Why does the Gospel of Mark begin as it does?

This ritual process responds to Mark's two intended goals at the beginning of his narrative: to reveal the origin of Jesus' ascribed honor and to defend him against the accusations of being an impostor (exorcisms) and coming from a lowly origin (a family of artisans in Nazareth). Jesus' ascribed honor--which has been already foretold in the preceding verses and will be made known in his later activity--is revealed and tested in the narrative of his baptism and temptations. Now, Jesus' status transformation ritual has a distinctive aspect, for Mark wants to present Jesus as a holy man (hasid). The ascribed honor Mark claims for Jesus is the one typical of holy men. Therefore, Mark's way of presenting Jesus' process of achieving the status of a holy man is similar to the rituals of initiation of holy men in other cultures. The model of these rituals will help us as we determine more precisely why Mark began his Gospel as he did.

Jesus' Initiation as a Holy Man

The figure of the holy man is common to many preindustrial societies. This figure has its own distinct features in each culture, due to different social patterns; yet it is possible to identify a number of common elements that allow us to characterize this figure from a social viewpoint. Anthropologists have studied especially the figure of the shaman as the prototype of a holy man. A shaman is defined by his ability to reach and control the spiritual or divine realm in favor of the community he belongs to.

A few years ago, M. Borg suggested (43) that "the initiation sequence in the spiritual world (baptism), followed by the temptation or testing in the desert has surprising similarities with the information we possess about charismatic figures in different cultures." In his corresponding footnote, Borg points out several works dealing with shamanism (53, n 17). His suggestion has been recently assumed in an explicit way by P. Craffert and J. J. Pilch. Taking into account the various ways a shaman is presented in different cultures, Craffert uses the expression "shamanic complex" to refer to the general typology of this social figure. According to him, this typology "is made up of a configuration and some features (e.g., experience of altered states of consciousness) and some social functions (such as healing, mediation, prophecy, exorcism and possession of spirits) flowing from such experiences" (324). Pilch considers of the greatest importance the fact that the shaman is able to enter into an altered state of consciousness (106).

The moment of his call and initiation is of great significance in a holy man's life. Given the social relevance of this character, the process by which a person reaches the condition of holy man is highly ritualized and is performed by means of a status transformation ritual. Now, this status transformation ritual shows remarkable similarities with what we find at the beginning of Mark's Gospel. Therefore, by comparing Mark 1:1-15 with the holy man's call and initiation we may throw further light upon our inquiry.