Kata Markon

["L. J. Swain" <larry.swain AT wmich.edu>]

JFAlward AT aol.com wrote:

> 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 ---

But if your understanding is correct, I would expect a more solid echo,
similar wording, a citation, something that connects the Hebrew Bible
passage to the pericope in Mark.  While I'm sure that some readers may
have read this scene and heard an echo of Ezekiel, I'm not at all
positive that it is "obvious" to anyone, and certainly not obvious that
Mark has molded his narrative around those allusions.  I'm looking for a
fuller exegesis from you, I guess, that demonstrates this more clearly.

Larry Swain