The structure of gMark

[Stefan Kristensen]

There are many ways to understand the overall structure of gMark! Here's another.


It is structured to reflect the progression of the individual Christian as he/she comes to faith and, like Jesus, ends his/her life victoriously having walked the "way" to the end overcoming the fleshliness of the body and Satan's attempts to derail and mislead one from the "way". And the end, when one dies having prevailed victoriously, one gets a "crown" or "victory garland" reserved for the time of the parousia, meaning that one enters the kingdom in eternal life after the judgement. Jesus is unique in this regard, in that he has entered the kingdom already as the ruler for all those Christians who now have to walk the "way" under his authority.

1:1-8:22 Recognition and confession: coming to faith
The recognition and confession that Jesus is one's lord. This is represented in the story by the disciples coming to the acknowledgement that Jesus is the messiah, the king (8:22-29). From this point on Jesus is no longer frustrated with their lack of understanding, because from this point on they have entered a new phase where it is no longer about the purely intellectual recognition of a fact (that Jesus is the messiah), but from now on it is instead about the gradual learning to do. That is, to walk the "way" like Jesus to enter the kingdom, a way in which one must endure suffering.

8:23-16:8 The way: denying oneself
The confession is made at one's baptism, and that's when the gift of the spirit is given to you creating inside of you a new spiritual self, whereby you can begin to walk the "way", i.e. begin your journey to enter the kingdom of God, meaning living according to God's will by the help of the acquired spirit. This (the gift of the spirit at baptism) is represented in the story by the element of the Transfiguration. The "way" is represented by Jesus' way to Jerusalem, to his death and subsequent resurrection to eternal life, i.e. his way to enter the kingdom of God. His way to Jerusalem, just like each individual's way, is also represented as a new exodus through the desert towards the promised land (the geographical area of Palestine).


Walking the "way" is for every individual a constant series of battles against one's fleshliness and against Satan who tries to manipulate you and your surroundings to derail you from the "way", i.e. derail you from doing good deeds of love so as to please God. Just like the Israelites in the desert, but where they failed you can succeed, because God has created a new spiritual self inside of you to give you the ability to "deny yourself", i.e. deny your fleshly body and live according to his spiritual nature of love and righteousness. It is an internal battle in that you have to battle your fleshly desires and inclinations, and it is an external battle in that you have to endure persecution and shame from the outside world. But by the spirit you have acquired a new life inside of you, a new inner person that is able to do what your outer fleshly person cannot, i.e. do good deeds of love. Winning this battle is walking the "way" to the end, and the end of the "way" is when you die. Either from old age or martyrdom, it's the same, as long as you have endured as well as you could and not lost faith.

So when you have walked the "way", i.e. died, then you will have a victory wreath, or 'crown', like Jesus' crown (symbolized by his crown/wreath of thorns) reserved for the parousia when you will enter the kingdom as a fellow ruler of Christ over all the creatures of creation, including the angels. Your status within the kingdom of God is going to depend on your efforts as you walked the "way". The apostles who have sacrifed everything, even their lives in martyrdom, get a higher status within the kingdom than ordinary Christians.

The first person in history to walk the "way", after Jesus had prepared it and won his victory wreath and crown, was according to Luke of course Saint Steven, who then won his reserved victory wreath in martyrdom. The Greek word for victory wreath and crown is στεφανος, i.e. "stefanos", from where the name Steven comes. The first person in history, according to Christian tradition, to win the victory wreath, then, was Saint Victory Wreath. Or, Saint Crown.


I dunno, but this structure makes sense of some central issues, I think, so maybe that's how Mark at first thought he would structure his story. It was to be the story of Jesus entering the kingdom in an exemplary fashion (8-16), but before that he had to be an apostle in exemplary fashion (chps. 1-8), and apostles try to make people come to faith to the point of baptism. And that's what Jesus does symbolically with his disciples, while at the same time teaching them how to be apostles themselves (travelling and teaching, healing).

[Stefan Kristensen]

Come to think of it, the structure can also be understood as the two parts that constitute the job of the apostle:

1. Fishing of men, i.e. preaching and converting, spreading the gospel to the whole world, Israel and the Nations (1-8)
2. Being an example for the converted to follow in walking the way into the kingdom (8-16)

The disciples, then, play dual roles in the narrative, because they play the role of the 'ordinary' convert being 'fished' by the apostle, i.e. coming to faith and then learning the "way" by following the example of the apostle, but they simultaniously play the role of the learner-apostle. It is the historical account of how the first apostles came to be, before there were other apostles to follow. Only Jesus, the proto-apostle. In this way gMark could be understood as an attempt to constitute the authority of the 'office' of apostle, the 'mature' or 'perfect' Christian.

[iskander]

Come to think of it, the structure can also be understood as the two parts that constitute the job of the apostle:

1. Fishing of men, i.e. preaching and converting, spreading the gospel to the whole world, Israel and the Nations (1-8)
2. Being an example for the converted to follow in walking the way into the kingdom (8-16)

The disciples, then, play dual roles in the narrative, because they play the role of the 'ordinary' convert being 'fished' by the apostle, i.e. coming to faith and then learning the "way" by following the example of the apostle, but they simultaniously play the role of the learner-apostle. It is the historical account of how the first apostles came to be, before there were other apostles to follow. Only Jesus, the proto-apostle. In this way gMark could be understood as an attempt to constitute the authority of the 'office' of apostle, the 'mature' or 'perfect' Christian.

Mark tells the story of a man with a dream and his ordinary companions. His companions continually struggle to understand the new world being created for them by the teacher. The contrast between the man possessed by a pioneering spirit and those victims of passive tolerance evokes uplifting images of what it may be possible.

[nightshadetwine]

It is structured to reflect the progression of the individual Christian as he/she comes to faith and, like Jesus, ends his/her life victoriously having walked the "way" to the end overcoming the fleshliness of the body and Satan's attempts to derail and mislead one from the "way". And the end, when one dies having prevailed victoriously, one gets a "crown" or "victory garland" reserved for the time of the parousia, meaning that one enters the kingdom in eternal life after the judgement. Jesus is unique in this regard, in that he has entered the kingdom already as the ruler for all those Christians who now have to walk the "way" under his authority.

Yeah, the journey of the savior/hero is the journey that every individual who followed the savior/hero was believed to take. I touched on this concept in these posts viewtopic.php?f=3&t=4545 and viewtopic.php?f=3&t=4574&p=92548#p92548

One of the earliest versions of this story is the story of the Egyptian sun god(along with his 'companions' and the deceased) passing through the 12 hours of the night in the netherworld. The sun god goes through a baptism, transfiguration, and death and resurrection/rebirth. He also raises the dead who are then judged and if they pass the judgement they will be transformed into an eternal spiritual body called an "Akh". Those who don't pass judgement experience the second death. The sun god and his 'companions' are threatened by Apophis on their journey. The sun god is even given crowns as it rises out of the netherworld.

From "Conceptions of God in Ancient Egypt: The One and the Many" by Erik Hornung:

in his daily descent into the realm of the dead the sun god Re must also become “Osiris,” for he dies and appears in the underworld as a “corpse.” But in this case the Egyptians imagine that there is a true union. Unlike the rest of the deceased, Re does not assume the title “Osiris”; instead he incorporates the ruler of the dead into his own being so profoundly that both have one body and can “speak with one mouth.” Osiris does indeed seem to be absorbed into Re, and becomes the night sun, which awakens the underworld dwellers from the sleep of death.

The Complete Gods and Goddesses of Ancient Egypt by Richard H. Wilkinson:

The great sun god Re was thought to grow old each day and to 'die' each night(though for the same reason, specific mention of the god's death is not found[because such a statement would be believed to magically preserve the reality of the god's death]), and then to be born or resurrected each day at dawn.

The Amduat papyrus of Panebmontu by John H. Taylor:

During his passage it was believed that the sun god and his entourage of deities fought and overcame the forces of chaos (embodied chiefly as the giant serpent Apep), and experienced rejuvenation, enabling him to be re-born the next morning. By placing the text and images of the Amduat on the walls of the king’s tomb, it was believed that the dead ruler was identified with the sun god and would himself share in the rejuvenation which the deity experienced.

The Search for God in Ancient Egypt By Jan Assmann:

A major part of the Egyptians' astronomical knowledge served specifically to measure time, especially the lunar month, whose beginning rested on observation, not calculation, as well as the hours, whose length varied--for day and night, from sunrise to sunset and sunset to sunrise, were always each divided into twelve segments of equal length. Above all, however, this knowledge was related to the course of the sun, which was conceived of as a journey through the sky and the netherworld and described down to the last detail...
Whence does the king--or the priest who represents him in the cult--derive this knowledge? From a literature that describes it's own function thus (I cite here the title of the Amduat):

Knowing what is in the hours and their gods
knowing the course of the hours and their gods,
knowing their "transfigurations" for Re,
Knowing what he cries out to them,
knowing the flourishing ones and the annihilated ones.

From The Ancient Egyptian Books of the Afterlife By Erik Hornung:

the lower register is concerned with crowns as symbols of power that are to be worn[by the sun god] while leaving the netherworld...

Les fêtes d'Osiris à Abydos au Moyen Empire et au Nouvel Empire by M. Christine Lavier:

It is always about the source of life, the fresh water in which the divinity (Re[the sun god], Osiris) immerses himself, in prelude to his (re) birth.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Amduat:

It tells the story of Ra, the Egyptian sun god who travels through the underworld, from the time when the sun sets in the west and rises again in the east. It is said that the dead Pharaoh is taking this same journey, ultimately to become one with Ra and live forever...In the sixth hour the most significant event in the underworld occurs. The ba (or soul) of Ra unites with his own body, or alternatively with the ba of Osiris within the circle formed by the mehen serpent. This event is the point at which the sun begins its regeneration; it is a moment of great significance, but also danger, as beyond it in hour 7 the adversary Apep (Apophis) lies in wait and has to be subdued by the magic of Isis, and the strength of Set assisted by Serqet. Once this has been done the sun god opens the doors of the tomb in hour 8 and then leaves the sandy island of Sokar by rowing vigorously back into the waters in hour 9. In hour 10 the regeneration process continues through immersion in the waters

http://myweb.usf.edu/~liottan/theegyptiansoul.html:

The akh, another spiritual entity which “was the transfigured spirit that survived death and mingled with the gods.”[18] One source explained that the akh was only allowed to individuals whose souls were worthy because they were good people in their past lives...“An akh is the blessed or ‘transfigured’ soul of a person who died and whose soul had been judged by Osiris and found maat kheru- justified. An akh was an effective spirit, one could still influence events in this world.”[2]