Abstract
Mark 6:30-8:21 is a clearly unified part of the Gospel of Mark. It was elaborated from traditional materials into a complex, concentrically organized, literary structure, in order to develop a portrayal of Jesus not usually associated with this Gospel, i.e. an identification of Jesus with the figure of Wisdom in Jewish literature and thought. Evidence for this comes from (a) the character of Mark 8:14-21; (b) the concentrated use of "bread" as a metaphor for "teaching" in this section; (c) the Markan redaction of a traditional sequence of materials recoverable also in John 6; and (d) the parallels with the figure of Wisdom in Proverbs and Sirach to be found in this block of material where other titles for Jesus are absent. Particular attention is given to the central part of the concentric structure, 7:1-23. The position taken here implicitly challenges other analyses (e.g. Quesnell; Beck; Fowler...) of this material.
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