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Thomas Torrance, Mark 16:19–20 and the ascended Christ's prophetic role
Published online by Cambridge University Press: 26 May 2021
Abstract
This article argues that, unlike some exegetes (e.g. Francis Moloney), Thomas Torrance correctly interpreted Mark 16:19–20 in support of a theology of the ascended Christ's continuing prophetic activity. In the ministry of the Word, Christ remains present and at work witnessing to himself. This prophetic office, associated with and not to be separated from his kingly and priestly functions, is not to be played down. He is the primary agent forever actively involved in Christian proclamation.
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- Copyright © The Author(s), 2021. Published by Cambridge University Press
References
1 For exceptions, see ‘Ascension of Christ’, in Cross, F. L. and Livingstone, E. A. (eds), The Oxford Dictionary of the Christian Church, 3rd edn (Oxford: OUP, 2005), p. 114CrossRefGoogle Scholar; Dunn, James D. G. et al. , ‘Ascension of Christ’, Encyclopedia of the Bible and its Reception, vol. 2 (Berlin and New York: Walter de Gruyter, 2009), pp. 908–30Google Scholar; Farrow, Douglas, Ascension and Ecclesia: On the Significance of the Doctrine of the Ascension for Ecclesiology and Christian Cosmology (Edinburgh: T&T Clark, 1999)Google Scholar; Farrow, Ascension Theology (London: T&T Clark, 2011); Weiser, Alfons et al. , ‘Himmelfahrt Christi’, Theologische Realenzylopädie, vol. 15 (Berlin: Walter de Gruyter, 1986), pp. 330–41Google Scholar.
2 Torrance, T. F., Space, Time and Resurrection (Edinburgh: Handsel Press, 1976), pp. 106–58Google Scholar.
3 Ibid., p. 119.
4 Ibid.
5 Ibid; emphasis added
6 Ibid., p. 120.
7 Ibid., p. 119.
8 On Mark 16:9–20, see Hug, Joseph, Le finale de l’Évangile de Marc (Paris: J. Gabalda, 1978)Google Scholar; Marcus, Joel, Mark 8–16 (New Haven, CT: Yale University Press, 2009), pp. 1088–96Google Scholar.
9 Andrew T. Lincoln summarises the growing use in the New Testament of Logos as a title for Christ (The Gospel According to John (London: Continuum, 2005), pp. 94–8), but fails to mention how Luke uses the term/title in Acts. ‘The word of the Lord’ or ‘the word of God’ throughout Acts ‘represents most often the good news about Christ’: Keener, Craig S., Acts: An Exegetical Commentary, vol. 1 (Grand Rapids, MI: Baker Academic, 2012), p. 524Google Scholar.
10 See O'Collins, G., ‘Vatican II on the Liturgical Presence of Christ’, The Second Vatican Council: Message and Meaning (Collegeville, MN: Liturgical Press, 2014), pp. 89–104Google Scholar. On Christ as the supreme moral exemplar, see Irenaeus of Lyon, Adversus Haereses 5.1.1: ‘there is no other way to learn than to see our Master and hear his voice with our own ears. It is by becoming imitators of his actions and doers of his words – that we may have communion with him’. Rousseau, Adelin et al. , Sources Chrétiennes 153 (Paris: Cerf, 1969), pp. 15–16Google Scholar (author trans.).
11 Marcus, Mark 8–16, p. 1090.
12 The NRSV presumes here to add ‘the good news’, even though the Greek text leaves unspecified the object of the proclamation.
13 Where the risen Christ in Matt 28:20 simply promises ‘I will be with you’, Mark 16:20 specifies two ways in which he remained with those he commissioned: he ‘worked with them’ and ‘confirmed’ their message with signs.
14 Joachim Gnilka feels justified in commenting that the missionaries themselves experienced the cooperation of the risen and ascended Lord in his Das Evangelium nach Markus (Neukirchen-Vluyn/Mannheim: Neukirchener Verlag/Patmos Verlag, 2010 [1977]), p. 358.
15 Hooker, M. D., The Gospel According to Saint Mark (London: Continuum, 2005), p. 591Google Scholar. Eduard Schweizer agrees: ‘what Luke does in Acts may be seen in embryo here’ (The Good News According to Mark, trans. H. Madvig (London: SPCK, 1970), p. 378). Rudolf Pesch sees Mark 16:20 as summarising Acts ‘in nuce’: Das Markusevangelium, vol. 2 (Freiburg: Herder, 1977), p. 555. This comment calls for modification, inasmuch as neither Mark 16:20 nor the rest of the longer ending (namely, Mark 16:9–19) refers to the Holy Spirit, unlike Acts, which contains nearly one quarter of all references to the Spirit in the New Testament (see Keener, Acts, vol. 1, p. 520).
16 On the Holy Spirit in Acts, see Keener, Acts, vol. 1, pp. 519–28.
17 Taylor, V., The Gospel According to Mark (London: Macmillan, 1966 [1952]), p. 613CrossRefGoogle Scholar.
18 Torrance, T. F., Theology in Reconciliation (London: Geoffrey Chapman, 1975)Google Scholar.
19 Ibid., p. 107.
20 Rev 5:6 gets close to such a vision, with its apocalyptic picture of the Lamb of God standing near the throne of God; see Beale, G. K., The Book of Revelation (Grand Rapids, MI: William B. Eerdmans, 1999), pp. 350–5Google Scholar.
21 See Keener, Acts, vol. 2, pp. 1440–3.
22 Torrance, Space, Time and Resurrection, pp. 119–21.
23 Nineham, D. E., Saint Mark (London: Penguin, 1992 [1963]), p. 452Google Scholar.
24 Taylor, Gospel According to Mark, p. 613.
25 Schweizer, Good News According to Mark, p. 378.
26 Moloney, F. J., The Gospel of Mark: A Commentary (Peabody, MA: Hendrickson, 2002), p. 359Google Scholar.
27 Ibid., p. 361.
28 Ibid.
29 Torrance, Space, Time and Resurrection, p. 122.
30 Ibid. On the same page, Torrance also explains how the risen Christ, in his kingly/shepherding role, governs the church.
31 See Torrance, T. F., Theology in Reconciliation (London: Geoffrey Chapman, 1975)Google Scholar; and idem, The Mediation of Christ (Edinburgh: T&T Clark, 1992). For an account of Torrance's presentation of Christ's priesthood, see O'Collins, G. and Jones, M. K., Jesus our Priest: A Christian Approach to the Priesthood of Christ (Oxford: OUP, 2010), pp. 224–9CrossRefGoogle Scholar.