WE have yet two chapters in Luke, dealing with the trials of our Lord, His crucifixion, His triumph over death, and His parting instruction to His disciples. The remainder of the week brings to us the first ten chapters of Mark. Mark, or Marcus, is the Latin surname of the writer of the second Gospel. The Hebrew name is John. He was the son of Mary, whose house at Jerusalem became the refuge and earliest meeting-place of the Christian community in that city. See Acts 12:12. He was the nephew, or cousin, of Barnabas, one of the later apostles, and attended Paul and Barnabas on their first mission, but returned home from Perga, and therefore was not allowed by Paul to join them on their second mission. Acts 13:5, 13. He then attached himself to Barnabas alone, but was afterward reconciled to Paul. Col. 4:10. The apostle then speaks of him as one who was profitable to him for the ministry. Peter also mentions him in his first epistle, 5:13; and tradition tells us he was the founder of the Alexandrian church.
MARK'S Gospel was probably written between the years 63 and 70, and seems to have been written primarily for the Gentiles, for he omits all reference to the Jewish law, gives no genealogy of our Lord, explains many Hebrew words which could not be understood by the Gentiles, such as Boanerges and Talitha cumi. His descriptions are very graphic. "Immediately," or "forthwith," and other words of similar import, are characteristic of his Gospel. He does not give the longer discourses of Jesus, but passes from event to event in rapid succession. He plunges right into the work of Christ at the very beginning, saying nothing of His infancy, introduces Him at once almost with John the Baptist. He piles miracle upon miracle, giving in much less space the miracles and parables that are related by the longer synoptists. The healing of Simon's wife's mother, cleansing of the leper, the cure of the paralytic, of the withered hand, choosing of the twelve, parables relating to the kingdom, casting out of demons, healing of Jairus's daughter, the woman with an issue of blood, sending out of the twelve, and many other things are told with wonderfully graphic force. The nature of Christ's kingdom is also emphasized in the lessons of humility which He taught His disciples and the emphatic declaration that He Himself was to suffer.
