The term μαθητής is also missing in the LXX. This means that the only literary source for its usage in the gospels is the Greek environment, where it is used to denote the idea of pupil, one engaged in learning in relationship to a teacher. In a broader sense, we also find it used as pointing to an intellectual link between people who are not in direct physical relationship but rather distant in time as, for example, Socrates being a disciple of Homer.76 But among philosophers, the term is highly nuanced. It is used to talk about a pupil, which simply refers to someone who gains knowledge or skill under expert direction. When understood in this way, μαθητής is used alongside other terms that ensure the independence and dignity of the student.77 It is also used to denote a master-disciple relationship. This usage of the term is especially important for Socrates, Plato, and the Academy. The goal of these philosophers is not information for a fee, but more the idea of a fellowship where the teacher/master offers himself, rather than his knowledge. This is reinforced by the practice of common meals. In Plato’s Academy, for example, this is a salient feature, and the director is regarded as the first among equals.78
The Mystery religions provide another context for the master-disciple relationship. Here, both the learning that takes place, as well as the master’s personality, are secondary to the main purpose, which is that the initiate may enter into fellowship with the deity. Accordingly, the term μαθητής is not used.79
Perhaps the closest resemblance to the idea of discipleship in the NT is what happens with some of the philosophers of the Greek and Hellenistic world such as Pythagoras, Epicurus, and Apollonius. In each of these cases, the person of the philosopher acquires great relevance, sometimes even to the point of being considered a god or at least more than human, whereby their disciples develop a sense of being a religious and moral community committed to spreading the fame of the founder.80 Many of these groups associated with great teachers continued even after the death of their leaders, forming religious unions with the responsibility of presenting the leader’s ideas and concerns to the wider world. Rengstorf says that “loyalty to the teaching of the master finds expression in the principle of tradition, i.e., the desire to fulfill his intentions and preserve his sayings.”81 This is exemplified especially by the Epicureans and the Stoics who took special care in handling down their teachers’ sayings, even though this was done without an explicit reference to παράδοσις as the actual process of transmission, which at this time was generally accepted in practice.82
The Rabbinic movement, which came after the birth of the gospel traditions, made use of the term talmid to refer to someone who is a student of Scripture and its interpretation. Though, ideally, every Israelite is to study the law under God as the supreme Teacher, it is only some who actually become experts in the law and constitute a sort of guild where people are admitted by ordination and who offer authoritative answers to disputed matters.83 These are the ones referred to as talmid. The term designates a member of a school or tradition who is bound to obedience and submission to a teacher for whom the student performs even menial tasks. The school develops out of a specific teacher’s interpretation of the law and these teachers may at times hold opposing views. An example of such is the schools of Hillel and Shammai. The teachers, rabbis, are thus engaged in a rereading or reappropriation of the traditions, and this becomes the distinctive mark of that particular school. But no rabbi can go beyond what the law teaches, and especially beyond Moses, who is regarded as the absolute teacher. The law is the supreme authority and this limits the authority of individual teachers.84 Even though Moses always remains a mediator of the divine will, the emphasis on his person is akin with how the philosophical schools treated their founders. Therefore, concludes Rengstorf, there are obvious Hellenistic influences in the rabbinic movement’s conceptualization of the teacher-disciple relationship, an influence that can be seen even in the writings of Josephus who calls Joshua the μαθητής of Moses and Elisha the μαθητής of Elijah, and describes the four sects of the Judaism of his time as philosophical schools.85
The question for our enquiry is: which are the particular influences behind Mark’s use of the word μαθητής, and what might he mean by that. A number of things need to be pointed out:
First, Mark writes for a Greek-speaking audience, which may have been familiar with the teacher-disciple relationship of the Hellenistic world. When they read about Jesus having disciples, they would immediately connect with this tradition. But then Mark goes on to tell a story in which this relationship is qualified and fleshed out.
Second, Mark engages the prophetic tradition of the Hebrew Scriptures by mentioning Elijah and utilizing parts of the books of Daniel and Isaiah. He refers to John the Baptist as the Elijah who was to come and makes Jesus initially subservient to John in a teacher-disciple relationship. Then Mark goes on to show Jesus’ superiority to John, while still making Jesus subservient to a higher vision, that of God’s kingdom, into which he calls people as disciples to help him construct this vision.
Third, Mark writes before the arrival of the rabbinic age, but during a time when the teachings of famous rabbis such as Paul of Tarsus, Hillel, and Shammai were widely known. He may have evaluated these great rabbis as teachers and his followers as disciples who were intent on preserving their teachings but when it came to Jesus, he wanted to modify this idea. Jesus is presented not so much as the teacher and master but as one who models true discipleship. He is a disciple of God, whose primary mission is to embody the values of God’s kingdom to such an extent that suffering and even death will constitute the distinguishing mark of his discipleship. Jesus’ disciples are therefore not those who preserve his teachings only, but also those who are challenged to imitate him even to the point of sharing in his own destiny of suffering and death (Mark 10:38–39). This is hardly what was expected of the disciple of a philosopher. Therefore, Mark utilizes the cultural wrapping of the concept disciple, but reappropriates it by placing it at the service of a higher vision, the soon-to-arrive kingdom of God.
Fourth, Mark is a contemporary of Josephus who, as we said above, referred to the Jewish sects of his time, the Pharisees, Sadducees, Essenes, and Zealots, as philosophical schools. This way of referring to the followers of a given teacher may have become customary in Jewish-Hellenistic circles, for Mark also talks about the disciples of John the Baptist (2:18; 6:29) and the Pharisees (2:18). Therefore, Mark adopts this way of referring to the followers of a prominent leader/teacher, but when it comes to Jesus he modifies it, for Jesus’ disciples are not to be compared to the disciples of other teachers. What they do is even shocking for their contemporaries’ views of discipleship (Mark 2:18–22; 23–28).
Therefore, I propose that Mark is qualifying the Hellenistic idea of discipleship and master-disciple relationship by using Jesus as the supreme example. Unlike the disciples of the philosophers, Jesus’ disciples are not to transmit their teacher’s ideas but rather to commit themselves to the person of Jesus, as he is committed to the God of Israel. They are to obey Jesus to the point of leaving everything and following him, just as Jesus left his home in Galilee to follow the vision initially given him by John the Baptist. They are to suffer as a consequence of their witnessing, as John the Baptist did and as Jesus will. In that sense, discipleship becomes very similar to the work of the prophet, that of denouncing the powers that be in the name of the God of Israel, or, as in the case of the disciples, with the gospel message. In this, Jesus is an example too. The main task of the disciples is to witness to what God is doing in the world through Jesus’ work. As they witness, they are invited to participate in Jesus’ work as co-disciples, following the one who fulfills this role ideally. I believe Mark is intentionally constructing this model because his