Lecture #10 - Introduction to Mark

Outline of Mark
Ch. 1-8 - An explanation of who Jesus is with a build up to the recognition of his messiahship (8:29).
Ch. 9-16 - An explanation of why Jesus is going to die with a build up to the crucifixion.



Introduction to Mark
Who was Mark?
John Mark was the cousin of Barnabas (Col. 4:10)and son of the woman whose house Christians gathered at during Peter’s imprisonment (Acts 12:12). He accompanied Paul and Barnabas as far Pamphylia in Asia Minor on the first missionary journey (Acts 13:5, 13). Peter calls him his son (1 pet. 5:13), and Paul mentions Mark’s presence with him during his Roman imprisonment (Philemon 24,Col. 4:10). He begins with eight chapters, each one asking in the midst of the narrative, “who is this man?”culminating in Peter’s declaration that “You are the Christ”. The last eight chapters focus on the prediction and fulfillment of Christ’s death and resurrection, the purpose of Christ’s coming. Scenes in Mark change rapidly, often transitioned by euthus “immediately”. He explains Jewish customs making it likely intended for a gentile audience. The gospel climaxes with Peter’s confession of Jesus’ messiahship (8:27-30).


Eusebius said that Mark got his information from Peter and was not a first hand witness of Jesus. Other features that indicate an apostolic source like Peter: his is the only gospel to mention that the grass on which the five thousand sat was green (6:39); he criticizes the twelve harshly; Peter figures prominently and is noted “remembering” (11:21, 14:72). His Greek is simple and straightforward and full of Semitisms (Hebrew linguistic constructions) and that one would expect of a Jerusalem-bred Christian. The gospel might have been written in Rome but evidence is not conclusive. The theme of suffering as glory comes through; the one who is identified as the Son of god in the opening verse is confess to be the Son of god by the roman centurions Jesus dies, humiliated and in agony on the cross (15:39).


The Melodic Line of Mark

The Gospel of Mark is a book of secrets and veils and mysteries, being laid and lifted and relaid and relifted. Mark, of all of the gospels, highlights the secretive and mysterious nature of Jesus' ministry. There are insiders who understand partly at first, but more fully by the time Mark is written. And there are outsiders who do not understand.

Mark tells the story in such a way that it spurs the reader on to look into the mystery. From the very beginning, Jesus is covering what he is doing with secrecy (Mark 1:44). We can see the difference between Mark 13:14 and Luke 21:20. Where Luke interprets the sign so that his reader can understand, Mark's mysterious comment of the hidden sign is, "Let the Reader Understand).

Where Matthew is focused upon Jesus recapitulating and reenacting Israel's past, Mark is focused on Jesus interpreting Israel's present. Throughout Matthew the events of Jesus' life present Jesus as a new Israel, getting right where God's people had failed. Mark presents the events of Jesus' life as the form the 'vital theatre' of the crisis of the history of Israel.

But we also see that Mark makes it clear that the key to understanding the mysteries. The key to seeing through the veil that is being spread is the resurrection. Mark begins with revelation (baptism) but then Jesus covers and veils everything that he says to Israel (strangly enough, he sends an open evangelist to gentiles (5: genesseret). But he covers with secrecy and parables everything that he says to Israel.

But the secret that will lift the veil is the resurrection (Ch. 16) because the resurrection declares with power the same thing that was declared by the Father at the beginning of the book. That Jesus is the Son of God (comp. Rom. 1:4 and Mark 1:11). And so then, all that Jesus veiled to Israel, is unveiled by the resurrection. The resurrection becomes the key that unlocks the mysteries throughout Mark's Gospel account.

The healings are all resurrections (Horne, Mark VaM p. 98). The meanings of Jesus' parables are unlocked with the resurrection. Jesus tells us that he speaks in parables because he does not want people to convert yet (Mark 4: ). But that is because, according to the parable, he first has to plant his seed, so that it can die, and in the resurrection be multiplied ( ) That is why the apostles, in their ministry, are reaping such a harvest (Acts ). The seed, in its resurrection, produces a multiplied harvest.