A Comparison Between Matthew and Mark in the Bible

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A Comparison between Matthew and Mark

While both books of Mark and Matthew portray Peter as one of the most important followers of Jesus, Mark seems to emphasize Jesus' spiritual career unlike the broad, more in-depth pursuit of Jesus' life that Matthew embellishes on. As both Jesus' student and friend, Peter is the one disciple most commonly referred to in the stories. Yet the two passages seem to draw different pictures of Jesus' distinguished disciple. In Matthew, Peter seems to play a larger role in Jesus' teachings and seems more significant to Jesus throughout the book. In Mark, he is still important, but to a lesser extent in the eyes of the author. Mark leaves Peter out of a few of the stories altogether and only touches on Peter's importance to Jesus towards the very end. Each difference in the stories connected to Peter gives a slightly altered account of his personality and role.

Peter is introduced as one of Jesus' first followers in both Matthew 4.18 and Mark 1.16. Both passages seem to recount Jesus' speech word-for-word. He merely said to Simon (a.k.a. Peter) and his brother, "'Follow me and I will make you fish for the people'"(Matthew 4.19, Mark 1.17). Their reaction is described in a simple phrase, "And immediately they left their nets and followed him"(4.20, 1.18). This story presents Peter and his brother as incredibly devoted to their leader from the first few moments. Whether their lives as fishermen were prosperous or not, to simply abandon everything for one stranger is risky and takes faith. The story's important message about Jesus' strength as a leader and his follower's devotion entices both authors to include it among their lessons.

Yet, Matthew's next significant mention of Pe...

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...ch the world through his sayings and actions, rather than waste words on the doings of his mortal followers. Peter's importance is determined by this difference of views, leaving two different pictures of him behind. In Matthew, his personality is unfolded through several insightful passages that leave behind a lively and devoted friend and follower. In Mark, he is merely one of the disciples, more important definitely, but nothing compared to Jesus. The absence of those few important passages throw a shadow over this figure and leave him humbly depicted, rather than the outspoken, involved man shown in Matthew. Yet his faith and deep devotion to Jesus make Peter stand out from the other disciples in both passages, and leave him weeping in misery over the denial and loss of his friend and teacher.

Works Cited

The Holy Bible, Authorized (King James) Version.

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