The Transformational Role of Discipleship in Mark 10:13-16: Passage Towards Childhood

Description

Katherine Joy Kihlstrom Timpte addresses a gap in scholarship by answering the question: “how is a child supposed to be the model recipient of the kingdom of God?” While most scholarship on Mark 10:13-16 agrees that children are metaphorically employed because of their qualities of dependence, Timpte argues that it is more specifically an image of the disciple’s radical transformation, which both mirrors and reverses the traditional rites of passage by which a child became an adult. Timpte suggests that Jesus, by insisting that one must enter the Kingdom of God as a child, invokes two interlacing images. First, to enter the Kingdom of God, one must be fundamentally transformed and changed. Second, this transformation reverses the rite by which a child would have become an adult, removing the adult’s superior status. Beginning with a summary of the scholarship surrounding children in the Bible, Timpte explores the perception of children in the ancient world, their rites of passage and entrance into adulthood, and contrasting this with the processing of entering the kingdom of God, while also highlighting childish characters in Mark. Timpte concludes that to enter into the kingdom as a child means that one must strip off those things one gained by leaving childhood behind: wealth, respect, family, much like Jesus, who throughout Mark’s Gospel moves from powerful to powerless, respected to despised, and accepted by all to rejected even (seemingly) by God. Jesus models transformation to childhood in an emphasis on what the Kingdom of God is like. Cover Contents Acknowledgments List of Abbreviations List of Abbreviations of Ancient Sources 1 Introduction and Scholarly Overview Introduction History of Scholarship Overview of the Current Project 2 “Like a Child”: Perceptions of Children in the Ancient World Negative Characteristics of Children Positive Characteristics of Children Death and the Child: Unfulfilled Hopes Conclusion and Summary 3 Rites of Passage and Entrance into Adulthood Van Gennep and the Rites of Passage Victor Turner’s Analysis of the Liminal Mary Douglas The Assumption of the Toga Virilis as a Rite of Passage The Wedding Ceremony as a Rite of Passage Summary and Conclusion 4 Rites of Passage and Entrance into the Kingdom of God Mark 10:13-16 Mark 10:13-16 Parallels Complementary Passages in Mark Summary and Conclusion 5 To Become Like a Child: Children and Childish Characters in Mark Healing Narratives with Children: Children as Vulnerable, Liminal, and Cherished Jesus’s Teachings about Discipleship The Disciples and Jesus: The Struggle to Understand True Discipleship Conclusion and Summary 6 Conclusions and Looking Forward Looking Forward Bibliography Index