I recently finished reading the biblical Book of Mark from scratch, insofar as that's possible. (You can of course re-read anything, but discarding all the baggage you accumulate during previous readings is impossible, not to mention the countless inputs from related and unrelated sources; but the exercise is enlightening.)
I chose Mark for this exercise because it's the earliest gospel and presumably the most fundamental in its picture of Jesus as understood by the earliest Christians before too much theological interpretation accumulated around him, though that was certainly happening long before Mark was committed to papyrus.
And I chose a translation I'd never read before, the Revised Standard Version, and made brief notes about what characterized this man Jesus, and his ministry.
This is my list:
Jesus was a ...
... healer
... teacher
... exorcist
... sufferer
... apocalyptic
His ministry involved...
... Private prayer
... Forgiveness
... Healing power of intimate objects (Jesus' hem and spittle)
... Death and resurrection
... Angels
... Departed spirits
... Ecumenism (9:38)
... Special place of children
... Parables
... Holy Spirit
I think it's fair to say that this is what the earliest Christians thought was most important to pass on, and probably even a superset of a smaller set of beliefs needed to qualify a believer as a "Christian." Mark wrote mostly to gentiles (as I understand it) and so wasn't interested in a list of Davidic begats. And it also doesn't include a nativity narrative. It is, however, remarkably supernatural and full of miracles, demons, and ghosts of the holy departed.
I have usually seen Jesus as a force of social change, a Jewish hippie - counter-cultural, peaceful, passively resistant, a dropout, the target of a stymied establishment - popular concepts during my youth; there is some of that in Mark, but it's also the Jesus the 60's wanted (and needed) to see, and remains an indelible part of the Jesus I know.
Interestingly, some of the things I find most fascinating as an adult were not emphasized when I was a child, eg, Jesus' encounter with demons, ecumenism, and baptism as a conduit of salvation.[1]
(Peripheral for most Baptists, these things eventually disappear in the background; but if you cross your eyes and look long enough, new details jump out like dolphins from a stereogram.)[2]
This is what my short notes at the beginning of Mark look like:
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The bible below was given to me by Darrell Dik, a close friend at Calvin College many years ago. It's in my nightstand and I read it to this day. Inside is inscribed a poem by Darrell and some kind words to me. I was honored that he would give it to me, since it was a gift to him and his name is on it.
I've long since lost track of Darrell. I think I had one visit with him after he married, almost 30 years ago now, and haven't been in touch since. I should look him up, though my luck in such things is spotty.
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[1]
Baptists tend to ignore passages that invite frightening or troubling inquiry. If you read Mark from scratch and just start jotting down what Jesus does, you may be surprised how many times he confronts demons; Baptists regard demon possessions as rare, and are fearful that focusing on stories like this can encourage dabbling in the occult. They also prefer to navigate around passages where baptism participates in salvation (which any honest reading leads to, IMHO; you need some fancy theological maneuvers to get around it, though as good Baptists demonstrate, it's possible, if cumbersome).
[2]
A note on sources (if you like this sort of thing): English majors and professors like to trace the sources of images and phrases in literature. You can never (well, almost never) put your finger on something specific, unless the writer himself tells you what he had in mind, and even then you may not have the whole story, because every word - including those I'm typing now - are the result of zillions of impressions and processes; even so, some of those impressions and processes are more pronounced than others.
(Example: Coleridge's "Kubla Khan" and Purchas's Pilgrimage.
Another: Mormonism founder Joseph Smith may have borrowed the name for the angel Moroni from the treasure-hunting stories of Captain Kidd; Moroni is the name of the capital of Comoros Islands, where Captain Kidd is said to have buried treasure. Source > )
Back to me: I worked sometime ago with a fellow named Rick McNeil who made a clever comment about a team member's shirt, which was very colorful. He said if he looked at the shirt long enough, he might see dolphins. No one had said anything earlier regarding dolphins or stereograms, but the shirt provided such a perfect palette for the comment, it was immediately obvious what he meant.
I have remembered that comment for a number of years, waiting for a spot to use it; not consciously, of course, but bits of it have entered and exited thought streams now and then, until it found a home here. Many more from many others are waiting, I’m sure.
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Started: 2012-07-14
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