(This is an essay from my Master of Divinity program.)

Tucked away in the middle of the sixth chapter of Mark is an out-of-place narrative—a flashback to John the Baptist’s execution. On the surface, this story doesn’t have anything to do with the surrounding texts—the sending of the apostles and their subsequent reporting of their ministry successes. The casual reader is left to wonder, “Why did Mark put this text here?” Exploring the literary context of this passage can shed light on Mark’s motivation for including John’s ending here of all places, and what the reader is meant to derive from this text.

When discussing literary context, deSilva reminds us that “every paragraph in a given book is interconnected with, builds on, clarifies, prepares for, and is further clarified by other paragraphs in that book” (deSilva, 199). Examining the context and progression of Mark’s gospel as a whole, as well as what immediately precedes and follows, will thus enhance our understanding of the seemingly out-of-place John the Baptist text in Mark 6.

In the narrative in question, King Herod hears reports of the ministry of Jesus, and mistakes Him for “John the Baptist… risen from the dead” (Mark 6:14). While Herod’s counselors surmise that Jesus may be Elijah (Malachi 4:5) or the Prophet like Moses (Deut. 18:18), Herod is convinced that this Jesus figure must be a resurrected John. Mark then recounts the death of John: After John had proclaimed that “it is not lawful [ἔξεστίν, exestin]” for a divorced Herod to remarry his brother’s divorced wife (Mark 6:18), he was arrested and put in prison. Despite Herod knowing John “was a just and holy man” and wanting to “protect him” (v. 20), he was ultimately manipulated into executing him at the behest of his wife. After his death, his disciples took his body and “laid it in a tomb” (v. 29).

This text is strategically placed here by Mark to advance the narrative and build upon the evangelist’s theme of a suffering Messiah. Consider how John is first introduced the Mark’s audience: As the prophesied forerunner to the Messiah, we are told that he has come to “prepare the way of the LORD” (Mark 1:3) by “preaching a baptism of repentance” (v. 4), and that the One who comes “after me who is mightier than I” (v. 7).

Thus the reader is primed from the opening of Mark’s Gospel to expect Jesus’ trajectory to follow that of John’s, in larger and mightier ways. Indeed, after Jesus’ baptism (vv. 9-11) and John’s arrest (14), Jesus begins His ministry by immediately following John’s example of preaching repentance (v. 15). Later, despite performing a miraculous exorcism in the country of the Gaderenes (Mark 5:1-20), Jesus is rejected by the Gentiles of the region (v. 17); and shortly thereafter, He is rejected in his own country (Mark 6:1-6). After witnessing Jesus’ rejection by both Jew and Gentile, the reader then witnesses the final rejection of John at the hands of a reluctant Gentile (Idumean) ruling over the Jews. Just as John was rejected and killed, so will Jesus eventually follow this same path.

In Mark 8, Jesus asks His followers “who do men say that I am?” at Caesarea Philippi. Before Peter makes his famous confession, the disciples repeat the answers from the Herod narrative—“John the Baptist, but some say Elijah, and others, one of the prophets” (Mark 8:28). The reader is once again reminded of the connection between the two prophets. A chapter later, Jesus Himself relates John to Elijah, claiming “Elijah has already come, and they did to him whatever they wished” (Mark 9:13). In the following chapter, Jesus is tested by the Pharisees, who ask Him if it is “lawful [ἔξεστιν, exestin] for a man to divorce his wife” (Mark 10:2)—Jesus later teaches that it is adultery for a man to “divorce his wife and marry another” (v. 11), as well as for “a woman [to] divorce her husband and marry another” (v. 12), thus rendering the same judgment that got John arrested. And during the final week before the sacrifice of the Passover Lamb, Jesus explicitly ties His ministry to that of John’s (Mark 11:27-33). Over and over again, we are given reasons to “link the fate of these two emissaries of God” (deSilva, 187).

A few days later, Jesus is arrested (just like John); and though the Gentile leader ruling over the Jews is initially reluctant to have Him killed (just like John), he is ultimately manipulated into executing Jesus via crucifixion—a much more painful and humiliating death than decapitation. Jesus’ lifeless body is then “laid in a tomb” (Mark 15:46), just like John’s.

The insertion of John’s Passion is thus used by Mark to remind his audience where this gospel story is headed—John had not only prepared the way for Jesus’ ministry, but for His humiliating but necessary death at the hands of both Jew and Gentile. But we are also reminded of what will come after His crucifixion—“he has been raised from the dead!” (Mark 6:16). Sure enough, in the closing chapter of Mark, an angelic being appears to a handful of Jesus’ female followers to assure them that “He is risen! He is not here. See the place where they laid Him” (Mark 16:6). Ironically, Herod’s fear of a resurrected prophet becomes the reader’s hope in the resurrected Prophet.

A final comment must be made about the immediate context surrounding the narrative of John’s death. While much is to be made of John’s foreshadowing of Jesus’ ministry throughout Mark’s Gospel, this text is bookended by an interrupted narrative regarding the ministry of the disciples, thus forming an inclusio connecting John’s fate to the fate of the disciples. Right before launching into John’s Passion, Jesus empowers His twelve apostles with wonder-working power, commissioning them to heal the sick (Mark 6:13) and “preach that people should repent” (v. 12). And immediately after the description of John’s execution, “the apostles [are] gathered to Jesus” to tell Him “all things, both what they had done and what they had taught” (v. 30).

In the middle of this empowering and joyous narrative, where the apostles are finding great success preaching the same message that Jesus preached (and the same message that John preached), we are reminded that “Christianity is not about enjoying the power of God except as this power leads us to self-giving service to others” (deSilva, 199), and that “the shape of discipleship must necessarily follow the pattern of the rejected and executed Messiah” (deSilva, 178). And just as Jesus’ passion was preceded by the suffering of the Forerunner who prepared “the way of the Lord,” so we who wish to follow the suffering Messiah “in the way of God” (Mark 12:14) will also be called to deny ourselves, take up His cross (Mark 8:34), and share in His sufferings (Romans 8:17).

Sources

• deSilva, David A. An Introduction to the New Testament: Contexts, Methods & Ministry Formation, 2^nd Ed.
• All Scripture citations are from the NKJV unless otherwise noted.