The Gospel of Mark – A Testament of Disbelief

Earthpages.org

Apr 18

The lion is the symbol of St. Mark the Evangelist

The Gospel of Mark is one of the four canonical gospels and one of the three synoptic gospels of the New Testament, which means that it shares a common perspective and hypothesized source ('Q') with the gospels of Matthew and Luke. It is widely accepted that Mark was the first gospel to appear and was used as a reference point for both Matthew and Luke.

This first gospel tells the story of Jesus' life and ministry from the time of his baptism by John the Baptist to his death and ascension. Essentially, Mark focuses on Jesus' role as the suffering servant and messiah who came to fulfill the prophecies of the Old Testament.

Mark was written in Greek for the Gentiles sometime around or after the year 70 AD when the Romans destroyed the Second Temple in Jerusalem. The gospel's author is traditionally identified as Mark, a companion and interpreter of Peter, one of Jesus' closest disciples. Along these lines, a Papias, the Bishop of Heirapolis (60-130 CE) wrote that Mark had written an account based on St. Peter's memory of the life and sayings of Christ.

However, most modern scholars believe the gospel was written anonymously in Rome or Syria and that the name of Mark was later attached to enhance its authority.

The shortest and arguably most eventful of the four gospels, Mark presents Jesus as a powerful teacher, healer, exorcist, and miracle worker who challenges the religious authorities and confronts evil forces. Mark also portrays Jesus as the Son of God who suffers rejection, betrayal, and crucifixion for the sake of humanity.

Interestingly, some of the events recorded in Mark were not necessarily sequenced in the order that they apparently occurred. And Mark tends to concentrate on the last week of Jesus' life, from his ride into Jerusalem to his death.

Mark ends with a surprising twist: the women who go to visit Jesus' tomb find it empty and are told by a young man that he has risen from the dead. They are instructed to tell his disciples and Peter to go to Galilee, where they will see him again. It takes several appearances for the resurrected Jesus to convince all of his disciples that he truly has risen and to go out and preach the good news.

⁹ Having risen in the morning on the first day of the week, he appeared first to Mary of Magdala from whom he had cast out seven devils. ¹⁰ She then went to those who had been his companions, and who were mourning and in tears, and told them. ¹¹ But they did not believe her when they heard her say that he was alive and that she had seen him. ¹² After this, he showed himself under another form to two of them as they were on their way into the country. ¹³ These went back and told the others, who did not believe them either. ¹⁴ Lastly, he showed himself to the Eleven themselves while they were at table. He reproached them for their incredulity and obstinacy, because they had refused to believe those who had seen him after he had risen. ¹⁵ And he said to them, 'Go out to the whole world; proclaim the gospel to all creation ... ¹⁹ And so the Lord Jesus, after he had spoken to them, was taken up into heaven; there at the right hand of God he took his place, ²⁰ while they, going out, preached everywhere, the Lord working with them and confirming the word by the signs that accompanied it (Mark 16, Catholic Online).

With the earliest Christians so reluctant to believe that Jesus had risen, literally right before their eyes, it's no wonder many of us today find it difficult to believe in something we usually don't see with our natural eyesight. However, as the old Moody Blues song goes, that first step into the light may be the hardest step to take, but it's a step that if taken firmly, will never allow us to return to the darkness from where we came.

Note on this entry:

Although Bing Chat helped to sort out some of the main points (i.e. the tedious work) for this entry, it should be noted that the AI made some serious errors. With so many current news stories about AI's potential greatness and danger, I thought I'd stress to readers that we should always DOUBLE CHECK when using AI!