Rending the Veil_Messianic Secret

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Rending the Veil Concealment and Secrecy in the History of Religions

New York University Annual Conference

in Comparative Religions

Edited by

Elliot R. Wolfson New York University

SEVEN BRIDGES PRESS, LLC

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Copyright © 1999 by Seven Bridges Press, LLC

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Rending the veil: concealment and secrecy in the history of religions I edited by Elliot R. Wolfson.

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Includes bibliographical references and index. ISBN 1-889119-03-2

1. Secrecy-Religious aspects. I. Wolfson, Elliot R. BL65.S37 R46 1999 291.3-dc21

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ELLIOT R. WOLFSON

the invisible, the manifest and the secret, a basic tenet of the orientation toward reality, which is experienced as filled with spirits of vitality that are visually apprehended by those who have the proper devotion or faith, which signifies the proper connectedness to the teacher or to the teaching rather than (as in Western religious traditions) the ability to believe that which cannot be seen by the senses or proven through logic. According to the Tibetan traditions, the conflation of the visible and the invisible is realized in the figure of the Lama who is both present and absent, seen and unseen. The Lama is considered to be the fourth jewel that embodies the traditional three jewels of Buddhism: the body of Buddha, his teaching, and his connection with community. Attachment to the guru, therefore, provides an opportunity for the disciple to find a way to the invisible secret visibly embodied in his enlightened being.

Although the studies in this volume certainly do not exhaust the subject of secrecy in religious traditions, they nevertheless represent a good sampling of a variety of features that characterize this complex and ultimately impenetrable phenomenon. Indeed, what is so engaging about the secret is that it remains enigmatic in spite of the concerted effort on the part of many very fine scholars to clarify the issue through logical analyses. To be what it is the secret must persist as a secret. In many different cultural settings, the notion of secrecy structurally embraces the paradox of the hidden and the manifest even though the specific content of these may vary from one tradition to another. In the lived experience of encountering the mystery, the disclosure and the concealment are not polar opposites. On the contrary, what is disclosed is disclosed because it is concealed, and what is concealed is concealed because it is disclosed. Perhaps the most important lesson to be learned from the essays included in this book is that rending the veil itself is a form of veiling in which the veil unveils what the unveiling veils.

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Messianic Secret and the Gospel of Mark: Secrecy in Jewish Apocalypticism, the Hellenistic Mystery Religions, and Magic

Adela Yarbro Collins

The "messianic secret" is a concept in the history of interpretation of the Gospel of Mark, not a phrase that occurs in the text itself. William Wrede coined the term das Messiasgeheimnis and used it in the title of his very influential study of Mark that appeared in 1901.1 He developed a hypothesis to explain a number of features of Mark that he believed had the same purpose, namely, the commands to demons and disciples not to reveal the identity of ]esus,2 the instructions to those who are healed by Jesus not to speak about their healing,3 the lack of understanding by the disciples,4 certain individual features that betray a tendency against publicity, and the so-called parable-theory.

1. William Wrede, Das Messiasgeheimnis in den Evangelien: Zugleich ein Beitrag zum Verstiindnls des Markusevangellums (1901; reprint Gottlngen, 1969); ET The Messianic Secret (Cambridge/London: 1971).

2. For example, Mark 1:34 (demons), 3:12 {unclean spirits), and 8:30 (disciples).

3. For example, the leper in Mark 1:44.

4. For example, Mark 8:14-21.

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ADELA YARBRO COLLINS

The latter is expressed in the enigmatic and shocking saying of Jesus, addressed to a restricted group of those around him together with the Twelve, "To you has been given the mystery of the kingdom of God,

but to those who are outside, everything happens in parables, in order that, seeing, they may see and not perceive, and hearing, they may hear and not comprehend, lest they turn and it be forgiven them."5 Wrede did not believe that the messianic secret in Mark reflected historical reality. Rather, he treated it as a development in the pre-Markan Christian tradition, intended to explain the difference between the situation before the resurrection of jesus and the situation afterward. He believed that the key to the meaning and function of the messianic secret is the statement that, after his transfiguration, jesus ordered Peter, james, and John to tell no one what they had seen, "except when the Son of Man had risen from the dead."6 Wrede believed that the various types of the secrecy theme were all intended to explain the fact that Jesus' life and work were unmessianic, whereas his followers came to believe that he was the Messiah after they experienced him as risen from the dead.

Other scholars have argued that the messianic secret has some basis in the life of Jesus. 7 Beginning with Rudolf Bultmann, however, many scholars have interpreted the secrecy theory as a creation of the evangelist. Bultmann argued that the device served to link the Hellenistic Christian community's proclamation of the Son of God coming down to earth, that is, the Christ-myth, with the narrative traditions about Jesus.8 The other great form-critic, Martin Dibelius, argued that the secrecy theory had an apologetic function. It was intended to explain why, in spite of so many proofs of his supernatural power, Jesus was not recognized as the Messiah during his lifetime.9

5. Mark 4:11-12.

6. Mark 9:9.

7. Schweitzer, Cullmann, Taylor, Schniewind, Lohmeyer, and Sjoberg.

8. Rudolf Bultmann, The History of the Synoptic Tradition (Germ. ed. 1931; ET rev. ed.; New York/Evanston: Harper & Row, 1968), pp. 347-348; see also Helkki Raisanen The «Messianic Secret« in Mark (Edinburgh: T. & T. Clark, 1990), p. 55. '

9. Martin Dlbelius, From Tradition to Gospel (New York: Charles Scribner's Sons, 1935), p. 223. Dlbellus had many followers, e.g., T. A. Burklll and Walter Schmlthals; see Raisanen, The «Messianic Secret« in Mark, pp. 56-60.

Messianic Secret and ttze Gospel of Mark

Some scholars have argued against Wrede's thesis that the several secrecy themes have the same origin and purpose. Ulrich Luz argued that the "miracle secret" and the "messianic secret proper" should be distinguished. According to him, the miracle secret is an independent motif which serves to highlight the glory of jesus that manifests itself irresistibly. He interpreted the messianic secret proper in terms of the theology of the cross.10 Jiirgen Roloff agreed with Luz's separation of these two motifs, but argued that the messianic secret proper should also be divided into two parts: commands to silence addressed to demons and commands addressed to disciples. Schuyler Brown, Heikki Raisanen, and others have argued that the parable-theory should be interpreted without reference to the messianic secret.11

In the scholarship that I have reviewed up to this point, the primary methods that have been employed are the reconstruction of the history of tradition in historical context and literary-theological interpretations of the text of Mark. Recently Gerd TheiBen has taken a different approach. Applying the perspective of the sociology of knowledge, he has suggested that the secrecy motifs had a pragmatic function. That which is kept secret is removed from social sanctions. It is kept secret to avoid evoking such sanctions on the part of those with the power to enforce them. As a rule, every secret is an attempt by a group to protect itself. When the secret is broken, the group is endangered. Assuming a correspondence between the world of the text and the social world of the audience, TheiBen suggested that the tension between keeping their Christian identity secret and revealing it was a problem for the audience, just as an analogous tension was a problem for jesus as a character in the narrative with whom the audience would identify. By telling the story of jesus, the Gospel of Mark offers advice to the audience. They may keep their identity secret with a good conscience. But they are warned that it will be impossible to do so in the long run. When they are discovered, they must

10. Ulrich Luz, noas Geheimnismotlv und die markinlsche Christologle," Zeitscllri{t {iir die neutestamentlicl!e Wissenscha{t rmd die Kunde der Alteren Kirche 78 (1965), pp. 169-185; ET "The Secrecy Motif and the Markan Christology," in C. M. 1\rckett, ed., The Messianic Secret (London: 1983), pp. 75-96.

11. For discussion and bibliographical references, see Raisanen, The «Messianic Secret" in Mark, pp. 7b-73.

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confess their identity bravely, as Jesus did, and risk conflict that may lead to death. By means of this approach, TheiBen was able to make a case for the unity of the secrecy themes, since they all have the same basic purpose. 12

Although TheiBen's study and those of earlier scholars are illuminating, the comparative history of religions approach has not yet been applied in a serious way to this problem, and I believe that it can make a considerable contribution. Further, the social functions of secrecy are more varied and complex than TheiBen allows, and need to be explored further. I hope that this paper will take some steps toward the fulfillment of these two goals.

Secrecy in Jewish Apocalypticism

According to an early Jewish apocalypse, found in Chapters 1-36 of the composite work known as 1 Enoch and designated the Book of the Watchers by scholars, certain things are public knowledge, such as the visible workings of nature and the law of the Lord.13 The primary focus of the work, however, is secret knowledge, revealed in this work itself by the pseudonymous author, the antediluvian patriarch Enoch. His eyes were opened by the Lord, and he saw a holy vision in the heavens, shown to him by angels. He communicated the vision to the chosen in the form of a parable (7tapapol.:!l). This "parable" is a description of a great theophany through which God will execute judgment upon the impious and bring mercy to the righteous.14 The secret knowledge revealed by Enoch also includes a narrative that seems to be an expansion of the story in Genesis 6, according to which mighty men were born to the sons of God who came down from heaven and had intercourse with the daughters of men.15 The

12. Gerd TheiSen, "Die pragmatische Bedeutung der Gehelmnlsmotlve im Markusevangellum: Eln wissenssoziologischer Versuch," in Hans G. Klppenberg and Guy G. Stroumsa, eds., Secrecy and Concealment: Studies in the History of Mediterranean and Near Eastern Religions (Studies in the History of Religions 65; Leiden: Brill, 1995), pp. 225-245.

13. 1 Enoch 2-5.

. 14. 1 Enoch 1.

15. 1 Enoch 6-11; Gen 6:1-4.

Messianic Secret and the Gospel of Mark

version of the story in the Book of the Watchers may be called a myth of the origin of evil, but it seems also to be an allegorical assessment of the author's own time. The "sons of God" of Genesis are interpreted as angels called "Watchers." These reveal heavenly secrets or mysteries to the daughters of men. Enoch is instructed to rebuke the Watchers and to tell them that, although they were in heaven, its se-

t had not been revealed to them. It was only a "worthless mys-cre s 16 tery" that they knew and revealed to the. women. Thi~ s.tatement

may reflect the competition betwe~n Jewish and H~llemstlc cul~re and between various religious traditions. The narrative also descnbes a glorious future, an eschatological fulfillment, in which ~very evil work will cease and the plant of righteousness and truth will appear. The "plant" is probably a Jewish sect, or at least a subculture, to which the actual author and audience belonged. According to the text, they will plant righteousness and truth in joy forever. The earth will be transformed to a state of peace and fertility, and all the nations will worship the God of Israel.17 Finally, the work contains the revelation of secret knowledge in the form of an account of Enoch's vision of the house and throne of God in heaven and of accounts of his tour of the secret places and secret workings of the cosmos. An important aspect of the tour is the revelation of the places of reward for the righteous and punishment for the wicked after death.18

This work was probably written in the third or the early second century B.C.E. and reflects conflict related to the interaction of traditional Jewish and Hellenistic culture. We have no hard evidence that this text and its contents were concealed by its author, audience, and those who transmitted it from other Jews or the general public. The knowledge imparted in the work seems to be secret in the sense that it is not generally available and public, like the visible workings of nature and the written Torah. Enoch is described in the text as a scribe.19 There were many types of scribes in second temple Judaism with varying social locations and functions. Most probably served the governor and the chief priests. But those who produced and handed

16. I Enoch 16:3.

I7. I Enoch 10:16-11:2.

18. I Enoch 12-36; the places of reward and punishment are described In Chap. 22 .

19. I Enoch 12:3-4.

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on the Book of the Watchers seem to have distanced themselves from the ruling elite. The secret knowledge revealed in the name of Enoch served to legitimate the leaders of a traditionalist and apocalyptic subculture and to distinguish that group from other Jewish groups.

The book of Daniel was written during the crisis related to the persecution of the Jewish people by the Seleucid king, Antiochus IV Epiphanes. It includes an older tale in which King Nebuchadnezzar of Babylon had a troubling dream.20 He commanded that his magicians and wise men tell him both the dream and its interpretation. They responded that not a man on earth could meet such a demand. Then the mystery was revealed to Daniel in a vision of the night. The term translated "mystery" is f1 in the Aramaic text, a Persian loanword.21

It occurs often in the Dead Sea Scrolls to designate cosmological oreschatological secrets, and sometimes in the phrase "the mysteries of the words of his servants the prophets."22 The latter usage suggests that certain passages in Scripture are opaque and in need of interpretation, like dreams. The use of the term for secrets of the cosmos and of the future implies that such passages and dreams reveal knowledge of such secrets when properly interpreted. The revelation of the dream and its interpretation to Daniel legitimates him and his successors, "the wise" among whom the actual author counted himself, as well as glorifies the God of Israel who determines the future, gives wisdom to the wise, and reveals mysteries. In both of the surviving Greek versions of Daniel, the term r1 (mystery or secret) is translated with the word J.LUcrt'llpwv. Near the end of the work, an angel tells Daniel, "Go your way, Daniel, for the words are shut up and sealed until the time of the end."23 This statement does not necessarily mean that the book of Daniel was kept secret and shown only to the members of the circle of the wise. The point seems to be to explain why a book supposedly written by Daniel four hundred years earlier only became known in the time of Antioch us IV, when it was actually written. At the same time, the dream and its interpretation of Chapter 2, as well as the visions of Chapters 7-12, are presented as revealed knowledge, inaccessible to the general public, unless mediated by the

20. Daniel 2. 21. Dan 2:18-19. 22. John J. Collins, Daniel (Hermeneia; Minneapolis, Minn.: Fortress, 1993), p. 159. 23. Dan 12:9.


wise and their followers. Since the work states that "those among the people who are wise shall make many understand," it seems likely that the content of the book was made known to the Jewish people generally, in an attempt to persuade them to stand firm against Anti-

ochus and his agents.24

The sect of the Dead Sea Scrolls divided the law into two cate-gories, the i11n~ ("revealed") and the 1f;lt;>J ("hidden").25 The revealed laws were known to all Israel, since they were clearly set forth in the Scriptures. The hidden laws were known only to the sect, and these were based on secret meanings of the Scriptures that were revealed

by divinely guided interpretation. Secrecy is an important theme in a Jewish apocalyptic work of

the first century c.E., preserved in Chapters 37-71 of 1 Enoch and designated the Similitudes of Enoch by scholars. In the introduction, the pseudonymous author, Enoch, states that he will share with those who come after, the dwellers on the dry ground, three parables that have been imparted to him. 26 Like the opening chapter of the Book of the Watchers, the first parable of the Similitudes of Enoch describes an epiphany related to the judgment of the sinners and the vindication of the righteous. In this work, however, it is not God who will appear for judgment, but his agent, the Righteous One, who is also called the Chosen One, the Messiah, and that Son of Man elsewhere in the workP An important theme in the Similitudes of Enoch is the hiddenness of the Son of Man, expressed in the following passage:

And because of this he was chosen and hidden before [the Lord of Spirits] before the world was created, and for ever. But the wisdom of the Lord of Spirits has revealed him to the holy and the righteous, for he has kept safe the lot of the righteous, for they have hated and rejected this world of iniquity. 28

24. Dan 11:33. 25. 1QS 5:7-12; Lawrence H. Schiffman, Reclaiming the Dead Sea Scrolls (Philadelphia/

jerusalem: The jewish Publication Society, 1994), pp. 247-249. 26. 1 Enoch 37:3-5. 27. 1 Enoch 38. 28. 1 Enoch 48:6--7.

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Another passage reads:

For from the beginning the Son of Man was hidden, and the Most High kept him in the presence of his power, and revealed him only to the chosen.29

The context makes clear that at the time of writing, the Son of Man is hidden in heaven, his existence and identity known only to the righteous. But on the day of judgment, he will be revealed to all as God's agent in punishing the wicked and rewarding the righteous.

Again, there is no hard evidence that this text or its content was kept secret. Nevertheless, the wisdom that it contained seems to have played an important role in the self-understanding of the members of the subculture in which it circulated. It distinguished them from the rest of the Jewish people and from outsiders as the righteous from sinners, as implied by the two passages quoted above. In this work, the righteous seem to be equivalent more or less to the poor and the wicked to the rich and powerful. The revealed knowledge also provided them with a framework of meaning in which to understand and accept their social and political situation and to persevere in their commitment to traditional jewish values.

Finally, the Jewish Apocalypse of Ezra, known as 4 Ezra, should be mentioned.30 This pseudonymous work claims to have been written thirty years after the first destruction of jerusalem, that is, in the sixth century B.C.E. It was actually written after the second destruction, around 100 C.E. In the final chapter of the work, the Lord appears to Ezra in a burning bush, just as he appeared to Moses. He tells Ezra that he revealed to Moses the secrets of the times and the end of the times. He said to Moses, "These words you shall publish openly, and these you shall keep secret."31 Ezra laments that the law given by the Lord has been burned and requests that God send the Holy Spirit into him, in order that he may "write everything that has happened in the world from the beginning, the things which were written in

29. 1 Enoch 62:7; cf. 69:26.

30. 4 Ezra is equivalent to Chapters 3-14 of the apocryphal book 2 Esdras.

31. 4 Ezra 14:1-6.


thy law, that men may be able to find the path, and that those who 1. ,32 E h k d d' . wish to live in the last days may tve. zra t en spo e un er tvme

inspiration for forty days and nights, while five scribes wrote down his words. Ninety-four books were written during the forty days. The Most High spoke to Ezra, saying "Make public the twenty-four books that you wrote first and let the worthy and the unworthy read them; but keep the seventy that were written last, in order to give them to the wise among your people. For in them is the spring of understanding, the fountain of wisdom, and the river of knowledge." Ezra then states, "And I did so."33 The twenty-four books are most likely the jewish scriptures, known to all and publicly available. It is not clear exactly what the seventy books are, but it is evident that a distinction is being made between exoteric and esoteric books, and that the

secret books are more highly valued.

The Hellenistic Mystery Religions

Unlike the situation with jewish apocalypticism, we have abundant evidence for the strict observance of secrecy in the mystery religions, especially the Eleusinian mysteries. The motif appears already in the Homeric Hymn to Demeter, which dates from the later Archaic age. Demeter is said to have revealed "the awesome rites, which it is not possible to transgress or to learn about or to proclaim, for deep awe of the gods checks the voice."34 The practice of secrecy may derive from traditionally secret initiations of girls and boys.35

32. 4 Ezra 14:21-22.

33. 4 Ezra 14:37-48.

34. Homeric Hymn to Demeter 478-479; trans. from Hugh G. Evelyn-White, ed., Hesiod, The Homeric Hymns and Homerica (Loeb Classical Library; Cambridge, Mass.: Harvard University Press; London: Heinemann, 1967), p. 323, modified In accordance with the citation by jan N. Bremmer, "Religious Secrets and Secrecy in Classical Greece" In Klppenberg and Stroumsa, eds., Secrecy and Concealment, pp. 61-78; dtation from

p. 71.

35. Bremmer, "Religious Secrets and Secrecy in Classical Greece," p. 71.

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In Augustan times, Strabo explained the secrecy as follows:

The secrecy with which the sacred rites are concealed induces reverence for the divine, since it imitates the nature of the divine, which is to avoid being perceived by our human senses.36

]an Bremmer has argued that this explanation is fully satisfactory. There was no real secret, no esoteric wisdom, kept hidden from the general public. Rather, it was the very holiness of the rites that forbade their being performed or described outside of their proper ritual context. 37

Although there was no actual secret in a cognitive sense, those who transgressed the decree of secrecy were prosecuted or punished. Aeschylus was accused of allowing an object belonging to the secret equipment of the mysteries to be carried around upon the stage. He was acquitted, apparently because he claimed that he had not been initiated and did not know that the object was sacred.38 Diagoras, a citizen of the island of Melos, mocked the mysteries and opposed them openly.39 He was accused of telling the mysteries to all and thus profaning them. 40 Alcibiades and other aristocrats were accused of profaning the mysteries more than once in private houses at symposia. One of them was accused of putting on a robe, imitating the holy rites, and revealing to the uninitiated and speaking with his voice the forbidden words. Nearly all of those denounced fled the city. Their property was confiscated and auctioned and a few were executed.41

Around 200 B.C.E., two young men from Acarnania, who had not

36. Strabo 10.3.9; cited by Bremmer, "Religious Secrets and Secrecy In Classical Greece," p. 72.

37. Bremmer, ibid.

38. Bremmer, ibid., 72-73; see also Walter Burkert, "Der geheime Relz des Verborgenen: Antike Mysterienkulte," in Klppenberg and Stroumsa, eds., Secrecy and Concealment, pp. 79-100, esp. 94.

39. Bremmer argued that Dlagoras' opposition to the mysteries was an anti-Athenian political act; idem, "Religious Secrets and Secrecy In Classical Greece," pp. 74-75.

40. Burkert, "Der geheime Relz des Verborgenen," p. 94.

41. Bremmer, "Religious Secrets and Secrecy in Classical Greece," pp. 76-77, cttingThucydides 6.28.1. Bremmer again suggests that the offenders had a political motivation: to show their contempt for the political pretentions of the democrats of Athens.


· ·t· ted unwittingly entered the temple of Demeter during the been 1m 1a , ... d s of the celebration of the mysteries along with the crowd of Im-ti:~es. They were discovered because of their "absurd questions". and led to the priests of the temple. Even though ~;was clear that their offense was unintentional, they were executed.

Walter Burkert has shown that the mystery cults did not involve knowledge that endowed a ruling elite with power; they expressed neither a philosophy of nature nor a riddling, allegorical theology. Their importance had to do with their concern with the riddle and the mystery of death. It was often said that the two gifts of the goddess of Eleusis were grain and "better hopes" for life a~er death. The poets had always spoken openly about a blessed afterlife. But poetry did not necessarily compel belief or end?w with hope. The Eleusinian initiate "knew" that he or she was km to the gods. The experience of the initiate was a privilege; it remained a privilege only insofar as it was kept separate from profane usage. Profanation of the mysteries, therefore, was not primarily the unauthorized revelation of the content of secret knowledge, but an offense against the uniqueness of the access to that knowledge.43

Hellenistic Magic

As Hans Dieter Betz has pointed out, the phenomena in the Greek Magical Papyri relating to secrecy are complex and varied. Only some of the texts in this collection were supposed to be kept secret; others were open to the public and could even be sold in the marketplace. In the Demotic spells, which reflect traditional Egyptian magic, certain divine names and magical substances were to be kept secret, but rituals and other procedures were not. Some of the Greek magical texts concerned with secrecy show the influence of the mystery-cults.44

It seems likely that, in a pluralistic culture with many religions and cults in competition with one another, one reason for secrecy

42. Burkert points out that this was a disastrous application of sacred law, entirely contrary to rational diplomacy; Idem, "Der gehelrne Relz des Verborgenen," pp. 86-87.

43. Burkert, Ibid., pp. 91, 95-97.

44. Hans Dieter Betz, "Secrecy In the Greek Magical Papyri," In Klppenberg and Stroumsa, eds., Secrecy and Concealment, pp. 153-175, esp. 153-154.

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was to limit the spread of magical expertise in order to protect the prestige and livelihood of an individual magician and his sons or apprentices. Another reason was the same as that stated by Strabo for the secrecy of the mysteries: some of the spells and rituals are awesome and holy because of their connection to the gods; thus, they may be shared only with those who are worthy. Both of these concerns appear in "The Spell of Pnouthis, the sacred scribe, for acquiring an assistant [daimon]."45 At the end of the description of one form of the ritual, the implied author states, "Share this great mystery with no one [else], but conceal it, by Helios, since you have been deemed worthy by the lord [god.)"46 More pragmatic concerns are evident in the closing remarks, "Therefore share these things with no one except [your] legitimate son alone when he asks you for the magic powers imparted [by] us."47

In another passage the secrecy is linked to the awesome effectiveness of the spell:

Here is truly written out, with all brevity, [the rite] by which all modeled images and engravings and carved stones are made alive. For this is the true [rite], and the others such as are widely circulated, are falsified and made up 'of vain verbosity. So keep this in a secret place as a great mystery. Hide it, hide it!48

Here both rationales may be in the background: the rite is so powerful that great harm could result, if it fell into the wrong hands; likewise, the fewer the magicians who possess it, the greater their power, wealth, and prestige.

As we have seen, the secrecy surrounding the mystery cults derived from initiation rites and served to protect a unique mode of

45. PGM 1.42-195. 46. PGM 1.130-132; trans. by Edward N. O'Neil in Hans Dieter Betz, ed., The Greek Mag

ical Papyri in Translation (2nd ed.; Chicago/London: University of Chicago Press, 1992), p. 6.

47. PGM 1.192-193; trans. by O'Neil in Betz, ed., The Greek Magical Papyri in Translation, p.8.

48. PGM XII.319-324; trans. by Morton Smith In Betz, ed., The Greek Magical Papyri in Translation, p. 164.


access to the knowledge of one's kinship with the gods. The presence of the so-called Mithras Liturgy in the Great Magical Papyrus of Paris suggests that magicians also practiced a rite of initiation that resulted in the deification of the initiate. It was this rite that made the practitioner of spells and rituals effective.49 The ritual begins with the words, "Be gracious to me, 0 Providence and Psyche, as I write these mysteries handed down [not] for gain but for instruction; and for an only child I request immortality .... "50 Here the implied author distances himself from the profit motive and emphasizes the motive of the transmission of secret knowledge through teaching. The mention of "an only child" is perhaps intended to reassure the gods that this powerful knowledge will be shared within a very limited circle.

Secrecy in the Gospel of Mark

I think that William Wrede was right that all the secrecy themes in the Gospel of Mark have the same purpose, or at least very similar purposes. But I disagree with his explanation of what that purpose was. As noted earlier, Wrede took the saying of Jesus after the transfiguation as the key to the messianic secret. According to Wrede, when Jesus told the disciples not to tell anyone what they had seen until the Son of Man had risen from the dead, that meant that the identity of Jesus would only be revealed or could only be comprehended after his resurrection. Other scholars have noted that Jesus' declaration to the High Priest and the acclamation of the centurion beneath the cross call this hypothesis into question.51 Jesus' words after the transfiguration should rather be interpreted as a signal that the transfiguration serves as a preview of the resurrected state of Jesus. Mark offers this account instead of a description of an appearance of the risen Jesus later on.

Hans Jiirgen Ebeling was closer to the mark in his thesis that "Talk about the secret is a literary device, which is intended to make it clear to the reader of the gospel how important are the things which

49. Betz, "Secrecy In the Greek Magical Papyri," p. 169. 50. PGM IV.475-829; citation Is of lines 475-476. 5L Mark 14:62; 15:39.

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are being dealt with here."52 Although Ebeling himself did not make a persuasive case for this view, I believe that one can be made.

Ebeling argued that the Gospel of Mark is from start to finish an account of the epiphany of the Son of God. 53 There is of course great tension between the theory that Mark is an account of such an epiphany, on the one hand, and the observation that secrecy is an important theme, on the other. This tension is resolved, it seems to me, by the felicitous description of the Gospel of Mark by Martin Dibelius as a series of secret epiphanies.

It is clear from the introductory titular sentence of Mark that the evangelist intended to present jesus as the Messiah: "The beginning of the good news of jesus Christ," since the basic meaning of Christ is "anointed one" or "Messiah."54 This impression is reinforced by the heavenly voice at the baptism of jesus that addresses him saying, "You are my beloved son," an address that alludes to Psalm 2, in which God so addresses the king of Israel. 55 It is equally clear that the activities of jesus in Mark are more those of a prophet and teacher than those of the Messiah, judging from contemporary jewish literature. But the two epithets of Jesus preferred by Mark are "Son of God" and "Son of Man," epithets that individually, and especially together, have messianic connotations. The Son of Man sayings in Mark that have the strongest parallels in contemporary jewish literature are the apocalyptic Son of Man sayings. According to the first of these, when the Son of Man comes in the glory of his father with the holy angels, he will be ashamed of those who have been ashamed of him. 56 This saying evokes Dan 7:13, a text that was interpreted messianically at the time that Mark was written. In the discourse about the last days in Mark 13, jesus speaks of the arrival of the Son of Man after the great tribulation in classically epiphanic terms. 57 It is in this discourse that

52. The quotation is part of R1iis1inen's summary of Ebeling's interpretation; see R1iis1inen, The "Messianic Secret" in Mark, p. 60; emphasis in the original.

53. Ibid.

54. Mark 1:1. 55. Mark 1:11; cf. 9:7, 12:6, 14:61-62a. 56. Mark 8:38. 57. Mark 13:24-27; cf. 14:62.


the situation of the evangelist becomes most clear, as well as his ex-ectations of the immediate future. One may infer, therefore, that the

~vangelist expected jesus to exercise his messianic role in the future, after his death, resurrection, and exaltation to heaven, when he would return in divine power and glory to gather the elect into the new age. During his lifetime, he was revealed as Son of Man and Messiah, but only to the elect, only to those with eyes to see and ears to hear. The secret revelation of jesus as Son of Man to the disciples in Chapters 8-10 of Mark is strikingly analogous to the secret revelation of the Son of Man to the chosen in the Similitudes of Enoch.

The secrecy theme appears for the first time in Mark in the account of his first miracle, the exorcism that he performs in the synagogue in Capernaum.58 It was typical of ancient exorcisms, as we know them from other texts, that the exorcist would rebuke the demon and gain power over him by discovering his name. In this exorcism, the typical form is reversed. Before jesus does or says anything, the demon says, "What do we have to do with you, Jesus of Nazareth? Have you come to destroy us? I know who you are, the holy one of God." jesus rebukes him, saying "Be silent and come out of him."59 The command to silence here is a typical exorcistic technique. But Mark has modified the typical genre of the exorcism in order to allow the demon to identify jesus. It is important to note that this identification has importance primarily for the reader. Those present in the narrative scene comment on how the demons obey jesus, but not on the demon's revelation of jesus' identity.60 The intention of the evangelist comes out even more clearly in the editorial summary given in the same chapter: "And he healed many who were sick, and he drove out many demons, and he would not allow the demons to speak, because they knew him."61 There is of course a striking contrast between the "unclean spirit" and "the holy one of God."62 But the demons and jesus have in common participation in

58. Mark 1:21-28. 59. Mark 1:24-25. 60. Mark 1:27. 61. Mark 1:34; see also 3:11-12. 62. Cf. Mark 1:23 with 1:24.

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the heavenly world, the demons by origin and jesus by his endowment with the spirit of God.63 The demons recognize jesus, as one heavenly being sees and knows another, but his identity is never revealed unambiguously to the human beings in the narrative.

The account of jesus' healing of a leper is often cited as an ex

pression of the secrecy theme.64 But actually it is not. jesus' command to say nothing to anyone is not a command to secrecy, but rather an expression of urgency. The man should go directly to the priest and tell how jesus has healed him, "as a proof for them."65 The healing is to demonstrate to the authorities that jesus is the agent of God. 66

Following the sequence of the Gospel, the next passage relating to secrecy is the discourse in which jesus teaches the crowd in parables.67 In Greek and Roman rhetoric, the "parable" or "comparison"

was a type of argument. The illustration was clear and the application unambiguous. As we have seen, the jewish apocalyptic works called the Book of the Watchers and the Similitudes (or Parables) of Enoch use the term in quite a different way, to refer to once secret but now revealed knowledge about the heavenly world and the future. In some cases the revelation comes through visions that are opaque and require interpretation. Thus, the "parable" in 1 Enoch is similar to the "secret" or "mystery" of Daniel 2. The term parable in 1 Enoch and Mark 4 is also related to the Hebrew term mashal, a figurative saying or narrative that often requires interpretation, especially as the term is used in the prophetic books. The parables in Mark are enigmatic narratives that require interpretation.68

In addition to its apocalyptic overtones, the statement of jesus regarding the mystery of the kingdom of God also evokes the

63. Cf. Mark 1:10. 64. Mark 1:40-45. 65. Mark 1:44. 66. I cannot agree with Gerd The!Ben's conclusion that Jesus commands the man to

conceal from the authorities how he was cured; idem, "Die pragrnatlsche Bedeutung der Geheimnismotive im Markusevangelium," p. 243. The phrase Ei~ J.I.CXpri>ptOV CXU'tOl~ ("as a proof for them") tells against this hypothesis.

67. Mark 4:1-34.

68. The term 7tCXpa~oA.fi is used for an enigmatic saying in Mark 7:17. In 12:11t Is said that jesus spoke ev 7tapa~oA.at~. Since he only tells one parable, it may be that the phrase indicates a manner of speaking, not a literary genre. In 3:23 the same phrase is used in relation to a series of figurative sayings.


mystery-cults.69 The insiders in Mark possess the secret of the king-

d ·ust as the initiates of the mysteries have special knowledge. om, 1 . The term J.I.UcmlPtOV in Mark thus evokes two different cultural tradi-tions, the revealed secrets of apocalyptic traditions and the ritually mediated experience of the mysteries. It is striking that only one of the several parables in the discourse is interpreted, and that one of course only for the insiders. It is also striking that the interpretation retains figurative language to a considerable degree. In the center of the discourse, jesus departs from the use of parables to declare in figurative sayings that "there is nothing hidden that will not be revealed, and nothing concealed that will not come out into the open." This revelation does not occur in the immediate context, however. jesus spoke the word to the people only in parables; he explained everything privately to his disciples. If these explanations are like the interpretation of the parable of the sower, then even they remain

somewhat opaque. jesus first begins to speak openly after Peter's confession. He

began to teach his disciples privately that the Son of Man must suffer many things, be killed, and rise from the dead. The narrator comments, "And he was speaking the word openly."70 The contrast with the discourse in parables seems to be deliberate. The parables of Chapter 4 provide enigmatic, partial revelation. The suffering, death, and resurrection of jesus as Son of Man is the mystery of the kingdom of God, which becomes manifest in Chapters 8-10. The content of this mystery corresponds to that of the mystery-cults: death and the privilege of a happy afterlife. There is also a certain analogy in form: only the initiates hear and see the mystic ritual and receive "better hopes" through the experience. Only the inner circle around jesus receive the revelation about the destiny of the Son of Man. If they deny themselves, take up their crosses, and follow him, they

will share in his destiny.

69. joseph Coppens argued that Paul's use of the term mystery is rooted in the Jewish tradition but also reflects Hellenistic Influence; idem, '"Mystery' in the Theology of Saint Paul and Its Parallels at Qumran," In jerome Murphy-O'Connor and James H. Charlesworth, eds., Paul and the Dead Sea Scrolls (Christian Origins Library; New York: Crossroad, 1968; reprint 1990), pp. 132-158, esp. 154. The situation seems to be similar with Mark.

70. Mark 8:32.

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There are also striking differences between Mark and the mysteries. The secret of the kingdom of God is written down in the text of Mark for anyone to read. Jesus does not perform an enigmatic, secret ritual, but speaks plainly to his followers. I suggest that Mark is deliberately competing with the mystery-cults and claiming that the Christian mystery is a better one. Yet Mark does not abandon secrecy entirely. On one level, the secrecy theme is necessary to evoke the comparison between the mystery of the kingdom of God and the Hellenistic mysteries. The nature of the Christian mystery and the social context may also be factors.

In his discussion of possible explanations for the secrecy of the Pythagoreans, Jan Bremmer mentions the intense competition of the Archaic age. Competition was equally intense in the early imperial period. Bremmer suggests that Pythagoras may have felt dismayed by the critique of his fellow "intellectuals" and come to the conclusion that the meaning of his views would evaporate when removed from their specific context and exposed to general discussion. He compares the advice of Menander Rhetor to preserve but not to publish scientific and enigmatic hymns because they look too unconvincing and ridiculous to the masses. 71 Michael Barkun has spoken of the "stigmatized knowledge" of modern apocalyptic movements. 72 To members of the group, it is reliable knowledge, but to outsiders it is absurd. A recent example is the beliefs of the members of the cult of Heaven's Gate about UFOs and another, better world. Considerations like those discussed by Jan Bremmer in connection with Pythagoras may have led Mark, not to hide the mystery of the kingdom, but to present it as secret and difficult to understand. To most jews of the first century C.E., the idea of a suffering and dying messiah was absurd. On the contrary, the Messiah of Israel was to be a great warrior who would defeat the enemies of the people and reestablish an autonomous kingdom of Israel. To most Gentiles, the idea that a criminal crucified in an obscure province by a Roman governor could be a king or son of God was also absurd. Even the disciples of jesus, who were prepared

71. Bremmer, "Religious Secrets and Secrecy in Classical Greece," pp. 69-70.

72. Michael Barkun, "Politics and Apocalyptidsm," Bernard McGinn, john]. Collins, and Stephen J. Stein, eds., The Encyclopedia of Apocalyptidsm, vol. 3, Apocalyptidsm in the Modem Period and the Contemporary Age (New York: Continuum, 1998), pp. 442-460.


for this difficult revelation, could not comprehend it. Nevertheless, it is presented as something that "must" happen, like the events prophesied in the dream of Nebuchadnezzar in Daniel 2. It is the will of God, divine destiny, foretold in the Scriptures.

Conclusion

Like the jewish apocalypses, the jesus of Mark and the Gospel of Mark reveal secrets in a partial and veiled manner. Lacking sufficient contextualization, the parables of Mark are analogous to the dreams and visions associated with Daniel and Enoch. In the Similitudes of Enoch, the Son of Man is hidden in heaven, yet known to the chosen. He will be revealed to all on the day of judgment. In Mark, he walks the earth, but incognito. His identity is hidden from the masses but revealed to the elect. Although even they are not able to grasp the mystery of his being, he will be revealed to all when he returns in the glory of his Father with the holy angels.

The rituals and symbolic objects of the mystery-cults were kept secret out of reverence for the divine. Similarly, the Gospel of Mark implies that the miracles of jesus and his teaching about suffering are manifestations of the divine by surrounding them with secrecy. Although the content of the mysteries, like the fate of jesus, was an open secret, secrecy was important in both cases to ensure that the message was conveyed in the proper context, with the proper solem

nity and effectiveness. The goal of the magician was to cross the boundary separating

the human and the divine. The ritual of deification known as the Mithras Liturgy was intended to accomplish that feat. According to Mark, jesus crossed that boundary by being raised from the dead and being seated at the right hand of God.73 The followers of jesus, if they are not ashamed of him and if they take up their crosses and follow him, have the "better hope" of sharing in the divine glory through him.74 .

73. Mark 14:62; cf. 12:36.

74. Mark 8:34-38; cf. 13:27.

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The various themes of secrecy in Mark-the commands to demons and disciples not to reveal the identity of]esus, the instructions to those who are healed by Jesus not to speak about their healing, the lack of understanding by the disciples, and the "parable-theory"-are all literary devices created or adapted by the author of the Gospel to reveal and yet conceal Jesus and to imply that, during his lifetime, his identity was similarly revealed yet concealed. He was truly endowed with the divine spirit, was really the son of God, and was indeed the Messiah, even though he did not do what the Messiah was expected to do. He came as a prophet to proclaim the coming kingdom of God, he came as a teacher and a healer. But most of all, he came to lay down his life as a ransom for many. From Mark's point of view, this is the mystery of the kingdom of God, the only true mystery.

~2~

secrecy, Revelation, and Late Antique Demiurgical Myths

Michael A. Williams

Introduction

When one is organizing an event whose theme is religious secrets, or esotericism, there seem to be certain personalities whose inclusion on the guest list is more or less de rigueur, and among these are that assortment of ancient religious sources commonly categorized as "gnostic."1 This category has been constructed in modern times primarily from descriptions by early Christian heresiologists of various myths and teachings that they deemed perversions of Christian truth, and from surviving original sources that actually contain such myths and doctrines. The most extensive collection of the latter is contained among the Coptic writings found near Nag Hammadi in Upper Egypt

in 1945.2

Though various motifs of secret tradition or revelations of previ-ously hidden truths are unquestionably well represented among these sources, there has not been much analysis devoted specifically to the

1. For a general treatment, see Rudolph, Gnosis.

2. For an English translation of the contents, see Robinson, Nag Hammadi Library.

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Documents

Rending the Veil_Messianic Secret