e where they laid him. But go and tell his disciples and Peter, ‘He is going before you to Galilee; there you will see him, as he told you.’”
Then they went out and fled from the tomb, seized with trembling and bewilderment. They said nothing to anyone, for they were afraid.
The Pre-Markan Passion Narrative
Studies of the Gospel of Mark by scholars indicate that the author of Mark must have obtained some material from an earlier source, a hypothetical gospel known as “The Pre-Markan Passion Narrative”.
Though this source is now lost, the evidence suggests that it must have been a short narrative of the arrest, interrogation by the Sanhedrin and by Pontious Pilate, and the final crucifixion of Jesus. For this reason, it is called the Pre-Markan Passion Narrative, also known as the Lost Passion Narrative.
The unknown author of this missing work must have had a good knowledge of what happened to Jesus during and after his arrest. Most probably, tt might have even been written by a member of the first community of believers, the Nazarenes, who lived in Jerusalem in the years after Jesus died.
But the existence of a pre-Markan passion narrative has been challenged by some scholars. However, the idea of a pre-Markan passion narrative continues to seem probable to a majority of scholars. One recent study is presented by Gerd Theissen in his book “The Gospels in Context“.
Did you notice that there are two anonymous people in the Passion Narrative?
- One of the bystanders drew his sword, struck the high priest’s servant, and cut off his ear. (Mark 14:47)
- Now a young man followed him wearing nothing but a linen cloth about his body. They seized him, but he left the cloth behind and ran off naked. (Mark 14:51-52
Theissen writes (pp. 186-187): It seems to me that the narrative motive for this anonymity is not hard to guess: both of them run afoul of the “police.” The one who draws his sword commits no minor offense when he cuts off someone’s ear. Had the blow fallen only slightly awry, he could have wounded the man in the head or throat. This blow with a sword is violence with possibly mortal consequences. The anonymous young man has also offered resistance. In the struggle, his clothes are torn off, so that he has to run away naked. Both these people were in danger in the aftermath. As long as the high priest’s slave was alive (and as long as the scar from the sword cut was visible) it would have been inopportune to mention their names; it would not even have been wise to identify them as members of the early Christian community. Their anonymity is for their protection, and the obscuring of their positive relationship to Jesus is a strategy of caution. Both the teller and the hearers know more about these two people. Only they could tell us who they were, whether Peter was the one with the sword, whether both are the same person, and whether reference was made to them in order to make the story of Jesus’ end more credible. All that will have to remain closed to us.
Nevertheless, on this basis, it is made plausible that the anonymity of these characters is for the sake of prudence.
Theissen writes: “If we are correct in our hypothesis of protective anonymity, the location of the Passion tradition would be unmistakable. Only in Jerusalem was there reason to draw a cloak of anonymity over followers of Jesus who had endangered themselves by their actions. The date could also be pinpointed: parts of the Passion account would have to have been composed within the generation of the eyewitnesses and their contemporaries, that is, somewhere between 30 and 60 C.E.”
- The Passion of the Lord (tvaraj2inspirations.wordpress.com)
- The Session of the Sanhedrin (tvaraj2inspirations.wordpress.com)
- They paid him thirty pieces of silver … (tvaraj2inspirations.wordpress.com)
- The Anointing at Bethany (tvaraj2inspirations.wordpress.com)
- My chalice you will indeed drink… (tvaraj2inspirations.wordpress.com)
- ‘Where I go you cannot come’ (tvaraj2inspirations.wordpress.com)
- Nicodemus and Jesus (tvaraj2inspirations.wordpress.com)
- 120531–George 