What was the influence of Mark's Gospel?

Answer 1

AnswerMark's Gospel was arguably the most influential book in ealry Christian belief. A parallel reading in the Greek language shows that Matthew's Gospel and Luke's Gospel were substantially based on this gospel, in addition to which both authors used sayings material taken from the hypothetical 'Q' document. Furthermore, John's Gospel was inspired by Luke's Gospel and therefore indirectly by Mark. Thus, almost everything we know about Jesus of Nazareth comes to us from Mark's Gospel. Christianity as we know it today is essentially based on the Gospel of Mark and the gospels that arose from it.

For information on the influences on Mark's Gospel, see related question.

Answer 2

A:

Mark's Gospel was originally anonymous, but scholars continue to speak of'Mark' as the author although that attribution was not made until later in the second century. Since we do not know who this Mark was, we know nothing about his motives or intentions. We only know that the Gospel appears to have been written around 68-73 CE, at the end of the First Roman Jewish War. It is certainly possible to speculate that the author was prompted to write his Gospel because of the events at the end of that war, but he was probably inspired by earlier writings.

It would be easy to say that Jesus inspired Mark to write his Gospel, but the crucifixion appears to have taken place around forty years earlier, and yet Mark wrote nothing that we now know of in the intervening period. There is good evidence that Mark copied some of his material from the epistles of Paul, and he might well have found much of the inspiriation he needed, including major events, characters and themes, in those epistles. If someone inspired Mark to write his Gospel, it was most likely the Apostle Paul. The two men never met, but the evangelist was aware of Paul's writings and influence.

Answer 3

It is widely, but not universally, accepted that The Bible was divinely inspired. 2 Timothy 3:16 may be speaking of the Old Testament, when it says, "All scripture is given by inspiration of God ..." since the New Testament canon had not yet been defined. A later view is that the New Testament was inspired by the Holy Spirit. A medieval artwork shows a dove, symbol of the Holy Spirit, whispering into the ear of an evangelist as he wrote.
Raymond E. Brown, author of An Introduction to the New Testament, clearly did not believe that the gospels were divinely inspired in a literal sense. Speaking of the two gospel genealogies of Jesus, he says, "Inspiration does not guarantee historicity or reconcilability; otherwise God should have inspired the two evangelists to give us the same record."Although 2 Timothy claims divine inspiration for the Bible it is, in itself, evidence against any form of divine inspiration. Second Timothy is almost universally regarded by New Testament scholars as a pseudepigraphical work, only written in Paul's name, long after Paul's death. The very fact that 2 Timothy is not what it claims to be proves the Bible not to be divinely inspired. All we can really say is that the gospels were inspired by pious authors who did their best to help spread the faith, as they saw it.

Answer 4

Even the most conservative theologians acknowledge that Mark never met Jesus in person, so could not have learnt of the gospel from him. Papias, bishop of Hieropolis in Asia Minor (ca.130), named Mark as the author of the (previously anonymous) gospel and the 'interpreter' of Peter, presumably as if Mark had written from Peter's memory and notes as his secretary (Eusebius, Ecclesiastical History, 3.39).

However, as the century progressed and copies of all four gospels became readily available, the Church Fathers began to realise that there was a literary dependence among the Gospels of Matthew, Mark and Luke. They concluded that Matthew was written first and that Mark and Luke were copied from Matthew. Modern scholars now realise that Mark predates the other gospels and that Matthew and Luke were copied from it; so we must look elsewhere for the influences on Mark's Gospel. Raymond E. Brown (An Introduction to the New Testament) assumes that Mark seems to depend on traditions (and perhaps already shaped sources) received in Greek.

We know nothing about the author of Mark's Gospel, but he seems to have been a quite brilliant writer, well versed in the Greek language, although he was at pains to hide this, by adopting a poor grammatical style in the Gospel. The author hints that he was familiar with the Aramaic language of Palestinian Jews, but whatever his sources were, they seem to have been Greek. There also seem to have been Cynic and Stoic influences on what he wrote.

There are many apparent literary dependencies between The Gospel of Thomas and Mark, and most scholars now believe that these must have been copied from Thomas to Mark, or that they both relied on a common source. There are twenty one parallel sayings that in Thomas seem random and could mean almost anything, but are aggregated in Mark to produce meaning. In every instance where Mark characterises sayings as "parables", he does so in reference to material that is found in Thomas.

Parallels between Mark's Gospel and Paul's Epistles to the Romans and the Corinthians suggest that these brief references in the epistles might have been fleshed out by the author of Mark, to create the story of Jesus of Nazareth.

Another potential influence on Mark has been identified by Dennis R. MacDonald (The Homeric Epics and the Gospel of Mark), who has studied Mark's Gospel and found surprising parallels between this account and the Homeric epics of The Iliad and The Odyssey.

The importance of Mark is such that when looking for influences outside the life of Jesus we should also demonstrate the likelihood that the gospel is not based on events in the life of Jesus. We can now do this by reviewing the framework chiastic structure of the gospel. This is a circular sequence in which an opening set of events is contrasted with another set of events that mirrors the first, using association to develop themes that would not otherwise be apparent. The following table provides an overview:

A . John explains the coming of Jesus (Mark 1:1-8)

B .The baptism of Jesus (1:9)

C . The voice of God from heaven, "Thou art my beloved son" (1:11)

D . The forty days in the wilderness as an allusion to Elijah and Moses (1:13)

E . The people were astonished at what Jesus taught (1:22)

F . Jesus casts out an unclean spirit (1:23-26)

G . Pharisees took counsel with the Herodians how they might destroy Jesus (3:6)

H . Demons, whenever they see Jesus, fall down and say that he is the Son of God.

-- Jesus commands that they tell no one of this (3:11-12)

I .. Jesus calls the 12 disciples (3:13-19)

J .. Jesus rejects his own family: he has a new family, his followers (3:31-35)

K . Jesus rebukes the wind (4:36-41)

L . The demoniac, wearing no clothes (5:15), cries out that Jesus not torment him and Jesus sends out the demons (5:1-20)

M . Jesus comes into his own country (6:1)
-- Where he was brought up

N . The people misunderstand Jesus and he can do no mighty work (6:2-6)

O . Jesus sends out the disciples and curses those who will not receive them (6:7-11)
-- in sending the disciples with authority and expecting all to receive them, Jesus is asserting his own authority

P . Herod thinks that Jesus is John the Baptist risen from the dead (6:14)

Q . Herodias and her daughter conspire to kill John the Baptist (6:16-29)

R . Feeding the thousands, and related miracles and discourses (6:33-8:21)

S . Who do people say that I am (8:27)

T . Peter affirms faith in Jesus as the Christ (8:29)

U . Whosoever shall be ashamed of me: of him also shall the Son of man be ashamed (8:38)

V . The Son of Man must suffer many things and be rejected by the elders, chief priests and scribes (8:31a)

W . Be killed and after three days rise again (8:31b)

X . Prophecy of second coming (9:1)- Jesus tells the disciples that some of them would not taste death until they saw the kingdom of God coming with power.

B' .The Transfiguration of Jesus (9:2-3)

C' .The voice of God from heaven, "This is my beloved son" (9:7)

D' . Jesus talks to Elijah and Moses then to the disciples about Elijah (9:4-13)

E' .A great multitude was amazed at Jesus (9:15)

F' .Jesus cast out a dumb spirit (9:17-27)

G' .They shall kill the Son of man and he shall rise on the third day (9:31)

H' .Jesus clarifies his divine status, saying that he is not God: "Why call me good? There is none good but God" (10:18)

I' . Peter says the disciples have left all and followed Jesus (10:28)

J' . Those who have left their family for Jesus have a new family: all Jesus' followers (10:29-30)

K'. Jesus rebukes the 'sons of thunder', James and John (10:35-45 - cf 3:17)

L' .Blind Bartimaeus cries out for mercy and casts off his clothes, then Jesus heals him (10:46-52)

M' .Jesus comes into Jerusalem (11:1-10)
-- Where he will die

N' .Jesus misunderstands the fig tree that can provide no fruit (11:13-14)

O' .Jesus casts out them that sold and bought in the Temple and curses them for making the Temple a den of thieves (11:15-17)
-- Jesus is asserting his authority

P' .Jesus asks whether the baptism of John is from heaven or of men, and the priests, scribes and elders can not answer (11:30-33)

Q' .Parable of husbandmen who conspire to kill the vineyard owner's son (12:1-9)

X' .Prophecy of second coming (chapter 13)

-- on clouds of glory, within the lifetimes of some of those to whom he was speaking

R' .The Last Supper (14:17-25)

S' .Art thou the Christ, Son of God (14:61)

T' .Peter denies Jesus three times (14:66-72a)

U' .And when he thought thereon, Peter wept (14:72b)

V' .The chief priests, elders and scribes delivered Jesus to Pontius Pilate (15:1)

-- Delivering Jesus is a similar concept to rejecting him.
-- Both parts of the pair involve chief priests, elders and scribes

W' .Jesus dies and on the third day rises again (15:37, 16:6)

A' .The young man explains the departure of Jesus(16:6-8)

Notice that each important event has a matching event in just the right sequence. This is too neat and artificial to be based on real life. It is evidence that the author knew little or nothing about the life and mission of Jesus, but created a well-structured narrative around Jesus, using sources that might have contained a grain of truth and other sources that simply provided inspiration.

Answer 5

The Holy Spirit.

Answer 6

Holy Spirit