You’re about to dive into the Gospel of Mark and what does that mean? Mark’s Gospel is action-packed, full of fast-paced events and mind-blowing miracles.
Imagine being right there, in the thick of it all, with Jesus and his disciples. You’ll witness crazy healings, storm-chasing boat rides, and some seriously cool lessons from Jesus himself.
Since Mark’s Gospel (the “good news”) is traditionally associated with Rome, it may have been occasioned by the persecutions of the Roman church in the period c. A.D. 64-67. Mark may be writing to prepare his readers for such suffering by placing before them the life of our Lord.
Mark was a sister’s son to Barnabas, Colossians 4:10; and Acts 12:12 shows that he was the son of Mary, a pious woman of Jerusalem, at whose house the apostles and first Christians assembled. From Peter’s styling him his son, 1 Peter 5:13, the evangelist is supposed to have been converted by that apostle. Thus Mark was closely united with the followers of our Lord, if not himself one of the number. Mark wrote at Rome; some suppose that Peter dictated to him, though the general testimony is, that the apostle having preached at Rome, Mark, who was the apostle’s companion, and had a clear understanding of what Peter delivered, was desired to commit the particulars to writing. And we may remark, that the great humility of Peter is very plain where any thing is said about himself. Scarcely an action or a work of Christ is mentioned, at which this apostle was not present, and the minuteness shows that the facts were related by an eye-witness. This Gospel records more of the miracles than of the discourses of our Lord, and though in many things it relates the same things as the Gospel according to St. Matthew, we may reap advantages from reviewing the same events, placed by each of the evangelists in that point of view which most affected his own mind. Matthew Henry