Mark alludes to Jonah the prophet

Mark alludes to the angry prophet Jonah because he does not understand the enigmatic Sign of Jonah proclaimed by Jesus. One allusion was noted yesterday. The second allusion occurs not because Mark has been reading Jonah but because he is following Matthew and Luke.

Mark tells the story of Jesus calming the storm which he has obtained from Matthew and Luke. The similarities to the first chapter of Jonah should be noted. Both Jesus and Jonah are sleeping during a life threatening storm. Both awaken to cries of despair. Jesus personally controls the storm while Jonah’s shipmates pray to God to calm the storm. In Mark, the contrast of Jesus with Jonah is not noted nor appreciated even though Jesus performs an act that the OT and Jewish texts say is the sole prerogative of God.

Willi Marxsen stated that Mark, the great theologian of the cross, rearranged everything in terms of the redemptive suffering and death of Jesus, the son of God. Conzelmann demonstrated that Luke had no theology of the cross. He further noted that Mark’s gospel was merely a commentary on the kergma of Acts 2:22-24, which existed prior to the Gospel of Mark and provided Mark with his initial outline. Just as Marxsen’s work (1959) was a response to Conzelmann’s The Theology of St. Luke (1953), the Gospel of Mark was a response to the writings of Luke.

Copyrighted 2006

Religion

Christianity

Gospel of Luke