The function of didasko and kerysso in the Gospel of Mark: A rhetorical-critical study of a Markan emphasis on Jesus' eschatological ministry

This dissertation examines how the evangelist Mark uses deltaiotadelta asigmakappao and kappaetarho u&d12; sigmasigmao (and cognate words) in his Gospel to describe Jesus' ministry. The premise of this work is that Mark is not simply seeking to emphasize Jesus' identity as the Christ, but that he is stressing to his readers Jesus' earthly ministry of teaching and preaching. Chapter 1 sets out the boundaries of the work.;Chapter 2 considers Jewish literature and other intertestamental works to see if a major didactic function was expected in the coming Messiah. Specifically we are seeking works that may refer to the Messiah as a "Teacher" or as one who teaches.;Chapter 3 performs a rhetorical-critical study of Mark's Gospel in the hopes of ascertaining how and why Mark uses these verbs and didactic titles to describe Jesus. Analysis of these titles and all occurrences of these verbs are considered.;Chapter 4 performs a redaction-critical study of primarily Markan seams and summaries to see if Mark used such to stress Jesus' identity as the Christ or for some other purpose. The results lend support for our findings in chapter 3.;Chapter 5 concludes the dissertation, summarizing our findings.