Sárospataki Füzetek 20. (2016)
2016 / 2. szám - ARTICLES / STUDIEN - Jaap Doedens: Lierary Wormholes: Wild Animals and Angels in Mark 1:13
Jaap Doedens “true humanity”.53 But because Israel is at the same time a descendent of Adam, the chosen people of God suffered from the same problem as Adam, in one word: sin. This implies that when the Messiah of Israel is presented as the “true Israel”,54 at the same time he must be the “true Adam”, exactly by being the “true Israel”. In withstanding the temptation of Satan in the wilderness, Jesus fulfils the future hope of Israel as the Messiah who will restore paradise. In Mark 1:13, the short references to Jesus’ being in the wilderness for forty days, his being tested by the Satan, as well as his being among wild animals and being served by angels, all function as allusions to evoke this messianic picture. This portrait would be recognizable for readers of Mark’s gospel who were well-versed in the Scriptures. The key for the understanding of these allusions can be found in the common notion55 within the Old Testament and the pseudepigraphical literature about how living with love for God and fellow human beings creates a glimpse of paradise. In this way, Mark not only introduces Jesus as Messiah, but also shows his readers what this messiahship implies. This Messiah will do more than giving glimpses of paradise: he will restore a true humanity within a new creation. Bibliography Aland, Barbara and Kurt, et al. (eds.), Novum Testamentum Graece, 28th revised edition. Stuttgart: Deutsche Bibelgesellschaft, 2012. Andersen, F. I. “2 (Slavonic Apocalypse of) Enoch: A New Translation and Introduction.” Pages 91-221 in The Old Testament Pseudepigrapha: Volume 1: Apocalyptic Literature. Edited by James H. Charlesworth; New York: Doubleday, 1983. Bauckham, Richard. “Jesus and the Wild Animals (Mark 1:13): A Christological Image for an Ecological Age.” Pages 3-21 in Jesus of Nazareth: Lord and Christ — Essays on the Historical Jesus and New Testament Christology. Edited by Joel B. Green and Max Turner. Grand Rapids: Eerdmans, 1994. Bauckham, Richard. “Jesus and the Renewal of Nature: Reading Isaiah and the Gospels Ecologically.” (Lecture given at St Thikhon’s Orthodox Seminary, Moscow, October 2009) http:// richardbauckham.co.uk/uploads/Accessible/Jesus%20&%20the%20Renewal%20of%20 Nature.pdf (cited 23 June 2016). tion. Vol. 1 Atlanta, Scholars Press, 1985. 53 See Wenkel, David H.: Wild Beasts in the Prophecy of Isaiah: The Loss of Dominion and Its Renewal through Israel as the New Humanity, JTI 5 no. 2, 2011,252. See also Wright: The New Testament and the People of God, 262-279. 54 See e.g. John 15:1 "I am the true vineT'Eyco tipi f) äpTTEÄoq f] äAr|0ivrj), the vine being a symbol for Israel, cf. Isa 5:1-7. 55 A similar common notion connecting sexual abstinence and time for prayer may be that of T. Naph. 8:8 "There is a time for having intercourse with one's wife, and a time to abstain for the purpose of prayer." (Translation: Kee: Testaments of the Twelve Patriarchs, OTP 1,814. The apostle Paul may have been aware of this notion, cf. 1 Cor 7:5. 64 Sárospataki Füzetek 20. évfolyam 2016-2
