Giuseppe wrote:. . .I see that in Mark JtB's function is uniquely to baptize Jesus (= simbolically to kill and to make risen Jesus). This assumes that the sacrifice and resurrection of Jesus is mysteriously already happened at the beginning of Mark. . .
Yes, it already happened spiritually according to the scriptures.
. . . For you know that it was not with perishable things such as silver or gold that you were redeemed from the empty way of life handed down to you from your ancestors, but with the precious blood of Christ, a lamb without blemish or defect. He was chosen before the creation of the world, but was revealed in these last times for your sake. . . the Lamb who was slain from the creation of the world. . .
This fits with Josephus description of the baptism of JtB as the pure symbolic act of something (the purification) that is ALREADY happened in the mind of the candidate who is going to be baptized.
This may explain why JtB was added in the first Gospel: he was the first to translate in concrete reality the invisible effect of a spiritual event. Can this be an echo of what "Mark" meant to do with his Gospel Jesus? To show a visible concrete "Jesus" as mere reflection of the true spiritual Jesus?
Nihil enim in speciem fallacius est quam prava religio. -Liv. xxxix. 16.
