Kata Markon

[JFAlward AT aol.com]

In a message dated 3/14/01 10:27:31 PM Pacific Standard Time, 
larry.swain AT wmich.edu writes:


> In determining what an author is doing in a text we must deal with at least 
> four
> areas: is here merely alluding to a previous text, is a previous text the 
> source
> of the current text, is the author imitating (mimesis) a previous text, is 
> the
> author reporting tradition, or is the author inventing.  I guess that makes 
> five.
> Or some combination of the above processes.  I'm not convinced that Mark was
> constructing scenes based on nebulous, distant allusions.  If we must scour 
> the
> Hebrew Bible to find appropriate references, then it is likely that the 
> scene as
> constructed at best alludes to, rather than is based on, the texts that we 
> find.
> The purpose of a scene which is constructed to deliberately recall a 
> previous text
> is that the text the author wishes the reader to recall should be a fairly 
> obvious
> one, not one they have to scour the source text for.
>
> Larry Swain


===========
Oh, you're absolutely right, Larry.  I made that same point this afternoon in 
rebuttal of Ted Weeden's very lengthy argument that the Judas kiss was based 
on Absalom's kisses; the average reader of Mark would not be able to make 
such a connection if it takes Weeden 3717 words to do so.  It's just not at 
all obvious.  I've always held that the parallels must be highly visible and 
likely to have been well known to readers of Mark's time.  When I spoke of 
"scouring" the Old Testament, I wasn't referring to the readers having to do 
so to find the connection of Mark to scripture, but of Mark looking for 
something to write about.  He looked for connections that would seem obvious 
to his readers, connections that would make it seem that Jesus was, indeed, 
the son of God and the rightful heir to the throne of the house of David.

Regards,

Joe Alward