CLAS / PHIL 2610. Paganism to Christianity

Reading Handout 8. The Gospel of Mark

Reading:

Chadwick pp. 9-23

Norlin Reserve: The Gospel of Mark chapters 1-16 (pp. 46-69)

You may also use any translation you may have or prefer for Mark’s gospel

The Gospel of Mark is the earliest of the extant canonical accounts of Jesus’ life (the other three being the Gospels of Matthew, Luke and John). Mark’s gospel was known already to writers in the first century BC and is felt to have been written c. AD 60, i.e. within the lifetime of those who had actually seen Jesus. Indeed, a late first-century AD bishop, Papias of Hierapolis, claimed that Mark drew his information directly from the teaching of St. Peter and there is some evidence in the text that the writer composed his gospel in Rome, where Peter spent the last years of his life. It is likely that the author actually mentions himself in the text at chapter 14 verses 51-2 and thus that Mark had met Jesus himself and was with him at the time of his arrest.

Mark’s gospel is the earliest and shortest of the three so-called “synoptic” gospels, which also include Matthew and Luke. These three gospels share many similarities in their narrative structures and in the events they relate. These similarities have led scholars to conclude that Matthew and Luke most likely used Mark in the composition of their evangels, though it is also likely that they used another source – now lost but commonly referred to as “Q” – in addition to Mark for their more fulsome details. Mark’s gospel can be divided into two parts the first of which relates Jesus’ baptism and early teaching. Beginning at 8.27, where Peter confesses that he believes Jesus to be the Messiah – the Jewish anointed one thought to be fated to resurrect the nation of Israel – the gospel shifts its focus to emphasize Jesus’ teaching that, as Messiah, he must suffer, die and rise from the dead. The gospel concludes abruptly at 16.8, so abruptly that many have argued that the ending is lost. Throughout, the text is strongly eschatological, arguing that the end of times is near and that Christ will soon return to undertake the last judgment.

Questions:

1. Is the Gospel of Mark like or dislike the religious texts we have thus far encountered? To what degree is it history? biography? religion? mythology?
2. Is Jesus like or dislike religious figures we have studied so far? What does the story tell us about Jesus’ background? His family? His early years?
3. Why did Jesus disturb the Jewish and Roman authorities so much? What is Jesus’ attitude toward the religious practices of the Jewish leadership? What is Jesus’ attitude toward the social order of his world?
4. What are the elements of the Gospel message that might be designed to point to Jesus’ divinity? Think of miracles? Prophecy? Resurrection?
5. How can we explain Jesus’ popularity? What did he offer that his followers were looking for?
6. What role does eschatology (stories of the end times) play in Jesus message? How does this fit with other religious systems we have studied?