The book of Mark is, according to White, a book written by a thematic writer. Mark incorporates repetitive themes within the book to fill gaps on the life of Jesus that could possibly not portray Jesus as the true Messiah. We see this type of writing throughout Mark 4-8 as Mark fills the text with similar looking parable/miracle stories throughout these chapters to portray Jesus and the “misunderstood messiah,” bringing a feeling of sympathy and frustration in Jesus’ favor.

the Markan narrative was written to create an understanding for those who would hear the oral tradition decades later. His thematic and dramatic theme would later be interpreted as Jesus simply being misunderstood by those around him during his life. For example, we see this in the repetition of episodes and miracles performed by Jesus. Jesus would heal those who were sick, which was usually performed through an exorcism, and the crowd would be amazed. Even the demonic beings would claim Jesus as the Messiah. However, after healing the sick, or calming the storm like the one presented on the Sea of Galilea, Jesus asks for people, even the demons, to not tell anyone that he is the messiah. This concept was especially confusing for Jesus’ disciples. They were not sure what message they were supposed to tell if they were shown these miracles and then told not to tell anyone of Jesus’ miraculous performances or that he was the messiah. The Markan narrative constructs the stories in such a way as to portray the disciples and Jesus’ followers as simply confused, and that Jesus was misunderstood by those around him in order to depict an individual that was more divine than a man to listeners decades later.

Mark also clusters similar miracle stories of Jesus together to present Jesus as the misunderstood messiah. For example, White explains how Jesus was accused of having a demon in Mark 3:22-30. In order to create a visual of Jesus being misunderstood rather than being possessed himself, the author squeezes this story in between Jesus’ family misunderstanding him in 3:19-21 and 31-35. Doing this would create sympathy towards Jesus, because those who would hear the oral tradition later on would get a story in chronological order of, not just non-Jewish individuals but also Jesus’ own family, how Jesus was misunderstood by “all” who followed or surrounded him.

Finally in Mark, we see “doublets” of miraculous tales within chapters 4-8. One example of this, is the calming of the storm. Jesus is shown calming a storm in chapters 4-6 and 7-8, however the first time Jesus’ disciples do not understand or cannot comprehend Jesus calming the storm. This story is followed by Jesus feeding the five thousand, and how again, the disciples do not understand. Mark later has Jesus in the boat again with his disciples in a dramatic scene, where Jesus is “chastising” his disciples for not understanding these miracles. These stories were specifically “thematically intertexualized,” as White states, to create structure and continue his theme of the “misunderstood messiah” for later listeners of the oral tradition.

Mark created dramatic and thematic stories to fill in spots of Jesus to create a theme of Jesus being misunderstood by all who surrounded him. Doing this solidified Mark’s message to his listeners of Jesus being more powerful and divine than an average man, and to portray Jesus as the Messiah through sympathy and frustration for Jesus. Combining these stories like Mark did follows the traditional oral tradition through dramatic/thematic events, and portrays Jesus as the “Misunderstood Messiah.”