Redescribing Jesus’ Divinity Through a Social Science Theory: An Interdisciplinary Analysis of Forgiveness and Divine Identity in Ancient Judaism and Mark 2:1-12

In what sense, if any, can one speak of Jesus’ divinity in Mark’s Gospel? Traditional approaches to this subject have been preoccupied with questions about historical precedents in the Greco-Roman imperial cult, the intertextuality of the gospels, the status of the so-called intermediary figures, and the strict or flexible nature of Jewish monotheism without a conceptual framework for examining identity uniqueness and unity of identity. In this interdisciplinary monograph, Beniamin Pascut employs a theory from the social sciences to re-evaluate a long-standing debate about Jesus’ divinity and authority to forgive sins, arguing that Mark’s Jesus is not just a divine being, but one who is included in the identity of the One God. This argument unfolds along five chapters that explore YHWH’s divine identity in ancient Judaism, philosophical insights about forgiveness, the link between YHWH’s divinity and authority to forgive, the possibility of third-party forgiveness in other Jewish primary sources, and Jesus’ authority to forgive in Mark 2:1-12.