Jesus: gMark's Messianic Pretender as Aristotle's Tragic Hero
December 7, 2012 at 10:44 pm
(This post was last modified: December 7, 2012 at 10:52 pm by Jesus.of.Nazareth.)
Below I have summarized my evidence that there was an earlier version of the Gospel of Mark that has been dubbed, "gMark." As a matter of fact, it seems commonly held that all of the gospels all had an earlier version. In any case, I state my reasons for arriving at the conclusion that an earlier version is in evidence. I may have posted on this topic before, but the present essay adds some important updates. As I shall argue, gMark portrays Jesus almost exactly as Aristotle has defined the character and plot of the story of a Tragic Hero. Because this story has been obscured by the formation of the present version of the Gospel of Mark, this earlier portrayal has not been considered so far as I have determined.
I do not address the thesis of "Mythicists" that the historical Jesus did not exist as I would prefer to leave that to a separate discussion. But I do wish here to acknowledge that I am aware of this debate.
Finally, I have used the fonts of bold and italics as part of my evidence that gMark is a probable thesis by using two Markan motifs that indicate those pericopae that I judge to be Markan rather gMarkan. For that line of evidence, anyone who wishes to view where these motifs are found may request that I send them a Word file attachment to an email.
******************************************************
As far as I can tell, my particular reconstruction of the historical Jesus is idiosyncratic. I explain this oddity as arising from the main source I use to profile the historical Jesus. This source is not readily apparent as it is what has previously been labeled as "gMark." "pMark," "proto-Mark," and "Ur-Markus." These terms all refer to the theory that there is an earlier version of Mark that has been editorially expanded and so produced the final form of the gospel.
I find evidence of its existence based on three considerations. First, I think that there is convincing evidence that an underlying text has been expanded to be found in three texts in particular. In all three cases, the narrative flow seems to be interrupted by some material, after which the narrative appears to be resumed. To illustrate this, I have put the suspected expansion in italics:
1) The insertion of the story of John the Baptizer's death:
7 And He summoned the twelve and began to send them out in pairs, and gave them authority over the unclean spirits ; 8 and He instructed them that they should take nothing for their journey, except a mere staff -no bread, no bag, no money in their belt - 9 but to wear sandals ; and He added, "Do not put on two tunics." 10 And He said to them, "Wherever you enter a house, stay there until you leave town. 11 "Any place that does not receive you or listen to you, as you go out from there, shake the dust off the soles of your feet for a testimony against them." 12 They went out and preached that men should repent. 13 And they were casting out many demons and were anointing with oil many sick people and healing them.
14 And King Herod heard of it, for His name had become well known ; and people were saying, "John the Baptist has risen from the dead, and that is why these miraculous powers are at work in Him." 15 But others were saying, "He is Elijah." And others were saying, "He is a prophet, like one of the prophets of old." 16 But when Herod heard of it, he kept saying, "John, whom I beheaded, has risen !" 17 For Herod himself had sent and had John arrested and bound in prison on account of Herodias, the wife of his brother Philip, because he had married her. 18 For John had been saying to Herod, "It is not lawful for you to have your brother's wife." 19 Herodias had a grudge against him and wanted to put him to death and could not do so; 20 for Herod was afraid of John, knowing that he was a righteous and holy man, and he kept him safe. And when he heard him, he was very perplexed ; but he used to enjoy listening to him. 21 A strategic day came when Herod on his birthday gave a banquet for his lords and military commanders and the leading men of Galilee ; 22 and when the daughter of Herodias herself came in and danced, she pleased Herod and his dinner guests ; and the king said to the girl, "Ask me for whatever you want and I will give it to you." 23 And he swore to her, "Whatever you ask of me, I will give it to you; up to half of my kingdom." 24 And she went out and said to her mother, "What shall I ask for?" And she said, "The head of John the Baptist." 25 Immediately she came in a hurry to the king and asked, saying, "I want you to give me at once the head of John the Baptist on a platter." 26 And although the king was very sorry, yet because of his oaths and because of his dinner guests, he was unwilling to refuse her. 27 Immediately the king sent an executioner and commanded him to bring back his head. And he went and had him beheaded in the prison, 28 and brought his head on a platter, and gave it to the girl ; and the girl gave it to her mother. 29 When his disciples heard about this, they came and took away his body and laid it in a tomb.
30 The apostles gathered together with Jesus ; and they reported to Him all that they had done and taught.
2) Jesus' family comes to get him because he seems unbalanced:
20 And He came home, and the crowd gathered again, to such an extent that they could not even eat a meal. 21 When His own people heard of this, they went out to take custody of Him; for they were saying, "He has lost His senses."
22 The scribes who came down from Jerusalem were saying, "He is possessed by Beelzebul," and "He casts out the demons by the ruler of the demons." 23 And He called them to Himself and began speaking to them in parables, "How can Satan cast out Satan ? 24 "If a kingdom is divided against itself, that kingdom cannot stand. 25 "If a house is divided against itself, that house will not be able to stand. 26 "If Satan has risen up against himself and is divided, he cannot stand, but he is finished ! 27 "But no one can enter the strong man's house and plunder his property unless he first binds the strong man, and then he will plunder his house. 28 "Truly I say to you, all sins shall be forgiven the sons of men, and whatever blasphemies they utter ; 29 but whoever blasphemes against the Holy Spirit never has forgiveness, but is guilty of an eternal sin "- 30 because they were saying, "He has an unclean spirit."
31 Then His mother and His brothers arrived, and standing outside they sent word to Him and called Him. 32 A crowd was sitting around Him, and they said to Him, "Behold, Your mother and Your brothers are outside looking for You." 33 Answering them, He said, "Who are My mother and My brothers ?" 34 Looking about at those who were sitting around Him, He said, "Behold My mother and My brothers ! 35 "For whoever does the will of God, he is My brother and sister and mother."
3) Jesus' assertion about an unknown exorcist:
33 They came to Capernaum ; and when He was in the house, He began to question them, "What were you discussing on the way ?" 34 But they kept silent, for on the way they had discussed with one another which of them was the greatest. 35 Sitting down, He called the twelve and said to them, "If anyone wants to be first, he shall be last of all and servant of all." 36 Taking a child, He set him before them, and taking him in His arms, He said to them, 37 "Whoever receives one child like this in My name receives Me; and whoever receives Me does not receive Me, but Him who sent Me."
38 John said to Him, "Teacher, we saw someone casting out demons in Your name, and we tried to prevent him because he was not following us." 39 But Jesus said, "Do not hinder him, for there is no one who will perform a miracle in My name, and be able soon afterward to speak evil of Me. 40 "For he who is not against us is for us. 41 "For whoever gives you a cup of water to drink because of your name as followers of Christ, truly I say to you, he will not lose his reward.
42 "Whoever causes one of these little ones who believe to stumble, it would be better for him if, with a heavy millstone hung around his neck, he had been cast into the sea.
The second line of evidence is to identify those text which contain distinctive Markan motifs. These themes are characterized by the fact that they are so often repeated. The first is the highly repeat use of the adverb, euthus, which means, "immediately." The second is the often repeated idea that people were "amazed" at Jesus. In order to highlight the occurrence of these two Markan themes, I have written a separate Word file that will show bold and italic fonts that one may request.
The third line of evidence is found where I and at least one other contemporary scholar, Dominic Crossan, thinks that gMark ended in Mk 15:39 with the centurion's "epiphany" that Jesus was indeed a uios theou. For reason that I shall give below, I translate this phrase as, "a son of a god." Note that what immediately follows are the two episodes of Jesus' burial and resurrection, which are tied together by the actions of women. It is women who learn where Jesus was buried and women that come to the empty tomb. The continuity of these two episodes, linked by the action of women, begins immediately after the alleged conclusion of gMark, while the woman are not present before that. This difference provides an indication that it is a supplemental expansion.
Now if we worked back from the conclusion of gMark, we have a dramatic presentation of Jesus' attitude changing from one of extreme confidence and abject despair and possibly reaching the point of insanity. The height of Jesus' confidence is found is his answer to the second question of the high priest, "Are you the Messiah?" This is a dramatic crescendo in as far as that hitherto, Jesus has taken great efforts to avoid making an explicit Messianic claim. It especially stands in contrast to his evasion to answer by what authority he usurped that of the High Priest in his "cleansing" of the Temple. Now at last, he is put on the spot. His opponent finally have him where they want him. No more chance to evade this most critical question and answer:
Again the high priest was questioning Him, and saying to Him, "Are You the Christ, the Son of the Blessed One?" 62 And Jesus said, "I am ; and you shall see THE SON OF MAN SITTING AT THE RIGHT HAND OF POWER, and COMING WITH THE CLOUDS OF HEAVEN.
Due to the Markan expansions, and I think for theological reasons, Jesus' response is often not understood. The question is, when did Jesus expect his interrogator to see the fulfillment of this prophecy from Daniel 7:13 to which Jesus alludes? Here is the text in full:
13 "I kept looking in the night visions, And behold, with the clouds of heaven One like a Son of Man was coming, And He came up to the Ancient of Days And was presented before Him. 14 "And to Him was given dominion, Glory and a kingdom, That all the peoples, nations and men of every language Might serve Him. His dominion is an everlasting dominion Which will not pass away ; And His kingdom is one which will not be destroyed.
I can think of no other text that so well presents the Messianic expectation.
But when does Jesus expect the high priest to witness the fulfillment of this prophecy? Answer, any second. It is in this way that Jesus backs the Messianic he just announced. Indeed, when Jesus usurped the high priest's authority over the Temple, the authority by which he did this was his Messianic authority had he chosen not to evade the question. But now, at this most dramatic moment, his unequivocal claim was to be immediately fulfilled by him doing so! Here is the height of Jesus' confidence, not only that he was indeed the Messiah, but that his claim will be vindicated any second by a supernatural event that would establish him as Messiah and so usher in the Messianic Age.
But his expectation was sorely disappointed, for as he felt death coming on, he cried,
"
So the plot develops from Jesus' attitude of supreme confidence to one of the most abject despair. This was the essence of his passion.
But there is more. Our very skilled author wishes to convey, I think, that Jesus received an answer to his question. It was, "Because you are not the Messiah." Fate itself had answered his question and provided an inescapable conclusion. How does Jesus respond?
A loud cry. Here Jesus is portrayed as going insane. From the time of John's baptism, Jesus became convinced by it that he indeed was the Messiah. But now, he was forced to face the impossible conclusion that both himself and John were dead wrong. This was the crowing moment of gMark's portrayal Jesus as the Tragic Hero. Indeed, gMark's portrayal perfectly conforms to Aristotle's definition of the figure of a Tragic Hero. Here is a summary of the ingredients that go to comprise this archetypical figure:
From Wikipedia:
.
A tragic hero is a protagonist with a tragic flaw, also known as fatal flaw, which eventually leads to his demise. The concept of the tragic hero was created in ancient Greek tragedy and defined by Aristotle. Usually, the realization of fatal flaw results in catharsis or epiphany. The tragic flaw is sometimes referred to as an Achilles' heel after the single fatal flaw of the Greek warrior Achilles.
Aristotelian tragic hero:
In a complex Aristotelian tragedy, the hero is of noble birth and is more admirable than ordinary men. He cannot, however, be morally perfect because the best plots arise when his downfall is the inevitable consequence of some defect in character (or tragic flaw).The spectacle of a good man dragged to destruction by a single error arouses in the audience both pity and fear, leading to the catharsis, a psychological state through which those emotions are purged; the audience leaves the theater relieved, or even exalted, rather than depressed.
Characteristics:
An Aristotelian tragic hero must have four characteristics:
Nobleness (of a noble birth) or wisdom (by virtue of birth).
Hamartia (translated as tragic flaw, somewhat related to hubris, but denoting excess in behavior or mistakes).
A reversal of fortune (peripetia) brought about because of the hero's tragic error.
The discovery or recognition that the reversal was brought about by the hero's own actions (anagnorisis).
Other common traits
Some other common traits characteristic of a tragic hero:
Hero must suffer more than he deserves.
Hero must be doomed from the start, but bear no responsibility for possessing his flaw.
Hero must be noble in nature, but imperfect so that the audience can see themselves in him.
Hero must have discovered his fate by his own actions, not by things happening to him.
Hero must see and understand his doom, as well as the fact that his fate was discovered by his own actions.
Hero's story should arouse fear and empathy.
Hero must be physically or spiritually wounded by his experiences, often resulting in his death.
Ideally, the hero should be a king or leader of men, so that his people experience his fall with him.
The hero must be intelligent so he may learn from his mistakes.
This nearly perfect portrayal of gMark as Aristotle's Tragic Hero shows that the author was both familiar with it and a skilled "playwright." It has been suggested by someone that it was none other than Seneca, or someone very much like him, who composed what we know as gMark. The question then becomes, was the actual events of Jesus' passion molded into Aristotle' tragic hero, or did Jesus live out the actual experience upon which Aristotle developed his character?
I will leave this question with the reader.
The author has portrayed Jesus as a Messianic Pretender who was the epitome of the Tragic Hero. The author's own assessment is voiced in the Centurion's epiphany. Jesus was certainly "a son of a god." I translate this way because it is intended to express what a Roman point of view. In gMark's estimation, Jesus ended up being tortured by a subscription to Messianic proselytism that finally betrayed him in a most pathetic way. Even so, from a Roman point of view, he was a transcendent being, belonging to that class of person who stand above his fellow men. In this, the author gave Jesus the highest rating that he could.
Let me note that a dominant feature of this portrayal is the presence of "dramatic irony," or a surprising outcome. The Sanhedrin was right. Jesus was wrong. Jesus' own executioner voices the epiphany.
This portrayal I feel compelled to say, offers a more sublime story than Christian gospel. Instead of a divine comedy, it is a searing, most pathetic tragedy. So which is to be commended? I prefer the latter.
I do not address the thesis of "Mythicists" that the historical Jesus did not exist as I would prefer to leave that to a separate discussion. But I do wish here to acknowledge that I am aware of this debate.
Finally, I have used the fonts of bold and italics as part of my evidence that gMark is a probable thesis by using two Markan motifs that indicate those pericopae that I judge to be Markan rather gMarkan. For that line of evidence, anyone who wishes to view where these motifs are found may request that I send them a Word file attachment to an email.
******************************************************
As far as I can tell, my particular reconstruction of the historical Jesus is idiosyncratic. I explain this oddity as arising from the main source I use to profile the historical Jesus. This source is not readily apparent as it is what has previously been labeled as "gMark." "pMark," "proto-Mark," and "Ur-Markus." These terms all refer to the theory that there is an earlier version of Mark that has been editorially expanded and so produced the final form of the gospel.
I find evidence of its existence based on three considerations. First, I think that there is convincing evidence that an underlying text has been expanded to be found in three texts in particular. In all three cases, the narrative flow seems to be interrupted by some material, after which the narrative appears to be resumed. To illustrate this, I have put the suspected expansion in italics:
1) The insertion of the story of John the Baptizer's death:
7 And He summoned the twelve and began to send them out in pairs, and gave them authority over the unclean spirits ; 8 and He instructed them that they should take nothing for their journey, except a mere staff -no bread, no bag, no money in their belt - 9 but to wear sandals ; and He added, "Do not put on two tunics." 10 And He said to them, "Wherever you enter a house, stay there until you leave town. 11 "Any place that does not receive you or listen to you, as you go out from there, shake the dust off the soles of your feet for a testimony against them." 12 They went out and preached that men should repent. 13 And they were casting out many demons and were anointing with oil many sick people and healing them.
14 And King Herod heard of it, for His name had become well known ; and people were saying, "John the Baptist has risen from the dead, and that is why these miraculous powers are at work in Him." 15 But others were saying, "He is Elijah." And others were saying, "He is a prophet, like one of the prophets of old." 16 But when Herod heard of it, he kept saying, "John, whom I beheaded, has risen !" 17 For Herod himself had sent and had John arrested and bound in prison on account of Herodias, the wife of his brother Philip, because he had married her. 18 For John had been saying to Herod, "It is not lawful for you to have your brother's wife." 19 Herodias had a grudge against him and wanted to put him to death and could not do so; 20 for Herod was afraid of John, knowing that he was a righteous and holy man, and he kept him safe. And when he heard him, he was very perplexed ; but he used to enjoy listening to him. 21 A strategic day came when Herod on his birthday gave a banquet for his lords and military commanders and the leading men of Galilee ; 22 and when the daughter of Herodias herself came in and danced, she pleased Herod and his dinner guests ; and the king said to the girl, "Ask me for whatever you want and I will give it to you." 23 And he swore to her, "Whatever you ask of me, I will give it to you; up to half of my kingdom." 24 And she went out and said to her mother, "What shall I ask for?" And she said, "The head of John the Baptist." 25 Immediately she came in a hurry to the king and asked, saying, "I want you to give me at once the head of John the Baptist on a platter." 26 And although the king was very sorry, yet because of his oaths and because of his dinner guests, he was unwilling to refuse her. 27 Immediately the king sent an executioner and commanded him to bring back his head. And he went and had him beheaded in the prison, 28 and brought his head on a platter, and gave it to the girl ; and the girl gave it to her mother. 29 When his disciples heard about this, they came and took away his body and laid it in a tomb.
30 The apostles gathered together with Jesus ; and they reported to Him all that they had done and taught.
2) Jesus' family comes to get him because he seems unbalanced:
20 And He came home, and the crowd gathered again, to such an extent that they could not even eat a meal. 21 When His own people heard of this, they went out to take custody of Him; for they were saying, "He has lost His senses."
22 The scribes who came down from Jerusalem were saying, "He is possessed by Beelzebul," and "He casts out the demons by the ruler of the demons." 23 And He called them to Himself and began speaking to them in parables, "How can Satan cast out Satan ? 24 "If a kingdom is divided against itself, that kingdom cannot stand. 25 "If a house is divided against itself, that house will not be able to stand. 26 "If Satan has risen up against himself and is divided, he cannot stand, but he is finished ! 27 "But no one can enter the strong man's house and plunder his property unless he first binds the strong man, and then he will plunder his house. 28 "Truly I say to you, all sins shall be forgiven the sons of men, and whatever blasphemies they utter ; 29 but whoever blasphemes against the Holy Spirit never has forgiveness, but is guilty of an eternal sin "- 30 because they were saying, "He has an unclean spirit."
31 Then His mother and His brothers arrived, and standing outside they sent word to Him and called Him. 32 A crowd was sitting around Him, and they said to Him, "Behold, Your mother and Your brothers are outside looking for You." 33 Answering them, He said, "Who are My mother and My brothers ?" 34 Looking about at those who were sitting around Him, He said, "Behold My mother and My brothers ! 35 "For whoever does the will of God, he is My brother and sister and mother."
3) Jesus' assertion about an unknown exorcist:
33 They came to Capernaum ; and when He was in the house, He began to question them, "What were you discussing on the way ?" 34 But they kept silent, for on the way they had discussed with one another which of them was the greatest. 35 Sitting down, He called the twelve and said to them, "If anyone wants to be first, he shall be last of all and servant of all." 36 Taking a child, He set him before them, and taking him in His arms, He said to them, 37 "Whoever receives one child like this in My name receives Me; and whoever receives Me does not receive Me, but Him who sent Me."
38 John said to Him, "Teacher, we saw someone casting out demons in Your name, and we tried to prevent him because he was not following us." 39 But Jesus said, "Do not hinder him, for there is no one who will perform a miracle in My name, and be able soon afterward to speak evil of Me. 40 "For he who is not against us is for us. 41 "For whoever gives you a cup of water to drink because of your name as followers of Christ, truly I say to you, he will not lose his reward.
42 "Whoever causes one of these little ones who believe to stumble, it would be better for him if, with a heavy millstone hung around his neck, he had been cast into the sea.
The second line of evidence is to identify those text which contain distinctive Markan motifs. These themes are characterized by the fact that they are so often repeated. The first is the highly repeat use of the adverb, euthus, which means, "immediately." The second is the often repeated idea that people were "amazed" at Jesus. In order to highlight the occurrence of these two Markan themes, I have written a separate Word file that will show bold and italic fonts that one may request.
The third line of evidence is found where I and at least one other contemporary scholar, Dominic Crossan, thinks that gMark ended in Mk 15:39 with the centurion's "epiphany" that Jesus was indeed a uios theou. For reason that I shall give below, I translate this phrase as, "a son of a god." Note that what immediately follows are the two episodes of Jesus' burial and resurrection, which are tied together by the actions of women. It is women who learn where Jesus was buried and women that come to the empty tomb. The continuity of these two episodes, linked by the action of women, begins immediately after the alleged conclusion of gMark, while the woman are not present before that. This difference provides an indication that it is a supplemental expansion.
Now if we worked back from the conclusion of gMark, we have a dramatic presentation of Jesus' attitude changing from one of extreme confidence and abject despair and possibly reaching the point of insanity. The height of Jesus' confidence is found is his answer to the second question of the high priest, "Are you the Messiah?" This is a dramatic crescendo in as far as that hitherto, Jesus has taken great efforts to avoid making an explicit Messianic claim. It especially stands in contrast to his evasion to answer by what authority he usurped that of the High Priest in his "cleansing" of the Temple. Now at last, he is put on the spot. His opponent finally have him where they want him. No more chance to evade this most critical question and answer:
Again the high priest was questioning Him, and saying to Him, "Are You the Christ, the Son of the Blessed One?" 62 And Jesus said, "I am ; and you shall see THE SON OF MAN SITTING AT THE RIGHT HAND OF POWER, and COMING WITH THE CLOUDS OF HEAVEN.
Due to the Markan expansions, and I think for theological reasons, Jesus' response is often not understood. The question is, when did Jesus expect his interrogator to see the fulfillment of this prophecy from Daniel 7:13 to which Jesus alludes? Here is the text in full:
13 "I kept looking in the night visions, And behold, with the clouds of heaven One like a Son of Man was coming, And He came up to the Ancient of Days And was presented before Him. 14 "And to Him was given dominion, Glory and a kingdom, That all the peoples, nations and men of every language Might serve Him. His dominion is an everlasting dominion Which will not pass away ; And His kingdom is one which will not be destroyed.
I can think of no other text that so well presents the Messianic expectation.
But when does Jesus expect the high priest to witness the fulfillment of this prophecy? Answer, any second. It is in this way that Jesus backs the Messianic he just announced. Indeed, when Jesus usurped the high priest's authority over the Temple, the authority by which he did this was his Messianic authority had he chosen not to evade the question. But now, at this most dramatic moment, his unequivocal claim was to be immediately fulfilled by him doing so! Here is the height of Jesus' confidence, not only that he was indeed the Messiah, but that his claim will be vindicated any second by a supernatural event that would establish him as Messiah and so usher in the Messianic Age.
But his expectation was sorely disappointed, for as he felt death coming on, he cried,
"
ELOI, ELOI, LAMA SABACHTHANI ?"
which is translated,
"MY GOD, MY GOD, WHY HAVE YOU FORSAKEN ME?"
which is translated,
"MY GOD, MY GOD, WHY HAVE YOU FORSAKEN ME?"
So the plot develops from Jesus' attitude of supreme confidence to one of the most abject despair. This was the essence of his passion.
But there is more. Our very skilled author wishes to convey, I think, that Jesus received an answer to his question. It was, "Because you are not the Messiah." Fate itself had answered his question and provided an inescapable conclusion. How does Jesus respond?
37 And Jesus uttered a loud cry, and breathed His last.
A loud cry. Here Jesus is portrayed as going insane. From the time of John's baptism, Jesus became convinced by it that he indeed was the Messiah. But now, he was forced to face the impossible conclusion that both himself and John were dead wrong. This was the crowing moment of gMark's portrayal Jesus as the Tragic Hero. Indeed, gMark's portrayal perfectly conforms to Aristotle's definition of the figure of a Tragic Hero. Here is a summary of the ingredients that go to comprise this archetypical figure:
From Wikipedia:
.
A tragic hero is a protagonist with a tragic flaw, also known as fatal flaw, which eventually leads to his demise. The concept of the tragic hero was created in ancient Greek tragedy and defined by Aristotle. Usually, the realization of fatal flaw results in catharsis or epiphany. The tragic flaw is sometimes referred to as an Achilles' heel after the single fatal flaw of the Greek warrior Achilles.
Aristotelian tragic hero:
In a complex Aristotelian tragedy, the hero is of noble birth and is more admirable than ordinary men. He cannot, however, be morally perfect because the best plots arise when his downfall is the inevitable consequence of some defect in character (or tragic flaw).The spectacle of a good man dragged to destruction by a single error arouses in the audience both pity and fear, leading to the catharsis, a psychological state through which those emotions are purged; the audience leaves the theater relieved, or even exalted, rather than depressed.
Characteristics:
An Aristotelian tragic hero must have four characteristics:
Nobleness (of a noble birth) or wisdom (by virtue of birth).
Hamartia (translated as tragic flaw, somewhat related to hubris, but denoting excess in behavior or mistakes).
A reversal of fortune (peripetia) brought about because of the hero's tragic error.
The discovery or recognition that the reversal was brought about by the hero's own actions (anagnorisis).
Other common traits
Some other common traits characteristic of a tragic hero:
Hero must suffer more than he deserves.
Hero must be doomed from the start, but bear no responsibility for possessing his flaw.
Hero must be noble in nature, but imperfect so that the audience can see themselves in him.
Hero must have discovered his fate by his own actions, not by things happening to him.
Hero must see and understand his doom, as well as the fact that his fate was discovered by his own actions.
Hero's story should arouse fear and empathy.
Hero must be physically or spiritually wounded by his experiences, often resulting in his death.
Ideally, the hero should be a king or leader of men, so that his people experience his fall with him.
The hero must be intelligent so he may learn from his mistakes.
This nearly perfect portrayal of gMark as Aristotle's Tragic Hero shows that the author was both familiar with it and a skilled "playwright." It has been suggested by someone that it was none other than Seneca, or someone very much like him, who composed what we know as gMark. The question then becomes, was the actual events of Jesus' passion molded into Aristotle' tragic hero, or did Jesus live out the actual experience upon which Aristotle developed his character?
I will leave this question with the reader.
The author has portrayed Jesus as a Messianic Pretender who was the epitome of the Tragic Hero. The author's own assessment is voiced in the Centurion's epiphany. Jesus was certainly "a son of a god." I translate this way because it is intended to express what a Roman point of view. In gMark's estimation, Jesus ended up being tortured by a subscription to Messianic proselytism that finally betrayed him in a most pathetic way. Even so, from a Roman point of view, he was a transcendent being, belonging to that class of person who stand above his fellow men. In this, the author gave Jesus the highest rating that he could.
Let me note that a dominant feature of this portrayal is the presence of "dramatic irony," or a surprising outcome. The Sanhedrin was right. Jesus was wrong. Jesus' own executioner voices the epiphany.
This portrayal I feel compelled to say, offers a more sublime story than Christian gospel. Instead of a divine comedy, it is a searing, most pathetic tragedy. So which is to be commended? I prefer the latter.
God have mercy on the man,
who doubts what he's sure of.
Bruce Springstein
"Brilliant Disguise"
who doubts what he's sure of.
Bruce Springstein
"Brilliant Disguise"
![[Image: extraordinarywoo-sig.jpg]](https://i.postimg.cc/zf86M5L7/extraordinarywoo-sig.jpg)
