In spite of it being the Year of Mark, we do not
have his Gospel read at the two Sunday Masses before Christmas nor during the
Christmas Season. This is because Mark –
like John – has no narrative dealing with the infancy of Jesus. Only Matthew and Luke reflect on the Nativity
of the Lord in their Gospels so the Gospel readings for Christmas Day are
always from Luke as he alone speaks of the manger and the shepherds and the
angels. Matthew’s Gospel is always used
for the Epiphany as only he speaks of the Magi and their gifts and the star.
Most scholars think that Mark was the first Gospel
to be written and he begins with the Baptism of Jesus by John at the start of
his public ministry. Mark tells us nothing
of Jesus’ earlier family existence, never even mentioning Joseph, his legal
father. In this approach Mark is far
from alone for the other twenty-four books of the New Testament – apart from
Matthew and Luke – say nothing of Jesus’ family origins.
In our bibles each Gospel is introduced by the
words: ‘The Gospel according to Matthew/Mark/Luke or John. These traditional headings did not form part
of the original manuscripts. They
remained untitled until the last quarter of the Second century. But originally they were anonymous. In those times the status of an anonymous
history was higher than that of a named work.
It would have reduced the impact of the Gospel of Mark had the author
written ‘this is my version’ instead of ‘this is what Jesus said and did.’
By the last quarter of the Second century however
there were a number of gospels springing up, such as the Gospel of Peter and
the Gospel of Thomas, the Infancy Gospel of James and the Gospel of Truth. A decision had to be made about which could
be regarded as genuine and normative for the faith and life of the Christian
community. The Western Church used the order Matthew,
John, Luke and Mark giving precedence to Matthew and John over Luke and Mark
names of disciples of Apostles as distinct from Apostles. The Eastern Church used the order Matthew,
Mark, Luke and John probably reflecting what they believed to be the order in
which they were written. When St Jerome
was commissioned in 383 AD by Pope Damasus to produce an authorative Latin
translation of the Bible, he adopted the Eastern order for the Gospels which
has remained the standard practice in the West.
But it was Mark who is now recognised as having pioneered the work of
setting to paper a comprehensive account of how God met mankind in the life of
Jesus. His opening line is: ‘The
beginning of the Good News about Jesus the Messias, the Son of God.’
We often use the term Gospel for the Good
News. Gospel is the shortened form of
God-spel which in Old English meant good news.
This is an attempt to translate the Greek word which Mark used, ‘evangelion’. In olden days the herald of the King or
Emperor would proclaim great events to the people. When the event to be announced was one
calling for joy and celebration it was called an ‘evangelion’. It might be news of a victory in battle or
perhaps a birth in the Royal family.
The Christian writers, Paul and Mark especially,
took over this word ‘evangelion’ and gave it a new meaning. The good news in their view was not what the
King or Emperor thought worthy of celebration.
Mark begins his great writing with the proclamation that the true good
news was about Jesus, the Messias, the Son of God. This was a truly courageous call to all of us
from the herald Mark. Jesus is the one
to whom we must listen. But who was
Mark? Mark was one of the most common
names among peoples who spoke Latin and Greek.
Scholars think that it is unlikely that he was a native of Palestine;
for they point out that he is confused about Palestinian geography, even the
whereabouts of the Sea of Galilee. (See
7:31) If he had been writing for Jewish
Christians in Galilee, it would have been unnecessary to translate Aramaic
words into Greek or to explain Jewish customs.
Many people think it was written in Rome just
before 70 AD. There is a tradition that
Mark was able to draw on Peter for some of his work. Before his martyrdom in 67 AD in Rome under
Nero, Peter had spent a short period in that city. If Mark had links to Peter and Rome it would
explain the early authorarive position given to his Gospel.
