Christ College, Australian College of Theology
The Gospel of Mark a Self-Authenticating Scripture
The Christian Church receives the Gospels as Holy Scripture, making the claim that God himself speaks through these books. But can this claim be substantiated, and on what basis? While it is sometimes held that the Church imposes its understanding on the books of the Bible from the outside, the Church’s claim, especially in the Reformed tradition, is that the books of Scripture are “self-authenticating” (αὐτόπιστος); they bear witness to their own divine authority (Calvin; Turretin; Bavinck). Christian theologies, however, often make this claim in general terms, abstracted from the particulars of any biblical book (e.g. Kruger 2012). The present paper therefore takes the Gospel of Mark as a test-case, and argues that the Gospel claims divine authority for itself. In particular, the paper demonstrates that the Gospel makes this claim in four ways: (1). the Gospel locates itself within a chain of authority that runs from God, through Jesus and his apostles, to terminate in its own written testimony (Mark 1:1, 11, 14–15; 3:13–19; 13:31; 14:9); (1). the Gospel presents its own narrative as the continuation and climax of the divinely-authorized Scriptures of Israel (Mark 1:2; 14:49); (3). the Gospel presents itself as a constituent element of an emerging new covenant canon (Mark 14:24–25); (4). the Gospel makes use of rhetorical devices which extend Jesus’ words from his original audience to the readers / auditors of the written work (Mark 4:8; 13:14, 37; 14:9). The paper concludes with some brief reflections on the significance of this understanding for the use of the Gospel in Christian ministry and mission.