Analysis of Marks Gospel Essay

The Gospel of Mark is a narrative of the life of Jesus Christ, leading up to his death. The Gospel of Mark starts off with the baptism of Jesus by John the Baptist. In the first couple of chapters, Mark

Mark’s gospel begins with Jesus’ ministry, leads up to, and ends with His crucifixion. The gospel stresses the importance of Jesus’ divinity and discipleship. There are different examples throughout the gospel of this. Discipleship is shown on Mark’s gospel when Jesus first calls his disciples to repent and believe. In chapter two verses twelve to seventeen Jesus calls sinners to repentance when he has supper with tax collectors. This calls the sinners to follow Him. The best example of discipleship is in chapter eight verse thirty-four when Jesus says take up your cross and follow me. He is asking people to live as He does and commit their whole lives to Him even if it means dying in order to deliver God’s message. He says whoever loses their

Mark begins and ends his gospel with schism. The division of the heavens when Jesus is baptized by John (Mark 1:10) and the final one, the tearing of the veil in the temple (Mark 15:38). These two schisms form the fundamentals of the Book of Mark. God splits the heavens, in order to establish His Son, and then He splits the veil of the temple, in atonement for His Son’s death. In between these boards of the book of Mark, in between the schisms, lies the vigorous, dynamic gospel of Jesus Christ, the Son of God. If we view the schism of the heavens and the schism of the veil as a literary bracket which envelopes this shortest of the four gospels, then within these brackets, inside this shortest of gospels, inside is the good news of Jesus of

Longenecker’s The Lost Letters of Pergamum encapsulates the socio-historical, cultural, and political atmosphere of the first-century setting in which Mark’s Gospel would have been experienced. Understanding Jesus in context of this background alters the way I understand the Gospel of Mark. Specific passages in Mark can be reflected upon based on the socio-historical, cultural, and political aspects of the setting described in Longenecker’s book. In The Lost Letters of Pergamum, readers see Euphemos and Antipas admonishing Luke against associating himself with Christians for they worship and follow a different lord than the emperor as well as endorse an empire other than Rome.

The Gospel according to Matthew is the first book of the New Testament. The story explains how the Messiah, Jesus, was refused by Israel and finally sent the disciples to preach the gospel around the whole world. As Matthew wrote for his fellow Jews, he wrote his Gospel in the language Jesus spoke, Aramaic, which led early Church Fathers to believe Matthew’s was the first Gospel. On the other hand, the Gospel of Mark teaches that Jesus is the Son of God who assumed human nature. Mark wrote the gospel in Greek for a Gentile-Christian audience, which was undergoing persecution, perhaps in Rome. A central theme is that following Jesus often means that a Christian must suffer like Jesus did. Mark’s Gospel points out that Jesus accepted this important title, but that he was reluctant to let people know his identity. (Matthew 26:26-30 and Mark 14:22-26 )

Bible Scholar David Garland points to two possibilities as to why Mark’s Gospel is written in a narrative style or form. Garland believes the Gospel of Mark either came from an oral story circulating in the Jerusalem church or it came from a firsthand account of the Apostle Peter. Some bible scholars point to the idea that the Gospel of Mark was narrativized, so it could be heard rather than be read silently. Bible scholar Robert Tannehill believes the Gospel of Mark may even have been collected and delivered orally before it was ever written down. Michael Licona believes if a certain text appears in all three Synoptics, the Gospel of Mark is the most likely source for Matthew and Luke’s accounts. Licona notes that this rule should not be held hard and fast, since Mark may also have been using an oral story while Matthew and Luke choose another source or omitted material where it differs in each of their Gospel’s. The Apostle Peter seems to be the eyewitness account which Mark narrates into a single unified story, which centers around a single central figure Jesus and a group of His closest companions. If the author of Mark was using an oral story to write his gospel from, this would definitely explain its narrative style.

The Messianic Secret- the Jews expected a “militant Messiah” and to accomplish Gods plan “Jesus keep his identity a secret” to make sure Gods plan was fully fulfilled. Gospel of the romans- Mark designed the gospel for a roman audience taking the time to explain Jewish culture. The passion- Mark pays a great amount of attention to the sacrifice of Christ.

In this paper, I am writing about the Gospel of Mark. The Gospel of Mark is the shortest Gospel, but is a really cool one. It covers a lot of key events that happened during Jesus’ lifetime. After reading the chapters, we pointed out things that stood out to us, which we thought were strange or interesting. We also pointed out spiritual lessons that taught us about our faith. We also wrote down questions that we had about the material.

One key feature of marks gospel that differs it from the other 3 main gospels is that it was one of the first to be written which makes it a short gospel compared to the other three. As it was one of the first, Mathew, Luke and John gospels used marks as a source for theirs.

The gospel according to mark is a prolific story which takes look at people's view of Jesus, and critiques of several aspects of religion, and a further critiques humanity and human nature. The story does this by making Espinosa imitate the role of Jesus Christ, as well as by making the Gutres his followers and making them a symbol of human nature as well. Finally paints a view of how humanity will continue to react to the unknown.

Mark wrote his gospel sometime during or soon after the Roman Jewish war in 66-74 CE. Roman oppression led to numerous Jewish uprisings, involving great bloodshed. Finally, the Romans destroyed Jerusalem and burned the temple in 70 CE. This destruction traumatized Christians and Jews alike. Against this background, Mark writes his gospel.[1] One of the reasons for the composition was to reassure and instruct his readers in their faith. His main vehicle of instruction is the disciples. Mark presents the disciples in a harsher manner than the other three gospels. However, Mark's severe depiction of the disciples serves a powerful purpose: to teach the readers about true discipleship.

Mark: The Gospel of Mark tells the story of Jesus Christ’s life from when he was baptized by John the Baptist until the days of his death, and his resurrection. Mark was the second of four Gospels although some Scholars argue and insist Mark was the first Gospel written 1. Mark was written by John Mark in AD 65, with a target audience of Roman Christian beleivers 2. Mark was written in a unique manner in regards to literary genre, as it contains figures of speech, and portray life situations in a passionate story like setting that can make the reader feel as if he is there 3. The Gospel of Mark is the shortest of the four Gospels, however it is written in a manner that emphasizes more so on Jesus’s works than Jesus’s words 4. The key theme in Mark is to portray the life of Jesus Christ as the son of God 5, and the purpose was to show the human qualities and emotions that Jesus displayed from anger (Mark 3:5), and compassion (Mark 1:41). Some of the key events of Jesus Christ’s life in the Gospel Mark include his miracles, his entrance into Jerusalem, the last supper, his arrest and trial, his crucifixion, his resurrection, and his ascension 6. The Gospel of Mark ends with his instruction to the eleven Apostles “And he said unto them “Go ye into all the world, and preach the Gospel to the whole creation” (Mark 16:16), and his ascension into Heaven (Mark 16:19).

Mark presents Jesus as a compassionate savior who through his acts of service and acts of suffering summons unbelievers to become disciples and so that believers would understand what it means to be committed followers of Jesus. In Mark's account of the Passion of Jesus Christ, Jesus dies alone.Jesus only speaks once from the cross stating "My God, my God, why have you abandoned me?" and dies. Mark acknowledges that after Jesus' crucifixtion that people believed in Jesus being the true Messiah, "Truly this man was the Son of God!" (15:39).

It is noted that the Gospel of Mark and the Gospel of Matthew tells various events in a different manner or perspective, and have an effect on how The Walking on the Water is retold. Concerning the complete Gospel of Mark, "The story is told with an unusual urgency" (Powell, p. 40), and "Emphasize Jesus 's deeds over his words" (Powell, p. 41). In terms of theology, this presents people in general in a neutral fashion, while presenting Jesus as a god, and less as a person.

1. In the Gospel of Mark, there are many important features that define Jesus. One point to make notice is his caring character. There are multiple instances where Jesus feeds an abundant amount of people. He was thankful that people were there to see him, so he did not want them to go home hungry. With seven loaves of bread and a few fish, Jesus fed four thousand people. He also did this again with 5 loaves and 2 fish, and he was able to feed five thousand people because he was compassionate towards them. These situations show that Jesus cared for his people and did not want them to suffer.