Was John the Baptist Raised from the Dead? The Origins of Mark 6:14-29

Abstract

In the vox populi of Mark 6:14-16 (cf. 8:28), we find the puzzling claim that some believed Jesus was John the Baptist raised from the dead. The presentation of John in the Gospel is similar to Jesus: Mark depicts John as a prophetic figure who is arrested, executed, buried by his disciples, and ‒ according to some ‒ raised from the dead. This paper reviews scholarship on the question of whether the tradition concerning John’s resurrection ‒ as well as the tradition concerning his death to which it is prefixed (6:17-29) ‒ originated outside of the early Christian community. We examine the possibility that sects or individuals in the ancient world believed John had indeed been raised from the dead ‒ as well as figures supposedly connected to John (Dositheus, Simon Magus). We conclude on the basis of internal evidence from the Gospel that the report in 6:14-16 likely originated in a Christian context. At the same time, it may also provide a glimpse into first-century CE attitudes concerning the resurrection from the dead.