In the gospel of Mark, Mark makes a striking claim about the identity and significance of Jesus, claiming he is the Son of God as well as the messiah. This distinction might seem slight but it would have had enormous ramifications for the people of the time. There were many who were claimd to be the son of god in the ancient world, Apollonius for instance was considered to must be the son of god, or the Roman emperors were commonly thought of as the sons of gods. However, by also claiming to Jesus of Nazareth as the messiah-the one who will lead the Israelite’s out from foreign oppression and will once again deliver them to the Promised Land. The messiah was an exclusively Jewish representative as was their adherent belief in the one “true” God. Thus, to Romans of the period, naming Jesus both the son of God and the Messiah would inherently mean that Jesus was the sole son of god because the Jews only had the one God and the messiah had to be Jewish; well, according to the Jews. As can be expected, non-Jesus believing people of the ancient world had trouble accepting this notion, the son of god; the supposed son of god at least, is the son of the god of the Jews, the god that exclusively looks out for Jews. Mark obviously wants to emphasis the point that Jesus is who he says he is by proclaiming and reciting numerous miracles that Jesus performed as well as detailing how much of a kindred spirit he is, how wise he is about scripture and teaching the scribes within the temples about scripture, as well as the small side note that he warded off Satan for forty days in the desert.

Jesus isn’t exactly subtle about who he is and what he can do, yet he seems to be an incredibly kind and caring soul, he is the son of god after all. Throughout the first part of the Gospel of Mark I would say that if I wasn’t a Jew I would think he was just another “miracle-worker” or “magician” but it still wouldn’t be altogether bad because he seems to be an outstanding figure. If I was Jewish however and knew about Jesus’ deeds in the first part of the Gospel I would be overjoyed, he may not be the royalty or military commander that one might have expected of the Messiah but he is certainly the son of god and can do miraculous things. Due to these good tiding of both how Jesus is and how he uses his god-given power has extraordinary implications for the new age Jesus shall usher in. Benevolent, caring and insightful religiously, these are just some of the qualities that could be enhanced with the coming of the new age. This notion is only enhanced by the fact that the Jews under the Roman empire and those simply living in the region of Palestine were constantly taxed dry for the benefit of the Roman aristocracy, beaten by Roman soldiers if not able to pay said taxes, and culminating after the Jewish War, had enormous negative sentiments toward the Romans. The coming of the Messiah would have been quite literally the best possible thing to happen to the Jews in this time.

-Kristian Allen