cry for help; I have put my hope in your word. My 
eyes stay open through the watches of the night, that I may meditate on your 
promises. Hear my voice in accordance with your love; preserve my life, O 
LORD, according to your laws. Those who devise wicked schemes are near, but 
they are far from your law." (Psalm 119: 147-150)


The psalm above seems to be the one Mark had in mind when he wrote the 
passage below about the disciples eyes not staying open while wicked schemes 
were being hatched against Jesus:

"Then he returned to his disciples and found them sleeping. 'Simon,' he said 
to Peter, 'are you asleep? Could you not keep watch for one hour? Watch and 
pray so that you will not fall into temptation. The spirit is willing, but 
the body is weak.' "  (Mark 14:37-38)  "Look, the Son of Man is betrayed into 
the hands of sinners. Rise! Let us go! Here comes my betrayer!"  (14:41-42)


On another matter, Ted wrote, "It cannot be accidental either that Mark chose 
a betrayal kiss as the sign Judas gave the arresting party to identify 
Jesus."  He notes that Funk/Jesus Seminar states that Absalom "launched his 
revolt by exchanging a kiss with David (2 Sam 14:33)."

However, that's not exactly what happened at 14:33: "Then the king summoned 
Absalom, and he came in and bowed down with his face to the ground before the 
king. And the king kissed Absalom." There was no "exchanging a kiss."  It was 
the one to be betrayed--David--who did the kissing, not the other way around.

Ted also notes 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."  

But, I can't agree there, either.  The correspondence Mark would have been 
looking for is not there in Absalom's kisses.  He never kissed his father, 
whom he betrayed, and the men he embraced and kissed certainly weren't 
betrayed.  Absalom kissed people to get them to like him, not so he could 
hurt them.

Thus, there is no record of Absalom kissing a person who's then betrayed by 
him.  Furthermore, the model for Mark's Judas is Ahihophel, David's 
counselor. A better model for Judas' betrayal kiss would by Joab, who 
embraced Amasa, kissed him, then stabbed him in the belly.

I do agree, of course, with Ted (and others) that Jesus is modeled after 
David, and Judas is Ahithophel, and that one or more of the psalms may have 
been the model for Jesus' lament.

Thanks, Ted, for the helpful summary of Funk/Jesus Seminar's position, as 
well as your own ideas.


Regards,


Joe Alward
===============
Joseph F. Alward, Ph.D.
Assistant Professor
Department of Physics
University of the Pacific
Stockton CA 95211
email:  JFAlward AT aol.com