Hope you are all well ...
So was the evolution of the post resurrection story and the Great Commission driven by marketing pressure?
As you note, the plain testimony disclosed in the booklet of Mark does not provide a clear basis for proselytizing heathens, much less instruction in doing so.
However, the seeds of many later doctrines utilized for such a purpose appear to have been planted and produced by the redactor who was responsible for creating the Matisyahu's booklet and its more fictitiously slanted narrative. That booklet, as you've suggested, shows a good number of symptoms - which when diagnosed, point towards being a severe case of 'redactitis' ... that is, of being a redacted version of the accounts given in Mark's booklet.
Matisyahu adds on a new beginning to the account given in Mark; then, while following the Mark account from about the sixth chapter onwards, begins introducing small edits and little changes here and there - with the result being, such loose editing revealing the ideological agenda of the redactor. Now, you ask, was this devolution driven by marketing pressure ?? You see, the thing is, the redactor did not likely edit Mark's good news without a reason.
The redactor appears quite offended by a relentless criticism of the ToRaH laws (and the pharisaical tendency to misapply, and indeed subvert, justice among them), and the overall hostile attitude taken towards the Yuhdeans (more specifically the Levite priests/pharisees) in general found in Mark's disclosure. Within that account, Joshua does not set foot in Yuhdean territory until the very end, only to be promptly murdered for having done so.
As you've shown, the original ending contained within the older manuscript evidence related to Mark lacks the shiny bells and fancy whistles (a factor that is highly suggestive of a definitively later insertion) that often accompany the smoke and mirrors of a very apologetic pharisaical phunhouse ...
Another of the small editorial revisions typical of the Matisyahu account is the use of the word ‘immediately' (meaning ‘instantly') which is tacked onto the Mark account whenever a miracle story was to be found. Certain miracle stories where the addition of this word ‘instant' might increase the propensity to yield an improper ideological framework were then simply deleted from the edited version being produced by the author of Matisyahu.
This seems to go a certain length towards explaining why one finds a hole in the Mark account, which then picks up at a point following that missing miracle, which could not have happened ‘instantly' as far as the editor was concerned, and therefore was simply tossed to the wayside.
It is important to understand that gospels are not explicit historical documents but rather they are agenda driven documents produced by ideological evangelists who are attempting to interpret events and push a certain point of view. It is only by disposing of the agenda of the evangelist, which requires us to recognize it for what it is, that we have any hope of finding the historicity of Joshua as the Anointed One which lies buried somewhere down below.
The reader here may recall an interesting parable which compares ‘the Kingdom of God' to a ‘buried pearl' which someone had buried in a hole out in the middle of a field somewhere. This was a ‘pearl of great price' which, according to this prediction, would wind up buried out in a field; a seemingly strange way to treat such a valuable pearl, matching the equally strange local that one may find such a valuable item in.
This parable appears to me as a commentary of sorts upon religion, and the way in which the truth is made subservient to the requirements of dogmatic ideology (perhaps through selective marketing and nullification). The ‘pearl' in this case could then be the Joshua who actually existed within history and the field in which this pearl of great price is found hidden within is what today is referred to as ‘sacred scripture'.
The edited version of the Good News of Mark which was then called ‘Matisyahu' is one interesting example of just how such a burial of a pearl takes place over time, with both Matisyahu and Mark then being subject to further editing to produce ‘Luke'; the result being that the pearl winds up buried even deeper in that hole in the ground as part of this ideologically driven process.
Great topic jar.
One Love
I'm not here to mock or condemn what you believe, tho my intentions are no less than to tickle your thinker.
If those in first century CE had known what these words mean ...
'I want and desire mercy, not sacrifice'They surely would not have murdered the innocent; why trust what I say, when you can learn for yourself?
Think for yourself.
Mercy Trumps Judgement,
Love Weary
™ Version 4.2
