Jesus as the Isaian Stronger One in Mark 1:7: A Contribution to Markan Divine Identity Christology

Abstract

The contention of this article is that John the Baptist’s declaration of Jesus as ‘the stronger one’ (ὁ ἰσχυρότερος) in Mark 1:7 echoes Isaiah 40:10a so that Jesus is identified with YHWH both in Mark 1:3 by means of the citation of Isaiah 40:3 and in Mark 1:7 by means of an echo of Isaiah 40:10a. The article will show that an Isaian divine identity interpretation of ‘stronger one’ is a satisfying reading of Mark 1:7 in light of the allusions to Isaiah and especially Isaiah 40:3-10 within Mark’s prologue and in light of the links between Jesus’s encounter with Satan in Mark 1:13 and the parable of Mark 3:27.