Sunday, July 11, 2010

φωνὴν μεγάλην (Mark 15:37)

I'm currently researching Markan motifs for the Gospels class I took at the start of June. In some of the reading, I've come across some very interesting interpretations. The most noteworthy thus far concerns the centurion's confession at Jesus' death. Robert H. Gundry explains that the centurion's confession that Jesus is Son of God is not brought about by seeing Jesus suffer and die (he had probably witnessed that a hundred times), but is "evoked and defined, rather, by the supernatural strength that enables Jesus at the moment of his death to shout with a superhumanly loud voice and with exhalant force so powerful that it rends the veil of the temple. . . he sees Jesus die in a way that defies naturalistic explanation. It is Jesus' overcoming the weakness normally caused by crucifixion, not dying itself by crucifixion, which evokes the centurion's declaration." (Gundry, Mark: A Commentary on His Apology for the Cross. Eerdmans, 1993, 974).

1 comment:

  1. Very interesting posts Luke, I was wondering how the Gospels course had gone for you.

    ReplyDelete