Mark's Gospel Analysis

1912 Words8 Pages
Though many people believed Jesus’ mission was strictly for God’s chosen people, the Jews, the Gospels of Mark portray Jesus as an exorcist and healer of all humankind. In Mark 5, Jesus travels to Gerasa where he meets a Gentile man that is possessed by multiple demons. The demoniac immediately recognizes Jesus’ authority as the Son of God. Jesus easily overcomes the demons who ask that he allow them to enter the swine herd nearby. After allowing the demons to enter the swine, the entire herd rushes into the sea and drowns. Though the people of Gerasa want Jesus to leave immediately as He had destroyed their livelihood in allowing the demons to enter the swine, the Gentiles as a whole were an example to the Jews as the majority including…show more content…
The Hellenistic bioi is not the same as modern biographies; this literary form consists of a “…combination of Old Testament prophetic biographical form and Greco-Roman biography of the disciple-gathering teacher” (Boring 2006 p. 6). Though some scholars consider Mark’s gospel as a form of Hellenistic bioi, Mark uses distinctive elements that sets it apart from the traditional style. According to Boring, the elements that make Mark’s gospel distinctive are the juxtaposition of Jesus as truly human and truly divine, the use of a definitive segment from creation to eschaton, the fact that the main character is both past and present, the episodic nature of the aspects of the gospel, and the use of Jesus as an extended parable (2006 p. 7). Gospels are a literary form in which the author is proclaiming good news. Mark’s narrative uses kerygma, the proclamation of faith in Jesus as the Messiah, as the central focus (Frigge 2013 p. 153). The genre of gospels is not meant to be read as a factual or objective account of an event. Additionally, the Gospel of Mark emphasizes themes that are important in the foundation of the early church. The proclamation of Jesus as the Messiah was meant as a fulfillment of Jewish salvation; however, it became the foundation for Christian faiths. Though there is not a distinctive rigid outline to easily divide the Gospel of Mark into, there are two literary structure divisions that support the purpose of the narrative. The first divides the narrative into three overlapping stages, the relationship with a powerful healer and preacher, the true meaning of Christian discipleship, and Jesus’ Resurrection (Linden 1992 p. 903-904). The second structure uses Christological emphases and divides the work into two. The first half declares Jesus as Christ and shows his work as evidence but no one recognizes Jesus as the Christ (Boring 2006 p. 4). The

    More about Mark's Gospel Analysis

      Open Document