Why does the Gospel of Mark begin as it does?

This way of presenting Jesus is called for by the cultural values of the society where the author of the Gospel and his audience lived. In a society based on honor, only those born in an honorable family are eligible to become public figures. If an individual born in a lowly family claims this kind of leadership, his authority and his actions are easily ascribed to an evil spirit, unless an extraordinary event empowers him to do so. Jesus, born in a low-status family of artisans, has no legitimacy as a public figure. If he is God's Son, however, his legitimacy is unquestionable (Malina & Rohrbaugh: 177).

In the next two scenes, the temptation narrative (Mk 1:12-13) and the beginning of Jesus' public ministry in Galilee (Mk 1:14-15), there is nothing new about Jesus' honor. The scenes are intended to prove the soundness and truth of what has been previously said. That is precisely the function of the temptation account, where Jesus is tested in the wilderness for forty days--a period recalling the experience of Israel during forty years. In contrast to Israel, Jesus is now victorious, thus confirming his status as God's Son. That this is the purpose of the temptation narrative is even more evident in the Q version of this passage, used both by Matthew and Luke. There, the temptations are introduced by a conditional statement, "If you are God's Son ...," indicating as it were a sonship test--an aspect already implicitly present in Mark's story (Rohrbaugh: 188-93). Similarly, at the beginning of his ministry in Galilee, Jesus is introduced as the herald of the "good news of God" announcing the coming of the "reign of God" and asking for repentance and faith on the part of those who listen to him (Mk 1:14-15). Only a person endowed by God himself with such a power could do these things.

This reading of Mark 1:1-15 as a narrative revealing Jesus' ascribed honor shows that the climax of the whole passage is the second part of the above mentioned diptych, made up of three scenes: baptism (Mk 1:9-11), testing (Mk 1:12-13), and inaugural mission (Mk 1:1 4-15). Now, these three episodes are interrelated and describe a process known by anthropologists as a "status transformation ritual." In these scenes Mark depicts Jesus' transformation and shows how a Galilean villager has become the herald of God's kingship. We can therefore use the model of status transformation rituals to better understand Mark's presentation of Jesus at the beginning of his Gospel.

Status Transformation Ritual

Status transformation rituals are meant to stage and to confirm in a socially significant way the passing of a person from one status to another. Like all rituals, they have to do with crossing those boundaries used by society to classify individuals, things, time, and space. All cultures possess this kind of social map, which shapes their purity system. In Jesus' world the main referent in the map was God's holiness, determining what was pure and impure. This holiness was symbolized in the Temple and in Jerusalem. The city and its Temple, where God dwelled, were the basis and the measure to classify people and objects (Neyrey 1996: 91-93). In this social map, an artisan born of a family living in an unknown Galilean village was far from what was expected for God's Anointed One. Mark's presentation of Jesus is therefore intended to show how Jesus, the Galilean artisan, has become the Son of God. Mark does so by showing the ritual process by which his status is transformed.