Mark: A Messianic Post-War Gospel

1 online resource (49 pages) : PDF

2022

University of North Carolina at Charlotte

The Gospel of Mark, understood as our earliest post-70 CE early Christian/Jewish writing, can provide a new interpretive lens for setting forth the parameters of an understanding of spirituality for Mark’s community in a new era in which Jerusalem and the Jewish Temple no longer hold center stage. The thesis explores the answer to the question: How does Mark propose the Markan Community follow the Jesus movement? Following the trail within the gospel itself with a lens of the post-70 CE setting of the Gospel of Mark, I analyze the text by applying a post-70 CE context to understand Mark’s vision of a way forward for the Jesus’ movement. Although Markan scholarship focuses on Christology or the rejection of the temple, I show that Mark uses the issues within Mark 11 and Mark 12 culminating in Mark 13 as an organizing focus for the followers of the Jesus movement. Mark provides a parallel proposal for Jesus’ followers—primarily addressing how one remains faithful to the God of Israel in the post-War period while addressing directly addresses a whole series of issues that emerge because of the Temple’s demise and the shattering of the social function of Pharisees and priestly Sadducees in the homeland after 70 CE. Mark’s Jesus forces a radical reinterpretation of core Jewish issues and practices that could be seen as a universal new Covenant for the followers of the Jesus movement.

masters theses

Area studies
Bible
Theology

M.A.

First Century
Gospel Of Mark
Jesus Movement
Post War
Purity
Temple

Religious Studies

Tabor, James

Sherman, William
Brintnall, Kent

Thesis (M.A.)--University of North Carolina at Charlotte, 2022.

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