Unlocking the Puzzle

The Keys to the Christology and Structure of the Original Gospel of Mark

Smith

• Publisher: Resource Publications
• Year: 2016
• eBook ISBN: 9781532605574
• Topic: Theology & Religion
• Subtopic: Religion

A shorter, simpler first draft of the Gospel of Mark has been theorized by New Testament scholars for almost two hundred years. Using literary tools, David Oliver Smith strips away interpolation and redaction from the canonical Gospel to reveal that long-sought first draft--the Original Gospel of Mark. Original Mark, shorter than the canonical version and with several large blocks of text replaced in their original locations, reveals a coherent structure and a different picture of who Jesus is. But it is anything other than simple. The Original Gospel also presents puzzles for the curious reader of Mark to solve, and Smith has found the keys to their solution. Analysis of the text that was interpolated into Mark reveals who that redactor might have been. Evidence is presented that it was the author of the Gospel of Luke who redacted the first-written Gospel, jumbled its structure, and changed its Christology. Follow the analysis of literary structures created by the genius who wrote Mark's Gospel and discover the astounding design of the Original Gospel of Mark.

Part I

Literary Structures

1

Introduction

The Gospel of Mark is a puzzle. Reading it, especially for the first time, one gets the impression that it is disjointed. The narrative proceeds from baptism to controversies with the authorities, to the killing of John the Baptizer, to teaching the multitude, to trekking to Jerusalem, to a plot against Jesus, to arrest, to trials, to crucifixion, to an empty tomb, in an orderly fashion. But around that narrative there are teachings, miracles, boat trips, and journeys happening “immediately” one upon another. It can be quite confusing.

Until scholars generally recognized that Mark was the first written Gospel, the usual opinion among New Testament (NT) scholars was that Mark was a pedestrian work merely setting out the basic story of Jesus’s ministry and crucifixion. Mark was criticized because the Greek was poor, the ideas simple, and there were a number of mistakes. During the twentieth century Mark has become more and more appreciated by scholars as they plumb the depths of the first written Gospel.

Literary Structures

Herein three techniques are used to detect interpolations into the Original Gospel. The first consists of identifying large chiastic and parallel literary structures created by the author that extend over several pericopae and containing up to twenty stiches. These terms are defined in chapter 2. A break or gap in a chiastic structure alerts the investigator to a possible interpolation or repositioning of pericopae. The second consists of utilizing Mark’s penchant for creating triplets. Over eighty triplets (words or phrases used only three times in the Gospel) and sextets (words or phrases used only six times in the Gospel) are identified in Appendix 2 and there are probably more. In a Markan triplet there are, of course, three elements, but the middle element differs slightly from the first and third elements. For example, Mark uses the Roman monetary unit “denarius” three times, at Mark 6:37, 12:15, and 14:5. The first and third times he uses the plural “denarii” but in the middle element at 12:15 he uses the singular, “denarius.” Knowing this pattern allows the investigator to identify interpolated text that may have inadvertently destroyed the Markan triplet pattern. It can also suggest in a gross fashion when a pericope may have been moved. The third technique consists of qualitatively analyzing the style of writing in a suspected interpolation to determine if it comports with Mark’s sparse style. In other words, if a suspected interpolation gives colorful details or repeats facts, it bears scrutiny.

The question naturally arises as to why Mark would create long chiastic structures that readers would have trouble discerning because of the literary distance between the matching elements. Further, few people could read nineteen hundred years ago, and most people would have only heard the Gospel read aloud. It would have been virtually impossible for listeners of Mark’s Gospel to have picked up on the long structures, especially those structures where words or concepts in the beginning of the Gospel matches words or concepts at the end of the Gospel.

There are two possible answers to this. The first is that some of Mark’s literary constructions may have had the purpose of foiling attempts to redact or interpolate into the Original Gospel. Unfortunately, either Mark was too subtle for the redactor, or the redactor did not care, or the redactor thought no one would notice. It is clear that ancient authors feared that their works would be redacted or interpolated. The author of Revelation testifies to this at Rev 22:18–19:

18 I warn everyone who hears the words of the prophecy of this book: if anyone adds to them, God will add to that person the plagues described in this book; 19 if anyone takes away from the words of the book of this prophecy, God will take away that person’s share in the tree of life and in the holy city, which are described in this book.

In his Gos...

Table of contents

• Title Page
• Preface
• Acknowledgments
• Abbreviations
• Part One: Literary Structures
• Part Two: Style, Plot, Purpose, Sources, and Structure of the Original Gospel of Mark
• Appendix 1: The Original Gospel of Mark
• Appendix 2: Triplets in the Original Gospel of Mark
• Appendix 3: Pericopae of the Original Gospel of Mark
• Appendix 4: Pericopae of Canonical Mark
• Appendix 5: Luke Edits of Mark
• Bibliography