The Gospel of Mark
And…Action!
Immediately, coming up from the water…
Immediately the Spirit drove Him into the wilderness…
Immediately, while He was speaking, Judas, … with a great multitude
with swords and clubs…
If you were looking for dynamic reading, then look no
further than the Gospel according to Mark. Of all the four Gospels, Mark
emphasized action. His writing is a paratactic style, “stringing
together short, loosely connected episodes, like pearls on a string” (Just).
Mark’s Gospel is the shortest of the four, filled with a sense of immediacy as
noted above (1: 10, 12; ,14:43). In fact, his sense of immediacy rings clear in
the use of the word “immediately” (Gk. “euthys”) thirty-nine (39) times, along
with the word “and” (Gk. “kai”) five hundred and nine (509) times according to
the New American Standard translation.
It was during the early years of the church – first century.
It was commonplace for Christians to “pass on the story of Jesus orally as
isolated stories, short sayings collections and some longer narrative, such as
the passion” (Hollman, logos). According to Hollman, most scholars believe that
Mark “wrote with the needs of the church in mind, addressing the typical
concerns pertinent to his generation”. We know that he was a disciple of the
Apostle Peter (1 Peter 5:13; Acts 12:12,25;15:37,39). Church fathers Justin
Martyr called Mark’s Gospel the “memoirs of Peter” around AD 150, and Irenaeus
called him “the disciple and interpreter of Peter (AD 185) as well (MacArthur).
The Gospel of Mark was written to Roman Christians, about AD 55-65, when Rome
was under the rule of Emperor Tiberius Caesar. It is said to have been written
after the Apostle Peter’s martyrdom in order to “address the crisis in the
church around the intense persecution they were experiencing” (Theopedia).
In this fast-paced Gospel, the writer aims to prove that
Jesus is the Messiah, by emphasizing “what Jesus does, rather than what He
says” (Mappes, D.).
