Gospel of Mark

Description of the forged Byzantin Ms.

• The gospel of Mark is undated and anonymous without any allusions to context. Figuring it out is supreme detective work.


• Our paramaters and scholarly standards are broad strokes of brush agreed upon and consist of the following set of hypotheses: knowledge of the Christian communities at the time of its approximate composition; lack of a perfect consensus of the Markan text with regard to authorship, dating or intended audience; note textual references and those found in other texts.


• It's the shortest oldest and most accurate of the gospels.Theologically complex, it is not a primitive gospel. Repetition and sandwiching techniques in Mark.


• Understanding of the gospel genre. As a literary form, the gospel has many similarities to martyrologies, lives of philosophers, and even the aretologies of heroic figures. Mythic biographies of various sorts were common to the world at the time and so one doesn’t have to search far in order to find a plethora of possible models or influences.


• Ready-made vocabularies, tropes, and events were at hand for anyone who wanted to use them. Ultimately, though, Mark represents the introduction of a new type of literature because nothing quite like it can be identified before early Christianity. It is very different from the collections of saying that can be found in other early Christian literature — for example, the collections of sayings that were likely the contents of the Q document or the theological reflections in Paul.


• It is never questioned by the Church Fathers as an authntic text. There were evidently never any debates about the status of Mark as a canonical text, even though there have been debates about the validity of Mark’s ending. Mark is included in the most authoritative fourth-century manuscripts (Vaticanus, Alexandrinus) and it is frequently referenced by early Church fathers.


• Exclusive material to Mark : Material found only in Mark: 1:1 - Introduction3:19-21 - Jesus' family tries to restrain him4:26-29 - Parable of the seed growing on its own7:31-37 - Jesus heals a deaf man at Decapolis8:22-26 - Jesus heals a blind man at Bethsaida14:51-52 - Naked young man flees after Jesus' arrest16:14-18 - Commissioning of the eleven
• Prolonged anonymous authorship of the gospel: the second century postscript "According to Mark" was consequently added.
• The Marcan tradition : Tradition has it that the Gospel According to Mark was written down by Mark, a companion of Peter, who simply recorded what Peter preached in Rome (1 Peter 5:13) and this person was, in turn, identified with “John Mark” in Acts (12:12,25; 13:5-13; 15:37-39) as well as the “Mark” in Philemon 24, Colossians 4:10, and 2 Timothy 4:1.
• The frequcny pf the name Mark in the late Empire was a commoplace.It was also common in this age to attribute writings to important figures of the past in order to give them more authority
• Christian tradition on the Gospel's authenticity reaches back afar to the Chruch Father Papias.Eusebius had doubts of Papias, given to embellishment.This is what Christian tradition has handed down, however, and to be fair, it’s a tradition that dates back pretty far — to the writings of Eusebius around the year 325. He, in turn, claimed to be relying upon work from an earlier writer, Papias, bishop of Hierapolis, (c. 60-130) who wrote about this around the year 120: “Mark, having become Peter’s interpreter, wrote down accurately whatever he remembered of what was said or done by the Lord, however not in order.” Papias' claims were based upon things he said he heard from a "Presbyter." Eusebius himself is not an entirely trustworthy source, though, and even he had doubts about Papias, a writer who evidently was given to embellishment. Eusebius does imply that Mark died in the 8th year of Nero’s reign, which would have been before Peter died .
• Mark wrote accounts and stories after Peter's death which would be contradicted if Mark died before Peter. a contradiction to the tradition that Mark wrote down Peter’s stories after his death. What does “interpreter” mean in this context? Does Papias note that things were not written “in order” to explain away contradictions with other gospels? Even if Mark did not rely on Peter as a source for his material, there are reasons to argue that Mark wrote while in Rome. For example Clement, who died in 212, and Irenaeus, who died in 202, are two early church leaders who both supported a Roman origin for Mark. Mark calculates time by a Roman method (for example, dividing the night into four watches rather than three), and finally, he has a faulty knowledge of Palestinian geography (5:1, 7:31, 8:10).What does the assignation interpreter mean in the context that Papias Bishop of Hierapolis gives to this term? Things not written in order could mean to explain away inconsistencies with other gospels(?) The Roman origin of the Markan gospel seems indisputable due to the support of Clement and Irenaeus (212 and 202 ,are the death dates of these two church Fathers.) His calculations using Roman methods of time and faulty knowledge of Palestinian geography would attest to the Roman origins.
• Mark's language and Latinisms are further possible proofs of the Latin origin of this gospel.Mark's language contains a number of "Latinisms" — loan words from Latin to Greek — which would suggest an audience more comfortable with Latin than in Greek. Some of these Latinisms include (Greek/Latin) 4:27 modios/modius (a measure), 5:9,15: legiôn/legio (legion), 6:37: dênariôn/denarius (a Roman coin), 15:39, 44-45: kenturiôn/centurio (centurion; both Matthew and Luke use ekatontrachês, the equivalent term in Greek).
• Semitic syntactical features bespeak possible Jewish origins of Mark. There is also evidence that the author of Mark may have been Jewish or had a Jewish background. Many scholars argue that the gospel has a Semitic flavor to it, by which they mean that there are Semitic syntactical features occurring in the context of Greek words and sentences. Example of this Semitic "flavor" include verbs located at the beginning of sentences, the widespread use of asyndeta (placing clauses together without conjunctions), and parataxis (joining clauses with the conjunction kai, which means "and").
• Mark could have worked in Tyre or Sidon. It’s close enough to Galilee to be familiar with its customs and habits, but far enough away that the various fictions he includes wouldn’t arouse suspicion and complaint. These cities would also have been consistent with the apparent educational level of the text and seeming familiarity with Christian traditions in Syrian communities.

Scholars have argued for nearly 70 years over the provenance of what's called
the Archaic Mark, a 44-page miniature book, known as a "codex," which contains
the complete 16-chapter text of the Gospel of Mark in minuscule handwritten
text. The manuscript, which also includes 16 colorful illustrations, has long
been believed to be either an important witness to the early text of the gospel
or a modern forgery, said Mitchell, Professor of New Testament and Early
Christian Literature.
"The mystery is now solved from textual, chemical, and
codicological (bookmaking) angles," said Mitchell, who first became intrigued by
the codex when she saw it as a graduate student in 1982. Comprehensive analysis
demonstrates that it is not a genuine Byzantine manuscript, but a counterfeit,
she said, "made somewhere between 1874 and the first decades of the 20th
century."

What is the Gospel According to Mark? Background of Mark’s GospelBy Austin
Cline, About.com GuideSee More About:gospel of mark biblical criticismCodex Argenteus of MarkzSB(3,3)Sponsored
LinksStudy The Bible OnlineEarn an Online AA, BA, Masters, or
PhD. Request Free Information!www.eLearners.com/BibleFree Sermons for Pastorsfrom Nelson Searcy of The Journey
Church - Download them here:www.ChurchLeaderInsights.comBlack GospelFree to Join. 1000's of Pictures of Beautiful
Black Christian Singleswww.BlackChristianPeoplemeet.comzob();if(zsAtheism Ads Elvis Gospel Music Gospel Study Gospel Luke The Holy Bible Jazz Gospel The Gospel According to Mark is anonymous, undated,

The Gospel According to Mark is anonymous, undated, and has no direct information about the historical, social, or political context in which it was written. Because specific and direct information about where this gospel comes from is absent, scholars have had to act like detectives in order to figure out what, if anything, might be said about it with some authority.
Everything claimed has been inferred and interpreted by comparing what we know of the early Christian communities generally against the text itself. Such research is not an exact science, and as a consequence, there is no perfect consensus on anything — neither authorship, dating, nor the intended audience. There are, however, broad lines of agreement on quite a few matters based upon clues found both in the text and in references to this gospel found in other texts.
The shortest of the four canonical gospels, most biblical scholars regard Mark as the oldest of the four and a primary source for much of the material contained in Luke and Matthew. For a long time Christians tended to ignore Mark in favor of the longer, more detailed texts of Matthew and Luke. After it was identified as the oldest and thus presumably most historically accurate, Mark has gained in popularity.
Mark is not, however, a "primitive" gospel despite its age and length. It also isn’t simply a collection of earlier stories and traditions, even though the narrative style reflects popular storytelling techniques. The Gospel According to Mark is a theologically complex document that interweaves a number of important themes in a manner that communicates its theology in both overt and subtle ways.
The material in the text must have been passed down, retold, and rearranged by multiple people, but in the end someone put it into a final written form, something close to what we currently have, which bears the imprint of their own literary skills. The author of Mark likes to use, for example, repetition to highlight important ideas and a “sandwiching” technique that interweaves two different stories together in a manner that allows each to interpret and explain the other.
Understanding any literary text requires an understanding of the genre it belongs to — you can’t interpret a novel in the same way that you interpret a play. Identifying the genre of the gospels has, however, proven difficult. The word “gospel” comes from Greek and means the “good news” of some important event (like a birth or a victory). It appears often in Paul’s letters in reference to the significance of the person, life, and ministry of Jesus.
As a literary form, the gospel has many similarities to martyrologies, lives of philosophers, and even the aretologies of heroic figures. Mythic biographies of various sorts were common to the world at the time and so one doesn’t have to search far in order to find a plethora of possible models or influences. Ready-made vocabularies, tropes, and events were at hand for anyone who wanted to use them.
Ultimately, though, Mark represents the introduction of a new type of literature because nothing quite like it can be identified before early Christianity. It is very different from the collections of saying that can be found in other early Christian literature — for example, the collections of sayings that were likely the contents of the Q document or the theological reflections in Paul.
Mark is not meant to be a historical record of past events; instead, it is a series of events — some possibly historical, some not — structured in a manner to serve specific theological and political goals. Any resemblance to historical events or figures is, as they say, purely coincidental.
It is also likely that Mark was intended to be read aloud rather than carefully studied in written form like a philosophy text. This makes interpretation difficult because theological analyses tend to be done on the written text and typically attempt to identify large patterns or structures. For a text that is read aloud, however, what matters most are the connections that listeners make from one passage to the next.
There were evidently never any debates about the status of Mark as a canonical text, even though there have been debates about the validity of Mark’s ending. Mark is included in the most authoritative fourth-century manuscripts (Vaticanus, Alexandrinus) and it is frequently referenced by early Church fathers.

Material found only in Mark:
1:1 - Introduction3:19-21 - Jesus' family tries to restrain him4:26-29 - Parable of the seed growing on its own7:31-37 - Jesus heals a deaf man at Decapolis8:22-26 - Jesus heals a blind man at Bethsaida14:51-52 - Naked young man flees after Jesus' arrest16:14-18 - Commissioning of the eleven

___________________________________________________________

AUTHORSHIP OF THIS GOSPEL
The text of the Gospel According to Mark does not specifically identify anyone as the author. Not even “Mark” is identified as the author — in theory, “Mark” could have simply related a series of events and stories to someone else who collected them, edited them, and set them down in the gospel form. It wasn't until the second century that the title “According to Mark” or “The Gospel According to Mark” was affixed to this document.
A number of people in the New Testament — not only Acts but also in the Pauline letters — are named Mark and anyone of them could potentially have been the author behind this gospel. Tradition has it that the Gospel According to Mark was written down by Mark, a companion of Peter, who simply recorded what Peter preached in Rome (1 Peter 5:13) and this person was, in turn, identified with “John Mark” in Acts (12:12,25; 13:5-13; 15:37-39) as well as the “Mark” in Philemon 24, Colossians 4:10, and 2 Timothy 4:1.
It seems unlikely that all of these Marks were the same Mark, much less the author of this gospel. The name “Mark” appears frequently in the Roman empire and there would have been a strong desire to associate this gospel with someone close to Jesus. It was also common in this age to attribute writings to important figures of the past in order to give them more authority.
This is what Christian tradition has handed down, however, and to be fair, it’s a tradition that dates back pretty far — to the writings of Eusebius around the year 325. He, in turn, claimed to be relying upon work from an earlier writer, Papias, bishop of Hierapolis, (c. 60-130) who wrote about this around the year 120:
“Mark, having become Peter’s interpreter, wrote down accurately whatever he remembered of what was said or done by the Lord, however not in order.”
Papias' claims were based upon things he said he heard from a "Presbyter." Eusebius himself is not an entirely trustworthy source, though, and even he had doubts about Papias, a writer who evidently was given to embellishment. Eusebius does imply that Mark died in the 8th year of Nero’s reign, which would have been before Peter died — a contradiction to the tradition that Mark wrote down Peter’s stories after his death. What does “interpreter” mean in this context? Does Papias note that things were not written “in order” to explain away contradictions with other gospels?
Even if Mark did not rely on Peter as a source for his material, there are reasons to argue that Mark wrote while in Rome. For example Clement, who died in 212, and Irenaeus, who died in 202, are two early church leaders who both supported a Roman origin for Mark. Mark calculates time by a Roman method (for example, dividing the night into four watches rather than three), and finally, he has a faulty knowledge of Palestinian geography (5:1, 7:31, 8:10).
Mark's language contains a number of "Latinisms" — loan words from Latin to Greek — which would suggest an audience more comfortable with Latin than in Greek. Some of these Latinisms include (Greek/Latin) 4:27 modios/modius (a measure), 5:9,15: legiôn/legio (legion), 6:37: dênariôn/denarius (a Roman coin), 15:39, 44-45: kenturiôn/centurio (centurion; both Matthew and Luke use ekatontrachês, the equivalent term in Greek).
There is also evidence that the author of Mark may have been Jewish or had a Jewish background. Many scholars argue that the gospel has a Semitic flavor to it, by which they mean that there are Semitic syntactical features occurring in the context of Greek words and sentences. Example of this Semitic "flavor" include verbs located at the beginning of sentences, the widespread use of asyndeta (placing clauses together without conjunctions), and parataxis (joining clauses with the conjunction kai, which means "and").
Many scholars today believe that Mark may have worked in a place like Tyre or Sidon. It’s close enough to Galilee to be familiar with its customs and habits, but far enough away that the various fictions he includes wouldn’t arouse suspicion and complaint. These cities would also have been consistent with the apparent educational level of the text and seeming familiarity with Christian traditions in Syrian communities.
Introduction to the Gospel of Mark
Background of Mark's GospelAudience of Mark's GospelWhen Was the Mark's Gospel Written?