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.
- His style and use of the Greek language reveals his superb scholarship. He was also a first rate historian. In the 1800’s Sir William Ramsay of England, seeing that Luke’s historical references sometimes differed from secular historians, set out to prove him wrong. Ramsay was so astounded at Luke’s accuracy that he became a Christian.
Probably after Paul’s death in 67
AD, Luke set out to know more about the historical Jesus. In the 70’s there were many accounts of Jesus’ life and ministry. Luke was not satisfied. He wanted to know more things and he wanted to put them in some kind of order (1:1-4). More than half of Luke’s material is not found in the other Gospels. The Prodigal Son, the Publican in the Temple, and many more wonderful images in Jesus’ life would be lost to us without Luke’s writings. He gathered and studied the other accounts and talked to eyewitnesses. His descriptions of Mary’s inner feelings (Lk. 2:19, etc), indicate that he carried on personal interviews with her or those close to her.
John John, the first follower of Jesus (Jn. 2), was the last Apostle to die (AD 90’s). When people in the church (Gnostics) said Jesus could not be God and man at the same time, He wrote his Gospel and letters to challenge them. He portrays Jesus as both fully God (Jn. 1:1 / 5:20) and fully man (Jn. 1:14/ 1Jn. 1:1-3). This is the deepest mystery of Christianity (1 Tim. 3:16).
Purpose
The Four Gospels are not biographies. Jesus ministered for three years in Galilee (N Palestine) a tiny area with several million people. He seldom had a day off from the pressing crowds. Yet, it is amazing how few events are recorded. Also, almost a third of the material is taken up with the final week of His life. The purpose of the Gospels was to record those events and teachings needed by His followers to pass down the essential truths of Christianity.
Differences
The Four Gospels often differ in the details. They are like four witnesses of an automobile accident. Put them all together and you get the accurate picture. Some differences appear to be contradictions. These are few and each have been addressed by Christian scholars through the years. An example is the healing of Bartimaeus. Matthew and Mark say it took place while Jesus was leaving the city of Jericho, and Luke says it was when they were entering Jericho. Matthew says there were two blind men and Mark and Luke mention only one.
Going deeper, we find there were two Jerichos’ in Jesus’ day, an old one and a new one. As to Mark and Luke speaking of only one blind man; the gospel writers were interested in giving the churches the primary truths and not all of the specific details.
John A. Broadus’ commentary on Matthew says for almost every discrepancy we have satisfactory explanations, and when we don’t have an answer, this does not mean there is no answer.
The great Presbyterian, Charles Hodge, says that if we find a few grains of sand in the Parthenon, we do not say the Parthenon is not made of marble. The few unexplainable discrepancies we do find, he says, almost never deal with important teachings, and we may tread them under our feet as we stand on the truth of Scripture (Hodge’s Theology).
THE PREPARED WORLD
Jesus was born “in the fullness of time” (Gal. 4:4). God prepared the world for the coming of His Son geographically. Palestine is a tiny strip 50 miles wide and one hundred miles long. But it is a narrow land bridge connecting three continents – Europe (NW), Asia (N) and Africa (S). It sat on the E. shore of the Med. Sea, the super highway of the world, joining the continents. Growing up in the central mountains, Jesus watched caravans and ships from every nation go by.
He prepared it religiously. The Jews gave the world the idea of one God and a religion characterized by morality and charity. People in the First Century were weary of idolatry and cruelty, and longed for what the Jews had to offer. We see this in the fact that no army officer who was a Captain (Centurion), is presented in an unfavorable light in the NT. They are pictured doing such things as building Jewish Churches (Luke 7), praying to one God and helping the poor (Acts 10).
The Jews had also been dispersed throughout the world. They took their religion with them and built synagogues where Christian missionaries could preach from the Atlantic to the Middle East.
God prepared the world socially and politically. The Greeks (336-323 BC) gave it a universal language. Christian missionaries could be understood throughout the world. They created a love of wisdom and learning; so a new religion would be welcomed for discussion (Acts 18).
The Romans (63 BC) built roads that last to this day and kept the peace with an iron fist. Thus preachers of the cross could travel freely and preach the gospel. A few centuries earlier or later they would have been stopped on the sea by pirates, and on the land by national boundaries and robbers.
Strangely there was a universal hope, among the major religions and even the Philosophers, for some kind of universal Savior or revealer of Truth. That is why the Magi were looking for a “King” and came 900 miles to find Him when He came (Mt. 2)
