The Power of Disorder: Ritual Elements in Mark's Passion Narrative

LI BRARY OF NEW TESTAMENT STUDIES

378 formerly the joumdl for the Study of the New Tf·stnmem Supplement serit>s

Edicor Mark Goodacre

Editorial Board John 1\,t. G. Bard a)•, Craig Blomberg, R. Alan Culpepper. j aml'S D. G. Dunn, CraiB A. Evans. Slephc n Fowl. Robert Fowler, Simon J. Gathcrcolc. Jo h n S. Kloppcnborg, Michael Labahn, Robcn \.Vall, Stcvt" Walton. Robcn L. Webb, Catrin H. Williams

This page intemiollai(J' hifi bla11k

THE POWER OF DISORDER

Ritual Elements in Mark's Passion Narrative

NICOLE W I LKINSON DURAN

.\\ 1&. I clark

Copyright 1\:) Nicole Wilkinson Duran, 2008 Published by T&T Ciarlt A Cominuum imprinf

The Tower Building, II York Road, London SEI 7NX SO Maiden Lane, Suite 704, New Yorlt, NY I0038 www.continuumbooks.com

All rights reserved. No part of this publit'3tion may be reproduced or lr.msmitled in ~my fonn or by any means, electronic or mechanical, including photocopying, recording or any infOnnation storage or retrieval S)'S-tem, without pennission in writing ffom the publishers. Nicole Wilkinson Duran has asserted her right under the Copyright, Designs and Patents Act. 1988, to be identified as the Author or this work British Library Cataloguing-in-Publication Data A catalogue record tor this book is available from the British Library ISBN-10: HB: 0-567.03306-6 ISBN-13: HB: 978-0-567-03306-2 Typeset by Data Standards Limited, Frome, Somerset, UK. Printed on :.cid-lree paper in Great Britain by MPG Biddies ltd, King's Lynn, Norfolk

CoNTENTs

A.bbrel iations

VI

1

C HAI'l'f.rt 1 IMAGINING ·rHI! PASSION AS Rn'lJAJ. CJ.JAJ~rt:R 2 0 Jf'H! REN1'1Ai'tON: M ARKt No Rn·uAL. SeEJNo SACftl f"JCE CJ.JAJ"'I'tiR 3

Ret•errnoN 1N U NlfEJ•SATt.u TIME

CHAI>l't:R 4 SmtS'J"I1 u·rtoN t N Fe:,1'1VAL, SAcRJf' JC£ ANU S·roRY

CJ.JAJ~rt:R

5

' Lr:.T nu:

0:-m \VHo

UNOERS"'.ANOs. UNOERS'l'ANu·

24

55 77

99

Bib/iogniphy

124

Index

131

AnBR~VIATIONs

e i:v 1:1) 05. p. 104. 20 See D.tJVid Cnmsco. Cil}' tJj Saaific(' (Bos.ton: Beacon Press. 1999). p. 14. for a discussion of the ritunl mlture of the c-ity. 21 &c Malbon. N(frralir~· S('(tce and Mythic Mt>(ming. pp. 107- 40. Much of ~falbon ·s

discussion of -tc:ss. 1963). p. ''ii. Cf. J i"SIJJ a11d tile RewJ{IIIimwries. trans. G:trc:th Putnam (New York: Harpe-r nnd Row. 1970). .J3 Bruce Chilton. Tire Temple of Jesus (Uni\'crsity Park. PA: Pl·nnsylvanin State Uni ~r.s:i ty Pl't'SS. 199'2). H "'lyt d.Qtov (j>ayrtv 'lt ""i .tlt't! (Minneapolis: Fortress Press. 1993). p. 9: Edward W. Said. Culturi! and lm{N'rialism (New York: Vintage Books. 1993). p. 262. -H

48

The Poll'er of Disorder 24 Meyt\' t.u '>toi-:; m~~ t>Uvata• Eatc.wa.; !:atavtiv t~&AAeL\' •' tavtt)v ~ttQ1vf:hj ol! bVvo:uu utath) V«L •l f3a o 11\tk-t h:dVIl 25 ~. p. 187. 5-f Eilhcrg·Schwaru:. The Sawtgt>. pp. 183-8-4.

52

The Poll'er of Disorder

contro l. Unintentional blood separates those who bleed fro m society. By the-ir blatant involveme nt in t he. natural cycle that includes death, they a re te mporarily exiled fro m t he socia l \\,.orld. But t he blood of circumcisio n and sacrifice. both s hed within ritual boundaries, produced and d isplayed with intention, putify, and as contamination separates~ purific..-ttion unites. Thus the baby boy is cleansed from the blood o f his mo ther's womb and broug,ht into pro per line.ag.e with his male a ncestors by the blood of circum cision. He is thus huma nized. initiated into t he patri~uchal

human community. Similarly, t he blood of sacrifice con-

s truc ts the lineag,e o f the community as a social phenomeno n, as women's blood cons tructs it as a natural phenomenon.55 Nancy Jay notes that purific.ation from contact with a corpse is ~lccomplish ed through a sacrifice. one that seems to be socially reproducing: menstrual blood a t men's hands. The instruction that t he sacrificia l victim be a red heifer ensures that it will be fe ma le, e•o~\\1 .tt t\no~tec~l~'

CWT(~l 1 K(U eQXtTCU 'tO 't(>l TO\' i\omov K-ai tivanc.tl.'leuet:;

Kt'll At)-'lt Ullto v;

IO:Cd3tvbtTf

to

And coming a~ain he fou nd them sleeping, for their eyes were heavy. and they did not know what to a nswer him. And he comes the third time and says to them, ·.A.re you still lying down and resting:'?' (14.4041a) Jesus ·came for the third time'. \\rit hout. as far as we've read. having gone fo r the third time. His second repetition of t he praye r is s ummarized : his third g.oes without saying. In fact, the d isciples· failure to watc h has eclipsed Jesus· prayer as t he repeated acl. as tho ugh their failure to pmy~ or even to stay awake. with him has itself become ::a pa rt o f Jesus' praye r ritual - more important thnn the prayer itself. \Vhat emerg.es is the interplay between the no rmally unrepealable particulnr· ities of ritual - those experiential aspects that (!QU\' l (dlicago: Uniwlsity of Chicago p. 10.1.

P~~

1987).

106

The Poll'er of Disorder

constit utes the ritllrialist &ailing q{ll:t~ Gru{lt'l of Mark. lrans. Mallhcw J. O'Connell {Muryknoll. NY: Orbis. 191! 1). pp. J2- J.

'Let 1he One Who Undnstamls. Undcrswnd'

109

description that resounds with connota tions: o f ritual. Fowle.r no tes that 'the Gospel is: designed no t so rnuc.h to say as to do something to its reader .. . Even Mnrk's direction is perfo rmulive and rhetorical. ' 2 1 Commenti ng o n Mark. Jo hn Donnhue asserts: similarly tha t the goal o f narrative is 'to so engage the reader o r hea rer that he experiences himself a n expe rience simila r to the o ne narmted and that he identifies with the characte rs:'.:t:! From a very different angle. both Etienne Trocme a nd Joel G reen have daimed that Mark 's Passio n shows sig ns o f having been used as a dtual script before being integrated into the gospe J. 2 l That is. critics from bo th lite rary and historical perspectives have come to the conclusion t ha t Mark's gospel invites: t he reader to do something. The power to construct a community - a perfo nnative quality associated wit h rit ual since Durkheim - also has: been a ttributed to Murk's: gospel by its literary re.aders. The iro ny \Vhich is so consistent a n element of Mark's narrative, accord ing to bo th Camery-Hogatt a nd Fowle r, works to engender community a mo ng the readers: a nd between the reader und narrato r, all o f whom sh"re an underst:md ing denied to ' those outside· (4.11 )?4 The readers have t he e-xperience of reading in commo n, as: ritual participants have the rit ual e xperience in commo n; since experiences: fo rm li\'es. a community life e merges. In emphasizing Mark's performative power.. the sense that it is what Norman Perrin te rmed a primordial myth - a story meant to order its re-aders:' world - scho la rs o ften emphasize the power o f na rrative itself. 15 C hed Myers q uotes litem ry a nd c ultural c ritic Fredric Ja meson lo the effecl t hat, 'The production of nnrrative form is to be seen as a n ideologicalolct in its own right, with the fu nc.tio n of inventinfi imaginary o r fo rmal "solmions" to unresolvable social contradiction.•_a Fernando Belo like\\~se sees Murk's: c hoice of narra tive as: a subversive one.27 But these re-ad ings do no t fully explain how Mark manages to reach t his fundamental level of experience, the level a t which o rder is made from t~h aos . If reading makes a community. if narrative is subversive. why

21 22

Fow'lcr. LN tilt? &:adl!r U11denHmd. p. 211.

Do nahue. Are You rki' Chrisr?. p. '"'9. 23 Grccn. Detfllr ofJe5JtS. p. 19 1; E:til~llle Troc:mC. The Pt~ssion tl.f l.iuugy(london: SCM Press. 1983). p. 87. 24 Fowic:r. Let tht> Rt>uder Undl!r,\·tcmd. p. 12; Jerry Cnm and emp hasizes that there may be 'meaningfulness against reason' . Donah ue quotes Leo Brandy to the e flect that ·Both novelist and historian . . . tried to present a plnusible world , complete in itself. yet d irectly relevant to the reader's actual life:28 It is t his direct relevance to the reader's life t ha t I ma intain Mark emph.-1sizes. In order to maintain the relevance to what he sees as a c haotic world, he leaves puzzles unsolved, a nd questions unanswered. To t his extent his narra tive takes on the qua lities o f ritua L and it is becnuse his use of the narra ti ve fo rm pushes tO\\tard the chao tic edge of order through its rit ua l qualities that .M ark's choice of n~urati ve seems so particula rly meaningful to his readers. In the first chapte r of this book, I identified ritunl as one point o n a continuum of e fforts to d igest and make sense of lived expe rience. These e fl'orts move. in Victor Turner's terminology. between sensory a nd ideological poles in t heir effo rts to (on t he sensory e nd) keep cont~1ct with the wealth of meaning in experience. and (on the ideological e nd) to organize that meaning into categories accessible to consciousness?)~ Rit ua l. composed by framing bodily experience. maintains a position on this continuum close (o the sensory pole~ it chooses to resemble unprogrammed life ra ther t ha n to be more fully a menable to consciousness. Narra tive a lso occupies a s pace on t his continuum, fu rther towards the ideological po le t ha n is ritual by virtue of the former's dependence on the limiting a nd defining power of words. The reader of narrative, like the purticipant in ritual. is indoctrinated into a made-up world. organized by hurna n hands. But narrative takes the experience t hat rit ua l has framed and selected o ut of t he realm of experience itself. into a realm over which the aut hor has greater control. as creator o f this huma n reflectio n of the world no t made by human ha nds. Into t he. noumtive \'.:orld. as o pposed to t he ritual o ne, no unprogrammed experience can now e nte r. except the experience of the reader herself. However much Mark's gospe l may d isplay and evoke ritual's position on the continuum I ha ve described, it is of course fa r more d irectly occupying t he position of narrative t here. J do not ha ve to prove t hat 2S 29

Dotwhuc. Arf" J'o u tile Chri.f t:'. p. !29. Viclor Turn but what comes out of that mo uth - not food, then. but words (7. 14). A nd indeed, Jesus speaks less in this gospel thnn in a ny other. The g.ospel itself is shorter thnn a ny othe.r . us t hough

'Let 1he One Who Undnstamls. Undcrswnd'

113

the author also were a person o f few words. Mark's e nding~ fnmously abrupt, leaves: us: \\~t h the impression that t he author, having lost his grip on Jesus' signifying. body. has. like Jesus himself, aba ndoned language. For in t his gospel Jesus docs seem. as he moves towards the cross, to give up on humo.m language. He consistently answers his interrogators wit h silence. The high priests remark on it. "Have you no answer?' a nd the narrato r reasserts it, turning Jesus' silence into the words of the gospel: •sut he was silent and d id not a nswer.' At the next questio n. ·Are you the ?v1es:sia hT Jesus b ursts o ut with more than a nyo ne wanted to hear (" I am: and you will see t he Son of Man seated nt t he right hand o f the Power, and coming with the clouds o f henven!' 14.62), a nd the.n lapses into t he silence that continues up to and includ ing the tomb. Before Pilate, Jesus' o nly answer to the political charge t hat he is King o f t he Jews is t he ambiguous, a& Atycu::~ ·you say it' (other possible translations include: ·you a re speaking', ·you speak', and 'are you sa r ing it?'). Pilate is waiting for Jesus to say it, b ut Jesus speaks o nly o f the speech of his interrogator. The t ruth t hat emerges in \vords befOre the priestly council cannot be spoke.n before t he Romans, whom Jesus acknowledges wield t he pO\\>'er of language - "you speak' - with their power over his body. And fro m this moment. when he throws the act o f speak ing to Pilate like yesterday's newspaper, Jesus does not again speak to human beings. His o nly remnining words - incomprehensible to the people who hea r them - are the last desperate prayer fro m the c.ross, spoken to a n absent God a nd itself a ritual recitntion o f Psalm 22: ·My God, my God , why have you forsa ken meT Since we never see the risen Jesus in t his gospel o r hea r his voice, these a re the words left ringin.g in o ur ea rs when lhe gospel closes in silence. Elaine Scarry in her book, Tlw Body in Pain. writes that the pain o f torture destroys language. \Vhat the tortured says under duress is not a betrayal in any real sense. but simply a n indication thnt the torturer has succeeded in ro bbing the victim's former world of all me.aning. 31 The victim is no t weighing his cause o r comrades against t he prospect o f pain: the pnin has simply grown so la rge as to blot out everything but itself. There is nothing to betrny~ since there is nothing beyond the i mm~d i ate experience o f the torture. Peter's denial interestingly follows lhis pattern. t hough Pete r is being tormented o nly by questions and fear - he simply does not know Jesus until it is over. Thus t he torturers become world-creato rs. all pO\verful. destroying everything that the 31 Elaine Scarry. Thf' Bm~r ill Puin (New York/O:tforti: Oxford Uni,•usity Press. 1985). p. 35.

114

The Poll'er of Disorder

it as they choose. In t he new world t hat the to rture constructs, in t he new lang.uage. t he power of t he. torture.r and of the regime t hat the torturer represents looms la rge, reaching d ivine proportions. Jesus· silence in the face of his interrogators' desire that he speak seems to indicate not a refusal, but an inability. h is us though t he la nguage Jesus would have used wit h his t~ap t ors has given o ut. or been beate-n out o f him. He becomes incapable of putting t ho ught into words. speaking only in quotatio ns. a nd o nly to God. The Sanhedrin and t he Ro mans a like insist upon a n answer a nd are amazed that he does not speak. but they a re a t t he same time thoroughly uninterested in anything he might ha ve to say. Scarry concludes about interrogative torture tha t. 'while the con tent o f the prisoner's a nswer is only sometimes important to t he re~ime. the fo rm of the a nswer, the fact o f his a nswering, is a lways c ruc.ial':b. The interrogations in the gospel nre appropriately void of conte nt; the point is simply to prod him to speak . Despite their surprise at Jesus' silence, both t he Sanhedrin a nd t he Romoms seem satisfied to let his body do the talking.. VICtim has known as real and replacing

The Language of Women As I ha ve
_) I ?'

Bibliogwphr

Combs-Schilling, M. E.. Saaed Pe1Jormances: Islam, Sexualily. and

Sarrijh·«. New Yo rk: Columbia University Press. 1989. C rawley, Ernest. 'Sacred Dress', pp. 138-39 in Mary Ellen Roach a nd Joanne Bubolz Eicher (eds). Dress. Adomment. and the Social Order. New York: Jo hn Wiley a nd Sons, 1965. Crossan. John Dominic.~ The Cross thlll Spoke San Francisco: Harper and Row. 1988. C ullma nn, Osca r. The C!Jristologr oj'the New Teswment, tra ns. Shirley C. 1

Guth rie a nd Charles A . M . Hall, Philadelphia: Westminster Press,

1963. - - Jesus tWd ilw Rew)/utionarics. trans. Gareth Putnam. New York: Ha rper and Row. 1970. C umo nt. Fra nz, ' Le Roi des Satumales'. Rente de Philologie XXI (1897), pp. 14J-53. De He usch, Luc, Saaiflte in Africa: A Slmrlllw lisl Approath, Ma nchester. UK: Manchester University Press, 1985. Demirer, Yiicel, Tradition am/ Politics: Ncn· Year FcstiWJ/s in Turkey. Ph.D. Thesis at Ohio State University, 2004. Derrida. Jacques, ' White Mytholoj!.y', pp. 207- 71 in Margins oj' Philosophy~ trans. Alan Bass, Chicago: Universily of Chicago Press.

1982. Dona hue. John R., Are Yon the Chris/?. SBL Dissertation Series, no. 10, Missoula: Scholars Press. 1973. Douglas. Ma ry, Purify tmd Danger: An Analysis of til" Conl'CfiiS oj' Pollwion rmd Taboo, London: Ark Paperbacks, 1966. Dowd, Sha ro n and Elizabeth Struthers Malbon, •'n 1e Signir.t,1nce o f Jesus' Oealh in l\•1ark: Narralive. Context and Authorial Audience·. JBL 125/2(2006}, p. 27 1. Dreyer. Elizabeth A .. Tile CroJs in Christian Tradilion: Prom Paul to Bmrmwlllre, Mahwah. NJ: Pa ulist Press. 200 1. Drury, John. ' Ma rk'. in Tire Litermy Guide 10 lire Bible, ed. Robert Aller and Frank Kem1ode, Cambridge. MA: Harvard University Press,

1987. Dumas. Alexa nder. 'The Man in t he Iron Mask' , final chapter of Tire Vitomle de Brt1ge/mme, New York: Oxford University Press, 1998, first published in 1848. Duran. Nico le W., Hti\'iug Men for Dinner: Bib/i('(t/ JVomen's Deadly Banquels. CJe,•eland: Pilg.rirn Press, 2006. - - 'Jesus: A Western Perspective'. Global Bible Commenuuy . ed. Daniel Patte. Nash,•ille: Abingdon Press, 2004. Durkhtdm, Emile., The ElemenlllrJJ Forms of the Religious Life•, Lrans. Karen E. Fields. New York: 'n1e Free Press. 1995. Ehle, John. Wiwer People, New York: John F. Bla ir, 199· 53/ 1- 2 (1999), pp. 89-109. Trocme. Etienne. Tile Fomuilion of Ihe Gospel Aaording 10 Mark, trans. Pamela Gaughan. Philadelphia: Westmi nster Press. 1975. - - The Passion afi Liwrgy: A Swdy in the Or(s:-in of the Passion Namifi>•es in file Four Gosptd.;, London: SCM Press, 1983. Trumbull, H. Clay, The Blood Col'elllml, Philadelphia: Jo hn D. WaHles. 1893. Turne.r. Victor, Dramas. Fields, and Meltlphors: Symbolic Anion iu Human Sodety . llhaca: Cornell Unhlersily Press, 1974. - - The Fores/ uf Symbols: Aspel'ls ~( Ndembn Riliwl, Ithaca: Cornell University Press, 1967. - - On Ihe Edge of file Bash: Alllhropology as £xperitmt·e, ed. Edith L B. Turner. T ucson: Uni\'ersity o r Arizona Press. 1985. Valeri, Valerio, Kingship tmd Saaijit(:: Ritual tmd Sudety in Ancient Hawaii, trans. Paula Wis-sing, Chic.ago a nd Lo ndon: University o f Chicag.o Press. 1985. Van Gennup, Arnold, Tile Riles ~( Passage. tm ns. Monika B. Vizedom and Ga brielle L. Caffee. Chic<Jgo: University of Chicago Press, 1960. Van le rsel. Ba.stian M . F., Reading Mark, tra ns. W. H. Bis.schero ux. Collegeville. MN: Liturgical Press, 1988. Via . Dan 0 ., Jr, Kerygma and Conw(~r in tlw Nt..' W Teswment. Philadelphia: Fortress Press, 1975. Vog.e l:«mg. M. E. and W. J. van Bekkum, ·~·leaning and Symbolism o f C lothing in Ancient Ne-a r Eastern Texts', in Sl'ripta Signa Voris:

130

Tile Pown of Disorder

Studies about Srripts, Scriptures, Scribes and Lauguages in the Nettr East, 26S-84, ed. H. L. J. Yanstiphout. K. Jongeling, F. Leemhuis a nd G. J. Reinink, Groningen: Egbert Forste n. 1986. Waetjen. Herman C .. A Reordering o( Powttr: A Socio-Politiml Re(l(ling o( .11,-fark's Gospel. Minneap<Jlis: Fortress Press. 1984. Weedon, Theodore J., Sr, Mark : Tmditiom iu Confli('f, Philadelphia: Fortress Press, I97 I. Wendland, Paul, 'Jesus als Sa turnalien-Koenig·. Hermes 33 (1898), pp. I 78-79. Wensinck. A. J., 'The Semitic New Year and the Origin or Eschato lo£y', Ai·ta Oriemalia. Havni: Munksg.aard. 1923. Williams>J~1mes G.. The Bible, Violence am/the Smn•d: Uberatitm from the Myth of Sanctioued Violence, San Francisco: Harper, 1992. Wills. l awrence M., The Jeh· iu fire Court of the Foreign King: Andeul Jewish Court Leg1mdr, Han•ard Dissertation Series. no. 26. Minneap<Jiis: Fortress Press. 1990. Winter. Paul. 11w Trial ofJesus. St udia Judaica. Band I. Berlin: Walter de Gruyter. 1961. Wrede. Wilhelm, The Messiauir S,;c•rel, trans. J. C. G. G reig. Cambrid£e: J. C la rke, 1971. Films

Anuie Hall. Woody Allen, d irector, 1977. Fijiy First Dates. Peter Segal, directo r. 2004. Groundhog Day. Ha rold Ramis. directo r, 1993. Lau ~(the Belles. George Sch
15.38 105. 120 15.44-45 53 16.5 93 Luk~~

as a "hok I. 12. 42. ~ - 63.9-1.

110. 115. 1:!2 3.10-14 ti'J 1.31-50 115 13.33 34 22. 19 63 22.20 65 22.5 1 ~ 1 -2

Jobn. as o whole I. 42. 44. 53, 1)3, 110, 118. 122 2.19-2 1

JI M 11.16 34 nu 1 4 1- 2 20.5-7 93 Acl" 1.18

53

Rt>Telatioo

5.12

44

INDEX Agrippa 70 Akitu 4. 82 a nti-sc.:mitic H4 apocalypse. ap<x:alyptic

19, 25. 26.

d ulln