final paper for Who is Jesus?
yosfmb
JTSampleCORE257Final.pdf
Janice Thompson
Core 257 Final Assignment
Dr. Janice Thompson
Due Date: May 8, 2018
1. Broad Topic and Passage
a. Jesus and the Death of John the Baptist: Mark 6:14-29
i. 14King Herod heard of it, for Jesus’ name had become known. Some were saying,
“John the baptizer has been raised from the dead; and for this reason these
powers are at work in him.” 15But others said, “It is Elijah.” And others said, “It is a prophet, like one of the prophets of old.” 16But when Herod heard of it, he said, “John, whom I beheaded, has been raised.”
ii. 17For Herod himself had sent men who arrested John, bound him, and put him in
prison on account of Herodias, his brother Philip’s wife, because Herod had
married her. 18For John had been telling Herod, “It is not lawful for you to have your brother’s wife.” 19And Herodias had a grudge against him, and wanted to kill him. But she could not, 20for Herod feared John, knowing that he was a righteous and holy man, and he protected him. When he heard him, he was
greatly perplexed; and yet he liked to listen to him. 21But an opportunity came when Herod on his birthday gave a banquet for his courtiers and officers and for
the leaders of Galilee. 22When his daughter Herodias came in and danced, she pleased Herod and his guests; and the king said to the girl, “Ask me for whatever
you wish, and I will give it.” 23And he solemnly swore to her, “Whatever you ask me, I will give you, even half of my kingdom.” 24She went out and said to her mother, “What should I ask for?” She replied, “The head of John the baptizer.” 25Immediately she rushed back to the king and requested, “I want you to give
me at once the head of John the Baptist on a platter.” 26The king was deeply grieved; yet out of regard for his oaths and for the guests, he did not want to
refuse her. 27Immediately the king sent a soldier of the guard with orders to bring John’s head. He went and beheaded him in the prison, 28brought his head on a platter, and gave it to the girl. Then the girl gave it to her mother. 29When his disciples heard about it, they came and took his body, and laid it in a tomb.
b. I chose this passage because I wanted to model an example of these paper to my
classes, without picking (and therefore spoiling) a passage others were likely to choose.
This one seemed like the sort of passage likely to be forgotten. Plus, I have always been
a little curious about this awful daughter of Herod Antipas (in contrast to Jaruis’
daughter the chapter previously).
2. Context
Different Gospel Contexts: The passage I chose is from the Gospel of Mark, in the middle of chapter 6. Mark’s gospel is the oldest and shortest gospel, and yet this is a particularly long and detailed
passage. Mark has a lot of conflict stories, and they start to pile up more here, showing the reader the
trouble brewing about Jesus. A characteristic of Mark’s gospel is the use of the word “immediately,”
which is in this passage 2 times. Mark has a unique presentation of Jesus’ disciples, often very critical of
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them. Jesus and his disciples are not in this passage, but the passage ends with John’s disciples coming
to take his body and put it in a tomb, a note that would remind Mark’s readers that Jesus will soon be
just a body to put in a tomb (and perhaps Jesus’ disciples won’t be as faithful). We know that Matthew
and Luke had a copy of Mark in front of them as they work. Matthew follows Mark fairly closely, but
shortens up this section, especially the dialogue (but keeping the strange order) in Matthew 14:1-12. In
Luke 7, Jesus’ disciples have a discussion with John’s disciples, about who Jesus is and what he is doing
(how he is greater than John) and they are sent back to tell John (so John still seems to be alive at that
point--Luke seems to omit the rest of this story). Perhaps for Luke it seems too negative against Rome
to tell his audience about a leader like Herod Antipas?
[I expect most people to answer this question like above. But below are two different approaches that
would fit well here (or even just a sentence or two from one of these could be nice).]
Literary Contexts: The end of chapter 5 featured the raising of Jarius’ daughter, but this story features Herod’s daughter demanding a death for sport. At the beginning of chapter 6, Jesus was not
able to do healings at his hometown, because of their lack of faith, and then he started sending out his
disciples in teams to do his work. It is right at this point when Mark decides to tell us about John the
Baptist. Mark introduces us to Jesus as one who was baptized by John the Baptist, so it seems very
ominous that John the Baptist is executed here. Further, the sequence here is odd, as the first
paragraph is about fears that John the Baptist has been raised--and we are told about these fears before
we are told that John the Baptist was killed, so the second paragraph in this story describes (almost as a
flashback) the story of how he came to be killed. The notes in the Oxford Bible noted the objections to
Herod’s marriage, as a kind of incest, and here his (brother’s wife, now his) wife Herodias is the start of
the trouble.
Historical Contexts: We can see the political and religious tension of the times that this leader, Herod Antipas, was so worried that he might not have removed the threat of John the Baptist just by
killing him. In Rausch, Chapter 3, we learn that after the death of Herod the Great (the ruler of the area
at the time of Jesus’ birth), the area was divided among smaller rulers. His son, Herod Antipas, was
given the Northern region of “the district of the Galilee” to rule, so this is the “Herod” who killed John
the Baptist. This chapter also emphasizes that “the plight of the poor was worsening,” so rulers like
Herod Antipas made the population worried and anxious.
3. Historical Probability
There is no multiple attestation for this story, it is in Mark (copied by Matthew) only, so that means it appears in only one source. Multiple attestation requires more than one distinct source, like
Mark, Q, or John. (Luke does make reference to John the Baptist’s beheading, but again, here he is just
following his source, Mark). This story doesn’t contain anything that Jesus did, so it couldn’t fit the
criteria of “rejection and execution” (which looks for the actions of Jesus that might have lead to his death). However, the idea that Jesus was a follower of John, and that Jesus was executed, like John,
seems loosely related to this criteria. The criteria of embarrassment doesn’t seem to fit here either.
Perhaps John the Baptist’s death, under such trivial circumstances, would be embarrassing to John’s
disciples, but it wouldn’t fit the criteria as being embarrassing for Jesus’ disciples.
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4. Central Theological Issues
In Rausch, Chapter 4, Rausch discusses the beginnings of Jesus’s movement. Rausch’s chapter
begins in a way that seems to focus on the Gospel of Mark, because, like Mark, Rausch introduces Jesus
by introducing John the Baptist, and then discussing Jesus’s connection to John the Baptist. John
preached a renewal movement within Judaism, focused on repentance to get ready for the coming of
the Kingdom of God. Rausch argues that Jesus probably did begin as a follower of Jesus (even though
this is something the tradition later becomes embarrassed about). RAusch sees similarities in their
movements in that they both expect the Kingdom of God to be coming very soon (they both share an
“eschatological urgency”), but Jesus preaches this as “good news” unlike John’s preaching of
repentance. Rausch also discusses the way the coming of the Kingdom of God changes family
relationships, where ones relationships to other followers becomes more important than one’s blood
relations.
This story about the death of John the Baptist both foreshadows the death of Jesus, reminding
us how anyone who challenges those in authority is at risk of death. It also features Herod Antipas’
family, especially his wife and daughter, who are manipulating him like a puppet. He is listening to his
blood relations, and they are asking him to do evil things (a good way for Mark to contrast the good way
of those who are following Jesus).
Keyword search: I looked up the word “Elijah” and found it occurs 10 times in Mark. I’m sure
this term is part of Mark’s theme about Jesus secret identity, so I also looked up in John (who has a very
different approach to Jesus’ identity). In John, it is only used twice, both times to emphasize Jesus is
NOT Elijah. But Elijah is one of the names that comes up every time people are trying to name what is
special about Jesus (and John the Baptist’s name, and the idea of resurrection come up in this context
too). I also looked up the word “raised” in Mark, as Herod worries that John the Baptist had been
“raised.” This word is used twice about Herod’s fears about John the Baptist, once about Jesus’ teaching
that the dead will be “raised,” and twice about Jesus being “raised.” This story is very connected to the
death of Jesus.
5. Modern Theological Issues
This passage about the death of John the Baptist raises some interesting issues for feminist
Christology, as discussed by Elizabeth Johnson in Consider Jesus, because the central characters--the wife of Herod and her daughter Herodias--are women, but they are awful women! I see two main ways
to interpret this story with feminist concerns. One way might be to notice how much power the two
women did have, that they could twist a man as powerful as a king into doing their will, and conversely
how weak he was, so concerned with how he appeared to others that they could manipulate him at a
party. Another way might be to wonder if they too are prisoners of a sort, acting against Herod’s power
in any way that they can. The notes to this passage say that the people were horrified at Herod who had
taken his brother’s wife (after killing his brother?) as his own (which was seen as incest). The family
relationships of this family, focused on power, seem deeply damaged by their focus on power. Jesus, in
contrast, seems to have fair and open dealings with women (such as those who ask for healing and
receive it, or the woman who annoints him, or the women who travelled with him who watch the
crucifixion from a distance and go to the tomb expecting to care for his body). Perhaps feminist
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Christology could observe that power can corrupt women as much as men, but seeking to live as a
community of hope in God, following Jesus, offers better relationships.
6. My Audience
My youngest son has just started reading the first Harry Potter book, and I know many Harry
Potter fans, so my audience will be Harry Potter fans, but especially very new ones.
Jesus, like Harry Potter, faces a dangerous threat, one that could kill him (but he must triumph
somehow). John the Baptist came before Jesus, and got him started on his special path, even if Jesus’s
path was somewhat different from John the Baptist’s, they both were devoted to God. Harry Potter did
not know his real father at all, but he starts to learn about him in the first book in the series, Harry
Potter and the Sorcerer's Stone, especially when he gets his father’s invisibility cloak. Harry Potter also
learns that his father died trying to protect him from the evil Lord Voldemort, and that Voldemort is
worried that he didn’t finish the job and still must find Harry to kill him. Similarly, Herod Antipas kills
John the Baptist but keeps worrying that he hasn’t done enough to stop the threat, and he is worried
that Jesus is somehow John the Baptist raised from the dead, and that he must kill him too. I would play
with this comparison to interest young children in the story, especially as a way to think about how Jesus
must have felt he was in danger, once he learned what happened to John the Baptist at the hands of
their mutual enemy.
7. Research and Prepare to Write
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