Suffering, Misunderstanding, and Suffering Misunderstanding: The Markan Misunderstanding Motif as a Form of Jesus’ Suffering

Abstract

Broad references to ‘suffering’ in early Christian literature can give the false impression that all early Christians conceived of suffering in the same way, and that depictions of suffering in early Christian texts all function similarly. And yet, close attention to specific texts reveals the opposite: early Christian authors depict suffering differently, and the rhetoric of suffering functions in diverse ways in individual texts. My thesis is as follows: The two motifs that have long taken pride of place in Markan scholarship – Jesus’ suffering and the disciples’ repeated incomprehension (the so-called ‘misunderstanding motif’) – are in fact two sides of the same coin. In Mark, being misunderstood is a form of social ostracism, and thus contributes to the suffering that Jesus must endure.