mikey_anarchy

I am curious about the messianic secret that can be seen within the gospel of Mark. Why is it that JC seems to push for anonymity? Christ asks his disciples to be silent in 8:30, he did not let demons speak “because they knew him� (1:34 cf. 3:12). During his visit with a leper, JC says “ say nothing to anyone (1:43) and with the gal risen from the dead, he claims that “no one should no about this� (5:43).

Why then did Jesus pray 3 times within Gethsemane not to undergo fate and claim “my god, my god, why have you forsaken me?� during the last moments of his life? It seems to me that the stresses anonymity within mark, his prayers, and his last question seem to point to at best a reluctant jesus or at worst a coward? However, I am no expert and this is not an attack on Christianity but my own strives to understand it. :angel:

Additionally, I would like to know why an additional writings we added unto the ending of Mark? Why not leave the gospel ending with “for they were afraid.�?

Amaleq13

I think most scholars understand it to indicate and explain why Jesus was not called Messiah while alive. Those who have faith in the reliability of the stories suggest it was because he was waiting for the proper time to go public.

You might want to check these earlier threads:

How early is the longer ending of Mark?

Robert Price's Explanation for Abrupt Mark Ending

mikey_anarchy

thanks!

Roland

This is just a guess, but I wonder if the reason for all the commands to silence and the obviously truncated ending are the author's way of explaining why his obviosly fictional story has not been heard till the time of the writing.

I mean, if everyone were keeping mum about everything, wouldn't that explain why no one had ever heard of the story before?

Like I said, no hard evidence for this theory, but it does help to explain how "Mark" might have thought he could get away with passing off his tale as true.

Julian

My theory, which I hope to write a paper on sometime in the next year or so, is that GMark is a gnostic separationist gospel. Gnostic teaching was secret and not understood by the church. Thus the church, represented by the disciples since the church claimed apostolic tradition, does not understand. They are also shown consistently as failures and incompetents. The parables are spoken so that people will not understand, again a gnostic staple.

The secret knowledge was imparted by Jesus for personal salvation which the proto-orthodox did not participate in. Jesus is able to teach this knowledge because he is 'posessed' by the Christ spirit which enters into him at the baptism and leaves him again on the cross. There is no post-resurrection appearance because GMark does not impart authority to the proto-orthodox church, the knowledge is secret.

Julian