While it’s possible that Jesus recounted to his own disciples later a personal . .  experience of being God’s especially beloved son, that seems like a stretch to me. 

hmm, seems the opposite to me 

wouldn’t all prior prophetic scriptures indicate not a stretch at all?

and could even suggest looking to more recent instances of religious movements, Mohammed, Mormonism etc, (the founders all reported to their followers some experience with God, even if not exactly the divine sonship) .    

 This part of the story already functions as a way of downplaying the fact that Jesus had at one time been John’s disciple  

not as much as would placing the ‘purported’ revelation in any other conceivable setting.

why not place the revelation on the 40th day in the wilderness (seems would work as well or better)? or any place else?

Ezekiel saw and heard God

and then you have these 3 founders of religious movements

I had heard that Joseph Smith saw God & Jesus, and quick search confirms he saw and heard them both together when the was 14 while praying, I believe in upstate New York

Qur’an is what Mohammed heard God speak, as I understand it, not sure if he saw Allah.

here is another that quickly came to my mind – from wikipedia

According to Baháʼu’lláh, it was during his imprisonment in the Síyáh-Chál that he had several mystical experiences, and received a vision of a maiden from God, through whom he received his mission as a messenger of God and as the one whose coming the Báb had prophesied.

 There are definitely others you can easily research

 in all these instances the messenger or prophet shared their experiences, what they saw and heard, with their disciples, so it is no stretch for me to believe Jesus saw or heard something and then shared with disciples,

So when did Jesus hear/see it(whatever it is)?

I have no reason to doubt a the general timeframe and circumstance that  Mark describes, no weirder than in Babylon, upstate New York or while imprisoned.  

I also find it personally interesting that Jesus’ vision is so much simpler than Ezekiel’s, Mohammed’s, or Joseph’s, and apparently also Baháʼu’lláh’s   , 

2 different things

whether or not to record Jesus and Johns relationship, and

whether to place Jesus vision at John’s baptism  –

I mean a story creator could affirm them working together, but still put the vision someplace else. 

I guess it depends whether you want to trust gospel accounts or want to specifically be skeptical, even tho no overriding reason to doubt them imo

Robert said 
Sure, but do you think the process that produced the book of Ezekiel, its content, and literary genre are really all that comparable to what we find in the gospels? 
 

I guess not, but it still is a guy who had a visionary experience with what he felt to be God, and told others.

  (i think, unless visionary descriptions were meant to be totally metaphorical) 

We could also add Paul who saw something, and felt, because of that experience, a need to preach   

I am sure you have given lot more thought to Mark’s perspectives and context, than I, so wish you luck with your project, and let us know how it progresses    

yes, my argument is by analogy

what we have is 5 rather similar traditions/reports of individuals who 

a) experienced some type of vision followed by 

b) their starting their ministry 

Jesus, Paul, Mohammed,  Baháʼu’lláh, Joseph Smith

In the case of the latter 4 we have independent corroboration that these 4 traditions ORIGINATED based the individual himself  telling their disciples details of a) and b)  (ie not because one of their disciples manufactured the story after their death) 

My argument is that the same occurred with the first individual   

of course I wish we had some writing by Jesus where he explained why he decided to start his ministry

I have not thought more about it than what I have said above

I have read Crossan who talks about some conflict between Jesus and John – in my opinion maybe so, what are details of disagreement – no idea 

Meier, I recall emphasized some distinctions in their ministry. I think he trusted Gospel of John’s account, which implies closer ministry relationship of the two than what synoptics  – I don’t know.

but, for something more controversial, and since you asked my opinion, I am very extremely intrigued by the Weatherhead’s intuition notion that they were half brothers.  

the idea that Jesus and John are half brothers is pretty standard in the church attend (tho probably not 100%), but I think it first come from Leslie Weatherhead in the book  Christian Agnostic, which I haven’t read. It is based on Luke’s Gospel that unmarried Mary had an angelic vision, and went to her cousin (kinswomans) house, for guidance who was married to the High Priest. Elizabeth had recently become pregnant even tho quite old, of course via God’s intervention.  Anyway it was there that she became pregnant. Mary stayed until either John was born or till her pregnancy was obvious (says 6 months right) and then Elizabeth realized what happened and likely kicked her out. Could have been a very bad situation for unmarried pregnant mother, fortunately her fiancee, took responsibility for her.

Of course it is an extremely fanciful story, but not to the extent of a virgin birth.

Robert Price writes something about it here

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