Gospel Of Mark Anthropology

The Gospel of Mark is a profoundly rich theological work which gives us an insight into the way his community understood and saw Jesus. Mark’s Gospel paints a picture of Jesus that is distinct from the other three Gospels. We know that Mark was written sometime before the destruction of the temple and most scholars estimate between 64-67 A.D We also have good reason to believe that the Gospel of Mark was composed in Rome and his community faced persecution from secular authorities. All these factors contributed to the way Mark’s community understood and related to Jesus. In this brief essay I will highlight some of the most important Christological aspects of Mark’s gospel. Knowing these Christological elements gives us a better insight into
Mark is trying to do what Mathew and Luke do in their genealogies, he is trying to show God’s miraculous intervention in the birth of Jesus . He is essentially trying to connect Jesus as the word made flesh as John does in his prologue. Scholars are unsure as to how much divinity Mark ascribed to this title, if any. This is the first time any such title has been applied to someone since King David. In David’s sense there was no divinity ascribed to this title and it meant he was God’s son in an “adoptive sense” and was common among monarchies in the Ancient Near East. It is interesting to note the few times Jesus is referred to as Son of God. One of the most climatic moments is on Mt.Tabor when a voice came from heaven and said “You are my Son, the Beloved; with you I am well pleased.” Twice when Jesus exercised demons they called out his identity “What have you to do with me, Jesus, Son of the Most High God?” The first time a human calls Christ the Son of God is after his death when the centurion standing before him said “Truly this man was God's Son!”. Regardless of how Mark may have understood this title this paved the way to our eventual understanding of Christ as summarized in the council of
Jesus commands those whom he heals to not tell anyone about what he has done for them. This is the only Gospel where Jesus is found giving such exhortations. At the healing of Jarius’ daughter we hear, “He gave strict orders that no one should know this and said that she should be given something to eat.” When Peter confessed that Jesus was the Messiah the disciples were told to say nothing. “Then he warned them not to tell anyone about him.” Even at the exorcism Jesus commands the demons to be silent when they call him the Son of God. “He cured many who were sick with various diseases, and he drove out many demons, not permitting them to speak because they knew him.” There are two traditional understandings of why Jesus would want to conceal his true identity. The first, states that Jesus feared the political zealots would take advantage of the coming of the messiah and turn it into a revolt for political gain. The other view says that Mark’s community needed to explain why Jesus never presented himself as the Messiah in his public ministry or he may have just wanted to redefine the term messiah in light of Jesus’ death and resurrection and so puts of telling Jesus true identity until his