Synopsis "The Gospel of Mark "An Exploration""
Most scholars believe that the Gospel of Mark was written by a man named John Mark under the guidance of the Apostle Peter. It is believed that the author's Jewish name was John, but since we already had numerous John's (like Mary's) during this period, the disciples referred to him by his Roman name, Mark. The evidence for "John Mark", being the author is almost overwhelming when we consider both internal and external evidence, relating to this gospel.From a scriptural perspective, limited information can be assimilated that provides information about this man. We can trace that he was the son of a widowed woman named Mary, (Acts 12:12-17), a cousin of Barnabas, (Colossians 4:10) and was an associate of Peter, the Apostle. His root name "Marcus", meaning "hammer". Unlike Matthew and Peter, he was not an original disciple, but stood firmly in impeccable company. His mother Mary, would allow meetings to be held in their home where Jesus disciples would often meet. His childhood home is also believed to be the same place where Jesus and His disciples had eaten 'The Last Supper', a double story building situated in Jerusalem. He accompanied Paul and Barnabas on their first missionary journey towards Cyprus but John Mark turned back towards Jerusalem when they reached Perga. There was some form of disagreement between Paul and John Mark that eventually caused Barnabas and Paul to separate. We are not given the details of their conflict, but most believe that John Mark was not yet ready for his public ministry and perhaps he turned "chicken". We can gather that Paul believed that John Mark had failed in his journey since Paul and Barnabas parted company after having "a sharp disagreement" over Mark's readiness, (Acts 15:39). After Mark's journey with Barnabas he evidently returned to Jerusalem where he remained to assist Peter in spreading the Gospel. John Mark and Paul would later reconcile as Paul mentions that Mark was profitable to him and a great helper for him in his ministry, (2 Timothy 4:11). John Mark then proceeded to assist Paul and is seen in Paul's presence when the letter to the Colossians was written, (Colossians 4:10).When one examines the four canonical gospels, one notices while all have many features and events in common, there are particular similarities in the first three, Matthew, Mark and Luke. The Gospel of John is more distinctive and in many cases fills in accounts either mentioned briefly by the other three gospels, or not mentioned at all. The similarities are compounded as we often incur exact phrases used in all three gospels. For example, in the healing of the man with leprosy, all three gospels use the exact same wording "Jesus reached out His hand and touched the man", (Matthew 8:3, Luke 5:13 & Mark 1:41). With this particular example, the only difference in Mark is that he describes the emotions of Jesus as being indignant. Both the gospels of Mark and Luke rarely describe the emotions of Jesus or Peter which would explain why they did not mention this.The Gospel of Mark is a breathtakingly fast paced account of the life and ministry of Jesus Christ. It is believed to be the first gospel written and out of all the gospels, is the easiest to both read and understand. There are important customs at play, which assist us in understanding the context of the many interactions and events recorded in Mark. What makes this commentary any different from the multitude of others out there? The difference is that many commentaries focus either on language structure, theological outlook or on homiletical, (preaching) principles, in their design. In contrast, this commentary uses a combination of all three of these teaching methods with the aim on emphasizing aspects of scripture which are not readily exposed by casual reading.
