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Mark and His Readers: The Son of God among Greeks and Romans

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  10 June 2011

Adela Yarbro Collins
Adela Yarbro Collins
Affiliation:
University of Chicago
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Extract

In his influential work, Kyrios Christos, Wilhelm Bousset confessed that he had vacillated and was still vacillating on the question of whether the creation of the title υἱòς θɛo⋯ (“Son of God”) as an epithet for Jesus ought to be attributed to the earliest community of his followers in Palestine. He tentatively took the position that the oldest community of followers of Jesus described him as the παῖς θɛo⋯ (“Servant of God”) in a messianic interpretation of the servant-poems of Second Isaiah. This epithet, he thought, was in considerable tension with the notion of Jesus as the Son of God, making it unlikely that both epithets originated in the same context. He argued that the statement of the divine voice in the scenes of baptism and transfiguration, “You are my Son,” is a tradition that circulated in the earliest community but that this address is a far cry from the title “Son of God.” He was thus inclined to conclude that this title originated “on Greek ground, in the Greek language.” He argued that the confession of Jesus as the Son of God by the Gentile centurion in Mark 15:39 cannot be understood as a recognition of Jesus as the Jewish messiah. Rather, “Son of God” was the formula chosen by the evangelist to express the identity of Jesus Christ for the faith of the Gentile Christian community.

Type
Research Article
Information
Harvard Theological Review , Volume 93 , Issue 2 , April 2000 , pp. 85 - 100
Copyright
Copyright © President and Fellows of Harvard College 2000

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References

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2 Ibid., 57.

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4 Ibid., 55.

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30 Ibid., 275-80; trans, from White slightly modified.

31 Ibid., 268-74.

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49 See, for example, the letter of the emperor Claudius to the Alexandrians, which dates to 41 CE, in which the deified Augustus is referred to as (ó) θεÒς ΣεβαστÓς, “(the) god Augustus”; the papyrus was published by H. I. Bell in 1912; the Greek text and an English translation are given in White, John L., Light from Ancient Letters (Philadelphia: Fortress, 1986) pp. 131–37Google Scholar , no. 88; the citation is from line 59.

50 Weinstock, , Divus Julius, 399Google Scholar ; see also the bronze coin of Philippi, dated tentatively to 2 BCE, which contains on the obverse the legend “Aug. Divif. Divo Iul(io)”; ibid., pl. 29, coin no. 12. See also Mattingly, Harold, Coins of the Roman Empire in the British Museum, vol. 1: Augustus to Vitellius (London: British Museum, 1923) mint of Rome: no. 275 (p. 50)Google Scholar ; coins from the East: nos. 589–616 (pp. 97-101); mint of Ephesus: nos. 691–93 (p. 112). An inscription from Acanthus in Macedonia is dedicated to Augustus as [αύτοκράτορι Καίσ]α[ρι θ]εώι θεού [υίώι] (“to the emperor Caesar, god, son of god, Augustus”); Victor Ehrenberg and Jones, A. H. M., Documents Illustrating the Reigns of Augustus and Tiberius (2ded.; Oxford: Clarendon, 1955) no. 108 (p. 91)Google Scholar ; compare no. 115 (p. 93). The original form of the latter uses the same language as no. 108 and was dedicated to Augustus between 9 BCE and 2 CE; it was reinscribed using the same epithets and dedicated to Tiberius between 19 and 23 CE. The latter inscriptions come from Cyprus. Tiberius is also designated υίòς θεού (son of god) on another inscription from Cyprus dating to 29 CE; ibid., no. 134 (p. 96). In the great inscription of Octavian found at Rhosus, he is designated [Αύτοκρά]τωρ Kαîσαρ θεού' loυλίου υίóς (“Emperor Caesar, son of the deified Julius”); Jalabert, Louis and Mouterde, René, Inscriptions grecques et latines de la Syrie, vol. 3.1:Google ScholarRégion de l'Amanus, Antioche (Bibliothèque Archéologique et Historique 46; Paris: Geuthner, 1950) no. 718Google Scholar , line 1 (p. 396). He is also designated simply as θεού υίóς (“son of god”) in lines 73 and 85 (ibid., pp. 399, 400).

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59 With regard to the question of verisimilitude, it seems to be sufficient for the author of Mark to link this insight with the portents surrounding the death of Jesus. The author is not concerned with the centurion as a character in the narrative, and thus the fact that he is not portrayed as joining the group of disciples is irrelevant. The acclamation of the centurion is meant to affect the audience; for this purpose a high degree of verisimilitude is unnecessary.

60 Johnson, , “Is Mark 15.39 the Key to Mark's Christology?,” 16Google Scholar.

61 Collins, Yarbro, “Mark and His Readers: The Son of God among Jews,” 403–4Google Scholar.

62 Rom 1:3-4.

63 Collins, Adela Yarbro, “The Worship of Jesus and the Imperial Cult,” in Newman, Carey C., Davila, James R., and Lewis, Gladys S., eds., The Jewish Roots of Christological Monotheism: Papers from the St. Andrews Conference on the Historical Origins of the Worship of Jesus (Journal for the Study of Judaism Supplements 63; Leiden: Brill, 1999) 234–57Google Scholar.

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70 Ibid., 395-96.

71 Ibid.

72 Ibid., 397-99.

73 Ibid., 396.

74 See Braun, Herbert, “Der Sinn der neutestamentlichen Christologie,” ZhK 54 (1957) 341–77Google Scholar ; reprinted in idem, , Gesammelte Studien zum Neuen Testament und seiner Umwelt (2d rev. ed.; Tübingen: Mohr/Siebeck, 1967) 243–82Google Scholar ; Betz, Hans Dieter, “Gottmensch II,” Reallexikon für Antike und Christentum 12 (1982) 234–312Google Scholar.

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