Research Question

How do the narratives and traditions surrounding Moses and Elijah influence the composition, structure, and content of the Gospel of Mark, and what does their presence in Mark have to tell us about Jesus in the framework of a Graeco-Roman ancient biography?

 Initial Corollary Questions

• What is the range of texts in which we will seek to find verbal parallels or other indication of influence upon Mark?
• MT’s Kings, Torah, Psalms
• LXX’s 1/2 Kings, Pentateuch, Psalms
• DSS (?)
• Philo’s Moses (?)
• Other Hellenistic texts that speak of Elijah and Moses?
• What is Ancient Biography and how does it function?
• Does/how will Ancient Biography teach us how to interpret Mark’s use of the Old Testament?
• How are Moses and Elijah present in Mark, and how are they presented?
• What is communicated by individual references to these two prophets, and what significance can be drawn when they appear together?
• Is Mark saying something socio-rhetorically by appealing to the stories of Elijah and Moses?
• What does Mark’s engagement with motifs involving Moses and Elijah tell us about the genre of Mark?
• What does the presence of Moses and Elijah tell us about Mark’s