Sárospataki Füzetek 20. (2016)

2016 / 2. szám - ARTICLES / STUDIEN - Jaap Doedens: Lierary Wormholes: Wild Animals and Angels in Mark 1:13

ARTICLES/STUDIEN

Wild Animals and Angels

Jaap Doedens

LITERARY WORMHOLES: WILD ANIMALS AND ANGELS IN MARK 1:13

In the description of Jesus’ temptation in the wilderness, both Matthew and Luke are quite detailed; their narratives refer to three different temptations and end with the remark that the devil left him.1 Matthew adds here that “angels served him”,2 while Luke gives a flash-forward by telling his readers that the devil departed from Jesus “until an opportune time”.3 4 5 Mark, however, only mentions the fact that Jesus was in the wilderness forty days, tempted by the Satan, without further information about what the temptation comprised of. Similarly to Matthew, Mark tells us about Jesus that “angels served him”, but adds the fascinating short note that Jesus “was among the wild animals”/1 To modern readers, this seems to be a strange addition, and one can readily understand why Matthew left this out while copying Mark — if he really used Mark’s Gospel to compose his own. In the description, it does not appear that “being among the wild animals” is only another way of saying that Jesus was in the desert. The short remark seems to convey a hidden message, but in its shortness this message becomes rather elusive.

For a long time, I have been fascinated by this strange description of Jesus’ temptation in Mark 1:13, but I did not find a clue for its understanding, so I decided that, for the time being, it was better to leave these animals where they were: in the wilderness. But when I found a similar combination of Satan, wild animals and angels in the Testament of Naphtali 8:4-6/

1 Matt 4:1-11, Luke4:1-13.

2 Matt 4:11.

3 Luke 4:13.

4 Mark 1:13.

5 This was before the publication of the 28th edition of Nestle-Aland's text of the New Testament. Different from earlier editions, this new edition mentions the allusion to Test. Napht. 8:4, see Aland, Barbara

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