The Gospel of Mark

Rome and its Christians. Ancient tradition sets this Gospel in Rome. Peter's first letter speaks from "Babylon" and calls Mark "my son" (1 Pet 5:13); Eusebius, and many readers since, take Babylon as a name for Rome. In the year 64, after the great fire, the Emperor Nero turned on the Christians of Rome. Peter and Paul died there in those years, according to tradition. Mark's words about being handed over, flogged and betrayed by one's family (13:9 to 13) would have been very real to such readers.

Readers who needed things explained. Mark explains Jewish customs of washing (7:3 to 4) and the word "Corban" (7:11). He translates Aramaic for his readers: Talitha cum (5:41), Ephphatha (7:34), Abba (14:36), Eloi, Eloi (15:34). He also uses Latin terms written in Greek letters, such as "legion" (5:9) and "centurion" (15:39). This all fits a mostly Gentile audience. He names Simon of Cyrene as "the father of Alexander and Rufus" (15:21), as if his readers knew them. A Rufus also appears among the Christians greeted at Rome in Romans 16:13, though it cannot be shown that he is the same man.

Palestine in Jesus's time. Galilee, with its lake and fishing villages, was under Herod Antipas (6:14). Judea was governed directly by Rome through Pontius Pilate (15:1). The scribes, Pharisees and Herodians appear in the disputes, and the chief priests and the council in the Passion. Jesus was himself a Jew and taught among his own people, and the Church reads these disputes as disputes within that family.

War on the horizon. The Jewish revolt against Rome began in 66, and Jerusalem and its Temple fell in 70. Mark 13:1 to 2 reports that Jesus foretold the Temple's end. Scholars debate whether the Gospel was written just before or just after the fall of the city.

The Church's tradition. Dei Verbum 18 teaches that the four Gospels are of apostolic origin, handed down by Apostles and by apostolic men. Mark was not one of the Twelve. Tradition counts him as such an apostolic man, one who wrote down the preaching of Peter.

• Papias, bishop of Hierapolis, about 130, as quoted by Eusebius (Church History 3.39): "Mark, having become the interpreter of Peter, wrote down accurately, though not in order, whatsoever he remembered". Papias adds that Mark had not himself followed the Lord.
• St Irenaeus calls Mark the disciple and interpreter of Peter.
• St Clement of Alexandria, as reported by Eusebius (Church History 2.15), says that Peter's hearers in Rome begged Mark for a written record of his preaching, and that Peter approved its reading in the churches.
• Origen, Tertullian and St Jerome say the same in substance. Jerome (Illustrious Men 8) adds that Mark founded the Church of Alexandria, and Eusebius (2.16) says that Mark was the first to preach in Egypt.

Mark in the New Testament. A John called Mark, whose mother Mary kept a house in Jerusalem where the believers prayed (Acts 12:12). He sets out with Barnabas and Paul (Acts 12:25; 13:5), turns back at Perga (13:13), and Paul will not take him again (15:37 to 39). Benedict XVI recalls this quarrel and its healing. In later letters Mark is the cousin of Barnabas (Col 4:10), Paul's fellow worker (Phlm 24), and "useful in my ministry" (2 Tim 4:11). The same Mark is with Peter in 1 Pet 5:13. Tradition identifies this man with the Evangelist. A failure followed by a second chance gives his Gospel of failing disciples a special warmth.

The young man who fled. Only Mark tells of a young man running away naked at the arrest (14:51 to 52). Some have wondered whether this was Mark himself. This is a guess, and the text does not say.

A scholarly note. Traditionally the Gospel is by Mark, Peter's companion. Many scholars agree that it stands close to the early preaching. Some ask how strong Peter's direct influence was, and some think of another Greek-speaking Jewish Christian named Mark. Many scholars also think that Mark was written first and was used by Matthew and Luke, though St Augustine thought otherwise: he calls Mark the follower and abridger of Matthew (Harmony of the Gospels 1.2.4). The Church has not defined the order of the Gospels. These questions do not touch the Gospel's inspiration (Dei Verbum 11) or its faithfulness to what Jesus really did and taught (Dei Verbum 19; Catechism 126).

The ending of Mark (16:9 to 20). In the oldest Greek manuscripts we have, Sinaiticus and Vaticanus, the Gospel stops at 16:8 with the frightened women. Eusebius and St Jerome knew this too. Most other manuscripts, and early writers such as St Irenaeus, have the longer ending, 16:9 to 20. Its style differs from the rest of Mark, and many scholars think another hand added it very early. The NRSV prints it in double brackets. The Catholic Church receives it as part of inspired Scripture: the Council of Trent received the books "with all their parts" as found in the Latin Vulgate, and the Vulgate has this passage. The Catechism quotes it (977, 1507). The Church reads it in the liturgy. Both things can be held together: a question of who wrote the words, and the certainty that they are God's word.

Mark afterwards. According to tradition he preached in Alexandria and died there, and he is honoured as the founder of that Church; his symbol is the lion, for the voice crying in the wilderness at the Gospel's opening (St Jerome's scheme). According to a later account, Venetian merchants carried his relics from Alexandria to Venice in 828, and Venice took him as its patron. The Coptic Church holds that it keeps his head in Alexandria. In these matters we have traditions and not firm history.

Mark turns on Peter's confession in chapter 8. The first half asks, "Who is this?" The second half says what kind of Messiah he is: one who must suffer. Two healings of blind men frame the central section (8:22 to 26; 10:46 to 52), and within it Jesus announces his Passion three times.

How Mark tells a story. He moves quickly: in the NRSV the word "immediately" appears 27 times. He likes the "sandwich", one story wrapped around another, so that each explains the other (5:21 to 43; 11:12 to 25; 14:1 to 11). He notices small things: the green grass (6:39), the cushion in the boat (4:38). Found only in Mark: the seed growing secretly (4:26 to 29), the deaf man healed with spittle (7:31 to 37), the blind man healed in two stages (8:22 to 26), the young man who fled (14:51 to 52).

• The kingdom has come near. The first words of Jesus sum up everything (1:15; Catechism 541, 1427). Repentance means a change of heart (Catechism 1430).
• Jesus is the Son of God. The title opens the book (1:1). The Father says it (1:11; 9:7). Unclean spirits shout it (3:11; 5:7). And a pagan soldier says it at the moment of greatest weakness (15:39).
• The Messiah must suffer. "The messianic secret": Jesus often tells people to say nothing (1:34; 1:44; 3:12; 5:43; 7:36; 8:30; 9:9). Without the cross, his power would be misunderstood. When Peter calls him the Messiah, Jesus at once speaks of the suffering to come (8:29 to 31; Catechism 440). Benedict XVI, on this scene, says that Peter did not yet grasp what the word meant and had to be converted to the suffering Servant.
• Discipleship is the way of the cross. Each of the three Passion announcements (8:31; 9:31; 10:33 to 34) is followed by the disciples' failure to understand (8:32; 9:32 to 34; 10:35 to 37), and then by teaching: take up your cross; be last of all; be a servant (8:34; 9:35; 10:43 to 45).
• Authority to forgive and to heal. He teaches with authority (1:22), casts out demons (1:25; Catechism 550, 1673), and forgives sins, which only God can do (2:5 to 10; Catechism 589, 1441). His power heals body and soul (Catechism 1503).
• Faith, even small faith. "Do not fear, only believe" (5:36). "I believe; help my unbelief!" (9:24). Faith saves the woman in the crowd (5:34) and Bartimaeus (10:52). In Nazareth the unbelief of the people amazes him (6:5 to 6).
• Blindness and sight. The disciples see and do not see (8:17 to 21). The blind man healed in two stages is a picture of them and of us (8:22 to 26). Bartimaeus, once he sees, follows him "on the way" (10:52).
• Mercy over rules. The sabbath was made for humankind (2:27; Catechism 2173). Jesus teaches what truly defiles a person (7:14 to 23; Catechism 582). He does not abolish the Law. He loves the man who keeps it (10:21), and he praises the scribe near the kingdom (12:34). See also the first commandment (12:29 to 31; Catechism 2196).
• The family of Jesus. Those who do the will of God are his brother and sister and mother (3:35). This does not set Mary aside: Lumen Gentium 58 says that Mary was faithfully doing just this. Where Mark names "brothers and sisters" (3:31; 6:3), the Church has always understood close relations and not other children of the Virgin Mary (Catechism 500). The James and Joses of 6:3 are in fact sons of another Mary (15:40).
• Marriage. What God has joined, no one may separate (10:9; Catechism 1614, 1650).
• Anointing and healing. The Twelve "anointed with oil many who were sick and cured them" (6:13; Catechism 1506). The risen Lord renews this mission (16:18; Catechism 1507).
• Watch. Of the day and the hour no one knows (13:32 to 37). The Catechism explains that this does not limit who the Son is: what he admitted to not knowing, he elsewhere declared himself not sent to reveal (474). It is a call to wakefulness and trust, and never to fear or date-setting.

Who put Jesus to death. Mark names individual authorities: the chief priests and scribes (14:1), the council (14:55), and Pilate, who hands him over (15:15). The chief priests stir up the crowd (15:11). The Catechism says that the personal sin of those involved is known to God alone, and that we cannot lay responsibility on the Jews in Jerusalem as a whole (597). Nostra Aetate 4 teaches the same, and says that it cannot be charged against Jews today. Christians, as sinners, bear the gravest responsibility (Catechism 598).

• The Son of God in action. Few long speeches; mainly deeds. Only chapters 4 and 13 are long discourses. He commands wind and sea, and the disciples ask, "Who then is this?" (4:39 to 41).
• Truly human. Mark shows his feelings more plainly than any other Gospel. He is moved with pity (1:41), angered and grieved at hard hearts (3:5), sighs (7:34; 8:12), is indignant on behalf of the children (10:14), looks at the rich man and loves him (10:21), and in Gethsemane is "distressed and agitated" (14:33). He has true human knowledge united to his divine person (Catechism 472 to 474). The one Son of God is both truly God and truly man.
• The Servant who gives his life. Mark 10:45 is the key verse: he came to serve and to give his life as a ransom for many (see Catechism 608, 622).
• The Son who prays. Alone before dawn (1:35), on the mountain (6:46), and in Gethsemane, where only Mark gives us the Aramaic "Abba" in Jesus's own mouth (14:36; Catechism 612, 2605).
• The one abandoned, who is never abandoned. At the cross his only words in Mark are the first line of Psalm 22 (15:34). The Catechism teaches that he did not experience rejection as if he himself had sinned: in the love that always united him to the Father, he took our place (603). Psalm 22 itself ends in praise.
• The risen one who goes ahead. "He is going ahead of you to Galilee" (16:7). The story continues where it began, and the reader is sent back to follow him.

The Catechism calls the Gospels the heart of all the Scriptures (125; see 126 to 127). It draws often on Mark: the call to conversion, 541, 1427; Peter's profession and the Passion, 440; the forgiving of sins, 1441; the sick, 1503 to 1507; marriage, 1614; the sabbath, 2173; the first commandment, 2196; Gethsemane and the cross, 603, 612, 2605; Baptism and the sending, 977, 1257.

The Fathers, in substance. Papias stresses Mark's care: his one concern was to leave out nothing he had heard and to state nothing falsely. St Jerome adds that Peter approved the book for reading in the churches, and St Augustine sees him as following Matthew closely.

Benedict XVI has no catechesis on Mark alone, but he speaks of John Mark and the quarrel with Paul in his audience on Barnabas, Silas and Apollos (31 January 2007), and draws on Mark 8 in speaking of Peter (17 May 2006).

In the liturgy.

• Syro-Malankara. The 2025 to 2026 lectionary keeps St Mark on 25 April with Mk 4:1 to 9. Mark is also read on Sundays of the seasons, for example on M'shario Sunday, Third Sunday of the Great Fast, at the Holy Qurbono (Mk 2:1 to 12, the paralysed man). The healing of Bartimaeus (Mk 10:46 to 52) belongs to Samio Sunday, the Sixth Sunday of the Great Fast.
• Latin. Mark is the Gospel of Year B, including the Passion on Palm Sunday of that year. Because Mark is short, the Sundays from the Seventeenth to the Twenty-first in Ordinary Time read John 6 instead. On weekdays Mark is read from the First to the Ninth Week of Ordinary Time. The feast of St Mark is 25 April.
• Syro-Malabar. In the calendars of readings from 2025 to 2027, Mark is read at the Holy Qurbana less often than the other Gospels: for example Mk 3:7 to 19 and Mk 2:1 to 12 on Sundays of Denha, and Mk 8:31 to 9:1 in the Great Fast. St Mark's day, 25 April, has Mk 16:15 to 20.

Mark can be read in one sitting, in about an hour and a half. Do that first, aloud if you can: it was written to be heard. Then take it slowly over two weeks:

• Days 1 to 3: chapters 1 to 3. Notice how fast it moves, and who is amazed and who is angry.
• Days 4 to 6: chapters 4 to 6. Ask with the disciples, "Who then is this?"
• Days 7 to 8: chapters 7 to 8. Stop at 8:29, and answer the question yourself.
• Days 9 to 10: chapters 9 to 10. Follow the three announcements and the three failures. Do you recognise yourself?
• Days 11 to 12: chapters 11 to 13. Watch the widow, then keep watch.
• Days 13 to 14: chapters 14 to 16. Read the Passion slowly, and stay a while with the women at 16:8 before going on.