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21 Chapter  Enacted Christology: What Jesus Does Enacted christology explores the actions of the Markan Jesus as they contribute to a narrative christology. Because actions are both essential and central to narratives , enacted christology is also essential and central to narrative christology, making this a good place to begin. At the most elemental level, what the Markan Jesus does is preach and teach (about the in-breaking of God’s rule), exorcise and heal (as an exemplification of the in-breaking of God’s rule), and insist on and practice service to those with the least status in society and thus suffer persecution and death by the authorities of that society (as an exemplification of the implications of the in-breaking of God’s rule in the present age). Much has been written about each of these activities, thus there is no need to repeat that information and commentary here. Certain questions will be ignored here in order to focus on other questions. This decision does not intend to invalidate other researchers’ questions, any more than other researchers’ questions invalidate my own. I will not be examining the historical background 1. See Joanna Dewey and Elizabeth Struthers Malbon, “Mark,” in Theological Bible Commentary (ed. Gail R. O’Day and David L. Petersen; Louisville: Westminster John Knox, 2009), 311–24. For the arguments behind this reading of the meaning of Jesus’ death in its Markan narrative context, see Sharyn Dowd and Elizabeth Struthers Malbon, “The Significance of Jesus’ Death in Mark: Narrative Context and Authorial Audience,” JBL 125 (2006): 271–97, republished in The Trial and Death of Jesus: Essays on the Passion Narrative in Mark (ed. Geert Van Oyen and Tom Shepherd; Leuven, Belgium: Peeters, 2006), 1–31. 22 MARK’S JESUS of Jesus as teacher, preacher, exorcist, healer, or one who serves and is persecuted in first-century Jewish Hellenistic culture in Roman-ruled Palestine, or the tradition history of these accounts as they come to be included in Mark’s Gospel—as rich as the research in these areas has been. Further, although it would be appropriate to begin by examining each action of the Markan Jesus in its chronological or diachronic order in the narrative, it would also be a daunting task and one that other scholars have already attempted in various ways. Thus here I am taking on the somewhat smaller task of focusing on a more generalized view, attending not to all the details of Mark’s story per se (Jesus’ individual actions) but to Mark’s plot and the discourse level of the narrative—the how and the why of the way these actions of the Markan Jesus are narrated. Even within this broad task, I will focus on one diachronic query (what types of activities does the Markan Jesus do when) and one synchronic query (what does the Markan Jesus do in relation to whom). Both queries are in keeping with my literary or narrative critical approach, although they begin my discussion of what Jesus does at a higher level of abstraction from the Markan narrative than does my analysis of what Jesus and others say. The diachronic (“through time”) query will explore how interpreters have understood the overall Markan outline as a way of commenting on the plot, that is, the unfolding and connection of the events of the story in their narrated order, from 1:1 through 16:8. The synchronic (“same time”) query will examine how the Markan Jesus relates to the entire cast of narrative characters considered as a set. It is from this background of enacted christology, that is, understanding how Jesus is characterized by the way his actions are narrated in relation to other characters, that we will move in later chapters to a more detailed exploration of what the Markan Jesus and other characters and the narrator say. 2. Adela Yarbro Collins, Mark: A Commentary (Hermeneia; Minneapolis: Fortress, 2007), serves as a convenient overview of and gateway to this literature. See also the recently published collection of essays by Paul J. Achtemeier, Jesus and the Miracle Tradition (Eugene, Ore.: Cascade Books, 2008). 3. For my brief critique of the analysis of the Markan Jesus’ “roles” by Ole Davidsen (The Narrative Jesus: A Semiotic Reading of Mark’s Gospel [Aarhus, Denmark: Aarhus University Press, 1993]) and the rhetorical analysis of repeated verbs denoting Jesus’ actions by Paul L. Danove (The Rhetoric of the Characterization of God, Jesus, and Jesus’ Disciples in the Gospel...

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