04_Biblica_1_A_Ossandon_Layout 1 05/11/12 12:18 Pagina 381 381 BARTIMAEUS’ FAITH narrator hides his own point of view behind that of his “hero”. This statement requires an explanation, which necessitates going beyond Bartimaeus’ episode. The analysis of point of view must be done following the narra- tive step by step, since the point of view can change throughout the different episodes. It is therefore impossible to present here an ex- position of the narrative point of view in the whole Gospel. I will limit myself to a brief observation about the peculiar relation be- tween the ideological point of view of the narrator and that of Jesus, such as it is delineated in Mark 1,1-13. From the very beginning, the narrator proclaims two titles of Jesus: Messiah and Son of God (Mark 1,1). Without any preten- sions to neutrality, he shows his ideological point of view with re- gard to the main character of the story he is going to tell. The initial statement of the narrator is confirmed by the Scrip- ture fulfilled in John (1,2-8) and above all by the Father’s voice (1,9-11). Regarding the ideological plane of the point of view, the episode of Jesus’ baptism plays a primordial role, for the narrator bestows a “badge of reliability” upon Jesus, i.e. the narrator makes a positive evaluation of a character increasing the value of all his or her actions and words in the following episodes 12. If this badge of reliability is conferred upon a character at the begin- ning of the story, its weight will be felt throughout the whole narrative, as is the case in Mark 13. Moreover, if the badge of reliability is not con- ferred by a narrator’s commentary, but by God, through a Scripture ci- tation or through his own voice, its authority becomes supreme 14. This means that, from the beginning of Mark’s narrative, the au- thority of one of the characters is bigger than that of the narrator. Or rather, Jesus’ point of view becomes normative for the narrator himself. Jesus appears from the start not only as someone who is on the side of God and against Satan (1,12-13), but as a privileged exponent of God’s ideological point of view 15. 12 W.C. BOOTH, The Rhetoric of Fiction (London 21983) 18. 13 R.C. TANNEHILL, “The Disciples in Mark: The Function of a Narrative Role”, JR 57 (1977) 386-405, esp. 391. 14 On God’s role in Mark, see J.R. DONAHUE, “A Neglected Factor in the Theology of Mark”, JBL 101 (1982) 563-594; P. DANOVE, “The Narrative Function of Mark’s Characterization of God”, NT 43 (2001) 12-30. 15 See J.D. KINGSBURY, The Christology of Mark’s Gospel (Philadelphia, PA 1983) 47-50; M. VIRONDA, Gesù nel Vangelo di Marco. Narratologia e cristologia (Supplementi alla Rivista biblica 41; Bologna 2003) 110-111.