Mark's Gospel

        Mark wrote his Gospel in AD64, the same time as Rome was burned down in a great fire where the Christians were blamed and persecuted harshly. He wrote it because he wanted to show the Christians that they were suffering the same way Jesus had once and he wanted to help them to be courageous and brave so they could carry on and stand up for what they believed in.

        Mark was Peter’s companion and when he died in AD65 as a martyr; it inspired Mark to write. Marks Gospel preserved the teachings of Jesus and gave people hope for the future and he shared his faith.

        There are suggestions that Marks’ Gospel was written for Non-Jews as Mark translates the written word in (Mk 5; 41) it says ‘He took her by the hand and said to her “Talitha koum” which means “Little girl, get up!” ‘He translates “Talitha koum” and also in (Mk 7; 11-12 the teaching of the ancestors) he explains customs when he explains Corban. ‘But if you say that if anyone tells Father or Mother, “Whatever support you might have had from me is Corban’ (that is an offering to God) then you no longer permit doing anything for a Father or Mother.

        Mark’s Gospel also encourages followers of Christianity to have faith as they needed a message of hope, reassurance that Jesus was the Messiah and Mark’s Gospel does this for them.

        In the early years of the Christian Church there wasn’t really much need to write down a record of the events of Jesus’ life as it was always passed on by word of mouth and for the time being this was fine as people expected Jesus to return and rule the Earth, but he never and in 66AD when the Jews rebelled against the Romans, Jerusalem was destroyed and the leader of the Jewish church was killed also many Christians lost their faith for standing up for their beliefs; it is also said that St Peter and St Paul lost their lives too. But when Jesus never returned and the Christian religion began to die down so the ‘good news’ began to be preserved and Matthew, Mark Luke and John were the ones who wrote it.