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The Gospel
The Gospel is an irrefutable witness to the divine humanity of Christ. As a God-inspired book, however, it was written by living people, each describing events as he saw and perceived them or as he heard about them from eyewitnesses. The inspiration of the sacred books refers to the joint creation of men and the Holy Spirit-their cooperation, their synergy. There are known differences of detail between the four evangelists, which shows not a contradiction between them, but their unity. If the narratives were identical, it would suggest that their authors consulted with and copied from one another. The gospels are eyewitness accounts where every fact is true but presented from the point of view of different authors. The thesis of this paper is that in Mark’s Gospel, Jesus is presented as the Son of God and Son of Man. He is capable of performing miracles but is not deprived of the emotions common to all people.
The Differences and Similarities of the Four Gospels
The living, real Christ, is known to Christians when they accept the whole gospel as a revelation of divine truth. The human mind cannot comprehend this book: it is full of miracles from beginning to end and is itself a miracle. The first chapter of Matthew’s Gospel depicts the virgin birth of Christ without the involvement of a man. The first chapter of Mark tells of Christ’s temptation in the wilderness and his encounter with the devil. The Gospel of Luke describes the appearance of the archangel and the Annunciation. The stories told in the four Gospels confront the human mind with a choice. One can humble himself by submitting to faith and God’s revelation or close the book because it contradicts common sense.
Until recently, the naturalness of the narrative was seen as a flaw; now, it is rightly considered a great virtue. The Gospel of Mark is not a literary work but one of the most important historical documents. It is the testimony of the incarnate Son of God, recorded from the words of an eyewitness and closest companion of the Savior during His earthly ministry. The other, more carefully processed hagiographies of Christ apparently use the Gospel of Mark as their basis. If no other New Testament writings existed or remained, the Christian Church and its teaching would still exist in a form little different from the modern one.
There are similarities in Jesus’ sayings and narratives throughout the gospels. Nevertheless, biblical scholars have also noted points where the gospels differ in their descriptions of the same event. For three hundred years, Christian scholars around the world have been trying to unravel the mystery of why the Gospels, while being so similar on the one hand, are so different on the other. A lot of research has led scholars to the following conclusion – Mark’s Gospel and an additional source called “Q” influenced the content of the Gospels of Matthew and Luke. The two-source hypothesis has become the primary solution to the synoptic problem; most New Testament scholars take this position.
In comparison to the others, Mark’s Gospel has the character of a simple eyewitness account. In the Gospels of Matthew and Luke, which provide a complete record of the Savior’s speeches, the intentional compilation of the story of Christ, the Savior’s earthly life, is more evident. In Matthew’s Gospel, less in the Gospel of Luke, there is also an element of systematization of the material. In Matthew, the speeches containing the foundations of Christ’s moral teaching are gathered together and given in the form of one sermon. In addition, Matthew and Luke have more of a supernatural aspect, making the natural, purely human side of Christ the Savior’s life less clear than Mark’s account. Mark’s Gospel is the product of deeper penetration into the mystery of the person of the God-man, and in it, the artistic and theological element is the most vivid. However, one can say that much original material and traits of direct observation have been preserved in it.
The Importance and Essence of Mark’s Gospel
There is no certainty that the evangelists actually set out to tell the story of what Jesus was like. In the end, though, that is the only task they are seriously pursuing. Nevertheless, in a sense, it is unintentional: they are collecting, slightly reformatting, and arranging in a certain order those stories that have come before them. Simply because these stories are dear to them, simply because they are, along with the Eucharist, an equal and equivalent source of a personal encounter with Jesus; however, one can judge that Mark the Evangelist does not set himself the task of giving a systematic and chronological account.
The significance of Mark’s Gospel is determined primarily by the importance of the facts it conveys, namely the life, death, and resurrection of the incarnate God. However, it is not unimportant who and how these facts and events were transmitted. Those who study the Gospel must know what material was used by the author. They should be aware for whom Mark’s Gospel was written, for what purpose the recording was made, and so forth. Therefore, the meaning of the studied Gospel can be more fully understood only after a detailed acquaintance with the basic data about the personality and life of the author and the circumstances of writing the Gospel.
Mark’s Gospel is known as one of the most important and difficult texts of the New Testament and early Christianity to understand. The fact is that the text of this Gospel is very poorly preserved. In fact, the title and the prologue in the traditional sense of ancient literature are missing; the text’s ending is also damaged. The Gospel of Mark was not studied or engaged in biblical scholarship until the appearance of a reconstructed text based on the Vatican Codex. Mark’s Gospel lacks the narrative of the birth of the Savior, the nativity narrative that Matthew has and Luke has. The text immediately begins with Jesus going out to preach, which begs the question of the extent to which Mark, the evangelist, shared orthodox Christology.
Who Was Mark and How Did He Compile the Gospel?
Mark was a member of the Christian community and was close to Peter and the other leaders of the Jerusalem church. Mark’s ministry to the apostle Peter is described in extant written works of ancient writings. The name of Saint Mark as a son testifies to a spiritual closeness between the two apostles. It is similar to the relationship between the Apostle Paul on the one hand and the Apostles Timothy and Titus on the other. According to tradition, Mark the evangelist died a martyr’s death in Alexandria. This legend, however, relies on evidence dating back no earlier than the fourth century.
Most of the extant testimonies of the Fathers of the Church state that the Gospel of Mark was created in Rome and was primarily intended for Gentile Christians. This is evidenced by many facts, such as the use of a large number of Latinisms, explanations of Jewish customs, and a few quotations from the Old Testament. The primary purpose of the Gospel is to understand the significance of discipleship deeply and following Christ in the context of His death and resurrection.
The fact that Mark is the author of this Gospel does not mean that he is the independent compiler of the material it contains. The Gospel is a special kind of literature that originated in the first century A.D. It is not simply a biography of Jesus Christ or a description of His great deeds. Moreover, it is not a record of everything connected with Jesus as His followers remembered it. The Gospel is a proclamation of the Good News addressed to a specific audience, which runs through the historical events surrounding the life, death, and resurrection of Christ. This is the meaning and purpose of each of the Gospels. And it is in keeping with this purpose that Mark selected and arranged the historical material available to him.
Jesus’ Image in the Gospel
In the Gospel, Mark has remarkable directness and sincerity in his presentation. He has Jesus’ listeners react emotionally to everything, surprised and horrified by what is happening. Mark mentions the concerns of those close to Jesus about his mental state. He notes repeatedly and frankly that the disciples did not understand Jesus. He speaks passionately about the feelings that possessed Christ; in general, his whole account is extremely emotional. This is what sets this Gospel apart from the other three versions.
The theological character of Mark’s Gospel is determined by the person of Jesus Christ and his significance for the circle of his disciples and their discipleship. Already in verse 1, Jesus is called the Son of God. This is affirmed by Heavenly Father, the demonic powers, and Jesus himself. Mark recorded Peter’s words, “You are the Christ” in the simplest and most direct form; Jesus responded to this title neither by accepting nor rejecting it. He shifted the disciples’ attention from the question of Himself to the question of what was to come. He preferred the other title, “Son of Man,” and told His disciples that He must suffer much, die, and then rise again. In Mark’s Gospel, Jesus calls Himself the Son of Man 12 times and only once “the Christ” because the title “Son of Man” was especially appropriate for His entire messianic task.
Church tradition recounts that the Apostle Mark wrote down the Gospel from the words of the holy Apostle Peter, the most zealous of the twelve apostles. At the same time, he was also the disciple who denied Christ at the most difficult moment. Peter remembered the word that Jesus said to him: “Before the rooster crows, you will deny me three time.” St. Peter is an example of love for the Savior and, at the same time, an example of weakness, so familiar to all people. The Gospel of Mark testifies how the Lord Jesus Christ helps Christians overcome their weakness, even its most extreme manifestation – unbelief.
In Mark’s brief account of the Gospel of Mark, relatively much space is devoted to describing the miracles of Christ, which portray His divine majesty and power. However, this does not lessen the true humanity of Christ. In portraying the image of Christ in the fullness of His divine power and authority, the evangelist does not conceal those facts which might seem incompatible with the presence of this fullness. For example, he says that Christ could not have performed a miracle in Nazareth. He recounts in vivid detail the miracles Christ performed not in a single moment or by word alone but in which some outward means were also used. Speaking of Christ himself, the evangelist conveys many such traits that speak of the identity of Christ’s temper with humans’ nature. He notes not only His feelings, concerns, and attributes such as compassion, love, and luminous serenity but also His severity and indignation.
However, His suffering and death will precede the triumph and glory of His messianic rule. Jesus, thus, had to pay for the sins of others. It had a special meaning for those who would follow him. The life of Jesus Christ in Mark’s Gospel is described as the life of God’s servant. It was tough for Christ’s twelve disciples to understand all this. They were expecting a triumphant Messiah, not one who would suffer and die. Mark describes the crucifixion of Jesus and the accompanying apparitions in a concise way that sheds light on the significance of the events. However, the evangelist writes with special feelings about the empty tomb and the angelic message that Jesus was alive and would meet his disciples in Galilee.
As a good shepherd, Mark wrote his Gospel to respond to the needs of his readers – they needed the gospel to help shape their lives. So, he achieved his goal through the images he recreated of Jesus and his twelve disciples with whom he hoped his readers would want to identify. He showed that Jesus Christ is the Messiah because He is the Son of God and also the suffering Son of Man.
In Mark’s Gospel, Jesus never openly spoke of himself as who he was, whereas John’s Gospel indicates that he did so very often. John openly exposes Jesus as the Messiah of the Jews, whereas Mark says that his messianism was the greatest mystery throughout his ministry. His martyrdom as such was consistent with God’s plan for the redemption of the human race. In light of all this, the evangelist showed how Jesus cared for his disciples. He tried to convey to them the essence of their discipleship in the context of his death and resurrection. Centuries pass, but all who follow Jesus invariably need this kind of care and instruction.
Christ in Mark’s Gospel is not just emotional; he is emotional in a human way. So, he can not only be sympathetic to people, but he can also feel anger. However, unlike ordinary anger, Christ’s irritation has a divine basis: human imperfection. Likewise, in Mark’s Gospel, Christ is indignant that the disciples do not allow people to bring him, children, for blessing. Similar passages in Matthew and Luke do not mention this. On the contrary, the anger in these Gospels comes from Christ’s disciples against the people who came to him.
Christ in Mark’s Gospel is not only the Lord of nature, of the spirit world, the elements, and disease. He is also the Lord of the sick and tormented, stormy and rebellious, suffering and languishing human heart. Moreover, he achieved this power over the human heart not only by His divine power but also as man through unceasing toil, suffering, sorrow, and tears. Christ achieved this through the rejection of temptations, ceaseless prayer, fasting, boundless self-denial, and complete obedience, even to death. In His all-encompassing love, the Lord Jesus shared with each person the burden of their entire, difficult life while being “all things to all people. At the same time, he was one with the Heavenly Father and the Spirit of Truth.
Mark’s Narrative and Differences from the Other Gospels
Mark’s narrative has an exceptional objectivity that is less characteristic of those of the other apostles. It is more realistic than the other Gospels; the facts are told as eyewitnesses saw them. Hence the remarkable vividness of the story, the vividness of the colors, and the drama of the whole story. The Gospel of Mark can be called an action gospel. The emphasis in it is on events and actions, more on the deeds of Christ than on His speeches. The speeches themselves are brief and mostly related to the events being reported. On the contrary, in the other Gospels, there is an attempt to convey in long orations the teachings of Christ. Mark has no long speeches, except the one about the world’s end and the second coming in chapter 13. The very depiction, both of the general course of events and individual actions, is dynamic. The narrative is not interrupted by the author’s considerations of this or that moment or person, as is especially common in John’s Gospel.
Besides, Matthew and Luke’s Gospels have almost no expressions of the various ordinary feelings of Christ the Savior. The traits of great simplicity in the disciples’ attitude toward their Master, even the naive expressions of some vexation toward Him, especially at the beginning of their following, are also omitted in the latter. Even the disciples’ usual address to Christ, “Master,” replaced the more appropriate “Lord.” Various features of His person are revealed in the four different yet accurate descriptions of Christ. Each description complements and elaborates on the previous one to create a complete portrait of Him. People will never fully understand everything about Jesus Christ. However, Christians can learn enough about Him from the four Gospels to appreciate who He is and what He did for people. The value of Mark’s Gospel is that it presents Jesus as the Son of Man and the Son of God, which shows his true perfection.
References
Bond, Helen K. The First Biography of Jesus: Genre and Meaning in Mark’s Gospel. William B. Eerdmans Publishing Company, 2020.
Ciancio, Jack. Through the Eyes of Mark: His World, His Gospel. Wipf & Stock Publishers, 2021.
Drane, John. Introducing the New Testament. Lion Hudson Limited, 2019.
Elwell, Walter A., and Robert W. Yarbrough. Encountering the New Testament: A Historical and Theological Survey (Encountering Biblical Studies). Baker Academic, 2013.
Konradt, Matthias. The Gospel According to Matthew: A Commentary. Baylor University Press, 2020.
Mitchell, David Forrest. The Son of Man in Mark’s Gospel. Wipf & Stock Publishers, 2020.
Stacy, Robert Wayne. “Module 3: Overview.” Liberty University, n.d., Web.
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