Possession, Good and Bad—Ritual, Effects and Side-Effects: the Baptism of Jesus and Mark 1.9-11 From a Cross-Cultural Perspective

Abstract

This study challenges the longstanding and solid consensus among scholars that Jesus' baptism is historically certain but the vision (or theophany) that follows has little or no claim to historicity (Mk 1.9-11). Such visions and related phenomena are commonplace, however, in the many cultures that sanction entry into altered states of consciousness, which include Mediterranean culture, ancient and modern. From a cross-cultural perspective, what happens to Jesus at his baptism has the character of an altered state of consciousness anthropologists call possession trance. Possession trances can be positive or negative and are usually distinguished by the presence or absence of ritual activity. The followers of Jesus may have intro duced the baptismal rite into the story of his possession, therefore, in order to iden tify what happened to him as positive rather than negative, that is, as possession by Holy Spirit and not by a demon. Because of this possibility, Jesus' baptism has less claim to historicity than what follows, a conclusion that reverses the current schol arly consensus. As it closes, this study considers the Sitz im Leben of Mk 1.9-11 and suggests a second reason for joining baptism to vision. The second evangelist may have juxta posed the two as a way of counteracting undesirable consequences the baptismal rite had for the early Jesus movement.