No book can be taken seriously
if it says there is a God who can reveal the future and it gives predictions
and tells you they were fulfilled when it is written down after the supposed
fulfillment. Prophecy that comes true that is "recorded" after the fulfillment
is cheating. It is very serious how the skeleton of Mark's gospel is
comprised of such nonsense including the passion or suffering and death of
Jesus. If it is a disgrace - then that ensures it cannot be any worse. It is
not about whether miracles happen or not, even if they did - respect for them
would entail casting the gospel of Mark out. The argument that predictions in
the Gospel of Mark are fulfilled within the narrative itself is a central
pillar of narrative criticism and literary analysis of the text. Scholars
refer to this mechanism as internal prophecy and fulfillment or intratextual
fulfillment.
This literary device serves to validate Jesus's authority,
establish narrative reliability, and build theological certainty for the
reader. The fundamental thesis is that Mark functions as a
self-authenticating text. By placing specific, highly detailed predictions in
the mouth of Jesus and then recording their exact fulfillment chapters or even
verses later, the author proves to the reader that Jesus possesses divine
foreknowledge. Consequently, this binds the reader to believe that Jesus's
unfulfilled predictions (such as his ultimate return) will also come true.
The Gospel of Mark relies on three tiers of internal fulfillment:
short-term, medium-term, and passion-related predictions.
1.
Immediate, Short-Term Predictions
These serve as immediate proof of
Jesus's supernatural knowledge regarding mundane or upcoming logistics.
The Colt for Palm Sunday (Mark 11:1–6): Jesus tells two disciples they
will enter a village, find a tethered colt that has never been ridden, and
encounter people questioning them. The text explicitly details the disciples
going and finding everything exactly as he said.
The Passover Room
(Mark 14:12–16): Jesus predicts that a man carrying a jar of water will meet
the disciples, guide them to a house, and that the owner will show them a
large, furnished upper room. Mark records that the disciples found it just as
he had told them.
Predicting the future correctly and revealing it is a
miracle. Surely God will not reveal such mundane things or do silly miracles
such as un-burn your toast? Where is the teaching that God does sensible
miracles that are deeply necessary and shown to be probably real wonders?
2. Medium-Term and Discipleship Predictions
These predictions
involve the behavior and failures of Jesus's inner circle during his arrest
and trial.
The Betrayal by Judas (Mark 14:18–21, 43–46): At the Last
Supper, Jesus predicts one of the twelve eating with him will betray him. This
is fulfilled hours later when Judas arrives with an armed crowd.
The
Desertion of the Disciples (Mark 14:27, 50): Jesus tells them, "You will all
fall away." In verse 50, during the arrest, Mark notes, "Everyone deserted him
and fled." Peter’s Denial (Mark 14:30, 66–72): Jesus provides a highly
specific timeline: before the rooster crows twice, Peter will deny him three
times. The narrative explicitly tracks each denial and pauses to count the
rooster crows, culminating in Peter's realization of the fulfilled prophecy.
3. The Passion and Resurrection Predictions
The structural backbone of
the central section of Mark consists of three explicit predictions regarding
Jesus's suffering, death, and resurrection.
The Three Passion
Predictions (Mark 8:31, 9:31, 10:33–34): Jesus progressively adds detail to
his fate. In the third prediction, he specifies: delivery to the chief
priests, condemnation to death, delivery to the Gentiles, mocking, spitting,
flogging, killing, and rising after three days. Chapters 14 and 15
systematically check off every single one of these variables (e.g., Roman
soldiers mock him, the Sanhedrin condemns him, he is scourged).
Rhetorical and Theological Purposes
Establishing Christological
Authority: If Jesus is right about the colt, the room, and Peter's denial, he
is framed as the sovereign director of his own destiny, rather than a helpless
victim of Roman execution. Validating the Proclamation of the Kingdom: The
author uses successfully fulfilled internal prophecies to build "narrative
credit." Because the reader sees 100% accuracy in the immediate predictions,
they are forced to trust the cosmic, open-ended predictions, such as the
destruction of the Temple (Mark 13:2) and the return of the Son of Man (Mark
13:26, 14:62).
The Irony of the Paradoxical Fulfillment: Even when
Jesus predicts his resurrection and promises to go ahead of the disciples to
Galilee (Mark 14:28), the young man at the empty tomb reminds the women of
this exact promise (Mark 16:7). Even if the original text ends abruptly at
16:8, the internal pattern guarantees to the reader that the meeting in
Galilee successfully occurred off-page.
How much of the Gospel of Mark
remains if you reason, "the stories where Jesus predicts something and it
happens are to be thrown out for they are clearly worthless. That is
cheating"? If you strictly remove every story where Jesus makes a prediction
that is explicitly shown to come true within the narrative, roughly 85% to 89%
of the Gospel of Mark remains intact (approximately 580 to 605 verses out of
678 total).
Naturally if a book lies about predictions by Jesus it will
misrepresent predictions that were not attributable to Jesus personally. If
you also remove all instances where an Old Testament (OT) passage is framed as
a prophecy being fulfilled by Jesus, it gets very serious indeed. Mark 15 is
heavily influenced by the Psalms so most of it would have to be thrown out. As
Jesus predicts his death and resurrection, it would follow that our method
casts them out too.
The entire gospel turns into hearsay – some of
which could be true and some of which is not – if it is shown unreliable.
Mark ends with the women going away from the tomb after hearing that Jesus
rose and saying nothing to anyone. No visions of Jesus are spoken of.
If that seemingly abrupt ending were deliberate, then how does that suit the
Mark claim that Jesus said he would rise from the dead? Well we are asked to
assume given Jesus predictive success that he indeed rose even if the apostles
said nothing about it.