"The
beginning of the good news of
Jesus Christ, the Son of
God" (NRSV)
Thus
Mark the evangelist begins what
the majority of
scholars believe is the first gospel
written, the first written
witness to the good news of the
life and death of Jesus.
Papias,
a bishop of Hierapolis in Asia
Minor early the in second
century, identified the author
as "Peter's
interpreter," felt to be a
reference to John Mark, who
is mentioned in Acts as an early
companion of Paul and Barnabas
(Acts 12:12, 25; 15:37-41). Paul
writes of him in some of his
letters (Colossians 4:10,
Philemon 24). He is also spoken
of affectionately in 1 Peter
5:13. Whether the author of the
gospel is indeed John Mark is
debated by modern scholars.
Papias
also implied the gospel was
written in Rome for
the Roman church. This
possibility is viewed favorably
by modern scholars. The date of
composition is uncertain. The
church father Clement of
Alexandria (150 to 215) said
Peter largely dictated the
gospel to Mark and approved the
final manuscript. On the other
hand, the church father Irenaeus
(~140-160 to 200) said Mark
wrote the gospel after the
deaths of both Peter and Paul.
Most modern scholars place the
writing of the gospel to
sometime after the persecution
of the Christians by Nero in 64
A.D., or after the Roman
destruction of the temple in
Jerusalem in 70 A.D.
We
studied Mark in five
sessions Wednesday evenings
during Lent 2003. Mark is the
primary gospel of the Lectionary year B.
References
for this introductory material:
 Eerdmans
Dictionary of the Bible. Ed. by David Freedman, Allen Myers, Astrid Beck.
William B. Eerdmans Publishing Co., Grand Rapids MI / Cambridge U.K. 2000.
Introducing
the New Testament, John Drane,
Fortress Press, Minneapolis, 2001
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