The Mark as fiction and Matthew and Luke misunderstanding that proposal...

[StephenGoranson]

...is there any evidence for that?
Such as explaining additions?

[Secret Alias]

I think there is. And I think there is a lot of ways to go about it.

[Secret Alias]

Option 1. Justin says that the nomen sacrum for "Jesus" can be read to mean "man" or "Savior" (= perhaps Jesus).

If there was an ancient tradition that "Man" was divine being (which I think there was) one could make the case that Mark's ambiguous opening is reflective of his status as "Man."

[Secret Alias]

Option 2. Mark might have been written after the destruction of Jerusalem as a narrative developed to explain why Judaism was destroyed by God.

[Secret Alias]

Option 2b. Maybe Jesus was a fictional narrative about how the awaited "Jesus" of the Pentateuch, i.e. that "Joshua" was the one predicted by Moses and he was undone by the Jews.

[Secret Alias]

Option 2c. Maybe Jesus was a semi-historical figure who's martyrdom was remembered in oral legend whose story was developed into narrative with broader cultural significance in light of the recent defeat of the Jewish people. In other words, maybe this "Jesus" never claimed to be the Messiah but the Jewish interest in the messiah caused him to be misunderstood.

[Secret Alias]

Option 3. Maybe Hurtado was right and Iota Eta was the original nomen sacrum and the gospel was really some allegorical story about a "life" (= 18) i.e. the paradigmatic "life" of all Jews or perhaps people generally are crucified unto the world.

[Secret Alias]

Option 4. Maybe Irenaeus was right and there were adoptionist Christians who believed that the gospel was about "Christ" coming down from heaven at baptism and transforming this "Jesus" into the Christ and originally the path to Christhood (and kingship) was being offered to all of humanity through Christianity.

[rgprice]

Here is a somewhat simple example:

Mark 1:
29 As soon as they left the synagogue, they entered the house of Simon and Andrew, with James and John. 30 Now Simon’s mother-in-law was in bed with a fever, and they told him about her at once. 31 He came and took her by the hand and lifted her up. Then the fever left her, and she began to serve them.

Matthew 8:
14 When Jesus entered Peter’s house, he saw his mother-in-law lying in bed with a fever; 15 he touched her hand, and the fever left her, and she got up and began to serve him. 16 That evening they brought to him many who were possessed by demons, and he cast out the spirits with a word and cured all who were sick. 17 This was to fulfill what had been spoken through the prophet Isaiah, “He took our infirmities and bore our diseases.”

Saying that this fulfilled a prophecy from Isaiah of course necessarily indicates that this literally really happened. Matthew does this all the time, taking passages that Mark has crafted from literary allusions to the scriptures and then saying that they are examples of events that fulfilled prophecy.

The most famous example is how Matthew has Jesus ride into Jerusalem on both a colt and a donkey.

Matthew 21:
21 When they had come near Jerusalem and had reached Bethphage, at the Mount of Olives, Jesus sent two disciples, 2 saying to them, “Go into the village ahead of you, and immediately you will find a donkey tied and a colt with her; untie them and bring them to me. 3 If anyone says anything to you, just say this, ‘The Lord needs them.’ And he will send them immediately.” 4 This took place to fulfill what had been spoken through the prophet:

5 “Tell the daughter of Zion,
Look, your king is coming to you,
humble and mounted on a donkey,
and on a colt, the foal of a donkey.”

6 The disciples went and did as Jesus had directed them; 7 they brought the donkey and the colt and put their cloaks on them, and he sat on them. 8 A very large crowd spread their cloaks on the road, and others cut branches from the trees and spread them on the road. 9 The crowds that went ahead of him and that followed were shouting,

“Hosanna to the Son of David!
Blessed is the one who comes in the name of the Lord!
Hosanna in the highest heaven!”

10 When he entered Jerusalem, the whole city was in turmoil, asking, “Who is this?” 11 The crowds were saying, “This is the prophet Jesus from Nazareth in Galilee.”

Mark 11:1 When they were approaching Jerusalem, at Bethphage and Bethany, near the Mount of Olives, he sent two of his disciples 2 and said to them, “Go into the village ahead of you, and immediately as you enter it you will find tied there a colt that has never been ridden; untie it and bring it. 3 If anyone says to you, ‘Why are you doing this?’ just say this: ‘The Lord needs it and will send it back here immediately.’ ” 4 They went away and found a colt tied near a door, outside in the street. As they were untying it, 5 some of the bystanders said to them, “What are you doing, untying the colt?” 6 They told them what Jesus had said, and they allowed them to take it. 7 Then they brought the colt to Jesus and threw their cloaks on it, and he sat on it. 8 Many people spread their cloaks on the road, and others spread leafy branches that they had cut in the fields. 9 Then those who went ahead and those who followed were shouting,

“Hosanna!
Blessed is the one who comes in the name of the Lord!
10 Blessed is the coming kingdom of our ancestor David!
Hosanna in the highest heaven!”

11 Then he entered Jerusalem and went into the temple, and when he had looked around at everything, as it was already late, he went out to Bethany with the twelve.

Of course Mark crafted his scene about Jesus' triumphal entry by using Zechariah 9. Matthew recognized the reference, and then literalized it into prophecy fulfillment.

Another example is the Cleansing of the Temple, where Mark has crafted a fictional narrative from Hosea 9, but in this case Matthew didn't realize it and he obliterated the literary structure in an effort to make the scene more literally logical. But the structure of the scene in Mark is crafted as a literary allusion to Hosea 9. Not understanding this, Matthew totally reworked the scene to try to make it more believable.

[StephenGoranson]

Not persuasive. Both draw on OT. No clear disjunction.