A MASTERPIECE IN ITS OWN RIGHT

I have always loved that well-used remark “when you’re new to the Bible, start with the Gospel of Mark.” I have relied on it heavily. 

About thirty years ago, when The Christian Science Journal ran monthly articles by Mary Jane Chapin on the history and background of Mark’ s message in the New Testament, I was privileged to edit that series and read and enjoy many other articles and books on this engaging Bible figure.

The latest to come my way is a slim paperback, The Gospel of Mark , a Beginner’s Guide to the Good News (Abingdon Press, 2023) by Amy Jill Levine (“AJ”), who is Rabbi Stanley M. Kessler Distinguished Professor of New Testament and Jane Werthan Professor of Jewish Studies Emerita at Vanderbilt University. (She is also author of the popular  Entering the Passion of of Jesus: A Beginner’s Guide to Holy Week.)

Levine’s introduction handles what she calls”initial questions” and “illusive answers,””Who wrote the Gospel?” And, “When?” Then she begins to tease out the contents of Mark’s good news, drawing fascinating  conclusions in a series of bolded segments:

One of them is the fig-tree incident, which she describes as one of her favorite Gospel stories: ”Mark forces on the reader the full humanity of Jesus for better or worse.” In him we can find images of ourselves. Doubt is part of the human condition,” she writes.

Chapin’s introduction includes the observation that many scholars have looked at Mark as a literary document.  Having  long concluded that  knowledge of the early community is at best speculative, and that the true intentions of Mark are really only known to the author bearing the name, they have begun to realize and appreciate the treasures of Mark as an irresistible story. 

They have concluded that far from being an abbreviated version of Matthew and Luke, Mark is a  masterpiece in its own right. That we persevere in the face of doubt,” she says, is part of the human challenge, In such cases, prayer can help.”

Many of Levine’s asides are as crisp and memorable as her comments on how we live and on Mark’s message of hope: “Everyone holds the possibility of being a teacher; everyone can also be a student.”

But she is often firm, and even threatening: ”Mark leaves up to the reader’s imagination what will happen to those who refuse the message of the Gospel, or those who actively seek to stop it. … Violence responding to violence does not resolve the problem; no lessons are learned; no transformation is possible (Mark 13).” And warnings of that kind create “students” faster than anyone would have believed possible.