Sárospataki Füzetek 20. (2016)

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

Jaap Doedens

A passage from 2 Baruch 42 confirms that the passage of Isaiah 11 was explained as a reversal of the curse on humanity after they rebelled against the Creator:

And it will happen that after he has brought down everything which is in the world, and has sat down in eternal peace on the throne of the kingdom, then joy will be revealed and rest will appear. (...) And the wild beasts will come from the wood and serve men, and the asps and dragons will come out of their holes to subject themselves to a child. And women will no longer have pain when they bear, nor will they be tormented when they yield the fruits of their womb.43

The “literary wormhole” of Mark 1:13, thus, transports the reader both back to the far past of a lost paradise and to the future hope of a new paradise. In his resisting the devil, Jesus is the righteous one, who is more than only an individual creating a sphere of holiness around him. From the first verse on, Mark introduces Jesus as the Messiah. The reference to his being “with the wild animals” can function as an allusion to the hope of Israel: the Messiah who will put right whole God’s creation. Jesus “being served by angels” may have the same allusive effect, because in the Jewish tradition angels were very close to humans in paradise.44

A New Exodus: Trial of Loyalty?

There is, however, still another possible allusion to be explored. Jesus might not only be the righteous one who restores paradise, but also be depicted by Mark as the representative of Israel, who did not give in while being tested in the desert.45 John Paul Heil asks attention for the connection between Mark and Deuteronomy when referring to being tested in the desert. According to Mark 1:13, Jesus was tested (Treipa£0|J£VO£) by the Satan, while LXX Deut 8:16 tells how God led his people into the wilderness full of dangerous animals in order to test (ÉKTT£ipáar|) them to see if they would keep his commandments.46

Who led you through that huge and terrible wilderness, where the biting snake is, and scorpion, and drought, where there was no water; who brought you from the flinty rock a fountain of water; who fed you with the manna in the wilderness, which neither you nor your fathers knew, in order to afflict you and thoroughly test you, and to do you well at last.47

42 The text is to be dated to the first or second decade of the second century c.e., See Klijn, A. F. J.: 2 (Syriac Apocalypse of) Baruch, in Charlesworth, James H. (ed): The Old Testament Pseudepi- grapha: Volume I, New York, Doubleday, 1983, 616-617.

43 2 Bar 73:1.6-7.Translation: Klein: 2 (Syriac Apocalypse of) Baruch, OTP 1,645-646.

44 See e.g. Apocalypse of Moses 17:1-2, Charles: The Apocrypha and Pseudepigrapha of the Old Testament: Volume 2,146.

45 See Caneday: Mark's Provocative Use of Scripture in Narration, BBR 9(1999): 28-36. See also Heil, John Paul: Jesus with the Wild Animals in Mark 1:13, CBQ 68 no. 1,2006, 63-78.

46 Heil: Jesus with the Wild Animals in Mark 1:13, 73.

47 LXX Deut 8:16.

62 Sárospataki Füzetek 20. évfolyam 2016-2