Bogoslovska smotra, Vol. 85 No. 2, 2015.
Review article
Jesus’ Messianic Identity in the Gospel of Mark
Božidar Mrakovčić
; Theology in Rijeka, Dislocated Studies of Catholic Faculty of Theology, University of Zagreb, Rijeka, Croatia
Abstract
The author starts with an overview of messianic expectations in Judaism of Jesus’ time on the basis of available sources, so that this context might serve to better understand messianic typologies that have been used by Mark in order to present Jesus’ messianic identity and mission. The author gives special attention to the title (1:1) and the prologue of Mark’s Gospel (1:2-13), which present Jesus with titles of Christ and the Son of God. The latter title expresses Jesus’ divine identity and, as such, essentially determines Jesus’ messianic identity and the nature of his mission. In continuation the author has specially focused on those places where the two titles reappear (Peter’s confession and transfiguration; Jesus’ reply to the High Priest; mocking of priestly leadership and centurion’s confession) in order to explore their relationship and meaning. Beside the titles »Christ« and the »Son of God«, the author also explores the meaning of other messianic titles (the Son of Man, the Prophet, the King of Israel/Jews, the Son of David) for Jesus’ messianic identity and concludes that all of them have been semantically radically modified within the context of Mark’s Gospel so that they might be applied to Jesus to whom, as the Son of God, the only criterion of messianism is the way of the Lord.
Keywords
Christ; the Son of God; the Son of Man; the Son of David; the King of Israel; prophet, Mark’s messianism
Hrčak ID:
141166
URI
Publication date:
10.7.2015.
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