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Subject: Kata Markon

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  • From: JFAlward AT aol.com
  • To: gmark AT franklin.metalab.unc.edu
  • Subject: Re: Stilling the Storm
  • Date: Mon, 11 Mar 2002 23:55:52 EST


Rikki Watts writes,

"The parallels are interesting, but selective. Surely, to be completely
accurate and fair, one should also consider the differences: I don't see any
equivalent to the casting of lots, nor is Jesus self-confessedly disobedient
or identified as the reason for the storm, and I think I missed the bit where
the disciples throw him out of the boat. No one is fleeing from the presence
of the Lord and it is Jonah's hitting the water that stops the storm, in Mark
it is Jesus' word. In Mark, the miracle worker turns out to be "Jonah," not
exactly what one would expect, and of course there's no fish, nor cushion for
that matter. If Mark is inventing a story out of Jonah why does it look so
unlike the Jonah account?"

Joe Alward responds:

Why do you believe that a story and its antecedent chould not have many
dissimilar elements? The scriptural story of Jonah being swallowed by the
big fish has as its antecedent a mythical story which has virtually nothing
in common with it. T. W. Doane (_Bible Myths_ (1910) explains it pretty
well, so I will just quote him:

"That the story is an allegory...the significance of which is the alternate
swallowing up and casting forth of Day, or the Sun, by Night, is now all but
universally admitted by scholars. The Day, or the Sun, is swallowed up by
Night, to be set free again at dawn...The most prominent mythical
characteristic of the story of Jonah is his celebrated abode in the sea in
the belly of a whale. This trait is eminently Solar...As on occasion of the
storm the storm-dragon or the storm serpent swallows the Sun, so when he
sets, he (Jonah, as a personification of the Sun) is swallowed by a mighty
fish, waiting from him at the bottom of the sea. Then, when he appears again
on the horizon, he is spit out on the shore by the sea-monster....In the
Vedas--the four sacred books of the Hindus--when Day and Night, Sun and
Darkness, are opposed to each other, the one is designated Red, the other
Black....The Red Sun being swallowed up by the Dark Earth at Night--as it
apparently is when it sets in the west--to be cast forth again at Day.
Jonah personifies the Sun, and a huge Fish represents the Earth. The Earth
represented as a huge Fish is one of the most prominent ideas of the
Polynesian mythology. At other times, instead of a Fish, we have a great
raving Wolf, who comes to devour its victim and extinguish the Sun-light.
This is illustrated in the story of Little Red Riding Hood (the Sun) who is
devoured by the great Black Wolf (Night) and thereafter comes out unhurt."

Mark's Jesus story is an adaptation of the one in Jonah, not a rewrite with
the only change being the name of the protagonist. Of course there are
differences, but the five elements which are identical are, taken together,
unique. Given these striking parallels, and the fact that Mark and his
readers would have had an intimate familiarity with the Jonah story, and the
fact that Mark had a motive for copying elements of Jonah, and we see it's
virtually impossible not to believe that Mark's story is fiction.

Look closely at the five elements in Mark's story which unmistakably point
only to Jonah. Both stories have (1) a storm which threatens sailors on
boats, (2) a sleeping "savior" who is (3) scolded because of his apparent
lack of concern, and (4) whose action calms the sea, and, instead of the
natural relief that should come to those who've just been snatched from the
jaws of death, (5) sailors becoming frightened. These five elements, taken
as a unit, are found nowhere else in all of literature and folklore--except
for Jonah; that Mark's work is transparent on Jonah is beyond dispute, in my
opinion.

What was Mark's motive? Mark's purpose in writing his gospel seems to have
been to show that some of the events in the life of Old Testament biblical
figures seemed to foreshadow ones that happened to his fictional "Jesus." If
he succeeded, Mark's credulous readers would be all the more willing to
accept Jesus as the son of God.

The story about Jesus calming the seas is just one example among many in
which Mark manufactures a story about Jesus which has some--but not all--of
the elements of a story in scripture. Mark's intention here was to show
that Scripture foreshadowed Jesus' calming of the seas and thereby provide
his readers evidence that Jesus was indeed the son of God, as Mark said he
was (Mark 1:11). Mark didn't need to imitate exactly the Jonah story to
impart his message; he needed only to take from Jonah usable elements which
stood out enough to remind his readers of that story.

Some elements could not be used. For example, he had no need to have the son
of God thrown overboard, nor did he need to have a cushion, a casting of
lots, or a disobedient Jesus in order to guarantee that his readers would see
clearly the connection to Jonah.

Rikki, if you wouldn't point to the many dissimilar elements between the
story of Little Red Riding Hood and its known antecedent, why would you do so
in the case of Mark and the alleged antecedent, Jonah, given that there are
so many striking parallels, undeniable contact between imitator and
antecedent, and a strong motive for imitation?


Joseph F. Alward
"A Skeptical View of Christianity and the Bible"
http://members.aol.com/jalw/joseph_alward.html




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