Musings on biblical studies, politics, religion, ethics, human nature, tidbits from science
William Wrede’s The Messianic Secret Part 11: Luke Abandons the Secrecy Motif While we may have had to wait until the end of Mark’s story for the denouement of the secrecy gospel, Luke removes all suspense early on with the scene in the Nazareth synagogue (Luke 4:16-30). In The Messianic Secret, William Wrede writes: Here Jesus … Continue reading “Reading Wrede Again for the First Time (11)”
William Wrede’s The Messianic Secret Part 10: How Matthew and Luke changed Mark Five months have passed since my previous post on The Messianic Secret. In the interim, I have focused on material related to the genre of the gospels, which has consumed most of my attention. Recently, however, I’ve been simultaneously reading or re-reading several … Continue reading “Reading Wrede Again for the First Time (10)”
William Wrede’s The Messianic Secret Part 9: Concealment Despite Revelation This unit continues with the section of Wrede’s The Messianic Secret (1971 English translation) from pp. 82 through 114, which focuses on the phenomenon of the disciples (and others) seeing or hearing the truth about Jesus but failing to understand that truth. Where MacDonald went wrong Somewhat … Continue reading “Reading Wrede Again for the First Time (9)”
William Wrede’s The Messianic Secret Part 8: A Different Kind of Messiah? — An astonishingly persistent misconception This unit picks up after our mid-stream break in which we answered the question: “What Is the Messianic Secret?“ Restatement of purpose It is not my main purpose to argue for or against Wrede’s thesis. That isn’t why I’ve … Continue reading “Reading Wrede Again for the First Time (8)”
William Wrede’s The Messianic Secret Part 7: “The Self-Concealment of the Messiah” — The injunctions to keep the Messianic secret This unit continues Part 1, Section 2 (p. 34ff.) of Wrede’s The Messianic Secret (covering other features of the motif and the defense of a single coherent theory). Demons in retrospect Last time in Part 6 we finished up Wrede’s discussion … Continue reading “Reading Wrede Again for the First Time (7)”
William Wrede’s The Messianic Secret Part 6: “The Self-Concealment of the Messiah” — Demons (cont’d) This unit continues Part 1, Section 2 (p. 24) of Wrede’s The Messianic Secret. Revealing and Concealing As we have seen, Wrede agreed with the critics of his day that Mark’s Jesus seems to be intent on keeping it a secret that he’s … Continue reading “Reading Wrede Again for the First Time (6)”
William Wrede’s The Messianic Secret Part 5: “The Self-Concealment of the Messiah” — Demons This unit begins Part 1, Section 2 of Wrede’s The Messianic Secret. Patterns of concealment or the “Shrouded Savior” In this section Wrede lays out the various ways in which Jesus hides his true nature from the public, and at times even from … Continue reading “Reading Wrede Again for the First Time (5)”
William Wrede’s The Messianic Secret Part 4: Mark — “Some Preliminaries on the General Picture of the Messianic History of Jesus.” This unit covers Part 1, Section 1 of Wrede’s The Messianic Secret. Layers upon layers One of the things that struck me while reading this section is Wrede’s clarity of thinking, especially when it comes to … Continue reading “Reading Wrede Again for the First Time (4)”
William Wrede’s The Messianic Secret Part 3: Introduction Gospels are stories In the previous installment, we read through the front matter of Wrede’s The Messianic Secret. This time, we’re going to look at the Introduction, which while technically part of the front matter, is a meaty chapter unto itself. Quite recently, Neil remarked on this blog: The … Continue reading “Reading Wrede Again for the First Time (3)”
William Wrede’s The Messianic Secret Part 2: Front Matter A turning point in the quest In the first installment, we introduced Wrede’s watershed book on the Gospel of Mark. And watershed is a fairly apt description of The Messianic Secret, since for many scholars it marks a turning point in The Quest of the Historical … Continue reading “Reading Wrede Again for the First Time (2)”
William Wrede’s The Messianic Secret Part 1: Preface Game-changers A handful of works in the field of Biblical studies have the reputation of revolutionizing the field. Later scholars refer to them as ground-breaking, game-changing, or seminal. These works arrive on the scene and immediately change the nature of the debate, often providing an entirely new … Continue reading “Reading Wrede Again for the First Time (1)”
In a recent post, Neil cited a paper by Dr. Alan Kirk called “Memory Theory and Jesus Research.” While Kirk does an adequate job of explaining the current state of play in memory theory, I couldn’t help but notice yet again some misunderstandings in the ways Memory Mavens remember German critical scholarship in general and … Continue reading “Alan Kirk: Misremembering Bultmann and Wrede”
In the Gospel of Mark Jesus avoids publicity, silences those he heals, and muzzles demons who recognise him. Unfortunately, the earliest evangelist never mentions why Jesus maintained secrecy. William Wrede considered it damage control to explain why Jesus himself had never claimed to be the Messiah. Jesus avoided the title because it was inappropriate prior … Continue reading “Where Wrede Went Wrong? MacDonald vs Wrede on Why Jesus Tried to Hide His Identity”
Some like it in the pot, nine days old Over the past several weeks, real life got in the way of blogging. I’ll spare you the boring details, but suffice it to say writing Java and Ruby all day turns my brain into so much porridge. Speaking of porridge, that reminds me of a story. … Continue reading “Blogging Again: Some Thoughts on Methodology”
