Jesus Christ lived a very full, if short, life. He did and accomplished more in his thirty years than many men do in twice that. The gospels each tell their versions of his life. Of the four, I found the gospel of Mark to be the most interesting. I enjoy the style of writing in this gospel more than the others. I feel it gives a better summary of the events in Christ’s life. Whereas the other gospels tend to get bogged down with parables or spend too much time on specific events, the gospel of Mark moves along at a good pace and adequately gets the message across.
A majority of Mark deals with Christ’s travels throughout the area around the Sea of Galilee and the various miracles he performed during that time. Most of these involved healing those with leprosy or other plagues, exorcising demons, or curing the blind/deaf/dumb. The stories of Christ feeding thousands with but a few loaves of bread and a couple of fish are also told, as is the story of Jesus walking on water. All of the miracles are described well, without getting too wordy. The style of writing also makes them believable.
Only a handful of Christ’s parables are included in Mark. One speaks of how “the sower soweth the word.” In this parable, Jesus speaks of himself as a sower and compares spreading the Word of God to planting seeds (the Word being the seeds). He also compares people to the different types of ground you can plant seeds in. At the end of the parable, Christ says that any man who spre...
The book of Luke, found after the books Matthew and Mark, focuses on the ministry of Jesus Christ but it also gives us a look into His birth and growth in totality. In this chapter we see a historical account of some of the journeys that Christ experienced. It is important to keep in mind that the Bible and all of its books do serve as historical accounts but each book is unique in the fact that they incorporate a theological timeline. The Bible is, conceivably, the most important book that has ever been written. It gives the world eyewitness accounts to historical events that helped not only shaped a region of the world but the whole entire world. It is nearly impossible to go through some formal societal education and have never once read a part of the bible or have heard a story that adapts from the stories within the bible. The bible has helped formed institutions, associations and so much more. By reading the Gospel of Luke we are truly reading what is meant for us to read as Christians. The principal plot in the book of Luke is the life of Jesus Christ, his sacrifice, His ability to beat death and remain perfect as the son of GOD despite being human as well. Jesus is seen as the perfect savior for humans in the book of Luke. Luke not only gives multiple examples of the power of Jesus but also it gives us a look at The Lord’s triumph over temptation. Luke also depicts Jesus as a man/GOD who had a very deep concentration on people and relationships. The book of Luke gives Jesus a loving characteristic but doesn’t shy away from showing that at times Jesus got angry too. Jesus showed a great deal of compassion to the sick, those in pain, the poor, and unambiguously the sinful. Jesus had genuine love for everyone. Throughout this...
The authors of the Gospel According to Matthew, and the Gospel According to Luke made some considerable modifications, deletions, and additions to the Gospel of Mark. To the average reader the changes seem rather significant and one might ask why these changes were made. Well, there are several reasons why these changes were made. For example, the authors wanted to show readers that Jesus was more holy than the original author set him out to be. Also, the authors sought after to express the gospel in, what they thought, were better words to make it appear more authentic. Furthermore the authors of the Gospel According to Matthew and the Gospel According to Luke wanted simply to modify the text because they didn’t see eye to eye with what the original author said.
In the short story of “The Gospel According to Mark”, Jorge Luis Borges introduces the readers to controversies to the works of missionaries faced by many civilizations around the world. Borges accomplishes this by accompanying the story with ironic symbols and substantial religious references which allow the readers to connect the story to relevant past events. In this short story, Borges ironically criticizes the effects which various missionaries had on different groups of indigenous people. Amongst these effects, a portion of the effects were positive, while a great majority of the effects was negatively impacting the indigenous groups which the missionaries came in contact with.
One of the main characteristics of the gospel of Mark is it’s length. Mark is much shorter than Matthew and Luke, but what it lacks in quantity, it makes up for in quality. The author of Mark does not slow down the gospel story and makes sure that only important and relevant details are included. When Mark is compared to Matthew and Luke, it becomes obvious to see what Mark has eliminated. The author’s omission of Jesus’ birth, lineage, resurrection, and ascension denotes careful planning and purpose in the gospel of Mark.
In the gospels of Mark and John, both showed a vivid portrait of Jesus in their writing. Mark’s gospel describes much more of Jesus' life, miracles, and parables as suffering servant. However, John’s gospel was written to convince people to believe that Jesus is the Messiah, the Son of God. Nonetheless, both John and Mark present many of the crucial events of Jesus' life, including his trial, crucifixion, and resurrection.
Rich Man asks Jesus why he can not enter the Kingdom of God when he
- The secrecy motif is Jesus refraining from revealing why he himself is pleasing to God. There are many examples of this, including after the multiplication of the loaves of bread and fish. After this miracle, Jesus is called the Christ and he commands his disciples to “…tell no man of him” (Mark 8: 30). This Messianic Secret is not just reserved to the character of Jesus, but the text of the gospel too. He best example of the text not explaining who Jesus is, is during the wilderness account. The Holy Spirit “…sent him out into the wilderness, and he was in the wilderness forty days, being tempted by Satan. He was with the wild animals, and angels attended him” (Mark 1: 12-13). The account is concluded as fast as it is introduced and this is to keep the reader wondering as to how and why Jesus escaped the
One of the focuses of the Gospel of Mark is the messianic secret. The secret exists because Jesus tells the crowds not to tell of what they have seen, yet people tell and the secret remains. The messianic secret stayed as the awe of Jesus spread because fear spread too and perhaps even more rapidly. The people did not know what to think of the man who could stop the wind and calm the sea. The crowd grew around Him, but in the end they were the ones who forced Pilate to sentence Him to crucifixion. It wasn’t until the third day that people finally understood that Jesus was the
When Jesus asked his disciples about what people thought about him, they answered that some considered Jesus to be e prophet, some - John the Baptist. But Jesus wanted his disciples to understand his mission, the reason why God brought him to Earth. That is why it was important for him to make sure that people realize who he is and that his sayings are vital for the whole mankind. Jesus was the Messiah, the anointed one, above all other prophets. He was sent to suffer for the all human beings and the reasons why his suffering was necessary are described in Mark's Gospel 8:27-9:1.
Mark provided the early church with a distinctive literary genre, the gospel (Guelich, 1998, p.19). Therefore, it is indicated that his work most likely served as a pattern for Matthew and Luke and contributed to the eventual use of gospel as a literary designation in the early church. According to Guelich, “numerous early Christian writings are called gospels and many attempts have been made to identify more precisely the literary genre of the gospels in general and mark’s gospel in particular and the variety of recent suggestions includes an apocalypse, a drama, a Hellenistic aretalogy and a biography” (Guelich, 1998, p.19). Another genre for mark is narrative which is about telling a story. According to Guelich, “”Mark [is] read as a narrative” (1998, p.22).For example, in the beginning of Mark is narratives about Jesus with the baptism of John the Baptist and the ending on a notes about the
Mark was Peter's son (I Peter 5:13, possibly spiritual son), who wrote down what Peter said about who Jesus was, what He did, where He went and what happened; Mark's gospel is therefore Peter's account, an eye-witness account, written down by Mark.
The Gospels of Jesus are a huge part of the religion of Christianity. The Gospels are summaries of who Jesus is and what he accomplished. There are four Gospels; The Gospel of Mark, The Gospel of Matthew, The Gospel of Luke, and The Gospel of John. The Gospels recount the stories of Jesus and they give us a unique perspective of his life. The Gospels are trying to convey a message about Jesus and to have everyone think of them as a kind of preaching. The Gospels of Mark, Matthew and Luke are called the synoptic gospels because they can all be understood together. Matthew and Luke made their story around the plot of Mark. In the Gospel of Mark, Jesus begins in Galilee and he ends is life in Jerusalem. In the Gospel of John, Jesus is mostly with
Throughout the Gospel of Mark, the word “follow” is used twenty-one times. The word is either spoken by Jesus himself, frequently used in the phrase “Follow Me,” or is used in the third person perspective to describe people physically following Jesus. The usage of the word “follow” is not to be interpreted in the same way each time, however. There are two different meanings for the word within the Gospel of Mark. Each of these meanings also hold variances within themselves; different “shades” of meaning for the same stylistic variant of the word.
Many important themes arose while I was reading the Gospel of Mark. In my week 2 group discussion posts, the themes I listed were faith, power of prayer, forgiveness, repentance, optimism, gratitude and mercy. However there are more that I found in the chapter and I read through it again such as the healing power of God and standing for righteousness.
Mark’s is Jesus Christ as a teenager. At this stage of His life, Jesus is learning about His family—God His Father, Joseph His foster Father, and Mary His Mother. Jesus has also occasionally taught at the Temple, much to the dismay of the Pharisees. He has not had much formal schooling, as He comes from a poor family and is learning to be a carpenter like His Father.