Introduction
Overview
Mark’s main concern is to show that Jesus, the powerful Messiah and Son of God, is also the Suffering Servant. Mark’s aim of showing Jesus as the suffering Son of God encloses the entire Gospel (1:1; 15:39). Between these two bookends Jesus shows what it means that he is the Son of God and Messiah (see especially 8:28–29; 10:45). Mark then connects who Jesus is (Christology) to what it means to follow Jesus (discipleship). We learn that following Jesus means going the way of the cross, that the path to glory leads through suffering—not only for the Lord, but also for those who follow him. Mark’s first readers, who were navigating the turbulent waters of persecution, needed this message.
Authorship, Date, Place of Composition, and Audience
Like the other canonical Gospels, Mark nowhere identifies its author, or even, as is the case with Luke (1:1–4) and John (20:30–31), the occasion of writing. Early and reputable witnesses, however, including Papias, Eusebius, Clement of Alexandria, and Origen, attest that the Second Gospel derives from John Mark, who, although not an apostle, was a faithful interpreter of Peter, whose testimony was the chief source of Mark’s Gospel. This John Mark, the son of Mary in whose house the early church gathered in Jerusalem (Ac 12:12), was an assistant on Paul’s first missionary journey. Although he quit the journey at Perga (Ac 12:25; 13:4, 13), the NT indicates he later traveled with Barnabas (Ac 15:37–41), was reconciled with Paul (Col 4:10; Phm 24; 2 Tm 4:11), and finally joined Peter in Rome (1 Pt 5:13). The aforementioned church fathers state that Mark composed the Gospel in service of Peter’s preaching in Rome, although he took liberties with the chronological order of some events. The Gospel must have been composed sometime after AD 64, when Peter arrived in Rome, but probably before the fall of Jerusalem in AD 70, for chapter 13, which reflects some aspects of the First Jewish Revolt, does not seem to reflect the fall of Jerusalem.
If Mark composed the Gospel in Rome and for Roman Christians, then his primary audience was Roman Gentiles. This is corroborated by the fact that Mark seldom quotes from the OT, explains Jewish customs unfamiliar to Gentiles (7:3–4; 12:18; 14:12; 15:42), translates Aramaic and Hebrew phrases by their Greek equivalents (3:17; 5:41; 7:11, 34; 10:46; 14:36; 15:22, 34), and incorporates a number of Latinisms.
Style
The Second Gospel communicates meaning implicitly rather than explicitly. Readers are not told what things mean; rather, readers must enter the drama of the narrative to experience its meaning. Mark writes in an unadorned though vivid style, maintaining a vigorous tempo throughout by linking sentences with “and,” “again,” and “immediately.” Mark rarely intrudes into the plot of the narrative with his own editorial comment, and he does so only when necessary to establish the meaning of an otherwise obscure point (e.g., 3:30; 7:19). Unlike the other Gospels, and especially John, which rely on long didactic units of Jesus’s teachings and dialogues, the Second Gospel is action packed, portraying who Jesus is by what he does. Mark’s modest vocabulary range is augmented by several very effective literary techniques. As master of the unexpected, Mark employs irony and paradox throughout the Gospel in order to challenge false preconceptions of Jesus and the kingdom of God so that readers may experience “a new teaching with authority” (1:27) and learn that new wine requires new wineskins (2:22). The Second Gospel also achieves meaning by its artful arrangement of material. Mark often places stories side by side in order to let them comment on each other (e.g., 4:35–41; 5:1–20), and Mark is unique among the Gospels in employing the “sandwich technique”—inserting a seemingly unrelated story into the middle of a story in order to make a third point by implication. (On the relationship of Mark to Matthew and Luke, see the article “The Synoptic Problem.”)
Major Themes
Jesus is the unrivaled subject of every section in the Gospel with the exception of two sections about John the Baptist (1:4–8; 6:14–29), both of which foreshadow Jesus. The characteristic of Jesus that left the most lasting impression on his followers and caused the most offense to his opponents was his authority, which Jesus received at his baptism (1:9–11), to teach, heal, minister, and even suffer as God’s Son. Several episodes—particularly Jesus’s presumption to forgive sins (2:10), redefine Sabbath (2:27–28), and subjugate nature (4:35–41)—depict Jesus doing what only God can do. Divine Sonship is most supremely expressed, however, through the motif of the servant of the Lord who “give[s] his life as a ransom for many” (10:45). Mark refers to Jesus by numerous titles, including teacher, rabbi, Son of David, Christ/Messiah, Lord, Son of Man, and Son of God, the last of which is the key to Mark’s presentation of Jesus. The Gospel begins with the announcement of Jesus as God’s Son (1:1); he is recognized as such by demons (1:24; 3:11; 5:7), and at his baptism (1:11) and transfiguration (9:7) he is declared God’s Son by the Father. He is not knowable to humanity as God’s Son, however, until his suffering on the cross—and there first by a Gentile Roman centurion (15:39).
The major themes that interface with Jesus’s divine Sonship in Mark include discipleship, faith, insiders-outsiders, and the journey. Regarding discipleship, Mark repeatedly emphasizes that Jesus’s followers must share Jesus’s fate: as Jesus is with the Father, so disciples are to be with Jesus (3:13); and as Jesus serves in humility and suffering, so too must his disciples deny themselves and take up their cross and follow him (8:34). The most difficult lesson for disciples to learn is faith and trust in Jesus, which comes not by a magical formula but only by repeated hearing of Jesus and by participation in his mission. Those who should understand and follow often do not (Jesus’s family, 3:31–35; Jesus’s hometown, 6:1–6; religious leaders, 11:27–33), whereas a host of unlikely outsiders (lepers, 1:40–42; the unclean, 5:34; foreigners, 7:24–30; the blind, 10:52; the poor, 12:41–44; and the centurion in charge of Jesus’s crucifixion, 15:39) confess and follow Jesus. An “insider” is defined not by moral perfection but by being in Jesus’s presence and doing the will of the Father (3:34–35; 4:11). Above all, the response of faith and discipleship is exemplified by following Jesus on the road to his passion in Jerusalem (8:31; 9:31; 10:32–34, 52). The road or way thus describes the way Jesus must go and the way the disciples must follow if both are to fulfill God’s plan.
Outline
1. Ministry in Galilee (1:1–8:26)
A. Preparation for Ministry (1:1–13)
B. Summary of Jesus’s Message (1:14–15)
C. Galilean Ministry (1:16–7:23)
D. Jesus Travels to Gentile Regions (7:24–8:9)
E. Opposition from Pharisees and Disciples (8:10–26)
2. Journey to Jerusalem (8:27–16:20)
A. Peter’s Confession at Caesarea Philippi and the Transfiguration (8:27–9:29)
B. On the Road to Jerusalem (9:30–10:52)
C. Stories of Conflict in the Temple in Jerusalem (11:1–13:37)
D. The Abandonment of Jesus in Jerusalem (14:1–72)
E. The Trial and Crucifixion of Jesus in Jerusalem (15:1–47)
F. The Resurrection (16:1–8)
G. Later Resurrection Traditions (16:9–20)