THE PERSON OF JESUS

‘Who then is this?’: the nature and significance of Markan Christology

In reading the Gospel of Mark from beginning to end, one is immediately struck by the number of narrative images by which its central figure is characterized. He appears as an authoritative teacher (1.21–2), a charismatic prophet (8.27–8) and a popular healer and exorcist (1.32–4). He is described as the ‘Nazarene’ (10.47) and addressed as ‘Teacher’ (4.38), ‘Rabbi’ (9.5), or ‘Lord’ (7.28). He is acclaimed as the ‘Holy One of God’ (1.24), greeted as the ‘Son of David’ (10.47) and confessed as ‘Christ’ (8.29) or ‘Son of God’ (15.39). He speaks of himself, however, as the ‘Son of Man’ and defines his role as that of a servant (10.45). Given this multifaceted representation, how then do we determine Mark's Christology his understanding of the person of Jesus?

The traditional route has been by way of an analysis of these titles or epithets as well as of the attributes predicated of him. Markan Christology, however, is not simply the sum-total of these, laid side by side, as it were. The picture is more complex than that, and for at least two reasons. In the first place, the evangelist is not simply presenting his own view of Jesus but also taking over, as we have seen, from the early Christian movement before him, both Jewish and Gentile, a variety of traditions which understood Jesus in different ways.