Jesus Remembered: Christianity in the Making, vol. 1

§13.1 For Whom Did Jesus Intend His Message?
how it impacts the hearer. The Synoptic tradition at Mark 4.10-12 pars, reflects
the (later) confidence that the disciples had been the privileged recipients of special
teaching: Jesus' teaching on the kingdom of God was a mysterion, a 'mystery
or secret' ; 24 it had been revealed to them, but remained hidden from, obscure
to, others. 25 Mark reinforces the point by using 'insider/outsider' language: 26 the
mystery/secret of the kingdom has been revealed to the twelve, but to outsiders
the parables are only riddles (Mark 4.II). 27 The language no doubt reflects the
way Jesus' parables were recycled in some/many of the early communities, that
is, to reinforce the sense of being a privileged minority 'let in on the secret' of
God's kingship by Jesus. 28 In fact, however, the formulation simply reflected
24. There is general agreement that the term mysterion reflects the characteristic apocalyptic
sense of divine secrets now revealed by divine agency (already in Dan. 2.18-19, 27-30;
1 En. 103.2; 104.10, 12; 106.19; for Qumran see, e.g., 1QS 3.23; 4.18; 9.18; 11.19; 1QH
9[= 1].21; 10[= 2],13; 12[= 4].27-28; 15[= 7].27; IQpHab 7.5, 8, 14; in the NT note Rom.
11.25; 1 Cor. 15.51; Eph. 1.9-10; 3.3-6; Col. 1.26-27; 2.2; 4.3; 2 Thess. 2.7; Rev. 1.20; 10.7).
See further R. E. Brown's still valuable treatment, The Semitic Background of the Term 'Mystery'in
the New Testament (FBBS 21; Philadelphia: Fortress, 1968).
25. GTh 62 is presumably making the same claim. The fact that there is a parallel in Q
(Matt. 11.25-26/Luke 10.21) should be given more weight than is usually the case. Did Jesus,
like the speaker in the 1QH psalms (the Teacher of Righteousness?), delight in the insight he
had received and been able to impart to his closest disciples? The early (Q) communities remembered
him as so exulting. And if Matt. 11.27/Luke 10.22 is seen as an interpretative addition
(Kloppenborg, Formation 198), there is little reason to attribute the preceding verse(s) to
early Christian exultation rather than to Jesus (see also Davies and Allison, Matthew 2.273-77).
26. The use of hoi exö ('those outside') in 4.11 is all the more pointed in Mark since he
made the same contrast in the preceding episode: his mother and his brothers were 'outside'
(3.31-32). Matthew and Luke omit or change the hoi exö'm Mark 4.11. The characterisation of
non-believers as 'outsiders' is already a feature of the Pauline churches (1 Cor. 5.12-13; Col.
4.5; 1 Thess. 4.12).
27. Josephus's description of the Qumran community contains a striking parallel: 'To
those outside (tois exöthen) the silence of those within appears like some awful mystery
(mysterion)' (War 2.133).
28. Hence the emphasis of Mark 4.33-34 (the conclusion to Mark's parable collection),
followed by Matthew in his own way (Matt. 13.34-35). The issue here is obscured by the fact
that the first Christians saw Jesus' resurrection as the principal key to unlock what had been still
a puzzle for them regarding Jesus' teaching on the kingdom. Mark signals the contrast in 8.32:
Jesus spoke 'plainly/openly' (parresia, no longer en parabole) of his coming rejection, death,
and resurrection (8.31). The tradition has been so elaborated here in the light of Easter faith that
it is difficult to discern whether there was a pre-Easter form. It is worth noting, however, that
the assertion of Mark 4.11, even when qualified by 4.33, cuts across the strong Markan theme
of the dullness of the disciples (e.g., 6.52; 8.17-21); the passage hardly fits within the usual
'messianic secret' reading of Mark (cf. Pesch, Markusevangelium 1.240; H. Räisänen, The
'Messianic Secret' in Mark's Gospel [Edinburgh: Clark, 1990] 143). It should not occasion surprise
that the Jesus tradition contains such clashing currents, which probably reflect the mix-
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