The book of Mark

Main theme

Jesus, the Son of God, acts with sovereign authority, then sets his face resolutely toward the cross to serve and to give his life as a ransom for many; to follow him is to take up one’s cross.

Outline

1. Mark 1-3 — The Servant takes the stage

   John the Baptist, the baptism, the temptation, the call of the disciples, a day in Capernaum and the first controversies.

2. Mark 4-8 — Power in Galilee, hardened hearts

   Parables and miracles over nature, demons, sickness and death, up to Peter’s confession (8:29).

3. Mark 8-10 — On the road to the cross

   Three announcements of the Passion and teaching on service, from Caesarea Philippi to Jericho (8:27–10:52).

4. Mark 11-13 — The Servant in Jerusalem

   The royal entry, the cleansing of the temple, controversies, the widow’s offering and the discourse on the end times.

5. Mark 14-16 — Betrayed, crucified, risen

   The anointing, the Last Supper, Gethsemane, the trials, the crucifixion, the empty tomb and the sending of the disciples.

Key points

• Mark begins with no birth narrative, going straight to the ministry of John the Baptist and the baptism of Jesus (1:1-11).
• The words “immediately” and “straightway” recur more than thirty times in the King James Version and give the story its quick pace: Mark shows a Jesus who acts (1:12, 18).
• Mark translates Jesus’ Aramaic words for his non-Jewish readers: Talitha cumi, Ephphatha, Abba, Eloi (5:41; 7:34; 14:36; 15:34).
• Jesus often commands silence about his identity, probably so that he would not be taken for a political Messiah before the cross (1:44; 8:30; 9:9).
• Peter’s confession splits the book in two: before it, who is Jesus? After it, where is he going? Three announcements of the Passion follow (8:29-31; 9:31; 10:33-34).
• The blind man healed in two stages pictures disciples who still see Jesus only partly (8:22-26).
• Mark stresses Jesus’ emotions: indignation, sorrow, love, sighing (3:5; 7:34; 10:14, 21).
• The Gospel opens with “Son of God” and reaches its climax in the confession of a Roman centurion at the foot of the cross (1:1; 15:39).

Jesus in Mark

Mark presents Jesus as the Son of God full of authority and as the suffering Servant announced by Isaiah, who came to “give his life a ransom for many” (10:45). His power bursts forth in the miracles, but his glory is truly revealed at the cross: it is on seeing him breathe his last that the centurion recognizes him as the Son of God (15:39). The empty tomb and the closing commission show that the crucified Servant is the living Lord who works with his disciples (16:6, 20).

Did you know?

• Mark is the shortest of the four Gospels (16 chapters), yet it often tells scenes with more vivid detail than the others: the pillow in the boat, the green grass, the four men carrying the paralytic (4:38; 6:39; 2:3).
• Only Mark mentions the young man who flees naked in Gethsemane (14:51-52); many see in him the author’s discreet signature.
• Simon of Cyrene is introduced as “the father of Alexander and Rufus” (15:21), a sign that these sons were known to the readers; Paul greets a Rufus in Rome, perhaps the same man (Rom 16:13).