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The gospel of Mark is anonymous.  Church tradition attributed it to John Mark, who is mentioned in Acts 12:12 and 15:37, but there is no historical evidence that this apostle wrote the gospel.  The gospel of Mark is the shortest of the four gospels in the New Testament.  In the earliest Greek manuscripts and versions the gospel ends at 16:8.  In some later manuscripts an additional eight verses have been attached to the end of chapter 16, and these verses include resurrection appearances to Mary of Magdala (Mary Magdalene) and the disciples.  This is why some translations of the Christian Bible have what is known as the "longer ending" of the gospel of Mark.  

If you can make time, read the gospel of Mark all the way through before reading this commentary.  The story moves along quickly. It almost seems as if the author is in a hurry to come to the end. I suggest shorter readings in the exegesis that follows, but there is nothing like reading a whole gospel to experience the impact of its story. You may even want to read the gospel aloud, for this is the way it was read in the early church.  Each gospel is a dramatic presentation of the good news in Christ.

The letters of Paul assert that Jewish law is not necessary for salvation. Only faith is required in response to God's act of love in Jesus Christ. That, too, is the message of the gospel of Mark. It is also the teaching of this gospel story. Jesus begins his ministry among Jews, but he reaches out to Gentiles and is identified at his death as God's son by a Gentile. The gospel of Mark proclaims, as do Paul's letters, that Jesus has come to save through faith both Jews and Gentiles.

Healing and teaching are the marks of the ministry of Jesus. The crowds may come primarily for healing and miracles, but the disciples are taught not only to heal but also to learn to be teachers. We do not hear in the gospel of Mark about the ecstatic gifts that Paul has found disturbing at times, but the gospel account does emphasize the importance of teaching. Although the disciples do not seem to understand the parables and teaching of Jesus, he tries very hard to make these lessons clear to them. The narrative, therefore, makes the meaning quite clear to us.

The gospel affirms that Jewish moral law may be summed up as love for one's neighbor. The scribes, Pharisees, Herodians, chief priests and elders fail to keep the law of Moses even though they claim to abide by it, because they enforce the details of the law without love for the people. Their actions speak louder than their words and reveal that they do not understand the law and do not love God. The law itself is not wrong but must be properly interpreted. The Jewish authorities are wrong, because they focus only on the letter of the law and are more interested in judging those who violate the law than with loving and serving their neighbors.

In his conflict with the leaders of the church in Jerusalem Paul argues that Jesus Christ, not the law, is the key to salvation. This proclamation is acted out in the gospel story of Mark. It is by following Jesus that one comes to the kingdom of God. Jesus does not teach the ancient scriptures of Israel. His life and ministry is a new scripture. In his death and resurrection he completes the work of Moses and Elijah and the other prophets. As the Messiah, Jesus is the fulfillment of God's revelation to the Israelites.

Jesus is not another prophet. He does not speak the words of God to call the people to a new understanding of the law of Moses. He lives the will of God to show the readers of the gospel of Mark that they may find salvation through faith. In the gospel of Mark we see Jesus as the author of the gospel saw him, which is not necessarily as the contemporaries of Jesus saw him. In this gospel we encounter not only the Jesus of Nazareth, who called the disciples to follow him, but also the Jesus known to Paul as the risen Christ. The Jesus of this and the other New Testament gospels is inseparable from the witness of the church to the risen Christ. The Jesus of all the gospels is the Jesus known by those with faith in Christ.

The abrupt ending of the gospel of Mark may be shocking, but it serves the purposes of the author very well. The empty tomb verifies that resurrection involves the body as well as the spirit or soul of a person. That was Paul's view, but not all early Christians agreed with him. Clearly, however, the author of the gospel of Mark shared that view. In addition, the gospel of Mark leaves us wondering what is to come next in the story. The ending does not encourage us to expect much from the disciples and the women, who have run away. We will, therefore, have to look to someone else for leadership in spreading the good news.

The gospel of Mark leaves us with a question, and Paul is the answer. His letters and ministry throughout the Roman Empire provide the sequel to the account of the church that began in Galilee and Jerusalem. This is further evidence that the gospel of Luke and the Acts of the Apostles were not written before the gospel of Mark. We know today that Acts tells the story of the church after the death and resurrection of Jesus, but it does so from the point of view of the author of Luke and Acts. The gospel of Mark was written to cover the life and teaching of Jesus that led to the conversion of Paul and his ministry to the Gentiles.

As the author of the gospel of Mark wrote in Greek for Jews and Gentiles who spoke and read Greek, he may have known the story of Socrates, who was accused in Athens of corrupting the young by the authorities he challenged. Socrates, too, went willingly to his death, because he believed that it was the divine will and best for his people. The author of the gospel of Mark probably also knew of the legendary last king of Athens, Codrus, who was directed by a divine oracle to give himself to the enemy disguised as a slave. His death was said to have saved his people. The author of the gospel of Mark may even have known the Greek account of the Persian ritual of dressing a prisoner up like a king and mocking him, before putting him to death. All these themes appear in the passion account of the gospel of Mark.

As a Jew who spoke and read Greek, the author of Mark was much like Paul. He knew the scriptures of ancient Israel, and Jesus is thus portrayed as knowing them well. But the author of the gospel of Mark also knew Greek literature, and Acts presents Paul quoting a Greek poet. No wonder then that the Jesus of the gospel of Mark was inspiring for both Jews and Gentiles and that the message of this earliest gospel is so much like the gospel preached by Paul.

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