Introduction

The gospel of St. Mark is the earliest of the four gospel accounts of the New Testament canon. It believed to be written somewhere between 65 – 70 CE and may be authored by John Mark, a companion of St. Paul’s on his missionary journeys.

Significant to that time period are several critical incidents. First, the great fire of Rome in 69 CE which Nero attributed to the Christian scourge living in Rome. The second is the destruction of Jerusalem and the burning of the temple in 70 CE by the Roman army. The events of that incident were recorded by the Jewish historian Josephus who records the final stand of the Jewish rebels at Masada.

Jewish life was changed forever in the fall of Jerusalem. When the temple was destroyed the very center of Jewish worship and practice was gone. The priesthood and system of sacrificial worship was wiped away. From them on there would be no sacrifice. All emphasis would shift to the local synagogue and the rabbinical teaching. This era also marked the upsurge of Christian persecution.

Mark writes to a Jewish population about the entrance of the Kingdom of God through the Messiah, Jesus of Nazareth. The subject of the Kingdom of God is important to establishment of God’s will and purpose for the people. Intrinsic to the people of Israel is the twofold promise to Abraham that he would be a great nation and that he would inherit the land. This is at the baseline of their identity as they chose people of God. The primary proclamation of Jesus is that “the Kingdom of God has come near.” This kingdom turns out to be other than the expectation of the people around the coming of the Messiah. He was expected to return the land of Israel to the power and control of Israel. This would fulfill the promise. However, the kingdom that Jesus proclaims as present in him is non-geographical. It exists without borders. This kingdom doesn’t require Rome to stand down as the ruler of Palestine. In fact, for this kingdom to come rulers of this age are irrelevant. This marks a great contention among the establishment of Israel and their understanding of the messianic king. Caesar can rule and the kingdom of God can come.

In synoptic tradition (Matthew, Mark, and Luke) Marks stands as the first. His gospel provides an outline structure for the other gospels. In fact, the synoptic gospels draw their basic structure from Mark. Great portions of Mark are contained within the gospels of Matthew and Luke verbatim.

Mark’s gospel is characterized by its simple and quick sequence of events. Jesus is depicted as teaching with “authority” demonstrated constantly by the actions that accompany his words demonstrated in many healings and exorcisms. It is important to observe this “authority” of Jesus. Be watchful of who the authority rises against, and who it doesn’t rise against. Each is of equal importance. The people as well as the disciples are recorded as amazed and often fear enter the pictures. This is most pointedly the case in the first ending of the book in which the disciples who discover that Jesus is raised from the dead “return to their houses and say nothing to anyone because they were afraid.”

Wednesday, April 29, 2009