Another reason to consider Mark 1:9-12 an interpolation

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Giuseppe
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Another reason to consider Mark 1:9-12 an interpolation

Post by Giuseppe »

I have introduced already some reasons to consider Mark 1:9-12 as interpolation.

Another reasons to consider Mark 1:9-14 as late interpolation.


7 And this was his message: “After me comes the one more powerful than I, the straps of whose sandals I am not worthy to stoop down and untie. 8 I baptize you with water, but he will baptize you with the Holy Spirit.”

9 At that time Jesus came from Nazareth in Galilee and was baptized by John in the Jordan. 10 Just as Jesus was coming up out of the water, he saw heaven being torn open and the Spirit descending on him like a dove. 11 And a voice came from heaven: “You are my Son, whom I love; with you I am well pleased.”
12 At once the Spirit sent him out into the wilderness, 13 and he was in the wilderness forty days, being tempted[g] by Satan. He was with the wild animals, and angels attended him.


14 After John was put in prison, Jesus went into Galilee, proclaiming the good news of God. 15 “The time has come,” he said. “The kingdom of God has come near. Repent and believe the good news!”

(Mark 1:7-14)

If Jesus appears immediately after the arrest of John, then we may read in the scene of the arrest of John an implicit accusation against John: he was a brigand and he deserved to be arrested.

Jesus could well say:

All who have come before me are thieves and robbers, but the sheep have not listened to them.

(John 10.8)

In the same way, even if John came before Jesus and he was a robber (hence the true implicit reason of the his arrest), the Jews have not listened to him, just as to old prophets.

This may explain why the story of the arrest of John by Herod & wife etc was designed to exorcise the accusation against John as robber. He was put in prison unjustly.

But then was John introduced in the narrative in virtue of the his past of Zealot and/or ''Robber'' ?
Nihil enim in speciem fallacius est quam prava religio. -Liv. xxxix. 16.
Giuseppe
Posts: 13732
Joined: Mon Apr 27, 2015 5:37 am
Location: Italy

Re: Another reason to consider Mark 1:9-12 an interpolation

Post by Giuseppe »

Some scholars have argued that the Wilderness episode in Mark reflects the Paul's trip in ''Arabia'' after the revelation of the Risen Christ.

But Paul went to the territory of king Aretas, not precisely a wilderness scenario!
Nihil enim in speciem fallacius est quam prava religio. -Liv. xxxix. 16.
Martin Klatt

Re: Another reason to consider Mark 1:9-12 an interpolation

Post by Martin Klatt »

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Last edited by Martin Klatt on Fri Aug 03, 2018 4:43 am, edited 3 times in total.
Giuseppe
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Re: Another reason to consider Mark 1:9-12 an interpolation

Post by Giuseppe »

Jesus was delivered also (to authorities) but to be freed from them by the resurrection. While John was not freed and was not risen. John appears as the anti-Jesus from the first moment.
Nihil enim in speciem fallacius est quam prava religio. -Liv. xxxix. 16.
Giuseppe
Posts: 13732
Joined: Mon Apr 27, 2015 5:37 am
Location: Italy

Re: Another reason to consider Mark 1:9-12 an interpolation

Post by Giuseppe »

It is curious that some apologists have interpreted the "robbers" of John 10:8 as an allusion to Dositheus, Judas the Galilean and Theudas et similia (in order to explain away the possibility of an allusion to John the Baptist and the old prophets as the "robbers" of the past).

But wasn't Dositheus a disciple of John the Baptist?
Nihil enim in speciem fallacius est quam prava religio. -Liv. xxxix. 16.
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