Yes, Marcion / Luke tries to date Jesus, Mark doesn't. Mark was working hard on creating Jesus from scratch and he forgot about a lot of things, screwed up on many more things, and got cursed a gazilion times more, I suppose.Giuseppe wrote: ↑Sun Oct 11, 2020 5:21 am
But if you accept that Marcion preceded Luke, then you are obliged to accept that Marcion preceded Mark, too.
- The incipit of Marcion gives a temporal marker ("the 15° year of Tiberius") that can make sense only as the date when a particular person was privileged by a mystical vision.
It is evident that Mark is opposing John the Baptist against the person who in Marcion had the privilege of "seeing" Christ for the first time.
- The incipit of Mark doesn't give a temporal marker but betrayes from the first moment an excessive insistence on John the Baptist as the man who witnessed Jesus.
The first two there are facts, the third is an assumption (yet likely)
So the attempt to date Jesus is there, and the most plausible reason is that is serves to establish precedence. This highly illogical, contrarian story about this man-God-thingy got challenged by everyone, and rightfully so, and the first stake in the ground was about who came first.
If you want to put a stake into the ground, that's usually the first thing to do and the rest can wait
I wouldn't put too much weight on it really