The Gospel of Mark
Question 1
The Gospel of Mark is considered to be the first of the four Gospel's to be written. This Gospel emphasize on what Jesus did during his life. The shortest of all gospels, Mark's record of Jesus’ life is full of action and is an excellent introduction for anyone who is interested to the life of Jesus.
As mentioned before, the gospel concentrates on what Jesus did. Mark wanted to insure a reader first about Jesus identity right at the very beginning (1:1) where Jesus is clearly described as a Son of God and Messiah (Christ means to be the anointed one). The fact that Mark’s Gospel reveals the identity of Jesus at the very beginning is in a contrast with Jesus’ desire to keep his identity secret. For Mark, Jesus is a somewhat unknown figure and that's very important to his way of telling the story. Jesus is mysterious. Jesus purposely keeps people from understanding who he really is (1:25, 34, 1:44, 3:12, 5:43, 7:24, etc). Jesus also orders the demons who would announce his true identity to be quiet. Jesus even takes the disciples away from the crowd and teaches them privately so that others would not hear and understand the message. Therefore Jesus seems to be a very secretive figure in Mark's gospel.
The turning point in the gospel (8:27-30) is where Peter as a first apostle reveals Jesus’ identity and a rapid approach of actions follows toward circumstances around Jesus’ death. After several analyses I found that death of Jesus is the leading principle in Mark’s Gospel. This opinion is strengthen by the next verse (8:31-33) after the gospel’s turning point and in other two places (9:30-32, 10:32-34) where Jesus explicitly wanted his disciples to know what is going to happen to him. In doing so Jesus probably wanted to correct their first understanding of coming Messiah. It was inevitable for Jesus to prepare his disciples not to expect glory and fame in the future, but rather suffering and service to others.
On the other hand Jesus in Mark’s Gospel has many human characteristics: Jesus appeared grieved (14:34), displeased (10:14), amazed (6:6) and even angry (11:15-17). It is very important for Mark to point out not only Jesus’ Messianic “job” but also his human nature. It was certainly Mark’s message to Jesus’ followers not to fear human weakness.
Mark’s Gospel also portrays Jesus’ disciples in a very unique way. The first notice about Jesus calling his first disciples (1:16) comes right after arrest of John the Baptist and the proclamation about a time that has been fulfilled. It would seem that apostles leaving their nets would be certainly sure about who they are following. Instead, we find many places in gospel (4:10, 41, 6:50-52, 7:17, 8:21, 9:10 etc.) where disciples were either amazed of what Jesus did or they did not understand what Jesus was trying to teach them. At the turning point of the gospel (8:27-30) it would seem that at least Peter got the idea of Jesus being the Messiah. But in the next verse (8:33) Jesus rebukes Peter for he did not understand what Jesus was trying to say about his death. In one story about a woman who anointed Jesus (14:3-9), even she seems to understand the role of Jesus but the disciples still did not get it. At the Jesus’ arrest in Gethsemane and in Peter’s betrayal it seems that disciples lost faith in their teacher completely (14:50, 14:66-72). Nonetheless, these simple-minded fishermen seem almost unrecognizable at the very end of the gospel (16:20), where they are not afraid of what would possibly happen to them and they went to proclaim the gospel. It has to leave a question why Jesus did not criticize them at his first visit after the resurrection. Instead he entrusted them with spreading out the word about him and about his mission. Mark’s intention to his audience surely had to be to show Jesus’ never-ending grace and love of his disciples and therefore to all believers of his teaching.
Question 3
The ending of Mark’s gospel in the newest translation is presented in four different ways. As many scholars believe from traditions, the original gospel ended at 16:8. The shorter ending was probably added later because of its remarkable different vocabulary. It also presents a sudden change in description what the women from the last verse of original ending did after Jesus’ post-resurrection appearance. The third possible ending (16:20) seems to be consistent in way the story was told before. It also seems to be the most logical because it does finish the whole story in a sense of spreading out the good news of the gospel. The fourth ending now presented only as something informative also seems to be added later due to its different vocabulary. In this ending Jesus is not referred to as a teacher or a Son of Man but as a Christ. These endings are based upon different manuscript traditions found in different places. The fact that early traditions were established on orally retold stories could in fact explain these differences.
The problem with the original (short) ending is that women who are charged with telling Peter and the disciples that Jesus is going ahead of them into Galilee do not say anything to anyone because they are afraid and terrified. This is an incredibly unusual ending to a work that begins (1:1) with the words, "The beginning of the good news of Jesus Christ, the Son of God." Throughout the whole gospel Jesus commands people not to tell who he is or what he has done, but very often people go out and announce who Jesus is anyway. But at this moment, when the time for final announcement has come, the witnesses to the resurrection simply do not say anything to anyone. This is an example of the kind of irony that we find in many places in Mark's gospel. It also could be Mark’s intention to leave readers of his gospel in amazement or outraged and for the same reason to do something about it. The reader probably would not agree with women to respond in fear, and so he or she feels the obligation to do what the women fail to do: to spread the message that Jesus is resurrected and alive.
The other possibility is that the early church in order to make the ending more smooth added verses 16:9-20. The reasoning was probably based on fact that the first person who told the news to apostles was first a woman and second she was known to be previously possessed with demons – therefore she was the most unlikely person to be an apostle in eyes of Jews. This seems to be in agreement with other ironies in gospel.
Yet there seems to be something else to be inconsistent. The whole gospel, especially the passion part, reveals fulfillment of prophecies of Jesus in close details. This leads reader to expect the same with the prophecy of the resurrection appearance. The awareness of this problem could be another reason why the early church decided to add couple more paragraphs to the original ending in order to keep all the questions about the validity of the gospel away. In my opinion I agree with the way translators keep the room for explanation open. Those who would like to find something invalid with Mark’s Gospel this is certainly one of the best opportunities, and believers could find several endings as a legacy of many generations reflecting on gospel in order to strengthen their faith.