The

Gospel of Mark

Required Reading:

Craig Blomberg, Jesus and the Gospels 2nd edn, 87-110; 128-142

Recommended Reading

R.A. Burridge, Four Gospels, One Jesus? (London 1994), pp.33-64.

R.A. Guelich, 'Mark, Gospel of', in J.B. Green (et al., eds.), Dictionary of Jesus and the
Gospels (Downers Grove 1992), pp.512-525.
G.N. Stanton, The Gospels and Jesus (Oxford 1989), pp.34-58.

We will analyse each Gospel this way:

• Narrative Analysis

• Thematic Analysis

• Historical Analysis – Who wrote the Gospel? When? Where? Why?

• Discipleship Reflections – How am I meant to be different having read this

account of Jesus?

Introduction to Mark

o Often received a lack of attention throughout church history

o Modern scholarship has rehabilitated Mark for two reasons

Narrative Analysis – The Plot of Mark’s Gospel

First – what is the big-picture view of Mark?

Mark is a gospel that can be divided into two basic acts.

Prologue The Preparation of the Son of God (1:1-15)

Act One The Mighty Son of God, powerful in word and deed (1:16-8:26)

Act Two The Suffering Son of God, the servant Messiah (8:27-16:8)

Let’s now flesh that out a little.

• Prologue

• Act One is a high-speed account of Jesus’ powerful ministry.

Chapter 1 – the itinerant teacher and healer in Galilee

Everything feels like it is happening at rapid pace.\

• The way Mark achieves this sense of rapid action:

• euthys (42 times in Mark’s Gospel, 5 times in Matthew,

1 time in Luke)

• Use of the historical present – 151 times

2:1-3:6 – sees a subplot emerging.

A series of conflict stories – Why does this man do this?

The strange alliance of Pharisees and Herodians (3:6)

3:7-6:52 – Popularity and opposition run parallel.

Parable of the sower (4:1-20) as a reflection on the response to

Jesus thus far.

Series of narratives showing Jesus’ greatness over

 • Nature
• Demons
• Death
• It all climaxes with the sending out of the twelve and
the feeding of the five thousand.

7:1-37 – various teachings on purity and travels in Gentile territory

 8:1-30 – comes to focus down on the issue of understanding and seeing

• 8:18-21 – not seeing and understanding Jesus and his mighty

deeds

• The twice-touched man whose eyes are healed in stages

o The blind man as an acted parable of where the

disciples are at with their own seeing. At this stage, the
disciples see Jesus, but they don’t yet see him clearly.

• The major turning point of Mark’s Gospel - 8:27-30

o Caesarea Philippi

o Peter confesses that “You are the Christ” (Mark 8:29).

o He is the first human character to recognize Jesus true

identity.

Jesus tells Peter that as the Christ, his appointed

destiny is to suffer and die and then be raised to
life (8:31).

Peter rebukes Jesus (8:32)

Jesus rebukes Peter (8:33) and announces that

cross-bearing is the only way to follow him
(8:34-38)

Everything changes from here.

The question that drives the first half of Mark’s Gospel

is the question of Jesus’ identity.

• Mark 1:27 - “What is this? A new teaching—and with authority!”

• Mark 2:7 – Who can forgive sins but God alone?

 • Mark 4:41 – Who is this? Even the wind and the waves obey him!

• Mark 8:27 – “Who do people say I am?”

And yet Jesus wants to keep his identity a secret

• As soon as Peter correctly confesses, Jesus warns him not to tell anyone!
(8:30)

• In Mark 1-8, Jesus never wants to say that he is the Messiah

o Tells others to the be quiet

• Demons (Mark 1:24-25; 3:11-12; 5:7).

• People who are healed (1:44; 5:43; 7:36; 8:26).

The Wrede Thesis

The connection between Jesus’ reticence about his identity, and Peter’s mistaken
interpretation of Jesus – What does it mean to call him Christ?

Their working definition of Messiahship

“See, Lord, and raise up for them their king, the son of David,
to rule over your servant Israel….
Undergird him with the strength to destroy the unrighteous rulers:
to purge Jerusalem from Gentiles who trample her to destruction;
in wisdom and in righteousness to drive out the sinners from the inheritance;
to smash the arrogance of sinners like a potter’s jar;
to shatter all their substance with an iron rod;
to destroy unlawful nations with the word of his mouth;
at his warning the nations will flee from his presence;
and he will condemn sinners by the thoughts of their hearts
(Psalms of Solomon 17:21-25)
He won’t reveal his identity until he can control the definition.

• As Messiah he hasn’t come to kick heads, he has come to get his head kicked
in. For even the Son of Man did not come to be served, but to serve, and to
give his life as a ransom for many (Mark 10:45)

• They think their enemy is Rome. Jesus knows that the true enemy powers are
sin, death and the devil.

Act Two - If Jesus is the Christ, what kind of Christ is Jesus?

• The answer – the suffering Son of God, the Servant Messiah.

“The last eight chapters of the Gospel are dominated by death-talk”

(Eugene Peterson)

Some basic data.

• Between 8:31 and 10:34, Jesus gives three predictions of his coming suffering
– 8:31; 9:31; 10:32-34.

• The final five chapters of Mark, from chapter 11 onwards, are essentially
given over to the final week of Jesus’ life - day by day to the foot of the cross.

• The cross is the fundamental datum which defines Jesus as Messiah. Jesus is
the Messiah who dies for his people in order to set them free.

Nevertheless it is important to see that the cross brings blessing and judgement

Blessing for those who respond in faith

• A new exodus (1:2-3; citing Isaiah 40:3)

• Ransom (10:45)

• A new covenant (14:24)

• A new way into the holy place (15:38)

Judgement upon those who reject Jesus and will not relinquish the old covenant
 • The temple clearing and the barren fig-tree (chapter 11)

• The parable of the tenants (12:1-12)

• He will come and kill those tenants and give the vineyard to others (verse 9)

• The prophecy of the temple’s destruction (chapter 13)

Themes in Mark

Exalting Jesus as the Suffering and Mighty Messiah

• The mighty Son of God in chapters 1 through 8 is the same Son of God who
suffers on a cross.

• Jesus recognised as “Son of God” at the cross (15:39)

The Shape of his Messiahship determines the pattern of our discipleship

• Christology determines praxis – a wrong view of Jesus as messiah leads to bad

discipleship.

• Hence the context of seeing Jesus correctly, and following him (8:17-18; 22-
26; 10:51-52)

The Spiritual “Slowness” of the Disciples

• Of all the Gospel writers, Mark most emphasises the lack of perception on the
part of the disciples (compare Mark 9:32 with Luke 9:45 for one example)

• They are “antiheroes”, whereas Jesus becomes the true hero of discipleship.

• The paradox of 1:1 – we know who he is from the start, but do we know?
A special note on the Markan ‘sandwich’

 Where a story is interrupted by a second, seemingly unrelated, story.

 The middle component often functions as the theological key to the flanking halves.

 The classic instance is Mk 11:12-14, 15-19, 20-25), where Jesus curses the fig tree,
cleanses the Temple, and then returns the next day to observe the withered fig tree.

“Jesus comes to the temple looking for fruit, just as he went to the fig tree looking for
fruit. Both have the appearance of flourishing, but both are found to be barren. Jesus does
not exactly “cleanse” the temple, as if he is purifying it so that it sacrifices may be again
acceptable. Rather, he indicts the temple’s administrators for not fulfilling God’s purpose
for the temple” (D.A. deSilva)

 Mark does this over and over again (3:20-35; 5:21-43; 6:7-30)

 For more discussion of the Markan sandwich, see James R. Edwards, “Markan
Sandwiches: The Significance of Interpolations in Markan Narratives,” Novum
Testamentum 31 (1989): 193-216.

Historical Analysis (Who? When? Where?)

Who wrote the Gospel of Mark?

First, all of the gospels are formally anonymous, in that the authors do not identify
themselves.

But the titles “According to Mark/Matthew/Luke/John” appear to be quite early, and may
even have been added as soon as the work was being distributed.

It is likely that the authorship and origin of the gospels would have been known in their
immediate setting. Anonymous works were rare in antiquity and regarded with suspicion.

So we rely on external tradition to fill us.

For Mark, we have an important statement from Papias (bishop of Hierapolis in Asia Minor
AD 140). In a fragment record in Eusebius, he states the following:

And the Elder said this also: “Mark, having become the interpreter of Peter, wrote down
accurately whatever he remembered of the things said and done by the Lord, but not however
in order.” For neither did he hear the Lord, nor did he follow him, but afterwards, as I said,
Peter, who adapted his teachings to the needs of his hearers, but not as though he were
drawing up a connected account of the Lord's oracles. So then Mark made no mistake in thus
recording some things just as he remembered them. For he took forethought for one thing, not
to omit any of the things that he heard nor to state any of them falsely.
Eusebius, Hist. Eccl. 3.39.15

The Mark of which Papias speaks is John-Mark the cousin of Barnabas who abandoned Paul
and Barnabas on their first missionary journey and returned to Jerusalem (Acts 12:12, 25;
13:5,13; 15:37, 39), Notwithstanding the division, Paul and John-Mark reconciled later in
Paul’s career (2 Tim 4:11; cf. Col 4:10; Philemon 24; 1 Peter 5:13).

What does the Papias tradition tell us? More than you first might think:

• received an interpreted tradition from Peter (“adapted his teachings to the needs of his
hearers”).
• John-Mark became the ‘interpreter’ of Peter’s account - not slavishly bound by
chronological order in his presentation of Jesus’ ministry (‘not however in order’)
• Papias’ testimony appears defensive in parts – as if he is trying to justify the form of
Mark when set alongside Matthew and Luke (i.e. Luke claims to have set everything
“in order” [Luke 1:3]).
• The idea that Mark “took forethought for one thing” tends to portray him as a fairly
mindless compiler of traditions. This underestimates the considerable literary skill he
displays.

Three additional reasons for linking Mark's Gospel to Peter's preaching, mediated by the
writing of John-Mark

• First, there are other Church traditions which agree with Papias – Clement of
Alexandria and Irenaeus.

• Mark's Gospel regularly belittles Peter (although, is this entirely convincing?)

• Peter's sermon in Acts 10:36-41 has a striking affinity with the structure of Mark’s
Gospel. This makes sense if John-Mark received his tradition from Peter.

When was Mark written and what was its occasion?

Again, dating of the Gospels is a question that is fraught with difficulty, because it is bound
up with philosophical and methodological presuppositions.

Philosophical Presuppositions

For the Synoptics, the dates of composition are often determined in relation to the destruction
of the Jewish temple. Does the Gospel seem to know about these events in detail? Because
Mark’s account is much more vague than Luke’s, the argument is that Mark’s predates the
destruction, whilst Luke post-dates it.
 o Philosophical presupposition is that Jesus could not have exactly predicted what
would happen.
o Later Synoptics retrojected back later events into Jesus’ prophecy.

Methodological Presuppositions

The quest for a gospel community, like Paul’s communities in his letters.

Assumption that the Gospel was originally meant to function for a local audience, and only
secondarily for a wider audience. Being increasingly challenged.

Where you take your stand on this issue will determine the significance you place on some
internal evidence.

o For example, do the multiple references to suffering and persecution throughout the
Gospel (Mk 8:34-38; 10:30, 33, 45; 13:8-10) indicate a Roman audience suffering
under the Neronian persecution of Christians in AD 64?

o Difficulties of harmonising with diverse external traditions – for example Irenaeus

(Adv. Haer. 3.1.1) speaks of the Gospel being written after the “exodus” of Peter and
Paul from Rome (likely cryptic language to describe their death; cf. 2 Pet 1:14-15;
although Origen [Eus. Hist. Eccl. 6.14.6-7] and Clement [Eus. Hist. Eccl. 6.25.5]
disagree).

Most evangelicals argue for a date in the mid-60’s, during Nero’s reign, but there is no
absolute certainty. They generally use a range of evidence:

o persecution as a key theme

o the ‘hazy’ knowledge of the temple’s destruction
o allowing enough time for Mark to be distributed and used by Matthew and Luke
o Paul’s seeming lack of knowledge of a full Gospel account.

Who is the audience of Mark?

Early church tradition tends to locate this Gospel’s composition in Rome.

• Certainly it is a non-Palestinian audience because Mark explains all unfamiliar Jewish

customs for his auditors (Mk 7:3-4; 7:34; 14:36), and he quotes less from the OT than
Matthew (nevertheless, he does presuppose some familiarity with the OT). In addition,
he translates Aramaic words or proper names (3:17; 5:41; 7:11, 34; 10:46; 14:36;
15:22, 34).

• The presence of ‘Latinisms’ in Mark perhaps could point to a Roman audience. In this
regard, Latin words are simply transliterated into the Greek (modius: 4:21; legio: 5:9,
15; denarius: 6:37; census, 'tax': 12:14; quadrans, 'penny': 12:42; flagellare, 'flog':
15:15; praetorium: 15:16; centurio: 15:39, 44ff). These data indicate that Mark wrote
for Greek readers who primary frame of reference was the Roman Empire, whose
 native tongue was evidently Latin, and for whom the land and Jewish ethos of Jesus
were unfamiliar.

• Nevertheless, even if the work was authored in Rome, it could have been intended for
a wide readership throughout the Greco-Roman world.

• Better to speak of the implied audience, or implied reader of Mark, which is someone,
or a community, which needs to have its discipleship reshaped by a focus on Jesus’
servant Messiahship.

Following Jesus in Mark: Discipleship Reflections

Taking up your cross:

1. Abandon yourself to God and relinquish your life and resources into his hands
(compare 10:13-16 with 10:17-25).

2. Embrace the Jesus way of servanthood and sacrifice, particularly as it applied to the
notion of leadership (9:33-36; 10:35-45).

3. Follow him in suffering witness.

One these last two points, it is clear that for Mark the cross is not simply an
atonement to be applauded, it is also an action to be imitated.