Quotes About Mark's gospel

Perhaps the most telling witness against the claim of accurate history for the Bible comes when we read the earliest narrative of the crucifixion found in Mark's gospel and discover that it is not based on eyewitness testimony at all.

statistical analysis indicates that "virtually fifty percent of Mark's gospel is devoted to presenting Jesus' teaching…. Judged on his own terms, Mark has achieved an entirely appropriate balance between narrative and teaching."79

The result, in Mark's Gospel, is a balanced account of Jesus' mission that in its turn forms the basis for a realistic assessment of what it means to be Jesus' disciple. It is a theology in which rejection and triumph, humiliation and glory, meet in the new scale of values of the Kingdom of God.

Mark's Gospel is not the story of Jesus alone, but of Jesus and his disciples. If Mark's main theological emphasis is on Christology, a vital subplot is the analysis of what it means to follow Jesus. This theme is explored through a portrayal of Jesus' first disciples in their privilege and in their failures, in their experience of being with Jesus, and especially in the teaching he gave them.

Mark's Gospel originally was written to help imperial subjects learn the hard truth about their world and themselves. He does not pretend to represent the word of God dispassionately or impartially, as if that word were innocuously universal in its appeal to rich and poor alike.

For the disciple community, to be in communion with Jesus means to take active part in his mission. This is explicit in Mark's Gospel

When Mark wrote his †Gospel, to become a follower of Jesus was a radical decision. It could mean incurring disapproval or outright rejection from friends and family. It

All of this suggests that Mark's gospel, with Jesus himself as the great Character who stands behind it, is inviting us to something not so much like rule-keeping on the one hand or following our own dreams on the other, but a way of being human