The "New Creation," the Crucified and Risen Christ, and the Temple: A Pauline Audience for Mark

Abstract

In the wake of the debate on Gospel audiences, this article illustrates one way of engaging in an explicitly theological interpretation of a Gospel, constrained and enriched by canonical and historical considerations. Building on the arguments of scholars who see "new exodus/new creation" concepts implicitly underlying much of Mark, it asks how portions of this narrative (1:1–11, 15:33–16:8) might be heard if we construe the audience as having been shaped by Paul's theology of "new creation" that underlies 1 Corinthians. This interpretive move assumes that Mark is an attempt to articulate the significance of Jesus within a scriptural matrix, that is, within Isaiah's "conversation" with Genesis and Exodus. This 1 Corinthians audience is an intracanonical, hermeneutical construct intended to further Mark's attempt to articulate the significance of Jesus within a broader scriptural matrix. The reading of Mark that emerges contends that Jesus proleptically baptizes with the Spirit as he forges a new creation throughout the Gospel; at the crucifixion, the Spirit moves from Jesus into the temple (a microcosm of the old order/cosmos) to split the outer curtain signifying its end; and the Spirit continues Jesus' work by raising him from the dead as a microcosm of the new creation.