Sárospataki Füzetek 20. (2016)
2016 / 2. szám - ARTICLES / STUDIEN - Jaap Doedens: Lierary Wormholes: Wild Animals and Angels in Mark 1:13
Literary Wormholes: Wild Animals and Angels in Mark 1:13 Temple period. But where exactly does the reader arrive? The answer to this question is not even so simple, because Mark’s allusions can be ambiguous. Paradise Regained? Richard Bauckham mentions three possible explanations for the mentioning of the wild animals in the temptation-narrative. The first solution is that the wild animals, as such, symbolize the wilderness and emphasize Jesus’ loneliness in the desert. However, this solution seems rather arbitrary. The second exegesis views the animals as symbolizing the realm of the demons; in a similar way as how 1 Pet 5:8 refers to the devil as a “roaring lion”. This explanation does not take into account that Mark tells that Jesus “was with the wild animals” (fjv prrá Tóóv 9qpí(jüv), which rather implies that he has not to be afraid of them, or even a peaceful and friendly being together. Within the Old Testament, wild animals are mentioned symbolically (e.g. Ps 22:12- 13.16.21), but there they are mostly a metaphor for human enemies. Some Old Testament texts mention the desert as a place where demons and wild animals dwell (Isa 13:21-22; 34:13-16), but this mainly explains why Jesus encounters both the devil and the wild animals when he was in the wilderness for forty days. The third solution is to view the reference to Jesus being among wild animals as a way to depict him as being at peace with animals who otherwise would threaten human existence, thus showing a glimpse of a regained paradise.21 There is a lot of exegetical data within the Old Testament and Second Temple literature which supports this third exegetical solution. It is, therefore, worthwhile to take a closer look to this line of exegesis. The Jewish tradition partly shared the common worldview of the ancient Near East that animals were the enemies of man;22 however, it viewed this animosity between the animal world and humans not as the original state of creation, but as a consequence of human sin. Rebelling against the Creator disturbed not only inter-human relationships, but also the relation between mankind and the rest of creation. According to the creation story, God gave humans dominion over animals.23 21 See Bauckham, Richard: Jesus and the Wild Animals (Mark 1:13): A Christological Image for an Ecological Age, in Green, Joel B.andTuRNER, Max (eds Jy.Jesus of Nazareth: Lord and Christ: Essays on the Historical Jesus and New Testament Christology, Grand Rapids, Eerdmans, 1994,4-21. See also Bauckham, Richard: Jesus and the Renewal of Nature: Reading Isaiah and the Gospels Ecologically (Lecture given at StThikhon's Orthodox Seminary, Moscow, October 2009). http://rich- ardbauckham.co.uk/uploads/Accessible/Jesus%20&%20the%20Renewal%20of%20Nature. pdf (cited 23 June 2016). Cf. Gieschen: Why Was Jesus with the Wild Beasts (Mark 1:13)? 77- 80. 22 See Harland, P. J.: The Value of Human Life: A Study of the Story of the Flood (Genesis 6-9), Leiden, Brill, 1996, 149. 23 Cf. Gen 1:26.28; Ps 8:6-8. 2016-2 Sárospataki Füzetek 20. évfolyam 57
