Why some people think Mark's Gospel was written for non-Jews facing persecution

GCSE Religious Studies (Philosophy & Ethics)

Question a)ii)

Some people believe that Mark’s Gospel was written for gentiles facing persecution. One of the main reasons for this was that it would give them hope and encouragement as they faced their deaths.

Christians facing persecution needed to know what they were dying for. They met up in the catacombs in Rome during the persecution and would pray and praise the Lord while down there. However, they had to rely on word of mouth so an authentic version of what happened needed to be recorded in order to stop the story getting changed through time. Another reason why the Gospel needed to be written was that eye witnesses were dying so accurate accounts needed to be written.

As mentioned in the first paragraph, the Gospel gave hope and encouragement to Christians facing persecution. After reading Mark’s Gospel, Christians could feel that all of their suffering was worthwhile and that they would be rewarded with the promise of eternal life in heaven. The Gospel also showed that Jesus never asked anyone to do anything that he wasn’t prepared to do himself and a lot of Christians got comfort from this.

By writing the Gospel, Mark spread the ‘good news’. The ‘good news’ was written at the very beginning of the Gospel and was ‘This is the ...