Kindle Notes & Highlights
First of all, notice the double “in accordance with the scriptures,” which recalls the biblical basis that, as I have argued, furnished the creative matrix for the earliest passion and resurrection traditions. Second, notice with what emphasis Paul insists that he too is an apostle. Even if latest and least, he is still equal to those earlier ones. Revelation from Christ is, for Paul, the determining factor in apostolic authority.
The first two verbs, took and blessed, and especially the second, are the actions of the master; the last two, broke and gave, and especially the second, are the actions of the servant. Jesus, as master and host, performs instead the role of servant, and all share the same food as equals. There is, however, one further step to be taken. Most of Jesus’ first followers would know about but seldom have experienced being served at table by slaves. The male followers would think more experientially of females as preparers and servers of the family food. Jesus took on himself the role not only of
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The miraculous catch is but a variant of Luke 5:4–9a, as can be seen from both the general structural similarity as well as the particular use of the name Simon Peter in Luke 5:8 and John 21:7.
A glance at those two citations cited above makes that explanation somewhat unlikely. It reads much more like canonical Mark’s total excision of some event already partially excised by either Secret Mark itself or else by Clement’s description. Indeed, the more one compares the two versions, the more likely it seems that, as Helmut Koester put it, “Canonical Mark is derived from Secret Mark.
They were hippies in a world of Augustan yuppies.
