Reception of Jesus as healer in Mark’s community

This study traces the manner in which the evangelist Mark presents Jesus as a healer. While this is the primary focus, I am also interested, from an identity perspective, in why Mark is keen to present Jesus as the best physician. Healers during the 1st century were varied. Cities had professional h...

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Bibliographic Details
Published in:Hervormde teologiese studies Vol. 74; no. 1; pp. 1 - 5
Main Author: Dube, Zorodzai
Format: Journal Article
Language:English
Published: AOSIS 30.07.2018
African Online Scientific Information Systems (Pty) Ltd t/a AOSIS
Reformed Theological College of the Netherdutch Reformed Church of Africa at the Faculty of Theology of the University of Pretoria and Society for Practical Theology in South Africa
Subjects:
Apostles
Exorcism
Folk Healers
Healing
Jesus
Jesus Christ
Leprosy
Mark, Pope
Power
Religion
Religious aspects
Social aspects
Works
ISSN:0259-9422, 2072-8050, 2072-8050
Online Access:Get full text
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Summary:This study traces the manner in which the evangelist Mark presents Jesus as a healer. While this is the primary focus, I am also interested, from an identity perspective, in why Mark is keen to present Jesus as the best physician. Healers during the 1st century were varied. Cities had professional healers with great knowledge of the Greek Hippocratic tradition. The entire empire had famous temples of Asclepius and Apollo. Common people had diverse knowledge about various illnesses with remedies varying from herbs to exorcisms. Amidst all this and located in southern Syria in the northern regions of Galilee, Mark presents Jesus as a healer. The study concludes that Mark presents Jesus as an efficient healer with great power and authority. Though Mark is mute regarding other healers such as Asclepius and Apollo, near whose temples patients would sleep for days waiting for healing, he wants to remind the adherents of Jesus’ movement that they are following a great physician. A few selected stories from Mark’s gospel illustrate this argument.
ISSN:0259-9422
2072-8050
2072-8050
DOI:10.4102/hts.v74i1.4952