Re-Placing the Galilean Jesus: Local Geography, Mark, Miracle, and the Quest for Jesus of Capernaum by Rene Alexander Baergen A Thesis submitted to the Faculty of St. Michael’s University College and the Biblical Department of the Toronto School of Theology. In partial fulfilment of the requirements for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy in Theology awarded by the University of St. Michael’s College. © Copyright by Rene Alexander Baergen 2013 Re-Placing the Galilean Jesus: Local Geography, Mark, Miracle, and the Quest for Jesus of Capernaum Rene Alexander Baergen Doctor of Philosophy in Theology University of St. Michael’s College 2013 ABSTRACT In a discourse notorious for disagreement, the extent to which scholars agree on placing the historical Jesus in and around Capernaum is remarkable: it is his centre (E. P. Sanders; G. Theissen), hub (J. Reed), and headquarters (R. Horsley), emblematic of his kingdom (J. D. Crossan) and constitutive of his career (S. Freyne). Nonetheless, reconstructions of Jesus routinely privilege other sorts of place (especially religious, political and cultural) at the expense of local geography. In other words, the historiographical conviction that Capernaum and environs matter for an historical description of Jesus has yet to be translated methodologically, or made to ‘count’ exegetically, in such a way as to occasion a reading strategy correspondingly sensitive to geographical place. My project is an attempt to address this lacuna. On the basis of G. Theissen’s attempt to prioritize for purposes of the historical enterprise those texts in the Synoptic tradition which bear the mark of local perspective ( Lokalkolorit), I suggest that we select similarly for the purpose of an historical description of Jesus those traditions which are ‘marked’ first, by the place names and, also, by the local perspective of Capernaum and environs, otherwise known as the Lake Region of Galilee, which is where scholarship has been wont to locate the man. Such a geographical criterion indicates a set of data clustered in Mark 4:35-8:26 as the most logical textual site at which to begin a closer analysis, or to dig deeper, if and when we take seriously the historiographical wager that Jesus’ local place ii matters. It is true that much of this material can be explained, subsequently, in the name of the Evangelist “Mark.” But it is also true that this explanation only goes so far vis-à-vis the local memory of Jesus as regional holy man and local thaumaturge of the Valley, possessed of the dunamis to manage single-handedly the various, locally experienced contingencies of life lived precisely there. Another, more exacting explanation is required, which I supply, by way of conclusion, in the name of the historical Jesus of Capernaum. iii TABLE OF CONTENTS INTRODUCTION ..................................................................................................... 1 CHAPTER ONE: DE-CIPHERING CAPERNAUM: CAPERNAUM AND THE TRADITION OF THE GALILEAN JESUS .............................. 19 In Capernaum .................................................................................................... 24 In the Lake Region .................................................................................................... 42 In the Name of the Border .................................................................................................... 45 CHAPTER TWO: DEFINITE PLACE: THE LAKE REGION OF GALILEE .................................................... 55 Definite Place ............................................................................ 57 A Definite Place Called the Lake Region ............................................................................ 60 Farming ............................................................................ 63 Fishing and Ferrying ............................................................................ 69 Definitely Placed ............................................................................ 77 CHAPTER THREE: TEXT IN PLACE, PART I: A PRELIMINARY DATABASE .............................................. 82 Three Promising Starts (In the Name of Gerd Theissen) ..................................................... 85 A Reading Strategy (In the Name of Local Place) ..................................................... 92 Exegetical Implications (In the Name of Mark) ..................................................... 95 CHAPTER FOUR: TEXT IN PLACE, PART II: A CRITICAL DATABASE .................................................... 113 Mk 4:35-41, Stilling a Storm ......................................... 122 Mk 5:1-20, The Gerasene Demoniac ......................................... 125 Mk 5:21-43, Jairus’ Daughter and the Hemorrhaging Woman ......................................... 130 Mk 6:34-44, Feeding the 5,000 ......................................... 132 Mk 6:45-52, Walking on Water ......................................... 135 Mk 6:53-56, In and Around Gennesaret ......................................... 139 Mk 7:24-30, The Syrophoenician Woman ......................................... 143 Mk 7:31-37, A Deaf-Mute Man ......................................... 146 Mk 8:1-10, Feeding the 4,000 ......................................... 149 Mk 8:22-26, A Blind Man in Bethsaida ......................................... 152 iv CHAPTER FIVE: JESUS IN PLACE ..................................................................................................... 159 Miracle Stories, In So Many Words ............................................................................. 163 Miracle Stories, In the Idiom of the Valley ............................................................................. 177 Miracle Stories, In the Name of Jesus ............................................................................. 195 Jesus of Capernaum ............................................................................. 211 CONCLUSION ..................................................................................................... 218 APPENDIX ONE ..................................................................................................... 237 BIBLIOGRAPHY ..................................................................................................... 242 v Introduction To live is to live locally . Edward Casey (2009 [1993], 321) I. This was originally to be a thesis on the parables of Jesus. I had been struck by the unanimity with which Jesus scholars of all ideological persuasions identified the geographical place of the historical Jesus under the guise of “the Valley,” 1 “the Lake Region,” 2 the “border region” of Galilee, 3 or otherwise in the name of Capernam and environs.4 I wondered whether the concrete detail implied in this datum might redirect the discourse of the quest from the sort of theological investment which has always hovered round it to the material realities of a life lived, sometime and (especially) somewhere, which has always been at least the stated goal of the quest. I decided to explore the effect, for an historical description of Jesus, of paying closer attention to those textual memories marked by the local place where Jesus scholars otherwise put the man. The parables seemed a natural place to begin. Admittedly, the impression that the parables would be the site at which to encounter the textual imprint of Jesus’ local place is one inspired by the likes of C.H. Dodd (1936) and Joachim Jeremias (1972). Dodd’s famous turn of phrase (1936, 21) that the parables represent “probably a more complete picture of petit-bourgeois and peasant life than we possess for any other province of the Roman Empire except Egypt,” continues to resonate, as does Jeremias’ suggestion (1972, 11) that the parables sit near the historical bedrock of the tradition. Following Dodd and Jeremias, the parables are regularly surveyed for remains of Jesus’ social and cultural ------------------------------------ 1 Eric Meyers (1976; 1979; 1985) and Sean Freyne (1980a). 2 Sean Freyne (2004). 3 Jonathan Reed (2000; 2007) and Mark Chancey (2002; 2005). 4 For instance, Jürgen Becker (1998), Maurice Casey (2010), James Charlesworth (2008), Bruce Chilton (2000), John Dominic Crossan (1991; 2001), James Dunn (2003), David Flusser (1997), Paula Fredriksen (1999), Robert Funk (1998), Richard Horlsey (2003), Craig Keener (2009), John Meier (1994), E.P. Sanders (1985; 1993a), Jens Schröter (2006a) and Gerd Theissen (1998). 1 2 context. 5 Why not as well for traces of Jesus’ local geography? What more likely site, in other words, at which to encounter the textual remains of Capernaum and environs and, by extension, the textual traces of the historical person Jesus? The more I immersed myself in what historians have said about Jesus’ definite place, however, the less I found myself engaging the parables tradition. To be sure, the parables are very clearly germane to life in general in the Roman East; for this reason, they are obviously of interest to the student of the historical Jesus. But for this same reason they do not speak nearly as incisively to the particular possibilities and limitations of a life lived in particular, “by the sea,” in Capernaum and environs. In other words: what makes the parables interesting as a statement of political economy germane to life as it was experienced on the eastern frontier of the early Roman Empire also makes them difficult as evidence particular to Capernaum and environs and to life, or a life, lived precisely there (and not simply