Parabolic Resonance in the Gospel of Mark: Language, Metaphor, and Meaning Restricted; Files Only
Knight, Jarrett (Summer 2020)
Abstract
This dissertation offers a literary analysis of parables in Mark’s gospel—specifically, those in 2:18-22, 3:23-27, 4:1-34, and 12:1-12—that highlights their metaphorical and intratextual roles. Despite the countless works in both Markan and parables studies, no book-length study specifically on Mark’s parables exists, and most interpretations of Mark’s parables either focus on their role in historical-Jesus research or otherwise take little account of their context in a literary work. By contrast, in this dissertation I use approaches from philosophy of language and metaphor theory to show that Mark’s parables consistently play complex roles both within the context of the gospel’s narrative and as a part of Mark’s broader authorial address.
Specifically, in this dissertation I argue that Mark intends the parables to create metaphorical interactions both with one another and with various other elements of his narrative that reinterpret the meanings of both. I term the former set of parable-to-parable relationships “metaphoric resonance,” and I call the latter, parable-to-narrative connections “metaphoric commentary,” arguing that the cumulative results of both these re-orderings are new perceptions of key thematic elements in Mark’s gospel (the kingdom of God, Jesus’s passion, and post-resurrection realities) that also situate them in relationship to Mark’s audience’s world.
In the conclusion of the dissertation, I indicate two possible implications of the study. First, I suggest that Mark uses the parables’ complex literary structures to present a theological portrait of a Jesus who always speaks from and to a world beyond Mark’s audience’s grasp. Second, I suggest that an understanding of the complicated re-ordering roles of the parables provides a key to understanding Mark’s gospel as similarly intended to re-order the lives of Mark’s hearers—that is, I specify a way of understanding the gospel of Mark as parabolic. In these suggestions as well as in the exegeses, I hope to have shown new ways of understanding how Mark’s language functions as a whole.
Table of Contents
Preface 1
Introduction 4
I. Justification and Purpose of the Study 4
II. Distinctive Features of the Study 8
III. Modern Interpretation of the Parables of Mark 11
A. Parable Scholarship 11
1. Historical Approaches 12
2. Literary Approaches 25
3. Eclectic Approaches 35
4. Conclusion: Parable Scholarship and Parables in Mark 48
B. Markan Parables in Interpretations of Mark 49
1. Ched Myers 50
2. Mary Ann Tolbert 54
3. Conclusion: Mark’s Parables and Literary Interpreters of Mark 60
IV. Conclusion: the Usefulness of the Study 60
Chapter 1: Approaches to the Parables from Analytic Philosophy of Language 62
I. Introduction 62
II. Philosophers of Language 64
A. Gottlob Frege: Sense and Reference 64
1. The Sense-Reference Distinction 64
2. Sense, Reference, and Mark’s Gospel 68
B. P. F. Strawson 72
1. Sentences, Expressions, Uses, and Utterances 72
2. Uses, Utterances, Speakers, and the Gospel of Mark 74
C. J. L. Austin 76
1. Locutions, Perlocutions, and Illocutionary Force 76
2. Illocutionary Force and the Gospel of Mark 80
D. H. P. Grice 82
1. Cooperativity, Conversational Maxims, and Conversational Implicature 82
2. Maxims, Implicature, and the Gospel of Mark 86
E. Roman Jakobson 88
1. Combination, Selection, and the Metaphoric and Metonymic Poles 88
2. The Poetic Function, the Metonymic Pole, and Mark’s Gospel 92
III. Conclusion: Analyzing the Language of Markan Parables 93
Chapter 2: Approaches to the Parables from Metaphor Theory 95
I. Introduction 95
II. Interpreters of Metaphor 98
A. Aristotle 98
1. Introduction 98
2. Definitions: Theory of Metaphor and Theory of Language 98
3. Criticisms of Aristotle: An Assessment 102
4. Conclusion: Essential Categories for the Conversation 106
B. I. A. Richards 107
1. Introduction: An Interanimation Theory of Metaphor 107
2. Definitions: Theory of Language and Theory of Metaphor 108
3. Conclusion: The First Interaction Theorist 111
4. Richards and the Gospel of Mark 111
C. Max Black 112
1. Introduction: A More Nuanced Interaction Theory 112
2. Definitions 112
3. Conclusion: A Clearer Interaction Account 117
4. Black and the Gospel of Mark 118
D. Monroe Beardsley 119
1. Introduction: Metaphor and Language 119
2. Definitions 119
3. Conclusion: Metaphors, Language, and Reality 124
4. Beardsley and the Gospel of Mark 124
E. Paul Ricoeur 125
1. Introduction 125
2. Definitions: Semantic Fields, Reference, Expression, Structure, World, and the Redescription of Reality 126
3. Conclusion: Metaphors and the World 129
4. Ricoeur and the Gospel of Mark 129
F. John Searle 131
1. Introduction 131
2. Definitions: Literal Meaning, Speaker Meaning, Sentence Meaning, Truth Conditions, and Background Assumptions 131
3. Conclusion: Searle, Metaphors, and Pragmatism 133
4. Searle and the Gospel of Mark 134
G. Eva Feder Kittay 134
1. Introduction 134
2. Definitions: Language As Expressive, Context-Dependent, and Systematic; Criteria for Metaphor; First- and Second-Order Meaning 135
3. Conclusion: Ambiguity, Metaphor Theory, and Semantic Fields 139
4. Kittay and the Gospel of Mark 142
H. George Lakoff and Mark Johnson 143
1. Introduction 143
2. Metaphor in Everyday Speech 144
3. Conclusion: Examples of Cognitive Metaphors 146
I. Gilles Fauconnier and Mark Turner 146
1. Introduction: Metaphor and Human Cognition 146
2. Definitions: Conceptual Blending and Mental Spaces 147
3. Conclusion: Turner, Fauconnier, and Semantic Analysis of Metaphors 149
4. Fauconnier, Turner, and the Gospel of Mark 150
III. Metaphors: A Working Understanding and Approach 150
A. Introduction 150
B. Identification 151
C. Interpretation 155
D. Resonating Metaphors 160
E. Metaphoric Commentary 162
Chapter 3: Mark 2:19-22 165
I. Introduction 165
II. Structure 169
A. Introduction 169
B. Macrostructure: Mark 1:16-3:19 170
C. Macrostructure: Meaning 175
D. Microstructure: Mark 2:18-22 178
III. Interpretation 181
A. Mark 2:19-20 181
B. Mark 2:21-22 188
1. Mark 2:21 191
2. Mark 2:22 200
IV. Conclusion: Mark 2:19-22, the Message of Jesus, and the Kingdom of God 206
Chapter 4: Mark 3:23-27 208
I. Introduction 208
II. Structure 215
A. Introduction 215
B. Macrostructure: Mark 3:9-4:2 216
C. Macrostructure: Meaning 225
D. Microstructure: Mark 3:23-27 229
III. Interpretation 232
A. Interpretation 1: Satan Does Not Cast Himself out 232
1. Mark 3:23 232
2. Mark 3:24-26 233
3. Mark 3:27 235
B. Incongruities and Ambiguities: Odd Features of 3:23-27 238
1. Introduction 238
2. Mark 3:23 238
3. Mark 3:24-26 241
4. Mark 3:27 243
5. Broader Incongruity in Mark 3:23-27 245
C. Mark 3:23-27 Reconsidered: Jesus’s Divided Kingdom 247
1. Mark 3:23 248
2. Mark 3:24-26 248
3. Mark 3:27 250
D. Metaphorical Functions of 3:23-27 251
IV. Conclusion: Divided Kingdoms and Jesus’s Passion in Mark’s Gospel 263
Chapter 5: Mark 4:1-34 265
I. Introduction 265
II. Structure 270
A. Macrostructure: Mark 3:9-6:31 270
B. Microstructure: 4:1-34 277
C. Microstructure: Meaning 280
III. Interpretation 283
A. Mark 4:1-2 283
B. Mark 4:3-9 284
C. Mark 4:10-13 286
D. Mark 4:14-20 290
E. Mark 4:21-25 293
F. Mark 4:26-29 300
G. Mark 4:30-32 304
H. Mark 4:33-34 309
IV. Conclusion: Mark 4:1-34 and Transformative Reading 309
Chapter 6: Mark 12:1-12 312
I. Introduction 312
II. Structure 316
A. Macrostructure 1: Mark 11:1-12:12 317
B. Macrostructure 1: Meaning 321
C. Macrostructure 2: 12:1-13:2 326
D. Macrostructure 2: The Meaning 329
E. Microstructure: 12:1-12 334
III. Interpretation 335
A. Mark 12:1-5 335
B. Mark 12:6-9 338
C. Mark 12:10-11 349
D. Mark 12:12 355
IV. Conclusion: The Beloved Son, the Temple, and the Ideology of Israel 356
Conclusion: Markan Parables, the Markan Jesus, and the Purpose of Mark’s Gospel 357
I. Introduction 357
II. Approaches to the Parables 358
A. Philosophy of Language 358
1. Frege 358
2. Strawson 359
3. Austin 360
4. Grice 362
5. Jakobson 363
6. Conclusion: Philosophy of Language and Approaches to Parables 365
B. Metaphor Theory 365
1. Focus and Frame 366
2. Vehicle and Tenor 367
3. Resonating Metaphor 369
4. Metaphoric Commentary 370
5. Conclusion: Mark’s Parables and Metaphor Theory 371
III. The Content of Mark’s Parables 371
A. The Kingdom of God 372
B. The Passion 374
C. The Resurrection and Post-Resurrection Life 376
D. Conclusion: An Assimilation of Worlds and the Parables’ Call 379
IV. Directions for Further Study 379
A. Markan Parables and the Words of the Markan Jesus 379
B. Mark’s Gospel and the Parabolic Genre 382
Appendix: That All Might Seek the Lord: The Meaning of Mark 1:37-38 389
Bibliography 398
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