Читать книгу The Story of Jesus - Roy A. Harrisville - Страница 12

Gospel tradition connects Jesus’ first public appearance with the activity of John the Baptist, according to Luke the child of Zechariah and Elizabeth, a relative of Jesus’ mother. Origins of the movement of the Baptist are subject to speculation, some suggesting that John had at one time been an adherent of the Qumran community, a sect (Essene?) located near the Dead Sea, established in the second century BC and with interruptions, continuing till Roman occupation in the early third century AD The adherents of this sect practiced ablutions or lustrations reminiscent of Old Testament washings required of persons cured of leprosy (cf. Leviticus 14: 8–9), or of personal uncleanness (Leviticus 15: 11, 13, 16, 18). In Qumran these baths, besides allowing for admittance or re-admittance to the community after a falling away, may actually have been practiced daily by the devout.6 If John indeed belonged to the Dead Sea community, he drew from it the significance of baptism as a moral washing, but restricted it to single use.

The context into which Mark sets his narrative of the Baptist is markedly different from that of his fellow evangelists. If Matthew and the others first point to the figure and activity of the Baptist, and from that point conclude that they fulfill the prophetic word, Mark begins with the prophetic word and to it wraps the narrative of the Baptist. The result is that the Baptist’s activity does not relate to the Old Testament word as fulfillment to prophecy, but rather the Old Testament word gives definition to the figure and activity of the Baptist. As to his figure, since the angel of the covenant must appear before the end (Exodus 23:20), John appears as forerunner. Because the messenger, Elijah, must prepare the way (Malachi 3:1), John preaches. Because a voice will cry (Isaiah 40:3), John is in the wilderness. Because the last days will see a pilgrimage, an exodus of pilgrims free of sin, all Judea and all Jerusalem flock to John confessing their sins. And, because the prophet’s fare and diet must be unlike that of any other (Elijah wore a leather girdle), John eats locusts and wild honey, and because the angel-Elijah-forerunner must appear before the end of days, John is the angel-Elijah-forerunner. As to function or activity, the Baptist’s historical appearance is of course characterized by his baptizing with water, but the presupposition for his activity is the prophetic word. John thus does what according to the prophetic word only God can do—effect a baptism of repentance leading to forgiveness. But this gives to Mark’s portrait of the Baptist a Christological cast, since it is God as author of the event which is Jesus Christ (verse 1: “The beginning of the good news of Jesus Christ, the Son of God”) who gives definition to the figure and activity of the Baptist. Was this angel-Elijah-John combination Mark’s invention, or had it been made before he put pen to paper? The fact that the combination appears again in Matthew 11:10 and Luke 7:27, this time in Jesus’ mouth, suggests that it had a life prior to Mark. But what the “life-situation” in the Christian community may have been from out of which such a combination arose we can only speculate.

And, if Jesus first traveled in the company of the Baptist, the Gospel accounts are anxious to make clear the difference between John’s and Jesus’ or his disciples’ baptism. In Mark, John announces that he baptizes “with water,” whereas Jesus will baptize “with the Holy Spirit” (Mark 1:7). In Matthew the Baptist initially resists Jesus’ request to be baptized, stating that the reverse needs doing (Matthew 3:14, and in Luke’s Gospel, he will baptize “with the Holy Spirit and fire” (Luke 3:16). In John, the Baptist speaks of his being outranked by the one who follows him. The evangelist next records a dialogue between the Baptist and his questioners containing a curious reference. Priests and Levites arrive from Jerusalem and ask John “who are you?” to which he replies that he is not the Messiah. His questioners continue their interrogation, asking whether or not he is Elijah, to which he replies that he is not. Again, they ask if he is “the prophet,” that unidentified figure whom Moses said God would raise up (Deuteronomy 18:15, 18–19), and which he promptly denies. The delegation then demands that John identify himself for the sake of its dispatchers. John answers in the words of Isaiah 40: “I am the voice of one crying out in the wilderness,” 1:23). The evangelist then notes that the delegation had been sent by the Pharisees, the only instance in the Gospels in which priests and Levites (members of the Sanhedrin?) are at the beck and call of the Pharisees. Still not satisfied with John’s answer his interrogators ask “Why then are you baptizing if you are neither the Messiah, nor Elijah, nor the prophet?” The usual interpretation of the question is that since Judaism required baptism only of proselytes whereas John baptized all and sundry, he would have required authorization from on high to engage in such a radical change, thus had to have been Elijah, or the prophet, or the Messiah himself. The syntax or shape of the question allows for a reading which assumes that when the Messiah, or Elijah, or the prophet comes, he will initiate a baptism. Such a reading is lacking in the literature of Judaism, and an argument from silence is notoriously weak, but given the emphasis on washings in the sects round about Judaism, whether or not the Fourth evangelist has allowed for it John’s questioners could have entertained the idea of a radical change occurring with the advent of Messiah, Elijah, or the prophet, moreover, a change signaled in a washing or baptism.

In sight of Jesus, John declares “Here is the Lamb of God who takes away the sin of the world!” (John 1:27, 29, 36). Later, John describes Jesus as baptizing (John 3:26), a reference later corrected to read “not Jesus himself but his disciples” (John 4:2). The Baptist further distances himself from Jesus by titling himself “friend of the bridegroom,” sent on ahead of the Messiah (John 3:28–29). From Mark to John something of a progression can be seen in the distinction drawn between the Baptist and Jesus, suggesting a challenge to the earliest Christian community from a sect surrounding the Baptist.7 For example, the Gnostic sect of the Mandaeans, located in Iraq, though decimated by war, as well as in Iran, views the course of the world as a conflict between good and evil powers seeking to tempt humans through false religions—above all, through Judaism and Christianity. The sect, sometimes called “Followers of the Baptist,” practices baptism in flowing water as an initiation rite and as a rite of purification.

Since the line between John and Jesus is less clearly drawn in Mark than in the other Gospels, the competition between John and Jesus may have been less keen in the period in which Mark wrote. Still, the attempt to move from a written text to its possible life prior to its being written down is an extremely hazardous business. In all four Gospels John confesses that he relates to the one who “comes after” as less than a slave to a master (Mark 1:7: “Not worthy to stoop down and untie the thong of his sandals;” cf. Matthew 3:11; Luke 3:16; John 1:27). On the other hand, set within that Christological context by Mark, he is raised to a height he will never reach again.