Question · FaithLogic

Doesn't Mark's Gospel show a lower, merely human Jesus — with the deity a later invention by John?

No. Mark's Christology is high — it is just carried by the story rather than by speeches. Mark opens by applying an Isaiah 40 text about the coming of YHWH to Jesus, has him forgiving sins and being charged with blasphemy by chapter 2, stilling the storm as only God does, walking on the sea while speaking the divine "I am," and being condemned in chapter 14 for claiming the throne of Daniel 7. And Paul's letters — earlier than Mark — already place Jesus inside the Shema (1 Corinthians 8:6) and record Aramaic prayer addressed to him ("Marana tha," 1 Corinthians 16:22). The "evolution from low to high" model has largely been abandoned by specialists (Hengel, Hurtado, Bauckham). The councils' two-natures doctrine explains the fully human scenes without lowering the Christology.

In more depth

The claim is that the earliest layer of the tradition — Mark, and behind it the historical Jesus — gives us a Galilean teacher and healer, and that "Jesus is God" was built up gradually until John (c. 90–100) states it outright. Three problems.

1 — The earliest evidence is already high, and it predates Mark

Paul's undisputed letters (c. AD 48–62) are our oldest Christian documents, and they quote traditions Paul says he "received." In them, already: Jesus is the one "through whom are all things," set inside the Shema (1 Corinthians 8:6); he is invoked in Aramaic prayer — "Marana tha," "Our Lord, come" (1 Corinthians 16:22); and an early hymn describes him as existing "in the form of God" and receiving the name and worship reserved for YHWH in Isaiah 45:23 (Philippians 2:6–11). This is within ~15–20 years of the crucifixion, among Jewish believers. There is no long evolutionary runway.

2 — Mark's Christology is high — narrated, not lectured

Mark 1:2–3 applies to Jesus a prophecy about preparing the way of the LORD (Isaiah 40:3; Malachi 3:1). Mark 2:5–7: Jesus forgives sins and is charged with blasphemy — "who can forgive sins but God alone?" Mark 4:39–41: he stills the storm-sea with a word (Psalm 89:9; 107:29) and the disciples ask, "Who then is this?" Mark 6:48–50: he walks on the sea (Job 9:8), says "It is I" (ego eimi), and "intended to pass by them" — the language of God passing by Moses and Elijah to reveal his glory (Exodus 33; 1 Kings 19). Mark 14:62: under oath he claims the throne of Psalm 110 and the coming-on-the-clouds of Daniel 7, and is condemned for blasphemy. Mark 15:39: a Roman centurion confesses "Truly this man was the Son of God." The critic's point that Mark's method is indirect is correct — but indirect is not low. Mark wants the reader to reach the confession by watching.

3 — The specialists have moved away from the evolutionary model

Martin Hengel (The Son of God, 1976) argued that more happened in Christology in the first two decades than in the next seven centuries. Larry Hurtado (Lord Jesus Christ, 2003) documented that devotional practice — hymning, invoking, baptising into the name of — treats Jesus as a rightful recipient of worship from the earliest observable stage. Richard Bauckham (Jesus and the God of Israel, 2008) argued that the earliest Christians included Jesus within the unique identity of the one God — sharing his throne, his name, and his acts of creation and rule. Even scholars who do not confess Christ's deity concluded that he was being treated as worthy of worship almost immediately.

4 — The fully human scenes are the incarnation, not a lower Christology

Mark's Jesus is tired, hungry, grieved, and prays in agony — and the church built its doctrine out of exactly these texts, not around them. The eternal Son took a complete human nature (Definition of Chalcedon, 451): hunger and grief belong to him as man; stilling storms and forgiving sins belong to him as God. Gregory of Nazianzus stated the reading rule (assign the lofty expressions to the Godhead, the lowly to the humanity); Athanasius, Cyril, Leo and John of Damascus worked it out in detail. See the section "Jesus Is God — The Full Case, and Every Objection From His Limitations."

This is part of the FaithLogic study library — the biblical, historical and manuscript case that Jesus is God, with every claim linked to its source. Open the interactive version for search, cross-references, read-aloud, and the full library.