John, Elijah, or One of the Prophets: How the Markan Reader Understands Jesus Through John/Elijah

A primary concern of the Gospel of Mark is the identity and fate of Jesus. In service to this, the Gospel develops a secondary interest in the identity and fate of John The Baptist. John, as Elijah redivivus, provides reasons to believe that Jesus is the Christ, provides a grid by which Jesus’ ministry and identity can be comprehended, and helps justify and explicate the unexpected death of the Messiah. This is accomplished through various literary devices throughout the narrative. For them to be fully effective it is necessary for the implied reader to be actively involved. The fact that Jesus’ identity and John’s identity are not adequately acknowledged within the narrative suggests that the plot moves towards a recognition of both of these figures. Jesus’ identity and John’s identity are related, in such a way that a recognition of John’s witness and identity leads towards a recognition of Jesus’ identity and fate. To understand John is to understand Jesus, and to misunderstand John is to misunderstand Jesus. Furthermore, John the Baptist is used to evoke the past and foreshadow the future in such a way as to place the whole of the story of Jesus into the divine purpose and salvation history. The only one who appropriately grasps the identities and fates of Jesus and John is the implied reader. This illustrates the role of the implied reader in the narrative. The characters within the story do not adequately recognize either John or Jesus. It remains to the reader to do this. Hence, for the narrative to have closure concerning the theme of recognition relating to both Jesus and John, it will be a closure brought to pass by the reader, and not by the characters within the narrative.Doctor of Philosophy (PhD