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The Gospel According to Saint Mark: The Greek Text
Book by Taylor, Vincent
716 pages, Paperback
First published June 1, 1981
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May 30, 2022
This ground breaking work is all about Marcan Priority!
The dating of Mark’s Gospel to around 65CE is important. This means that this Gospel is the only account of the life of Jesus that predates the destruction of the second Jewish Temple in 70CE.
Matthew, Luke and John were composed after the Temple was destroyed and the Jewish nation was totally subdued by Rome. The Gospels of Matthew and Luke, however, closely parallel many of Mark’s narratives. It was not until the early years of the 20th century that Mark was openly
acknowledged as the first Gospel to be written—this became known as Marcan priority.
This is an important conclusion because it places much more emphasis on the words of Mark as being not only written earlier, but also forming the basis of the theology and Christology expressed in the Gospels of Matthew and Luke. The similarity between the three Gospels is starkly apparent. From the pioneering work by Professor Vincent Taylor in the early 20thcentury:
"The extensive parallels to Mark in Matt. (90 per cent of Mark’s verses) and in Luke (over 50 per cent), the high average of verbal agreement (about 51 per cent in Matt. And 53 per cent in Luke), the relative agreement in order, the stylistic and grammatical improvements in the later Gospels, the softening or omission of bold Markan statements, and the vivid character of Mark’s Story, all combine to make it certain that Mark is our earliest Gospel used as a source by Matthew and Luke."
Matthew and Luke also used the mysterious source referred to as ‘Q’. We know little about who wrote this material. It is acknowledged, however, that ‘Q’ was used in both Matthew’s and Luke’s Gospel to create an additional overlying and possibly biased narrative about the life and death of Jesus.Some religious scholars are reluctant to prioritise Mark to the extent that Taylor expressed. They argue, correctly I believe, that the original stories about Jesus’s life were passed on
verbally by illiterate Aramaic speaking Jews. Luke and Matthew (maybe even John) could have received these oral accounts and transcribed them independently. But one startling fact remains;
the authors of Matthew and Luke placed the words of Mark front and centre of their narratives. In other words, Mark’s Gospel is the original ‘textbook’ and primary source for the synoptic
Gospels. Taylor’s numbers do not lie and this fact stares at us in plain sight!
The dating of Mark’s Gospel to around 65CE is important. This means that this Gospel is the only account of the life of Jesus that predates the destruction of the second Jewish Temple in 70CE.
Matthew, Luke and John were composed after the Temple was destroyed and the Jewish nation was totally subdued by Rome. The Gospels of Matthew and Luke, however, closely parallel many of Mark’s narratives. It was not until the early years of the 20th century that Mark was openly
acknowledged as the first Gospel to be written—this became known as Marcan priority.
This is an important conclusion because it places much more emphasis on the words of Mark as being not only written earlier, but also forming the basis of the theology and Christology expressed in the Gospels of Matthew and Luke. The similarity between the three Gospels is starkly apparent. From the pioneering work by Professor Vincent Taylor in the early 20thcentury:
"The extensive parallels to Mark in Matt. (90 per cent of Mark’s verses) and in Luke (over 50 per cent), the high average of verbal agreement (about 51 per cent in Matt. And 53 per cent in Luke), the relative agreement in order, the stylistic and grammatical improvements in the later Gospels, the softening or omission of bold Markan statements, and the vivid character of Mark’s Story, all combine to make it certain that Mark is our earliest Gospel used as a source by Matthew and Luke."
Matthew and Luke also used the mysterious source referred to as ‘Q’. We know little about who wrote this material. It is acknowledged, however, that ‘Q’ was used in both Matthew’s and Luke’s Gospel to create an additional overlying and possibly biased narrative about the life and death of Jesus.Some religious scholars are reluctant to prioritise Mark to the extent that Taylor expressed. They argue, correctly I believe, that the original stories about Jesus’s life were passed on
verbally by illiterate Aramaic speaking Jews. Luke and Matthew (maybe even John) could have received these oral accounts and transcribed them independently. But one startling fact remains;
the authors of Matthew and Luke placed the words of Mark front and centre of their narratives. In other words, Mark’s Gospel is the original ‘textbook’ and primary source for the synoptic
Gospels. Taylor’s numbers do not lie and this fact stares at us in plain sight!
Displaying 1 of 1 review