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.