In this essay I intend to examine the Gospel according to Mark in several different ways. This will be achieved by examining four discrete sections, which look at different aspects of the Gospel, and each in each section I will examine several themes found within the context of that section. The first section I intend to deal with is the text of the Gospel, looking at the story contained within the text as well as the context in which the Gospel was written, and the author’s motivations for writing the text. I will also examine the different aspects of the character of Jesus within the Gospel, and why he was portrayed in such a way, before going on to examine the other major characters and character functions (ALLUDE TO PROPP) in the text.
The second section of this essay will deal with the pretext of the Gospel, examining how the author has interacted with what has gone before and his reasons for doing so – in this case the text is the Old Testament.
The third section of the essay will deal with the co-text, looking at how the Gospel interacts with other works on the same topic, as well as works from the same period of time, both biblical and non-canonical.
The final section of my essay will deal with the post-text, examining whether the author’s aims in writing the Gospel have been achieved, and also how the Gospel has been used in both sacred and secular environments up to the present day.
Before moving onto the first section, however, it is my intention to give some basic information appertaining to the subject of the essay, the gospel itself.
The Gospel According to Mark is the second of the four canonical Gospels found within the New Testament (the others being Matthew, Luke, and John respectively). Of these canonical Gospels, Mark is the shortest in length, as well as being the least detailed of the gospels.
Over the centuries, the actual definition of the genre of a Gospel has changed somewhat. From soon after the Gospels were first written until quite recently, a Gospel’s genre was classified as a biography, after the gospels were referred to as ‘memoirs of the apostles’ , which at the time, was considered a direct comparison to Xenophon’s ‘biography’ of Socrates . This assumption was still in place in the nineteenth century, until the introduction of new methods to examine the gospels, however it is quite likely that the first readers of the Gospel did read it as a biography, and there are clear comparisons that can be drawn between the Gospels and early Graeco-Roman biographies from the same period. Soon after the introduction of these new methods of analysis of the gospels, scholars began to examine the texts for their value as historical sources, which led to a study into the differences found between the gospels, especially those within the synoptic Gospels (Matthew, Mark, and Luke) and thus for a way to resolve them.
Whilst the quest to define the genre of the Gospels as history was taking place, another way of defining their genre was developing, and the Gospels moved from being biographies to being ‘profoundly theological writings’ This was largely a result of the emergence of Form criticism, which led scholars to believe that the gospels, and their traditions could be analysed by their structure, and this was especially the case with the Gospel of Mark.
The current approach to defining the genre of the Gospels is a literary one, taking the Gospels as stories crafted by the author, to draw the reader into the plot and ally with some characters, and against others.
It is believed that the Gospel of Mark may have been written around 70CE, this date comes from what may be a veiled reference (Mk 13:14) by the author to the destruction of the temple in Jerusalem, which took place in 70CE, as well as other allusions to events taking place in the years leading up to that one.
The Text of Mark.
In order to better understand the text and content of the Gospel, it will be useful to note the context in which the text was first written:
The Gospel of Mark was probably originally written for the general Christian community that was beginning to emerge at that time, who would have met in house-churches and would have been in communication with one another, and quite possibly the author of the Gospel, as Mark contains some references to people such as Simon of Cyrene being ‘the father of Alexander and Rufus’(Mk 15.21) which suggests that there was definitely some communication between the author and the first recipients of the Gospel.
Before the Gospels (both canonical and non-canonical) came into existence, their content existed as oral tradition, passed down from one generation to the next- different stories of the sayings and teaching of Jesus, the miracles performed, and the events of his life were spread by word of mouth between the people of the area and to other regions, and a good definition of the content of the text is a collection of these oral traditions, written down. However these gathered ‘anecdotes’ have been written into a story detailing the events in the life of Jesus.
Stanton, in his book ‘The Gospels and Jesus’ describes Mark’s Gospel as ‘a dramatic story with a Prologue followed by five sections’
At this point it is important to note that the Gospels, although written down, were intended to be read out, and as such, this description is perfectly suited to the purpose of the Gospel.
The Prologue, which extends from Mark 1:1-13, sets out the major themes of Mark’s gospel, which can be summarised into: Jesus as the fulfilment of prophecy, Jesus as the Messiah, and Jesus as a deliverer. This section contains John the Baptist’s heralding of Jesus’ coming,
Jesus’ baptism, and the temptation of Jesus in the wilderness. The first section begins immediately after the prologue with the proclamation of good news, followed by the calling of the disciples, and then Jesus teaching and healing, with opposition to Jesus building up to the end of the section and the first climax of the text, where the first reference to Jesus death can be found (Mk 3.6). The second and third section, follow a similar pattern to the first – building up to a climax and then the next section. The fourth section takes place in the area around Jerusalem, and ends with Jesus’ dramatic prophecy of the events to come (Mk 13.5-37). The final section deals with the Passion narrative- The Last Supper, Jesus’ arrest, crucifixion, and the empty tomb (The gospel of Mark does ends with the women fleeing from the empty tomb).