The Rhetorical Function(S) of Old Testament References in Mark 10:1–12

Abstract

In Mark 10:1–12 three references to the Old Testament are found. The question is, what are the rhetorical functions of these references? The Gospel of Mark is viewed as narrative literature: a story with its own narrative world, characterization and point of view and it is assumed that the narrator not only reports, but comments and evaluates in order to create a story which has to convince the reader by the way it is told. Much has already been done on intertextuality. This paper is mainly a text- orientated intertextual inquiry in which the fruits of the new rhetorics are used to study the argumentative structure of the story told in this pericope. By determining possible rhetorical functions of references to the Old Testament within the structure of the argument in Mark 10: 1–12, I hope to reveal something about the potentiality of this text.