a Christian Kabbalah? The passion of Absalom with some Elijah reversals

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Beverly Devry-Smith
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Joined: Wed Jul 11, 2018 6:54 pm

a Christian Kabbalah? The passion of Absalom with some Elijah reversals

Post by Beverly Devry-Smith »

MARK 15:34= And at the ninth hour Jesus cried with a loud voice, saying, “Eloi, Eloi, lama sabachthani? (which is, being interpreted, My God, my God, why hast thou forsaken me?)”

-1Kings 18:27-28 = At “midday” [μεσημβρια] Elijah mocks the prophets of Baal, saying their ‘god’ [θεος in verse 24] can’t hear them, maybe they should “cry out with a loud(er) voice [ϕωνη μεγαλη].”
-Mark has rescued Elijah’s story in an extremely eccentric way here. Just like the author of 1Kings, Mark also mentions a time of day, then Jesus' yelling with "a loud voice [ϕωνην μεγαλην]" and also "crying out [εβοησεν]"(=paralleled by Elijah's dare to "yell out [βοατε] in the name of your God" at 1Kings 18:24) to a God who (seemingly) doesn’t listen, or at least ironically doesn’t appear to, though Mark’s mention of Psalm 22 would make it clear from the overall vibe of that prayer that everything goes right ultimately for the righteous sufferer. Note also the reversal of Elijah "sneering" [εμυκτηρισεν] at the failed Baal devotees at 1Kings 18: being turned into onlookers mocking Jesus and along with mention of Elijah and expectation of a miracle, these side-characters who function like a Greek chorus act almost as if they have read 1Kings—but of course it is their creator Mark who has done so and expects us to recognize this. The reader, the audience, was intended to respond by remembering, just as the hearers of Deuteronomy are exhorted to.

MARK 15:39= "When the centurion, who stood over against him, beholding how he’d breathed his last, and gave up the ghost, he said: 'Truly this man was the Son of God!'"

-in another incredible reuse of phrasing from an older scripture, the centurion’s confession is likely based on 1Kings 18:39 where those who witness Elijah calling down fire from heaven confess: “Truly [αληθως] the Lord is God, he is God!”
-this matches exactly the crucifixion guard’s use of “indeed/certainly” [αληθως] and Mark has exchanged the LXX phrase “he is” [αυτος] for it’s Greek homonym “this here (man)” [ουτος]. He changes 'autos theos' [=he is God] into 'outos ... uios' [this one is God's ... (son)] and makes 'esti' into 'en.' Very clever use of puns and homonyms.
-2 Samuel 18:9 = after Absalom is riding a mule through a very thick forest, he gets his head stuck between a great gnarled oak tree (“caught between heaven and earth” is how the text cryptically puts it). In verse 10, a “certain man”—presumably a centurion since verse 1 mentioned David appointing such figures for this battle—reports to Joab that he saw [ειδεν] the thing happen, telling [ειπεν] him how he saw the king’s son ‘hanging’ in a tree. When he is asked why he didn’t “strike him dead” right there, he replies that nothing, not even being bribed by silver (=like Judas in later tradition?), could make him “harm the lad.” The man instructs Joab to “stand right opposite” [στηση εξεναντιας] him as he goes to tell the king.
-Mark 15:39 = The guard who “stood right opposite” [παρεστηκως εξ εναντιας] Jesus saw [ειδων] him" die from crucifixion. This same centurion is “asked” by Pilate about whether Jesus “had died earlier”, just as Joab asked his man about Absalom’s being somewhat impaled yet not expired. The men in Mark and 1Samuel recognize somehow that the person they view is the “son of” someone important and that this fact makes their status different from other 'rebels.' It is possible some Kabbalistic reading of Absalom being a ‘crucified Son of David’ is here implied.
Mark 15:39 also repeats details from earlier incidents in Mark's work=
-Mark 3:11= the unclean spirits, when they “viewed” him [εθεωρει], “cried out” [εκραζε] saying that [λεγοντα οτι] ‘You are the son of God!’” [συ ει ο υιος του θεου]
-Mark 15:39= “Beholding [ιδων] how Jesus cried out [κραξας] he said [ειπεν] ‘This was the son of God!’” [υιος ην θεου]
-Mark 5:6 = the 'Legion' demoniac “beholds” [ιδων] Jesus and in next verse “cries out” [κραξας] and calls him “son of God” [υιε του θεου]
-Is there in all this some reference to Daniel 3, where King Nebuchadnezzer “saw” [ορω] the three men in the execution furnace, then “declares” [ειπεν] that now it appears there are four and one looks like a “son of God” [υιω θεου] (=this being an Aramaic euphemism for an angel)
-Robert Fowler, ‘Let the reader understand’ page 207= “Virtually every comment uttered by every character in Mark’s passion narrative is an oblique, indirect comment, either ironic, metaphorical, paradoxical, or ambiguous, or a combination of these. … We cannot just say that the centurion vow he is speaking ‘truly’ (alethos) and therefore we may trust him. Insincerity masks itself in claims to truthfulness, just as the Pharisees and Herodians tried to mask their ulterior motive back in Mark 12:14 (‘Teacher, we know that you are true…’).”
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