The Gospel according to Mark (The Pillar New Testament Commentary (PNTC))

by James R. Edwards

was written to Christians undergoing persecution.

A third piece of evidence may perhaps be concealed in the opaque reference in the temptation scene to Jesus’ being “with the wild animals” (1:13). This phrase is without any obvious parallel in the Bible and has not yet been satisfactorily explained. I am inclined to see in the phrase a veiled reference to the Neronian persecution,

In summary, although none of the foregoing arguments and evidence is conclusive in itself, a combination of external and internal data appears to point to a composition of the Gospel of Mark in Rome between the great fire in 64 and the siege and destruction of Jerusalem by Titus in 70, that is, about the year 65.16

There can be little doubt that Mark wrote for Gentile readers, and Roman Gentiles in particular.

quotes relatively infrequently from the OT,

he explains Jewish customs unfamiliar ...

translates Aramaic and Hebrew phrases by their G...

Latinisms

Mark presents Romans in a neutral (12:17; 15:1-2, 21-22) and sometimes favorable (15:39) light.

This particular sandwich is about faith, but other sandwiches, which occur some nine times in the Gospel,20 emphasize concomitant themes of discipleship, bearing witness, or the dangers of apostasy.

Each sandwich unit consists of an A1-B-A2 sequence, with the B-component functioning as the theological key to the flanking halves.

Every pericope in Mark is about Jesus except for two about John the Baptizer (1:2-8; 6:14-29), who is presented as the forerunner of Jesus.

Although Jesus is often referred to as a teacher, Mark seldom reports the content of his teaching.

the person of the teacher is more important than the content of his teaching.

the humanness o...

Jesus treads where only God can walk (Job 9:8, 11; Ps 77:19; Isa 43:16),

“The beginning of the gospel about Jesus Christ, the Son of God” (1:1),

Surely this man was the Son of God!’” (15:39).

Discipleship is repeatedly defined in Mark by simple proximity to Jesus: being with him (3:13), sitting around him (3:34; 4:10), hearing him (4:1-20), and following him “on the way” (1:16-20; 10:52).

Mark’s Jesus is a “northern” Jesus, oriented to regions beyond the orbit of Jerusalem-defined Judaism.

Mark’s two great christological confessions are related to Gentiles: in Caesarea Philippi Jesus is declared to be the Christ (8:27-30), and by the Gentile centurion at the cross Jesus is declared the Son of God (15:39).

Jesus doubtlessly used the command to silence to protect himself from false messianic expectations.

he knew that faith could not be coerced by a spectacle

until the cross Jesus cannot be rightly known for who he is.

For Mark the introduction of Jesus is no less momentous than the creation of the world, for in Jesus a new creation is at hand.

euangelion was commonly used of reports of victory from the battlefield.

In the Greco-Roman world the word always appears in the plural, meaning one good tiding among others; but in the NT euangelion appears only in the singular: the good news of God in Jesus Christ, beside which there is no other.

In Exod 23:20,

a divine messenger of Yahweh.

the Malachi passage (also Mal 4:5-6) identifies the preparer of the way with Elijah,

in pre-Christian Jewish texts preserved in the OT and intertestamental literature Elijah prefigures not the Messiah but the appearance of God himself.

Mark restricts his portrait of John to a single motif, depicting John as the fulfiller of Elijah’s climactic role as the forerunner of “one more powerful” (1:7), whose sandals he is unworthy to untie.

In several important respects John’s baptism differs from what we know of proselyte baptism and Qumran washings. Unlike ritual mikwaʾot and Qumran baths, which were self-washings, John’s baptism was administered to the penitent by John as a second party.

John’s baptism signified moral and spiritual renewal.

In the only reference to John’s baptism outside the NT, Josephus underscores the intention of reform inherent in John’s call to repentance. “[John] exhorted the Jews to lead righteous lives, to practise justice towards their fellows and piety towards God, and so doing to join in baptism” (Ant. 18.116-18). Baptism in such

Elijah,

Mark focuses on John’s preaching of the “one more powerful” to come.

That is an extraordinary declaration, for in the OT the bestowal of the Spirit belongs exclusively to God.

When Jesus comes up from the water he experiences three things that in Jewish tradition signified the inauguration of God’s eschatological kingdom: the heavens were opened above him, the Spirit descended into him, and the heavenly voice spoke to him.

Isaiah (64:1)

Only here and in the transfiguration (excepting John 12:28) do we see direct divine discourse with Jesus in the Gospels, and in each instance God addresses Jesus as “my Son.”

Abraham was a friend of God (Isa 41:8), Moses a servant of God (Deut 34:5), Aaron a chosen one of God (Ps 105:26), David a man after God’s own heart (1 Sam 13:14), and Paul an apostle (Rom 1:1). Only Israel (Exod 4:23)—and the king as Israel’s leader (Ps 2:7)—had been called God’s Son before. But where Israel failed, Jesus takes its place.

adoptionism,

1:1, Mark has already announced Jesus’ divine Sonship.

the divine declaration, “‘You are my Son, whom I love,’” does not establish a relationship so much as presuppose a relationship.

The baptism signals the confirmation of Jesus’ Sonship and the commencement of his servanthood.

Following the declaration of Jesus as God’s Son and the inauguration of his public ministry, Jesus

is, rather, appointed by the Spirit to a much different task—

There is no time to linger in the glory of the baptism.

The Spirit “drives” Jesus or “thrusts him out” (Gk. ekballein) to confront Satan. The imagery is reminiscent of the scapegoat loaded down with the sins of Israel and expelled into the wilderness (Lev 16:21).