Kata Markon

[JFAlward AT aol.com]

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