Kata Markon

[Steve Black <sdblack AT telus.net>]

On Tuesday, October 14, 2003, at 12:01  PM, Jeffrey B. Gibson wrote:

> Steve Black wrote:
>
> > I have two questions for the group.
> >
> > 1. I suspect Mk of having what is essentially an "adoptionist" 
> > christology. Is there is evidence against this that can be found in 
> > the second gospel?
>
> One of the difficulties of answering this question is that it is 
> stated in terms of Christological categories and arguments that come 
> from the second and third centuries and which were grounded in ideas 
> about the nature of God that might not have been  - and most likely 
> were not  - shared by Mark and those to whom he wrote.  Indeed, I 
> would even say this for the author of GJohn, whose theology of 
> incarnation was in my view not what it later came to be thought of as 
> indicating about Israel's God and Jesus.

Although the *categories* certainly are anachronistic, the ideas 
reflected might not be.
In other words - did Mk think that Jesus became the son of God at the 
baptism of John?
If he did think this than it seems to me that he was in effect saying 
something analogous to what was later called "adoptionist Christology".

> > 2. Mk describes John baptism as being for repentance and then without 
> > qualification has Jesus being baptized. Is there any reason to think 
> > that Mk did not intend for the reader to understand that Jesus was 
> > repenting?
>
> No.  But what needs to be unpacked here is what it is, according to 
> Mark, that the call to repentance that Jesus heeds is all about. Is it 
> about individual sins or something wider?
>
> Have you read Tom Wright's discussion in his NTPG of what "forgiveness 
> of sins" would have meant within Judaism in the first century?

No I haven't - is it something that you could explain briefly and in 
broad strokes?
(I am drowning in books that need attention and am reluctant to add new 
ones to the list just yet...)


Hope you are well.

Steve Black
Vancouver School of Theology
Vancouver, BC
Canada