Mark: Succinct for the Romans

Spirituality Column #123
March 17, 2009
Current in Carmel (IN) newspaper
Current in Westfield (IN) newspaper

Mark: Succinct for the Romans
By Bob Walters

John Mark, a close associate of the Apostle Peter, is credited with writing the Gospel of Mark between 50-65 AD somewhere in Italy.

With its succinct, active, and direct style – an apt metaphor for the Roman way of life – Mark describes what Christ did more than what Christ said.

Scholars regard the book of Mark, which not surprisingly focuses on persecution and martyrdom, as a portrayal of Peter’s teaching and sermons to the Romans.

Tradition suggests Peter lived his later years in and around Rome and was martyred there. John Mark – who we see elsewhere in the Bible as the man who ran naked from Christ’s arrest in the Garden (Mark 14:51), deserted Barnabas and Paul (Acts 13:13), and later regained Paul’s favor (2 Titus 4:11) – was, like Luke, not one of the 12 Disciples.

This is the kind of scripture background available from a standard study Bible.

When I first read the Bible a few years ago, it was an edition with a minimum of notes because I wanted to focus on the scripture and not have my eyes and thoughts jerked around a maze of notes, footnotes, citations, charts, and maps.

A study Bible is an entirely different animal. I often have to look twice to find the actual scripture amid the above-mentioned maze of study material.

The variety of information especially facilitates a curious phenomenon that befalls every person who reads any Bible on a regular basis: With each reading, new bits of insight and previously unnoticed facts fairly jump off the pages.

I like to think this is the Holy Spirit’s way of keeping our thirst whetted for continued scriptural study and a deeper relationship with God through Christ.

A new insight? It occurred to me that Jesus’ famous statement about money and taxes, “Render unto to Caesar …” (Mark 12:17), positions money as an earthly thing, not a divine thing. That sort of knocks a hole in the popular prosperity preaching that promotes “God wants us to be rich.” Hogwash. How many rich Christian missionaries do you know? Money rich, I mean.

A typical study Bible note? Mark 6:3 is the only place in the Bible where Jesus is referred to as a carpenter.

Walters (rlwcom@aol.com), in honor of St. Patrick’s Day, notes that Mark 16:18 is the “snake handling” scripture. You can look it up. Next week: Luke.