In the last post, we completed a chiasm for the original ending of GMk--two chiasms, actually, including the pericope begun by Mk 16:1-8. Although we completed each bracket using material shared among the sea-miracles in GMt (the Water-Walking and the Fish and the Coin), GLk (the Calling of the Disciples/the Catch of Fish), and GJn (the Appearance in Galilee/the Catch of Fish), the end result seemed a bit brief, as though there were still more material to add. In this post, we'll find that remaining material in the same manner, by searching for shared material among GMt, GLk, and GJn. We'll find that it fits nicely into chiastic brackets, thus completing the original ending of GMk.
Again, here is what we have so far:
A Peter swims to Jesus
B Falling before him, he calls him Lord, begs him to depart
C (Raising him?) “Why did you doubt?”
D The other disciples arrive (dragging the fish?)
D' [Jesus bestows the Holy Spirit, saying the disciples can forgive]
C' [the disciples recognize Jesus and believe]
B' “Follow me”
A' They follow him
There are some reasons to suspect there was a bit more to the story than this, however. In both GLk and GJn, the faith of the disciples is not expressed after an apostolic commission; instead, it is expressed after a meal, not only the bread and fish of Jn 21:13 and the bread of Lk 24:30, but also the fish of Lk 24:41-42 (I leave v. 43 out as a likely interpolation by the canonical Lukan editor). Furthermore, the disciples’ faith is not a totally sensible reaction to Jesus’ commission—it feels like they should be reacting to something else. This suggests that the previous line of the original Markan pericope also described such a meal. Thus we add to the list of parallels:
- Jesus shares a meal (Lk 24:30, 41-42; Jn 21:13)
So what happens if we add a line describing a sharing of food—bread, perhaps? For one thing, it would introduce another missing verse, this time on the “descending” side of the chiasm:
Peter swims to Jesus
Falling before him, he calls him Lord, begs him to depart
(Raising him?) “Why did you doubt?”
[missing verse]
[The other disciples arrive (dragging the fish?)]
[Jesus bestows the Holy Spirit, saying the disciples can forgive]
[Jesus shares a meal]
[They recognize him and believe]
“Follow me”
They follow him
So what did the missing verse include? That’s not clear, but a couple of possibilities include 1) a display of food (like the fish and bread of Jn 21:9, perhaps also echoed in Jesus’ question in Lk 24:41), or 2) a display of Jesus’ wounds (as in Jn 20:20, 27, and in Lk 24:39). I like the second option, mostly because it’s the non-obvious option, the most symbolic—and therefore the one that best fits the Markan style, which is laden with symbolism. The display of Jesus’ wounds would oppose Jesus’ sharing of a meal with the disciples, directly recalling the words of the Last Supper, “This is my body”. So we would add to the list of parallels:
- Jesus shows his wounds (Lk 24:39; Jn 20:20a, 27)
But if we fill the missing verse with a display of Jesus’ wounds to Peter, where does the food come from for the meal in the opposing verse? I think there’s room for it in the following verse, the one where the disciples arrive on shore. It could read something like:
[Jesus shows Peter his wounds]
[The other disciples arrive with the fish, and see a fire with bread]
[Jesus blesses them, bestowing the spirit, saying they can forgive]
[Jesus shares the bread]
The model for this is Jn 21:8-9, where the disciples arrive with the fish, and see a fire and bread. I don’t think that in the original, Jesus would have shared a meal of fish, since for Mark, the fish at the end represent new believers, and so a meal of fish here would have raised peculiar symbolism. (Instead, I think the shared fish is taken from the Signs gospel, by both John in GJn, and Cerinthus in Q/GPet, but that’s a topic for another post). What would the fire symbolize? I think the symbolism is obvious: the fire represents the holy spirit, just like it would eventually in Acts 1 (though written much later, by a very different author, using different sources—but that is also a topic for another post). The disciples arrive, bringing the symbol of their evangelization efforts, and see the fire. In contrast to this, Jesus blesses them (as he blessed the bread at the Last Supper) and gives them a commission to forgive, and perhaps also to “make disciples”.
Remember that in Mt 28:17, “some doubted”. We also see this in Lk 24:11. Now notice in Lk 24:37 that when Jesus appears, the disciples were “startled and frightened”, and even continue to disbelieve in v. 41. In GJn, too, the disciples seem afraid—Jn 21:12 says that none of them “dared (ETOLMA) to ask him, “Who are you?”. (Notice also that Jn 20:19 describes the fear of the disciples, though in that case it is supposedly fear of the Jews.) So we see a recurring theme of fear and doubt, not just by the women at the tomb and by Peter, but by the disciples themselves.
There is also a theme of reassurance by Jesus when he appears to the disciples, found in both the Q/GPet tradition (=GMt and GLk), and in the GJn tradition. In GMt, the last line of the gospel is “Lo, I am with you always” (Mt 28:20b). In GLk, Jesus asks the disciples “Why are you troubled?” (Lk 24:38). In GJn, Jesus greets the disciples the first time with “Peace be with you” (Jn 20:19, 26). So we have two final parallels to add to the list, both shared among all three non-Markan gospels:
- The disciples are afraid and/or amazed (Mt 28:17; Lk 24:11, 37, 41; Jn 21:12)
- Jesus reassures them (Mt 28:20; Lk 24:38; Jn 20:19, 26)
This suggests that there should be an additional pair of brackets, the first displaying apprehension by the disciples, the second displaying reassurance by Jesus. Where would we have found this bracket? It would have to fall after the disciples arrive and are present before Jesus—but that tells us exactly where it would be found: right after the disciples arrive on the beach, at the center of the chiasm. That would give us:
[Jesus shows Peter his wounds]
[The other disciples arrive with the fish, and see a fire with bread]
[They are afraid/amazed]
[Don’t be afraid/amazed; behold, I am with you]
[Jesus blesses them, bestowing the spirit, saying they can forgive]
[Jesus shares the bread]
So now we finally seem to have accounted for essentially every shared post-resurrection element among GMt, GLk, and GJn. This creates the following set of chiasms (with our hypothesized material in blue):
A Very early on the first day of the week, they came to the tomb when the sun had risen.
B They were saying among themselves, "Who will roll away the stone from the door of the tomb
for us?" for it was very big.
C Looking up, they saw that the stone was rolled back.
D Entering into the tomb, they saw a young man sitting on the right side, dressed in a white
robe,
E and they were amazed.
E' He said to them, "Don't be amazed. You seek Jesus, the Nazarene, who has been
crucified. He has risen. He is not here. Behold, the place where they laid him! But go, tell his
disciples and Peter, 'He goes before you into Galilee. There you will see him, as he said to
you.'"
D' They went out, and fled from the tomb, for trembling and astonishment had come on them.
They said nothing to anyone; they were afraid, for [they did not yet understand]
C' [When they told Peter and the disciples, Peter ran to the tomb, and stooping and entering
saw]
B' [Peter left, disebelieving]
A' [On the last day of the feast, people returned to their homes, but Peter and disciples go fishing.]
B [That night they caught nothing]
C [They see Jesus but do not recognize him]
D [He tells them to cast their nets]
D’ [They catch fish, which pull on the nets]
C’ [Recognizing him, Peter puts his clothes on]
B’ [He jumps in the water]
A’ [Peter swims to Jesus]
B [Falling before him, he calls him Lord, begs him to depart]
C [“Ye of little faith, why did you doubt?"]
D [He shows him his wounds]
E [The other disciples arrive with the fish, and see a fire with bread]
F [They are afraid/amazed]
F’ [Don’t be afraid/amazed; behold, I am with you]
E’ [Jesus blesses them, bestowing the spirit, saying they can forgive]
D’ [He shares bread with them]
C’ [Then they recognize him and believe]
.
B’ [Turning, he says follow me]
A’ [They follow him]
And that was the original ending of the original Gospel of Mark.
In the final post, I'll summarize what happened to it as the other gospels were composed.
Herr Cave:
ReplyDeleteWas you arriving at reconstruction of missing Mark ending independent of other sources, and only following pathway of reasoning as above presented. Or were you non-consciously influenced by something you read in past?
Have you ever read any of Evan Powell's books?
Please answer two questions before proceeding. Did you answer Yes, No?
Now proceed to interesting thing of which you seem to be not aware.
The reason I gave questions to you, is that your proposed ending is somewhat like the ending proposed by Evan Powell in "The Unfinished Gospel", Symposium Books, 1994. But his chain of reasoning/approach to problem solving is much different from yours.
The next question is: does the convergence of proposed replacement endings to GM, represent coincidental convergence of faulty analysis driven by wishful thinking, or is it two different paths from independent starting points converging on solution that is possibly possessing some correctness?
DBlocker
Hello Herr Blocker--thanks for your comments.
ReplyDeleteI would not say my reasoning was independent, no--I am aware of the various theories about the ending of GMk, including those related to Jn 21. I don't think I am familiar with Evan Powell's work, though I do know who he is. I am indirectly familiar with his theories about Jn 21, however, because I've seem them mentioned on Michael Turton's commentary to GMk (http://www.michaelturton.com/Mark/GMark_index.html), but more importantly on David Ross's old blog, unfortunately now defunct, but it can still be found in the Internet Archive:
http://web.archive.org/web/20090601133750/http://pages.sbcglobal.net/zimriel/Mark/
You'll see in Ross' post that he discusses Powell's theory. I can't tell how much of it is Powell and how much of it is Ross. Some of his reasons are similar to mine, some are not.
So yes, there could have been unconscious influences from Ross' work, but then I was also very conscious of the idea (whether it is originally Powell's or not) that Jn 21 is related to the original ending of GMk.
My proposal however is different from theirs. Powell, as I understand it, thinks GJn is original. Ross thinks Jn 21 was actually detached from GMk and reattached to GJn. Neither is correct.
I am instead deriving an original ending to GMk, that is prior to GJn, and that GJn relies on but does not copy directly.
I think that because my methods are different from both Ross' and Powell's, I have an independent argument from theirs. Hence despite the fact that I was already aware of their ideas, I think it is an independent confirmation of the idea that Jn 21 and the original, lost ending of GMk were related.
However, again, we are making somewhat different proposals. I think the original ending of GMk was prior to GJn, certainly.