VI - The Witness of Jesus and Others to Himself

Summary

We now consider those verses within the material in which statements are made either by Jesus or others concerning his function and activity and the purpose of his work. We do not now look at the seams or the order of the material but into the material itself. This may have undergone some editing at the hands of Mark; if we can show such in any of the statements to be considered it will of course be primary evidence for the Markan view. Most of the statements however came to Mark in the material and his inclusion of them is at least secondary evidence for his own point of view; if they had definitely cut across it he would either not have included them or would have modified them. It could be argued that he might have permitted an occasional statement which was at variance with his own main theology through loyalty to the material transmitted to him or because he did not himself realise its divergence from his main position. We shall find however that there are a considerable number of statements all conveying more or less the same view, one not out of harmony with what we have already learnt; so this possibility is excluded.

We begin with the statements of John the Baptist about Jesus, i. 7 f. Mark appears to have used traditional material without modification here. There are two significant phrases: Jesus is described as Ó ìσφνρÓτερōς, and he is said to baptise with Holy Spirit.