Joel L. Watts Books

What if the story of Jesus was meant not just to be told but retold, molded, and shaped into something new, something present by the Evangelist to face each new crisis? The Evangelists were not recording a historical report, but writing to effect a change in their community. Mark was faced with the imminent destruction of his tiny community--a community leaderless without Paul and Peter and who witnessed the destruction of the Temple; now, another messianic figure was claiming the worship rightly due to Jesus. The author of the Gospel of Mark takes his stylus in hand and begins to rewrite the story of Jesus--to unwrite the present, rewrite the past, to change the future. Joel L. Watts moves the Gospel of Mark to just after the destruction of the Temple, sets it within Roman educational models, and begins to read the ancient work afresh. Watts builds upon the historical criticisms of the past, but brings out a new way of reading the ancient stories of Jesus, and attempts to establish the literary sources of the Evangelist.

The book explores the concept of Jesus' death as a self-sacrifice modeled after established traditions familiar to Roman and Jewish audiences. It highlights Paul's use of this framework in his letter to the Galatians, presenting a premeditated death aimed at cosmic change. Watts examines the concept of devotio through recent scholarship, drawing from Jewish and Roman sources to demonstrate its influence on Paul's language regarding Jesus' death. He argues that this understanding not only aligns with Jewish thought but also enriches the theological implications of Paul's message.