In particular, the thesis is the following: ''Mark'' wrote his story not only as theodicy to justify the absence of God (YHWH) in the terrible Jewish defeat of 70 CE, but also to justify the presence of haters of the same Creator God.
According to Robert M. Price in the his review of RG Price's books, that was to be expected, since he has written:
The note of impending divine judgment on the Jewish people for rejecting Jesus, the point of so many of the literary references, is no side issue, according to Price. On reflection, mustn’t the prominence of the theme at least suggest that it is actually the main reason for the writing of Mark? The whole of the Deuteronomic theology of the Old Testament was designed to get God off the hook for the defeats and subjugations of Israel and Judah by heathen empires. Wasn’t Yahweh obliged to safeguard his people? Well, he conspicuously didn’t, so Jews were faced with two options: either the covenant with God was, in the words of Woody Allen, “just so much chin music,” or God threw his covenant people to the wolves because
they reneged on the covenant, not him. Jewish thinkers chose the second option. It would have been even worse to say, “Okay, we were barking up the wrong terebinth, I guess. We’re on our own.” (Richard L. Rubenstein had the courage to draw just that conclusion in his book After Auschwitz.)
they reneged on the covenant, not him. Jewish thinkers chose the second option. It would have been even worse to say, “Okay, we were barking up the wrong terebinth, I guess. We’re on our own.” (Richard L. Rubenstein had the courage to draw just that conclusion in his book After Auschwitz.)
(my bold)
In order to realize the latter point, 'Mark' posed his Jesus, during the Jewish and Roman trial and execution, as the Serpent of Genesis, but not in order to identify the Jesus with the Serpent. Rather, to show how the maximum of abomination was to see that the high priest usurped the role of YHWH to a such degree, that Jesus was judged by him as if Jesus was the Serpent, the direct rival of YHWH!
So who effectively adored Jesus as the Serpent in the real History:
This Serpent, he says, is he who appeared in the last days, in form of a man, in the times of Herod, being born after the likeness of Joseph, who was sold by the hand of his brethren, to whom alone belonged the coat of many colour
http://gnosis.org/library/hyp_refut5.htm
...was a sinner just as the high priest who treated Jesus as the Serpent.
Genesis 2 | Parallels in the Gospel of Mark |
| Jesus was arrested in the garden of olives.Judas was necessary to know where he was. The disciples flee and in particular the young naked flees also. |
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In both the cases the judge needs witnesses to condemn the victim.
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| The victim is condemned and punished:
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| Just as Adam was betrayed by Eve, so Peter is betrayed by a woman. Just as Adam is condemned to became again dust, so Peter was connected with the his land of origin: the Galilee. Note also the function of the rooster: an animal signs the sin of Peter, just as an animal (the Serpent) signs the sin of Adam.
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| The purple robe allegorizes the human flesh assumed by Jesus to know the sufferings. Just as the Serpent can't more walk on his legs, so Jesus can't carry the cross alone.
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| Here the story diverges from Genesis: while in Genesis the fallen Adam can't return to the tree of live, Jesus can gain the resurrection just by passing for the “tree” of the crucifixion. And while in Genesis the cherubim (victorious) are placed near the tree as warning, the two rebels (losers) are placed near the cross/“tree” as warning.
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While we ignore the fate of the serpent in Genesis 2, the story continues in Mark.
As they entered the tomb, they saw a young man dressed in a white robe sitting on the right side, and they were alarmed.
6 “Don’t be alarmed,” he said. “You are looking for Jesus the Nazarene, who was crucified. He has risen! He is not here. See the place where they laid him. 7 But go, tell his disciples and Peter, ‘He is going ahead of you into Galilee. There you will see him, just as he told you.’”
6 “Don’t be alarmed,” he said. “You are looking for Jesus the Nazarene, who was crucified. He has risen! He is not here. See the place where they laid him. 7 But go, tell his disciples and Peter, ‘He is going ahead of you into Galilee. There you will see him, just as he told you.’”
Here is where I are moved to think that 'Mark' is based on a previous gospel, since just in the fact that the risen Jesus is preaching in Galilee again - as if the crucifixion had had no effect on the order of the things - is a strong pointer to the fact that Jesus is not came to redeem, but to reveal. Since a revelation was what he was doing and was going again to do in Galilee, as opposed to an expiation and a sacrifice in Jerusalem.
And we already know who was the Revealer of the Gnosis par excellence:
4 “You will not certainly die,” the serpent said to the woman. 5 “For God knows that when you eat from it your eyes will be opened, and you will be like God, knowing good and evil.”