E Bruce Brooks
University of Massachusetts at Amherst
The "Verily" Sayings in Mark
9 AM Friday 18 April 2008
Society of Biblical Literature Literature / New England Regional Meeting
Davis Hall 203, Andover-Newton Theological School, Newton Centre MA

Abstract

In a previous paper, which was read to this association in 2006, I proposed a stratification of the Gospel of Mark, and a model for its accretional growth. In further development of that model, I here take up the thirteen "verily" or "amên" sayings in Mark (Mk 3:28-30, 8:11-13, 9:1, 9:41, 10:15, 10:28-30, 11:22-24, 12:41-44, 13:30-31, 14:3-9, 14:18-21, 14:25, and 14:27-31). Two of these, the Prediction of Betrayal in 14:18-21 and the Prediction of the Disciples' Flight in 14:27-31, have narrative completions elsewhere (respectively, 14:42 and 14:54 plus 66-72), so that there are in all sixteen passages to be considered. Of these, I argue (1) that they are interpolations in context, that they sometimes disrupt or contradict their context, and that the context is either rationalized or at minimum not disturbed if they are removed, these being the classical signs of an interpolation; (2) that the majority of them seem to consistently indicate a certain point in the development of the Christology of the Markan community, a point at which that community had not yet turned to the Resurrection belief which was to be its final position and that of the early Church generally; (3) that they thus relate to a time late within, but nevertheless within, the first generation of at least one of the Galilean churches; and finally (4) that they attest, in that community at that time, some of the practices and legendary motifs which were to be further developed in the second tier Gospels, Matthew and/or Luke. I conclude by suggesting that these clarifications may help us to understand the Markan text formation process and the larger question of Synoptic relations, and may also afford a more detailed idea of how ideas about Jesus evolved within at least one segment of the early Church.

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