St Mark's Gospel & the Titles of Jesus (AQA GCSE Religious Studies A): Revision Note

The history of St Mark’s Gospel

• Mark’s Gospel is one of the four gospels in the New Testament of the Bible, along with Matthew, Luke and John

• The gospels are the books that tell the life of Jesus. They were written:

  • To tell the story of the life of Jesus

  • To pass on the teachings of Jesus

  • To relate key Christian beliefs about the importance of Jesus: that he was the Messiah, the Son of God, who was crucified and rose from the dead

• The word gospel means good news

• Christians believe the gospels are inspired by God: They believe the authors were inspired by the Holy Spirit to write down the good news about the life and teachings of Jesus that the disciples were preaching in the early Church

  • Some Christians refer to the gospels as the Word of God because they believe they were dictated by the Holy Spirit

  • Others believe the gospel writers were inspired but that their writing reveals their own interpretation of Jesus’s life and teaching

The authority of St Mark’s Gospel

• The authority of the gospels comes from:

  • The fact that they relate the events of the life of Jesus, who was God revealed in human form on earth (the Incarnation)

  • The fact that they contain the message of Jesus, the Son of God

  • The belief that the writers were inspired by the Holy Spirit to record the oral stories that were being passed around in the early Church

• Within St Mark’s Gospel, the divine authority of Jesus is emphasised through the accounts of his miracles and teachings

• When, in St Mark’s Gospel, people question Jesus’s authority, he always replies with words that help Christians understand his authority

The writing of St Mark’s Gospel

• Mark’s Gospel was the first of the four gospels to be written, around 65–70 CE

• This makes it the closest in time to the events it describes, even though it was written around 35 years after the events

• Scholars think that Mark got much of his information from eyewitnesses to the events, especially the disciples of Jesus, who became known as apostles after Jesus’s resurrection

  • Evidence for this includes the fact that some of the words Mark records Jesus as speaking are written in Aramaic, which is the language Jesus would have spoken (all four gospels were written in Greek)

• While Christians believe that the gospels are inspired by the Holy Spirit, they have to take into account the fact that the words were written over 30 years after the events they describe

  • This means that details of events may have been lost

  • People’s memories might not have been entirely accurate

  • Different people might have described the same events in different ways

• The gospels were written in a certain time and place and for a specific audience

  • They have to be interpreted with an understanding of their setting and context in mind

Authorship of St Mark’s Gospel

• Most scholars believe that St Mark’s Gospel was written by John Mark

• There are many theories about exactly who John Mark was

  • He is believed to be the young man who witnessed the arrest of Jesus in the Garden of Gethsemane (Mark 14:51–52)

• Many scholars, including leading early Church historian Eusebius, think Mark was recording the memories of Peter, the lead apostle of Jesus

  • Mark records several events at which only Peter was present with Jesus (e.g. the denials) or when Peter was one of a very small group (e.g. the Transfiguration)

  • Peter is mentioned more than any other disciple

  • The Gospel is believed to have been written in Rome, and there is evidence that St Peter was present and under arrest in Rome at the time of writing

• The Gospel was written by someone who had a Jewish background — it contains many references to Jewish traditions and Aramaic words — and also by someone who knew Greek

The titles used for Jesus in St Mark’s Gospel

Son of God

• Son of God is the most important title used for Jesus in Mark’s Gospel 

• Jesus does not refer to himself as the son of God. However, he is referred to as the son of God several times:

  • The title Son of God is used in the baptism of Jesus (Mark 1:1) and at the Transfiguration, in which a voice from heaven describes Jesus as “my son” (Mark 9:7)

  • In Jesus’s trial, he is asked if he is the “son of the blessed one”, and he replies, “I am” (Mark 14:61–62). “The blessed one” refers to God

• Jesus is depicted as a figure of great authority in Mark’s Gospel. Mark describes Jesus as someone who demonstrates God’s power, even though Jesus never called himself the son of God

• Jews were called sons of God if they were very true to their faith 

• Kings were also called sons of God

• However, Mark’s description of Jesus seems to go beyond these ideas of sons of God and suggests a special relationship with God 

Son of Man

• The title Son of Man appears several times in the Old Testament

• It can be used to mean simply a man

• However, it sometimes has a more significant meaning in Jewish writing: the Son of Man is seen as a heavenly being, someone of great power who would appear at the time of judgment

  • For example, in the book of Daniel, a phrase says that the Son of Man comes with the “clouds of heaven” (Daniel 7:13)

• Jesus used the term Son of Man about himself many times — 14 times in all in Mark’s Gospel

  • Many would have simply interpreted this as Jesus saying he was a man

  • However, for Jesus’s followers, it had an extra meaning: Jesus was a figure who was fulfilling the Old Testament understanding of the Son of Man as someone coming with great power at the time of the final judgment

• One additional meaning of Son of Man, when used by Jesus, was of a person who came to serve 

Christ (Messiah)

• Messiah means anointed one in Hebrew. Christ (Christos) is the Greek translation of Messiah 

• Kings in Israel were anointed with oil as part of the coronation ceremonies

• Prophets and priests were also anointed 

  • Anointing showed that they were set apart and holy

• The Jews believed that the Messiah would come from the kingly tradition

  • They believed he would be descended from King David, the most important Jewish king

• When the Jewish people no longer had kings, the understanding of Messiah changed over time

  • People started to see the Messiah as someone who would be sent by God to usher in a new age

• Many Jews believed that the Messiah would be a warrior who would overthrow the Romans

• Jesus did not use the title Messiah of himself

  • This would have been a dangerous title to give himself and would have caused him to be arrested as a threat to the Romans or accused of blasphemy 

• However, Jesus did not deny being the Messiah

• There is a theory about the “Messianic Secret”, the idea that Jesus did not want to tell people he was the Messiah. For example, sometimes after healing someone, he told the witnesses to say nothing about the event

Son of David

• The phrase “sons of David” is a general term used to describe all Jewish men

• However, the title “Son of David” has connections with the idea of being the Messiah, the one descended from King David

• Jesus was called Son of David by Bartimaeus when Jesus healed him (Mark 10:46–52)

Significance of the titles for Jesus for Christians today

• Son of God is commonly used by Christians today to show their belief that Jesus was both fully human and fully God with divine powers

• Son of Man is not a common title today, but it helps Christians understand that Jesus was fully human, a figure who understands the experience of being human

• Son of David shows Christians that Jesus was the fulfilment of the Old Testament prophecies, not only by being a figure descended from King David who demonstrated great power but also by fulfilling the predictions that he would suffer and die for others

• Christ is a common term Christians use to show the power of Jesus and his role as the fulfilment of the Old Testament prophecies