Amaleq13

I asked this in another thread but I continue to be interested in your answer so I'm asking it again:

Do you consider Mark to have been primarily an instructional text? A sort of interactive primer on the author's Christian beliefs?

Vorkosigan

Yes! Ha! I misread the source. My bad. Mea culpa, mea culpa...mea maxima culpa. I really, really need to learn Greek and stop being at the mercy of sources. Even when they are not wrong I still misread them. *sigh*

Vorkosigan

Vorkosigan

I can't tell anymore. Scholars are divided on whether the Greek novels had didactic functions or were merely for entertainment. I am skeptical that Mark was put together just for entertainment, rather a lot of work went into it, and it seems to have a clear lesson about faith. Mark is not a Greek novel, but rather, a recruiting text written with the conventions of Greek novels, much like _Left Behind_ is a Dispensationalist tract written as a popular thriller.

rob117

The first temple disruption scene is probably unhistorical. It is more likely that he preached for awhile, and they left him alone. At Passover he started insulting the high priests, and at least attempted to vandalize the temple. Whether or not he was able to, he would have still been punished for it.

I just can't see how a non-existant person can get a cult following by 20 years after his death (in the case of Paul's letters, which begin around 50 CE). If the earliest layers of Q were used by Paul in his letters (as some scholars suggest), that would mean the early versions of Q were written at least a year beforehand (long enough to circulate among early Christian communities- note that this refers to the early editions of Q, the final edition, used by "Matthew" and "Luke," is probably later).

Amaleq13

How did you determine exactly when this non-existent person died?

What scholars suggest this? It seems ridiculously without merit.