When studying the Bible, there is a vast wealth of scholarship and commentaries over the centuries. Because of this, it can be daunting to know where to begin.
The Gospel of Mark is the shortest of the four Gospels. Many scholars believe that it is the first Gospel ever to be written. When teaching the New Testament, I find that it is very helpful to begin teaching my students the story of Jesus through Mark’s Gospel.
Here are a few elements of Mark’s Gospel to keep in mind as you begin to study this work.
1. MARKAN PRIORITY
“Markan priority,” refers to the idea that Mark was the first of the Gospels written. We date Mark’s Gospel to after the year 70 AD because his Gospel references the destruction of the 2nd Temple, which happened in the year 70 AD. If Mark included that and the Temple had not already been destroyed, it would have been very problematic. It was probably written to Christians in Rome. Raymond Brown points out that his Greek sometimes borrows Latin expressions, which would imply that his primary audience was Latin speakers like the Romans.
His focus on suffering would coincide with their lived experience of surviving the persecutions under Emperor Nero. These Christians suffered greatly, and the Gospel portrait of Jesus focuses heavily on His suffering and how it is an essential part of the Gospel message, but with absolute hope in the Resurrection.
2. MANY LAYERS
The Gospel portrait of Jesus in Mark has many layers. First, He is the Son of God, as expressed in major ways at His baptism, the Transfiguration, and by the Centurion at the cross. Jesus is the Son of Man, which is a reference to the Book of Daniel. This emphasizes Jesus’ humanity and how He is the one who will bring about the kingdom that shall never be destroyed. Jesus is a servant Messiah.
The Jewish expectation was that the Messiah would bring about a “basileia” similar to that of the Romans, except the Jewish nation would be on top. This means that the Messiah would be a warrior who would subdue the enemies of Israel. Instead, He is a Messiah who serves others with (as the notes state) the simplicity and defenselessness of a child. He is also a suffering Messiah. This was scandalous in the ancient world.
3. CORE OF THE GOSPEL
The Core of Mark’s Gospel is in the center from Mark 8:22 through Mark 10:52. It is bookended by the healing of blind men. It starts with the healing of the blind man at Bethsaida and ends with the healing of Bartimaeus at Jericho.
Throughout all of these, Jesus is pointing to the cross, but the disciples are slow to understand. They either deny the cross or are focused on who is the greatest among them. But as we see in Bartimaeus, he casts off his cloak, representing his possessions. He is healed and then follows Jesus up to Jerusalem where He will be crucified. That is because for Mark, the disciples truly see when they give up everything and follow Jesus to the cross.
In Mark 10:45, Jesus says, “For the Son of Man came not to be served, but to serve and to give His life as a ransom for many.” Jesus is flipping the script of expectations. The leaders are to be servants, because that’s what He is doing. To follow Him is to be a servant who eventually gives everything away.
But for Mark, this is so important that the last 6 chapters of his Gospel (which is only 16 chapters long) is dedicated to the week leading up to and including His Passion, death, and Resurrection. This is to show us that the cross is at the heart of the Gospel. Jesus tells His disciples that they have to deny themselves, pick up their cross and follow Him. In other words, they have to give their lives away for the sake of the Gospel.
4. THE MESSIANIC SECRET
The Messianic Secret refers to a theme in Mark’s Gospel where Jesus forbids people from proclaiming Him as the Messiah. The Jewish understanding of a Messiah was that he was to be a warrior. So if Jesus let people proclaim Him to be the Messiah, it might inspire an army to rise up in His name. Mark tells his audience that Jesus is the Messiah in the first verse, but what kind of Messiah He is slowly unfolds over the course of the narrative.
It is fully revealed on the cross, especially when the centurion declares him to be the Son of God. The Messianic Secret is a challenge to us to see if we can accept that the Messiah suffers humiliating death and is not a warrior. It also challenges whether we can follow Him to the cross.
In the wealth of Biblical Scholarship, there is so much more to know about the Gospel of Mark. But these for elements are a place to start the journey through the Gospel.
Copyright 2025, WL Grayson
W.L. Grayson
I am a devoutly Catholic theology teacher who loves a popular culture that often, quite frankly, hates me. I grew up absorbing every movie, TV show, comic book, science fiction novel, etc. I could find. As of today I’ve watched over 2100 movies and tv shows. They take up a huge part of my life. I don’t know that this is a good thing, but it has given me a common vocabulary to draw from in order to illustrate whatever theological point I make in class. I’ve used American Pie the song to explain the Book of Revelation (I’ll post on this some time later) and American Pie the movie to help explain Eucharist (don’t ask). The point is that the popular culture is popular for a reason. It is woven into the fabric of our lives and imaginations, for good or ill. In this blog I will attempt to bring together the things of heaven with the things of earth. Of course this goal may be too lofty for someone like me.
Leave a Reply
You must be logged in to post a comment.