Mark's Gospel Notes
History and Community
- Believed to have been the first Gospel to be written.
- Mark came from a Jewish-Christian background and believed to be a disciple of Peter.
He worked with a non-Jewish (or Gentile) Christian community who lived in Rome sometime between 60-70 AD.
- During this time the Roman Empire was persecuting Christians. It became illegal to be
Christian and many were being arrested and killed for their faith. It was very dangerous to even be associated with Christianity at all.
- Mark and many Christians believed that Kingdom of God (End of the world) was near and that Jesus would soon return to Earth. Many knew that life would be very hard for
Christians since they faced such persecution, but that it is important to stay faithful because in the end God would bring justice.
Mark's Main Ideas
- Two of the main questions Mark is trying to answer are:
1) Who is Jesus? and 2) What does it mean to be a disciple?
- One of Mark's themes is the idea of the Messianic Secret - the true identity of Jesus.
The information about who Jesus really was could be considered "dangerous" in a sense, because often when people heard this about Jesus, they would reject him and persecute him. This idea relates to the reality that Mark's community faced since the belief in Jesus and the acceptance of Christian teachings could also cause a person to be persecuted.
- Throughout Mark's Gospel there are instances where Jesus withholds his true from the people since he knows that he was not the type of Savior that many of people expected or desired.
- Mark distinguishes between being an admirer of Jesus and being a disciple - true follower of Jesus. He was skeptical that people would abandon their faith when they were faced with challenges and suffering. Mark wanted to warn his disciples to have strong faith so that they would not abandon it and run away when faced with many challenges.
Mark's Major Themes
- Theme of Discipleship. What does it mean to be a disciple of Jesus? Why is this difficult to do?
- Theme of Faith. What does it mean to have faith? How can faith be helpful for people in their lives?
- Theme of Jesus as a Suffering Servant. Jesus was vulnerable like the rest of us and his ministry causes him to experience great suffering. What kind of a Messiah was
Jesus? What suffering did he experience because of his ministry?