jesus man/myth portfolio exercise 2

The gospel I have chosen to carry out this exercise with is the gospel of Mark. Having been asked to read the gospel as one would a novel and then comment upon the main content of the text, the message of the text and the way in which the author has conveyed this in the text, I came up with the following observations.
The gospel begins with a short account of John the Baptist's foretelling of Jesus’ arrival and his purpose once there. It then continues with the story of Jesus’ life from his baptism to his death, resurrection and ascension focussing on three major areas; the miracles he performed (found mainly in chapters 2-8), the teachings of Jesus mainly located in chapters 9-13, although there is crossover between these first two sections), and finally on Jesus’ death, resurrection and ascension in the final chapters of the gospel. Chapters 1-13 of the gospel is seemingly located in the area around Lake Galilee, and the final three chapters are located in the area around Jerusalem.
The message conveyed by the author of Mark is quite similar to the content. The author is documenting the story of Jesus as an adult, communicating his teachings and the authority and victory he seemed to yield, even over death, to the point of his ascension. In my opinion the author of the gospel is bringing both information about Jesus’ activities and life and a sense of hope for their futures to the people who were perhaps previously unfamiliar with the stories of Jesus.
The way in which the author of the gospel of Mark conveys this to his audience is through the use of simple, vivid, shorter stories. These could almost be compared to a collection of ‘news items’ about Jesus, moving between stories quite quickly with each story having quite a dramatic event or message to keep the readers attention, and make them consider the events or teachings which have taken place in relation to their own lives.