Gospel Of Mark Essay

Within the New Testament, it has been often said that the Gospel of Mark had been the original in which Luke and Matthew’s gospels were based off of. Under this theory, it then becomes evident that the Gospel of Matthew seems to be a more detailed version of the Gospel of Mark, but that is not to say there are not any key differences between the two. Through comparing and contrasting Jesus’ baptism, Jesus’ temptation, and Jesus’ death on the cross between the two gospels it becomes evident that the Gospel of Mark lacks the same emotional magnitude as the Gospel of Matthew, but the Gospel of Matthew also expands on points that the Gospel of Mark makes slight mention of therefore revealing more of the story of Jesus and giving more insight

One of the first things that you may notice would be that Mark and Matthew’s versions are both similar length, whereas the previous passages had been undeniably longer in Matthew’s version, which means that Mark and Matthew have less parts missing or added. There are some subtle differences between the two such as sour wine was in Mark’s while vinegar is in Matthew’s version, but a very subtle difference would be who ridicules Jesus for calling out to God. In Mark’s version it had been the person that had offered Jesus the sour wine to drink, whereas in Matthew’s version it had been the rest of the crowd that had ridiculed Jesus. This slight difference makes the reader more vulnerable, scared, and emotional if it had been a crowd ridiculing Jesus rather than a single person. Also, the way in which both authors announce Jesus’s death is slightly different. Matthew makes Jesus’s death a standalone sentence while Mark combines Jesus’s final shout and his death. Mark’s version makes Jesus’s death feel less impactful because it is combined while instead Matthew makes it an entirely separate point leaving the reader in a moment of shock or silence. Another instance in which Matthew makes Jesus’s story seem much more epic had been the scene where after Jesus’s resurrection, “the earth shook, the rocks split, and the bodies of many holy people who had died were raised”. This event is

Matthew also had used the word “immediately” to describe Jesus’s arising from his baptism which makes the scene feel more urgent and surprising; showing that Matthew’s language and tone contains more emotion. For Jesus’s journey into the wilderness, Mark hardly mentions anything except for the basics but does include an element of danger represented by the addition of wild animals. This story would appear to be insignificant, but Matthew expands tremendously and provides details as to the temptations set forth by the devil and the dire conditions that Jesus had been in (starvation as well as being actively tempted by the devil). Matthew purposefully expands upon this story in order to teach about Jesus’s ideals, his piousness, as well as his devotion to God. Matthew makes an example out of Jesus to show his readers how to live a life like Jesus. The final story in which was used to show differences between Mark and Matthew had been Jesus’s death at the cross. It had been evident that Mark valued this story given the length of his writing had been much longer than previous stories. Two of the key differences were incredibly subtle, such as who had ridiculed Jesus when he had called out for God, and the authors’