This coming Sunday is the 1st Sunday of Lent. When we read this account in Mark, it is natural to insert the familiar details of the wilderness temptation from Matthew and Luke. Those are accounts that are filled with details of fasting, the appearance of Satan, more robust descriptions of the details of the encounter. Those details naturally lend themselves to placing more emphasis on  an extended period of time in the desert. Some commentators find it of interest that Matthew and Luke do not mention the presence of the “wild beasts.”

From early Christian times, interpreters have seen Mark’s mention of the wild beasts as an echo of the fall of Adam and Eve.

“He was among wild beasts, and the angels ministered to him” is often taken as: “out there in the wilderness it wasn’t just Satan who posed dangers, but also the wild beasts.” But the text simply says that he was among them.  After the fall, Adam was indeed threatened by the wild beasts, but Jesus is the anti-Adam – Jesus can move among them. The enmity between humans and wild animals, which was a consequence of Adam’s fall, does not apply to Jesus. Jesus’ presence points to a reversal of the Adamic order of things, giving way to the new order of the Kingdom.

The allusions to the Adam story demonstrates what would have been the case for humanity if Adam had not sinned. Add in the reference to Israel’s wilderness experience, the net effect is a passing reference to a wilderness transformed in the new exodus of Jesus. A wilderness transformed into paradise was part of the hope for salvation depicted in Isaiah (Isa 11:6–9; 32:14–20; 65:25). In this understanding, Jesus is a new Moses.

Unlike the Matthean and Lukan versions of the wilderness time, which emphasizes the conflict between Jesus and Satan, Mark’s tradition uses the reference to the animals and ministering angels to highlight the specific characteristics of the new exodus with a new Adam and a new Moses.

Image credit: Christ in the Wilderness | Moretto da Brescia (Alessandro Bonvicino) Italian ca. 1515–20 | Metropolitan Museum of Art | PD-US