The Gospel of Mark

Mr. Jungers, the author of twenty-three books on Christianity, chose to write this little book on the Gospel of Mark because Mark was the first gospel to have been written. Matthew and Luke copied from it. John was written from a separate tradition much later. Whoever was the author of Mark's Gospel (scholars say we do not know) did so from some written "sayings" that were in existence, and from memories from a verbal tradition. The best guess is it was written shortly before or shortly after the destruction of the Temple in Jerusalem in 70 AD. That would date the document to about 40 years after the actual Christ event. The place of authorship was somewhere in the Roman Empire; Rome has been suggested but not proven. Why the gospel was written is more clear: it was written by a believer in Jesus Christ in order to bolster belief in other believers. Mark was the first author to present the story of Christ in chronological sequence. He had inherited bits and pieces of the story, but he then put them together to present a beginning, a middle and an end of the life of Jesus of Nazareth. The work ends with Jesus ascended into heaven: "So then the Lord Jesus. Was taken up into heaven And sat down at the right hand of God. And they went out and proclaimed the good news everywhere." (Mk 16:19)