Why does the Gospel of Mark begin as it does?

Pilch (107) identifies six distinct features in the call of a shaman: (1) contact with the spirit (through possession or adoption); (2) identification of the possessing or adopting spirit; (3) acquisition of the necessary ritual skills; (4) guidance by the spirit and a real life teacher; (5) growing acquaintance with the possessing or adopting spirit; and (6) all this within the frame of ongoing experiences of altered states of consciousness. These features appear mainly in the baptism narrative, which may be taken as the moment of Jesus' call. The vision after his baptism and his temptation in the desert after a long period of fasting are typical forms of altered states of consciousness. This is the appropriate environment for the initiation of a holy man (Craffert: 334). Moreover, Jesus' testing in the desert is the confirmation of his successful initiation (Pilch: 108-09).

These elements, shared by different cultures in relation to the inititation of holy men, receive in Jesus' case culturally specific connotations. As we have seen, these connotations come from those symbols evoking the founding history of the people (the desert, the Jordan) and, above all, from the prophets, holy men par excellence in Israel's history. Even more precisely, Jesus' presentation as a holy man in the Gospel of Mark depends on the social and cultural conditions of first-century Palestine. It is within this framework that Jesus' new status may be finally grasped.

While the voice heard after his baptism defines Jesus in kinship terms (Son), all other references describe him in political terms. Both Messiah (Mk 1:1) and Lord (Mk 1:3) are clearly political designations. We must also see as a political reference the expression "the Stronger One" (Mk 1:7), used in Mark 3:27 to depict the situation of a ruler suffering the attack of a pretender to the throne (Oakman: 114-17). The beginning of Jesus' ministry in Galilee also has political connotations, since his preaching refers to the coming of a "kingdom," and should therefore be seen as political religion. As B. J. Malina has shown on several occasions, in Jesus' world there was no independent religious system--only domestic and political religion. Jesus' preaching clearly belongs to the latter category, for it is addressed to all Israel and announces God's coming as a king for his people (Malina 2001: 16-24).

The apparent contradiction between these two ways of understanding Jesus' relation to God vanishes when we realize that kinship expressions were commonplace in patronage relationships. In first-century Mediterranean society, as well as in other agrarian societies, patronage relationships were the basis of those social relations taking place outside the family, that is, in the political area. In this sense, they could be used by the evangelists as an analogy, easily understandable by their addressees.

Although patron--client relationships were the basis of the patronage system, these relationships were often indirect, maintained by means of a broker. They were characterized by the exchange of favors and benefits between people belonging to different social levels. Usually the patron offered his clients material help or some other kind of benefit in return for faithfulness, information, and above all, for the public recognition of his honor.