In this thesis, I argue that Mark undergirds his high view of Jesus by characterizing him as an autonomous miracle-worker. In chapter one, I provide a history of literature regarding miracles, Mark, and the identity of Jesus. In chapter two, I demonstrate that the inclusion of deferment in miracle-narratives ranging from the Old Testament to Josephus’ Jewish Antiquities, is nearly ubiquitous. That is, human miracle-workers that appear in narratives do not act autonomously: rather, they show clear and explicit dependence on God to perform their miracles. In chapter three, I demonstrate that deferment is not only an essential charactersitic of miracles in narratives, but also in non-narrative texts from Qumran to the great many extant magical materials. In chapter four, I show that Jesus’ miracle-working in Mark, unlike the miracle-working surveyed in chapters two and three, is autonoumous. Additionally, I suggest that Mark uses this autonomous miracle-working, at crucial places in the gospel, to illustrate his high view of Jesus. In chapter five I draw a distinction between Mark’s characterization of Jesus and other miracle-workers he depicts in the narrative. In this final chapter, I argue that Jesus’ autonomous miracle-working is not an idiosyncratic feature of Mark’s writing style, but integral to his characterization of Jesus. Mark portrays other miracle-workers in the Gospel as dependent on either God or Jesus to perform miracles which further supports his high view of Jesus.
| Identifer | oai:union.ndltd.org:bl.uk/oai:ethos.bl.uk:735593 |
| Date | January 2016 |
| Creators | Kelley, Andrew Joseph |
| Contributors | Bond, Helen ; Foster, Paul |
| Publisher | University of Edinburgh |
| Source Sets | Ethos UK |
| Detected Language | English |
| Type | Electronic Thesis or Dissertation |
| Source | http://hdl.handle.net/1842/25969 |
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