The Coronation of the Christ: Mark’s Characterization of the Christ in light of 14:1-11

Abstract

Mark 14:1-11 reveals a Markan subversive Christology, manifested through the anointing of the Christ by an anonymous woman and emphasized through the theme of discipleship. Within Mark’s narrative, Jesus is surely Christ, the Christ of suffering and death. The implied reader receives a hint that the unnamed woman assumes the role of prophet and anoints Jesus as the Messiah in death. The author of Mark interprets the unnamed woman’s action in the direction of a suffering and dying Messiah as a means of conveying his messianic Christology. Without this anointing passage, so rich and full, the Gospel of Mark would be deprived of a very important theological keystone.