The Gospel According to Mark, Background

Quick Rundown

          Considered the most succinct of the Gospels, Mark’s account of Christ’s life and ministry is a more of a condensed outline among his co-synoptics. One of the reasons this is so, is because Mark was not an eyewitness to Christ’s life and ministry in the same ways as the other Twelve Apostles. While it may be tempting to overlook this Gospel account and call it a less in-depth summary, Mark captured the key elements of all that Christ did as the Son of God in human flesh. More on that below. The opening half of Mark’s writings are fast moving laser-focused reflections of Christ and on the question: “Who do you say I am?” An episode at the end of the first half shows Christ healing a blind man in two stages as he slowly comes to see. In the same way the disciples have only gradually come to recognize who Jesus is. Then in a key moment in the story Peter confesses that Jesus Christ is the Messiah!

Peter’s confession signals the opening tensions. Christ has come to introduce a radical new way of life that will undercut existing powers and relationships. The second half of the drama manifests in three acts:

            o First, Christ and His disciples travel to Jerusalem.

            o Next, Christ teaches in the temple and clashes with the Jewish leaders.

o Finally, the leaders execute a concocted plan for Christ to be arrested and crucified to overturn all He had done. But then God overturned their plots by raising Christ from the dead.

            So, Mark highlights for his readers to be faithful to the risen Christ, even in suffering, because this is how God continues to overturn the existing order and establish the way of life that Christ taught.

Title 

            Mark, for whom this Gospel account is named, was a close companion of the Apostle Peter and a recurring character in the book of Acts, where he is known as “John who was called Mark” (Acts 12:12,25; 15:37,39). It was to John Mark’s mother’s home in Jerusalem that Peter went when he was released from prison (Acts 12:12).

            John Mark was a cousin of Barnabas (Col 4:10), who accompanied Paul and Barnabas on Paul’s missionary journey (Acts 12:25; 13:5). But he deserted them along the way in Perga and returned to Jerusalem (Acts 13:13). When Barnabas wanted Paul to take John Mark on the second missionary journey, Paul refused and the friction which resulted between Paul and Barnabas led to their separation (Acts 15:38-40).

            But John Mark’s earlier vacillation later gave way to great strength and maturity, and in time he proved himself even to the Apostle Paul. When Paul wrote the Colossians, he instructed them that if John Mark came, they were to welcome him (Colossians 4:10). Paul even listed Mark as a fellow worker (Philemon 24). Later, Paul instructed Timothy to “Pick up Mark and bring him with you, for he is useful to me for service” (2 Timothy 4:11).

            John Mark’s restoration to usefulness ministry may have been in part due to Peter’s ministry. Peter and Mark were close as evidenced in Peter calling him “my son, Mark” in 1 Peter 5:13. Peter, of course, was no stranger to failure himself, and his influence on the younger Mark was no doubt instrumental in helping him out of the instability of his youth and into the strength and maturity he would need for the work to which God had called him.

Author and Date

            Unlike the epistles, the Gospels do not name their authors. The early church fathers did unanimously affirm that Mark wrote this second Gospel account. Papias, the bishop of Hieropolis, writing about this noted:

And the Apostle John said this: Mark having become the interpreter of Peter, wrote down accurately whatsoever he remembered. It was not, however, in exact order that he related the sayings or deeds of Christ. For he neither heard the Lord nor accompanied Him. But afterwards, as I said, he accompanied Peter, who accommodated his instructions to the necessities [of his hearers], but with no intention of giving a regular narrative of the Lord’s sayings. Wherefore Mark made no mistake in thus writing some things as he remembered them. For of one thing he took special care, not to omit anything he had heard, and not to put anything fictitious into the statements. (Exposition of the Oracles of The Lord (6))

Justin Martyr, writing around A.D. 150, referred to the Gospel of Mark as “the

memoirs of Peter,” and suggested Mark committed to writing his Gospel account while he was in Italy. The uniformed voice of early tradition regarded this Gospel account as having been written in Rome for the benefit of Roman Christians. Iraenaus, writing about A.D. 185 called Mark “the disciple and interpreter of Peter,” and that the second Gospel consisted of what Peter preached about Christ. The testimony of the church fathers differs as to whether this Gospel was written before or after Peter’s death (ca. A.D. 67-68).

            Scholars suggest the dates for Mark writing his Gospels range around A.D. 50 – 70 prior to the destruction of Jerusalem and the temple in A.D. 70. Christ commented on this is Mark 13:2. Luke also wrote about the same time but before recording Acts (Acts 1:1-3). The date of the writing of Acts is likely before Jerusalem’s destruction approximately A.D. 63, shortly after the narrative ends as explained in Acts “Author and Date” and “Period.” Though not certain, it’s likely Mark wrote at an early date sometime around the 50’s A.D.

Background and Setting

            While Matthew was written to an exclusively Jewish audience, Marks seems to have focused on believers in Rome and Gentiles. When employing Aramaic terms, Mark translated them for his readers (see 3:17; 5:41; 7:11,34; 10:46; 14:36; 15:22,34). On the other hand, in some places he used Latin expressions instead of their Greek equivalents (see 5:9; 6:27; 12:15,42; 15:16,39). Marks also referenced time according the Roman system (6:48; 13:35) and carefully explained Jewish customs (7:3,4; 14:12; 15:42). Mark did leave out the distinct Jewish elements such as the genealogies like those in Matthew and Luke. Mark also made fewer references to the Old Testament and includes less material that would be of particular interest to Jewish readers such that was critical of the Pharisees and Sadducees (only mentioned once in 12:18). When Mark mentioned Simon the Cyrene in 15:21 he identified him as the father of Rufus who was a prominent member of the church in Rome (Romans 16:13). So all to say, this supports the traditional view that Mark was written for a Gentile audience initially in Rome.

Historical and Theological Themes

            Mark presented Christ as the suffering servant of the Lord (10:45). His focus was on the deeds of Christ more than what Christ taught, emphasizing His service and sacrifice. Mark omitted the lengthy discourses of Christ often relating brief gists of Christs’ teaching. Mark also omitted any account of Christ’s ancestry and birth, beginning where Christ’s public ministry began with His baptism by John in the wilderness.

            Mark exhibited Christ’s humanity more clearly than the other evangelists, emphasizing Christ’s human emotions (1:41; 3:5; 6:34; 8:12; 9:36), His limitations as a human (4:38; 11:12; 13:32), and other small details that highlight the humanity of the Son of God (7:33,34; 8:12; 9:36; 10:13-16).

Interpretive Challenges

            There are three significant questions to confront as you read and apply Mark’s Gospel account: 1) What is Mark’s relationship to Luke and Matthew; 2) How should we view the end-times passages; and 3) Were the last 12 verses of chapter 16 originally part of Mark’s Gospel account?

The Synoptic Problem          

            This is an interesting discussion. Following the same vain as the Old Testament contemporaries when you read Matthew, Mark, and Luke they reveal both striking similarities (Mark 2:3-12; Matthew 9:2-8; Luke 5:18-26); and differences as they each view the life, ministry, and teaching of Christ Jesus. This question of how to explain the similarities and differences is known as the “Synoptic Problem” (syn means “together”; optic means “seeing”).

            The modern solution among readers almost universally has been to assume that a form of literary dependence existed between the synoptics. The most commonly accepted theory to explain this alleged dependence is known as the “Two-Source” hypothesis in which Mark was the first Gospel account written. Subsequently Matthew and Luke then used Mark as a source in writing their Gospels. Proponents of this view imagine a non-existent, second source, labeled Q (from the German word Quelle, meaning “source”), and they also argue that this allegedly is the source of the material in Matthew and Luke that does not appear in Mark. They advance several lines of evidence to support their thesis.

            First, most of Mark is in parallel with Matthew and Luke. Since it is much shorter than Matthew and Luke, the latter must be expansions of Mark. Secondly, the 3 Gospels follow the same general chronological outline, but when either Matthew or Luke depart from Mark’s chronology, the other still agrees with Mark. That, it is argued, shows that Matthew and Luke both used Mark for their historical framework. Third, in passages common to all 3 Gospels, Matthew’s and Luke’s wording seldom agrees when it differs from Mark’s. Proponents of the “Two-Source” theory see that as confirmation that Matthew and Luke used Mark’s Gospel as a source.

            But those arguments do not prove that Matthew and Luke used Mark’s Gospel as a source. In fact, the weight of evidence is strongly against this theory:

1)     The nearly unanimous testimony of the church until the 19^th century was that Matthew wrote the first Gospel. Such an impressive body of evidence cannot be ignored.

2)    Why would Matthew, an Apostle and eyewitness of the events of Christ’s life depend on Mark who was not an eyewitness – even for the account of his own conversion?

3)    A significant statistical analysis of the synoptics has revealed that the parallels between them are far less extensive and the differences more significant than commonly acknowledged. The differences, in particular, argue against literary dependence between the Gospel writers.

4)    Since the Gospels record actual historical events, it would be surprising if they did not follow the same historical sequence. For example, the fact that 3 books on American history all had the Revolutionary War, the Civil War, World War 1, World War 2, the Vietnam War, and the Gulf War in the same chronological order would not prove that the author read each other’s’ books. General agreement in content does not prove literary dependency.

5)    The passages in which Matthew and Luke agree against Mark amount to about one-sixth of Matthew and one-sixth of Luke. If they used Mark’s Gospel as a source, there is no satisfactory explanation for why Matthew and Luke would so often both change Mark’s wording in the same way.

6)    The “Two-Source” theory cannot account for the important section in Mark’s gospel (6:45-8:26) which Luke omits. That omission suggests Luke had not seen Mark’s gospel when he wrote.

7)    There is no historical or manuscript evidence that the Q document ever existed; it is purely fabrication of modern skepticism and a way to possibly deny the verbal inspiration of the Gospels.

8)    Any theory of literary dependence between the Gospel writers overlooks the significance of their personal contacts with each other. Mark and Luke were both companions of Paul (cf. Philemon 24); the early church including Matthew met for a time in the home of Mark’s mother (Acts 12:12); and Luke could easily have met Matthew during Paul’s two-year imprisonment at Caesarea (Acts 27:1). Such contacts make theories of mutual literary dependence necessary.

            The simplest solution to the Synoptic Problem is that no such problem exists! Because critics cannot prove literary dependence between the gospel writers, there is no need to explain it. The traditional view that the gospel writers were inspired by God and wrote independently of each other – except that all 3 were moved by the same Holy Spirit (2 Peter 1:21) – remains the only plausible view.

            As you read make sure to compare the various viewpoints for yourself in the Gospels and see how clear it becomes at how well they harmonize and lead to a more complete picture of the whole event or message. The accounts are not contradictory, but complementary, revealing a fuller understanding when brought together.

 

Outline

I.                Prologue: In the Wilderness (1:1-13)

A.    John’s Message (1:1-8)

B.    Christ’s Baptism (1:9-11)

C.    Christ’s Temptations (1:12,13)

II.             Beginning Christ’s Ministry: In Galilee and the Surrounding Regions (1:14-7:23)

A.    Christ Announces His Message (1:14-15)

B.    Christ Calls His Disciples (1:16-20)

C.    Christ Ministers in Capernaum (1:21-34)

D.    Christ Reaches out Out to Galilee (1:35-45)

E.    Christ Defends His Ministry (2:1-3:6)

F.     Christ Ministers to Multitudes (3:7-12)

G.    Christ Commissions the Twelve (3:13-19)

H.   Christ Rebukes the Scribes and Pharisees (3:20-30)

I.      Christ Identifies His Spiritual Family (3:31-35)

J.     Christ Preaches in Parables (4:1-34)

1.      The sower (4:1-9)

2.     The reason for parables (4:10-12)

3.     The parable of the sower explained (4:13-20)

4.     The lamp (4:21-25)

5.     The seed (4:26-29)

6.     The mustard seed (4:30-34)

K.    Christ Demonstrates His Power (4:35-5:43)

1.      Calming the waves (4:35-41)

2.     Casting out unclean spirits (5:1-20)

3.     Healing the sick (5:21-34)

4.     Raising the dead (5:35-43)

L.    Christ Returns to His Hometown (6:1-6)

M.  Christ Sends Out His Disciples (6:7-13)

N.   Christ Gains a Powerful Enemy (6:14-29)

O.    Christ Regroups with His Disciples (6:30-32)

P.    Christ Feeds Five Thousand (6:33-44)

Q.    Christ Walks on Water (6:45-52)

R.    Christ Heals Many (6:53-56)

S.     Christ Answers the Pharisees (7:1-23)

III.           Broadening Christ’s Ministry: In Various Gentile Regions (7:24-9:50)

A.    Tyre and Sidon: Christ Delivers a Gentile Woman’s Daughter (7:24-30)

B.    Decapolis: Christ Heals a Deaf Mute (7:31-37)

C.    Eastern Shore of Galilee: Christ Feeds Four Thousand (8:1-9)

D.    Dalmanutha: Christ Disputes with the Pharisees (8:10-12)

E.    Other Side of The Lake: Christ Rebukes the Disciples (8:13-21)

F.     Bethsaida: Christ Heals a Blind Man (8:22-26)

G.    Caesarea Philippi and Capernaum: Christ Instructs His Disciples (8:27-9:50)

1.      Peter confesses Jesus is the Christ (8:27-30)

2.     Christ predicts His death (8:31-33)

3.     Christ explains the cost of discipleship (8:34-38)

4.     Christ reveals His glory (9:1-10)

5.     Christ clarifies Elijah’s role (9:11-13)

6.     Christ casts out a stubborn spirit (9:14-29)

7.     Christ again predicts His death and resurrection (9:30-32)

8.     Christ defines Kingdom greatness (9:33-37)

9.     Christ defines true spiritual fruit (9:38-41)

10.  Christ warns would-be stumbling blocks (9:42-50)

IV.           Concluding Christ’s Ministry: The Road to Jerusalem (10:1-52)

A.    Christ teaches on divorce (10:1-12)

B.    Christ Blesses the Children (10:13-16)

C.    Christ Confronts the Rich Young Ruler (10:17-27)

D.    Christ Confirms the Disciples’ Rewards (10:28-31)

E.    Christ Prepares the Disciples for His Death (10:32-34)

F.     Christ Challenges the Disciples to Humble Service (10:35-45)

G.    Christ Heals a Blind Man (10:46-52)

V.              Consummating Christ’s Ministry: Jerusalem (11:1-16:20)

A.    Triumphal Entry (11:1-11)

B.    Purification (11:12-19)

1.      Christ curses the fig tree (11:12-14)

2.     Christ cleanses the temple (11:15-19)

C.    Christ teaching in Public and in Private (11:20-13:37)

1.      Publicly: In the temple (11:20-12:44)

a.     Prelude: the lesson of the cursed fig tree (11:20-26)

b.     Concerning His authority (11:27-33)

c.     Concerning His rejection (12:1-12)

d.     Concerning paying taxes (12:13-17)

e.     Concerning the resurrection (12:18-27)

f.      Concerning the greatest commandment (12:28-34)

g.     Concerning the Messiah’s true sonship (12:35-37)

h.     Concerning the scribes (12:38-40)

i.       Concerning true giving (12:41-44)

2.     Privately: on the Mount of Olives (13:1-37)

a.     The disciples’ question about the end times (13:1)

b.     The Lord’s answer (13:2-37)

D.    Arrangements for the Betrayal of Christ (14:1,2,10,11)

E.    Anointing, the Last Supper, the Betrayal, The Arrest, and Trial of Christ: The Jewish Phase (14:3-9; 12-72)

1.      The anointing at Bethany (14:3-9)

2.     The Last Supper: Jerusalem (14:12-31)

3.     The prayer: Gethsemane (14:32-42)

4.     The betrayal: Gethsemane (14:43-52)

5.     The Jewish trial: Caiaphas’ house (15:1-41)

F.     Roman Phase Trial, Crucifixion (15:1-41)

1.      The Roman trial: Pilate’s Praetorium (15:1-15)

2.     The crucifixion: Golgotha (15:16-41)

G.    Burial in Joseph of Arimathea’s Tomb (15:42-47)

H.   Resurrection (16:1-8)

I.      Postscript (16:9-20) 

Reference: MacArthur Study Bible, NASB, Updated Edition. 2006. Nelson Bibles, Thomas Nelson. La Habra, CA.