Abstract

Numerous scholars have pointed out significant similarities between John the Baptist and Jesus in the second Gospel. The study argues that both the similarities and the differences detected are part of a compositional strategy, specifically of a "synkrisis" or parallelism. To this end, it shows the existence of correspondences at various textual and narrative levels (sequential, literary motif, content, lexical and character roles) that point in the same direction. The systematic exposition facilitates the overview of the correspondences dispersed throughout the narrative, the evaluation of the "synkrisis" and the approach to its function in the total narrative: a resource at the service of the Christological plot of Mk.