Gospel
According to Mark
The Gospel begins with
”The
Good News about Jesus Christ, the Son of God...” The
Easy
to Read Bible has a footnote stating that some Greek copies omit the “Son of
God”
from
this verse. Taking into consideration that “the son of god”
is the most important
statement in
Christianity, how can it be added or omitted from the Gospel of Mark? Did
Mark or did he not
write this statement? Is it possible that the statement “the son of
god”, in this verse is
a Hebrew expression that meant intimacy with God? There are
many references in the
Old Testament about prophets being called Son of God.
The
Gospel of Mark is the shortest of the four Gospels. In the third century the
Christian
historian Eusebius of Caesarea, relates this Gospel to Mark, using a statement
from
an earlier writer named Papias (60? -125?). Papias suggested that Mark was John
Mark,
cousin of Barnabas, mentioned in Acts 15:37-39, in several letters of Paul,
(Colossians
4:10; 2 Timothy 4:11; Philemon 24), and in 1 Peter 5:13. It is extremely
difficult
to confirm that Mark was actually John Mark. Some Christian scholars think that
an
unknown Christian named Mark wrote this Gospel.
In
chapter 13, Mark refers to the destruction of Jerusalem, which makes the
writing
of this Gospel to be around 70 AD. Clement of Alexandria stated that Rome was
the
place of writing, while other scholars suggested that it might have been
written in
Galilee
or Syria.
This
Gospel does not include any information about Jesus’ childhood. It starts
with
his baptism by John the Baptist. The story goes on until his arrest,
crucifixion, and
burial.
Mark (8:11-13) is in contradiction with Matthew and Luke with regards to the sign
of
Jonas. In Mark, Jesus says that there will be no sign without any exception.
Mark
states
that during crucifixion at noon the whole land became dark (15:33). Mark
reports
the
saying of Jesus on the Cross as follows:
“Eloi,
Eloi, lama sabachtani?” (Mark 15:34), which is identical to Matthew
27:46.
There
are two versions for ending of this Gospel. Most of the Greek manuscripts
have
the “long ending,” closing at 16:20. The second version with the “short ending”
extends
only through 16:8. Most scholars believe that the short version is the correct
one.
Verses 16:9-20 are not included in the two oldest manuscripts of the Gospels,
Codex
Vaticanus and Codex Sinaiticus. There was a sudden and improper ending of the
Gospel
of Mark. Verses 16:9-20 are added from the Gospel of Luke to have a
197
reasonable
ending! What a blunt admission is provided for us here? Human
manipulation
of the texts of the holy inspired Scriptures is just outrageous!
The
conclusion is that the author of this Gospel is unknown, the place of writing
this
Gospel
is unknown, the time of writing this Gospel is unknown, and the Gospel
contains
stories that contradict other Gospels. Yet the Church wants us to believe
that
the Almighty inspired the whole Bible, word for word.
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