Gospel of Mark Paper Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1500 words

Gospel of Mark Paper - Essay Example rk was seen as a â€Å"translator or interpreter† of Peter – according to a statement made by a church father called Papias – with many commentators trying to identify his work with what â€Å"could only have come from Peter† (Court, 1990, p.47). On the other hand, as Drane points out, there are â€Å"remarkable similarities† between the first three gospels, aka the synoptic gospels, namely Matthew, Mark and Luke, which contain almost identical accounts of the teachings of Jesus; this comes to mean that they either derived their material from a common source or two of them are based on the third (2001, p. 1-2). Court writes that there has been â€Å"an explosion of a different kind of scholarly interest† in the Gospel of Mark during the second half of the twentieth century, with a different emphasis on what the writer – referred to as â€Å"Mark† – himself intended, presenting the materials he had collected in a particular way (1990, p. 47). Moreover, a close examination of the three synoptic gospels indicates that both Matthew and Luke used Mark’s gospel as the basis, â€Å"into which they fitted the extra material† they deemed it necessary (Drane, 2001, p.3). However, scholars widely agree that the Gospel of Mark is the â€Å"nearest thing† to a report of Jesus’s life, aiming to communicate a â€Å"picture of Jesus as he was† (Drane, 2001, p.6); while the complex themes Mark treats about the person of Jesus, along with the most pervasive and problematic feature – the theme of mystery and the hidden identity of Christ – actually denote a theological approach in the understanding of Christ (Court, 1990, p.48-49; Moloney, 2002, p.6). Although Mark’s gospel tells the facts of Jesus’s life, as stated by Drane, â€Å"in the simplest and most dramatic way†, it begins with the declaration of faith (2001, pp.6-7): â€Å"The beginning of the gospel of Jesus Christ (the Son of God)† (Mark 1:1 New American Bible). Moving rapidly from John the Baptist to Jesus