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Study Files

Session 3 Video

In Session 3, we talk about the Gospel according to Mark.

Classroom

- **Opening word** -  “Beginning” (ἀρχή13).

Creation theme opens the book (beginning, Spirit over the water, temptation, etc.)

- **No Birth Narrative**

- **Fast-Paced Action**

   - **“Immediately”** (εὐθύς) [42x in Mk; 6-Mt; 3-Lk; 3-Jn] — Mark moves at a fast pace 
only slowing down at the Passion narrative (this word does not occur after 15:1).

   - **Favorite conjunction** is “and” (καί).

   - **Limited discourse** in comparison to other gospels, he keeps the action moving. 
Mark Strauss compared it to an “on-the-spot news report” (pf. 172). 

   - Use of **“Historic Present”** verbs that heighten the urgency of the narrative [151x in Mk; 93-Mt; 11-Lk].

   - **Shortest account,** but often with more details in shared narratives than other synoptic gospels (e.g., wild animals 1:13; grass 6:39; Jesus sleeping on a cushion 4:38).

- **ID Questions:**

  - 1:27 What is this? A new teaching—and with authority…

  - 2:7 Who can forgive sins but God alone?

  - 2:16 Why does he eat with tax collectors and sinners?

  - 4:41 Who is this? Even the wind and waves obey him!

  - 6:2 What’s this wisdom that has been given him? 

  - 7:5 Why don’t your disciples live according to the tradition of the elders…?

- **Authority**

- **Outline:** Two-part structure that hinges upon Peter’s Confession in 8:29
(Craig Blomberg, 131):

  - **1:1-8:30 Successes** - M. Strauss = Authoritative Son of God

  - **8:31-16:8 Sufferings** - M. Strauss = The Suffering Servant

- **Thematic groupings** (see Strauss 174):

  - ch 1 Authority Stories 

  - ch 2 Sabbath Controversies

  - ch 4 Kingdom Parables

  - ch 6-8 Boats & Bread Stories 

  - ch 7 Unclean Stories

  - ch 7-8 Miracles and Parables for Discipleship (Deaf/Blind)

  - ch 10 Cruciform Life

  - ch 11-12 Controversy/Tests/Traps

- **Inclusio** (“bookending”):

  - **Son of God**

    - 1:1 “Son of God”

    - 1:10 “You are my son” 

    - 9:7 “This is my Son…Listen to Him” 

    - 15:39 “Surely…son of God!” 

  - **Torn**

    - 1:10 “Heaven torn open” 

    - 15:38 “The curtain in the temple was torn…”

- **“Messianic Secret”** — Jesus is always telling others to be silent and at the end (short ending), no one is “telling” but instead are afraid.

  - Jesus often **withdraws/retreats**

  - **No Post-Resurrection Narrative** (Depending on what you do with the textual 
variant in Mark 16:9-20).



The Gospel According to Mark

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The Gospel According to Mark Instructions