Jesus, the glutton: A rhetorical-historical analysis of Mark 2:13--22

This study is a rhetorical-historical analysis of Mark 2:13-22. Our aim is to isolate the audience, constraints, and primary exigence of Mark's presentation, as well as the origin and development of his source material. The following questions are pursued: Why did Jesus eat with "sinners"? Why are his disciples not fasting? And why do these issues comprise a single rhetorical unit? Tentative answers require an investigation into the ideological background of the interlocutors, the "disciples of the Pharisees." Is Jesus intentionally challenging the Pharisees and John the Baptist concerning these issues? If so, what impact did such protests have on his Galilean ministry?;Our study concludes that the apostle Peter is responsible for the form ("conflict anecdote") and content of the presentation. Peter may have formulated the tradition to justify his own table fellowship with repentant sinners during and after Jesus' ministry. All the elements of the presentation are historically plausible, and there is little evidence of Markan redaction. The interlocutors are local scribes, who followed the interpretations of Pharisaic teachers in Jerusalem. The Pharisees taught their disciples to fast twice a week for the forgiveness of minor sins, in part, so that they could celebrate the Sabbath meal in moral purity. Sinners---those who willfully and habitually break God's law---were excluded from the table fellowship.;Jesus claimed to have authority to forgive sins, which allowed him to share a table with those who believed his message. He interpreted such meals as the inauguration of the Messianic Wedding Banquet; forgiven sinners represented the reconciliation taking place between God and his wayward bride, Israel. In response to this outpouring of eschatological forgiveness, fasting would be entirely inappropriate.;These actions isolated Jesus and his followers from the disciples of John the Baptist, who apparently rejected Jesus' already/not yet eschatology and his offer of forgiveness prior to judgment. The Pharisees, who were the most powerful religious group in Galilee, were able, through their network of local supporters, to turn many "righteous" Galileans---the synagogue-going crowd---against Jesus, dismissing him as a glutton.