In my on-line course on Mark I try to carefully cover some of the features that make this earliest and first “story of Jesus” unique.
The scene halfway through the book of Mark, in chapter 8, where Peter confesses Jesus as the “Christ,” is rebuked by Jesus as representing the forces of Satan–is seen by both Matthew and Luke as a “true” confession. But was it really?
In this short video I lay out the case that Peter’s declaration–“You are the Christ,” given his lack of understanding of the term as Jesus had expounded it–i.e. the suffering and rejected servant–was in fact a FALSE confession.
The author of Mark writes his version of the Jesus story precisely because he believes that subsequent followers of Jesus–in the decade of the 70’s CE, have begun to view Jesus as the Christ due to his power and glory, overlooking the element of begin utterly forsaken–even by God.
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