Abstract
This essay builds on my extensive argument elsewhere to the effect that the Gospels are closely based on eyewitness testimony. It focuses on the nine healing miracles in the Gospel of Mark. The intention is not to offer any kind of proof that the stories really are based on eyewitness reports, but to show that Mark wanted to claim eyewitness testimony for them and that this explains some features of the narratives. The features that are discussed from this perspective are the Aramaic words of Jesus, the occurrence of personal names, and the literary construction of point of view.
Highlights
The earliest evidence we have about the origins of the Gospels outside the Gospels themselves is the famous statement by Papias, writing at the beginning of the second century
I have argued that in several of the healing stories Mark has provided his readers with additional assurances that he is reflecting eyewitness accounts: Aramaic words of Jesus, personal names and point of view
28 Mark 4:38; 9:17, 38; 10:17, 20, 35; 12:14, 19, 32; 13:1. Sense should these be regarded as new criteria of authenticity for the quest of the historical Jesus
Summary
The earliest evidence we have about the origins of the Gospels outside the Gospels themselves is the famous statement by Papias, writing at the beginning of the second century. I argued that, on the contrary, Mark has designed his Gospel to be read as a narrative that embodies, to a large extent, Peter’s eyewitness testimony, while indicating other eyewitness sources for some of the events. This argument depends on a prior argument about the genre of the Gospels, on which most recent scholarship takes a very different view from that of the form critics. I shall argue for one such possibility later in this article
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