This week we begin the first volume of our two volume
sermon series through the Gospel of Mark. A word of warning – this series is
going to dominate most, if not all of 2012. And as long as that sounds to be
working on one book of the Bible, we still don’t have time in that schedule to
do a thorough teaching of the background, authorship and setting of the
earliest Gospel, so over the course of this series when there is more to be
said than can fit into a 30 minute sermon (I’m honestly working on getting my
times down – really!) I’m going to make use of this blog to go into further
detail for those of you who crave a deeper engagement with the text.
Today I want to begin by setting up our first message in
the series with some historical background on the author. In future posts I
will go into some detail on other topics including the genre, audience and historical
context (date). I’m also working on a bibliography for those of you who don’t
mind reading and doing some of your own research into these things. Keep an eye
out for these future instalments but for now let’s look at just who this Mark
is.
Part One: The author
“All Scripture is
God-breathed and is useful for teaching, rebuking, correcting and training in
righteousness”
2Timothy 3:16
In a sense it is fair to say that all books of the Bible
have the same author (I was having this argument with someone just recently
about that reality) and that because of that the identity of the human author
is of little consequence to the veracity of the claims and the applicability of
its teachings – but our scriptures did not arrive on stone tablets from above
(well except for those
verses) and the human component of the creation of the texts that made it into
the cannon is of great importance because the life, experiences, motivations,
setting, language, audience and theology of these writers greatly influences
what was said as well. The author of the Gospel of Mark is no exception – his story
(if we can with any certainty know it) affects THE story and how we
understand what is being said.
Marks Gospel is formally anonymous – that is to say that
the content of the Gospel itself makes no internal claims of authorship. The superscript
– that is to say the title of the Gospel – is in the Greek “euangelion kata Markon” which literally
means “The Gospel according to Mark”. These superscripts were frequently added
at a later date than the original writing and the content of the superscript in
this case implies that Mark needed to be differentiated from other Gospels of
Jesus in circulation at the time of publishing which becomes problematic as the
evidence seems to imply that this was one of the earliest (if not the earliest)
formal Gospel – and certainly significantly earlier than any of the other three
Gospels that survived to make it into the canon of Scripture.
The author (who we will call Mark for argument’s sake)
was most certainly a Christian – this is not a document written from a cold dispassionate
position of historical record keeping – this is Good News and the author writes
as one wanting to persuade his readers of the truth of it. It is also likely
(though not a certainty) that the author was a Jew. We infer this from his
familiarity with the Jewish Scriptures (or at least the Septuagint or LXX which
was the Old Testament in Greek) and from his knowledge of Aramaic and Hebrew,
both of which are used and explained in the text of his Gospel.
We also can safely assume that the author was educated.
He is competent (although not exceptional) in the Greek language and
understands not only Greek but intersperses his writing with several noticeable
Latin words and phrases. It is likely then that the author has not only been educated
but also has travelled and experienced some life in more entrenched Roman
culture as well.
More than the internal evidence, there is external evidence
as well that would peg the author of this Gospel as a man named Mark who was an
associate of Peter. Church fathers Irenaeus and Clement of Alexandria
both attribute this Gospel to that person and the earliest endorsement of
Markan authorship comes from an early second century church leader named
Papias. Papias
who was called the Bishop of Hierapolis and may or may not have known
personally the author of the fourth gospel – is quoted by Eusebius of Caesarea
as saying:
“Mark having become
the interpreter of Peter, wrote down accurately whatsoever he remembered. It
was not, however, in exact order that he related the sayings or deeds of
Christ. For he neither heard the Lord nor accompanied Him. But afterwards, as I
said, he accompanied Peter, who accommodated his instructions to the
necessities [of his hearers], but with no intention of giving a regular narrative
of the Lord's sayings. Wherefore Mark made no mistake in thus writing some
things as he remembered them. For of one thing he took especial care, not to
omit anything he had heard, and not to put anything fictitious into the
statements. Matthew put together the oracles [of the Lord] in the Hebrew
language, and each one interpreted them as best he could”
Clearly Papias believes that the author of this Gospel is
a Mark who was with Peter – which lines up nicely with Church tradition
claiming that this was the John Mark of the book of Acts - Consider the
following description of John Mark by scholar Richard Bauckham:
"John Mark a
member of a Cypriot Jewish family settled in Jerusalem and a member of the early
Jerusalem Church, was then in Antioch, accompanied his cousin Barnabas and Paul
on their missionary journey as far as Pamphylia, later accompanied Barnabas to
Cyprus and is finally heard from in Rome, if Philemon is written from Rome,
where 1 Peter also places him"
Couple this with evidence that Peter called Mark his son
in 1
Peter 5:13 and that we know the Apostle had on occasion visited the home of
John Mark (Acts
12:11-17) it seems to be a compelling case that the author of our first
Gospel was the John Mark of the New Testament – a sometimes travelling companion
of the Apostle Paul, of Barnabas and of the Apostle Peter.
There is one other interesting piece of evidence that
would lead us to believe that the John Mark of the New Testament is the author
of our earliest Gospel – it appears to many that the author himself makes an
unnamed Alfred Hitchcock/Stan Lee-esque cameo near the end of his account. Consider
the following verses from the account of Jesus arrest:
“A young man,
wearing nothing but a linen garment, was following Jesus. When they seized him,
he fled naked, leaving his garment behind.”
Mark 14:51-52
This little aside in the midst of the story of the
disciples abandoning their master in the face of the authorities seems to have
little reason for inclusion other than to draw attention to the young man. We
know that John Mark lived in Jerusalem and that he was associated with the
early church from the beginning – we also know that chronologically he would have
been a very young man at the time of Jesus’ arrest. This would seem to be a way
for the author to insert himself into the story as a way of claiming
credibility – as one who knew Jesus and was present for at least some of the
events. It would also be a way for those insiders within the community to
identify him in the story. Many believe that this young man is John Mark
himself.
So if all of this evidence mounts to a critical mass that
allows us to confidently believe that the author of this Gospel was the John
Mark of the New Testament – what does it mean for us as we study this book?
Well firstly it means that Mark is in some places dealing
with primary sources. The events of the passion narrative in particular would
be coming from in many ways a firsthand account of the events. Secondly, where
the author was not present for transpiring events the account comes from the
recollections of the Apostle Peter – Mark has long been known as Peter’s Gospel
for his heavy influence on the account of what occurred. And as Peter’s recollection
as transcribed by Mark we get very little by way of editorializing by the
author as it’s not his story he’s largely telling. Mark let’s Jesus words and
actions speak for themselves which leads to a dynamic and action packed telling
of the Gospel.
In the end, it is true that God by the Holy Spirit
working within the human authors is the true writer of Scripture and its
veracity comes primarily from that fact the holy Word of God is active by the
pen of John Mark – but knowing the human side of the equation opens up a whole
world of new understanding to us as we read the text as it not only gives the
narrator personality – but it opens up a number of other avenues of study to us
as far as context, audience and date go.
Hopefully that will prime the pump a little for you all
as we get into the Gospel this Sunday with our first message in the series: Where
the wild things are.
Until next time,
Chris
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