Mark's Gospel's Place In The Bible Series

THE GOSPEL OF MARK

Chapters 1-8

Bob Marcaurelle

MARK’S GOSPEL’S PLACE IN THE BIBLE

HOW GOD GAVE US THE BIBLE

“In the past, God spoke to our ancestors many times and in many ways / but in these last days He has spoken to us through His Son / He reflects the brightness of God’s glory and is the exact likeness of God’s own being. - Hebrews 1:1-3 (TEV)

Four terms tell us how God reveals Himself to us today, through Scripture.

Revelation From Adam to Abraham (2000 BC) God revealed Himself through creation, conscience, and personal contacts with men like Enoch and Noah (Gen. 1-11). God formed from Abraham, a nation (the Jews) with whom He would personally interact. He revealed Himself to them in mighty things like parting the Red Sea (Ex. 12-15) and small things like giving David the lyrics to a song (Ps. 23).

Inspiration Paul said “All Scripture is inspired (breathed out) by God.” (2 Tim. 3:15). God led men to write down an accurate record and interpretation of His revelations. This produced the OT Bible and later the NT Bible.

Recognition God led the Hebrews to recognize which of their many writings were inspired, and should be included in the canon (rule or standard). He did the same thing for our 27 New Testament Books.

Preservation Through the years, God preserved His writings physically from being destroyed by time and tyrants, and textually from serious errors by those who copied and re-copied the manuscripts. Not one of the thousands of differences found in old copies alters the meaning of one major Bible teaching.

THE FOUR GOSPELS

Dates and Authorship

Not one Gospel writer gives us his name or the date of his writing. For these we rely on the content of the books and the writings of early Christian leaders, the “Church Fathers”, in the AD 100’s.

Matthew Early church leaders in the 100’s AD believed this gospel was written in Hebrew, for the Jewish people and its author was Matthew the Apostle. It was written while Peter and Mark were preaching around Rome in the 50’s-60’s AD (See outline of the NT at the end of this study).

- He constantly quotes OT Scripture, and like devout Jews seldom uses the name of God. For example, he writes about the “kingdom of heaven” and not, like the other gospels, the kingdom of “God”.

- The 2nd Century church put Matthew first in the NT, next to Malachi, because its roots are in the OT. Jews cared little for chronology, so Matthew organized his gospel by subjects rather than by the order of the events.

Mark This Gospel was said to be made up of the sermon notes of Simon Peter, when he preached in and around Rome in the 50’s and 60’s. John Mark, his secretary, left copies in the churches when he and Peter left. He gives us short clips of Jesus the king of disease and nature, something busy Romans could identify with and read in a hurry.

Mark is the only gospel that tells of a “young” man in the Garden of Gethsemane with Jesus when he was arrested. When a soldier reached out to arrest him, he ran so fast that he left loin cloth in the man’s hand; and ran naked through the streets (14:51). Most believe he was that young man, perhaps the youngest member of the disciples that were close to Jesus and the Twelve. He appears about 5 years later in his mother Mary’s home in Jerusalem, which was the gathering place for the Church (Acts 12:12). Since he was in Gethsemane that last night, it is highly probable that his home was the “Upper Room” where Jesus spent his last night with His disciples (Jn.13:2).

Mark was the nephew of Barnabas and accompanied him and Paul on the First Missionary Journey (Acts 13-14). Because he left them at the beginning of the journey, Paul was unwilling to take him on his second journey (Acts 15) and this caused Paul and Barnabas to separate. But 15 years later, when Paul was in prison awaiting death, he wanted to see Mark and saw him as “useful in the ministry” (2 Tim. 4). In these 15 intervening years (53-67) ancient traditions put him alongside Peter.

Luke Luke, the writer of Luke and Acts, was a physician listed among Gentile Christians (Col. 4:10-14). He joined Paul in the middle 50’s, on his second missionary journey (Acts 16:11 uses “we”) and was with him to the end in 67 AD (2 Tim. 3). He may have been his personal physician, and thus the first known Medical Missionary in church history.

- If he was a Gentile, this is amazing, because volume wise, he wrote most of the NT. Christianity truly belongs not to the Jews, but to the human race.