1Who has believed our message?
To whom has Yahweh’s arm been revealed?
2For he grew up before him as a tender plant,
and as a root out of dry ground.
He has no good looks or majesty.
When we see him, there is no beauty that we should desire him.
3He was despised
and rejected by men,
a man of suffering
and acquainted with disease.
He was despised as one from whom men hide their face;
and we didn’t respect him.
4Surely he has borne our sickness
and carried our suffering;
yet we considered him plagued,
struck by God, and afflicted.
5But he was pierced for our transgressions.
He was crushed for our iniquities.
The punishment that brought our peace was on him;
and by his wounds we are healed.
6All we like sheep have gone astray.
Everyone has turned to his own way;
and Yahweh has laid on him the iniquity of us all.
7He was oppressed,
yet when he was afflicted he didn’t open his mouth.
As a lamb that is led to the slaughter,
and as a sheep that before its shearers is silent,
so he didn’t open his mouth.
8He was taken away by oppression and judgment.
As for his generation,
who considered that he was cut off out of the land of the living
and stricken for the disobedience of my people?
9They made his grave with the wicked,
and with a rich man in his death,
although he had done no violence,
nor was any deceit in his mouth.
10Yet it pleased Yahweh to bruise him.
He has caused him to suffer.
When you make his soul an offering for sin,
he will see his offspring.
He will prolong his days
and Yahweh’s pleasure will prosper in his hand.
11After the suffering of his soul,
he will see the light and be satisfied.
My righteous servant will justify many by the knowledge of himself;
and he will bear their iniquities.
12Therefore I will give him a portion with the great.
He will divide the plunder with the strong,
because he poured out his soul to death
and was counted with the transgressors;
yet he bore the sins of many
and made intercession for the transgressors.
The second book in the New Testament is attributed to Mark, even though, like the other Gospels, his name is not found. That he was the author, however, is confirmed by the church fathers Papias, Justin Martyr and Irenaeus in the second century. These fathers also agree that John Mark wrote on behalf of the apostle Peter, giving his perspective of the life, death, and resurrection of Jesus.
We have considerable information about John Mark, including that he lived in Jerusalem with his mother, that he went on Paul and Barnabas’ first missionary journey but failed in this endeavor and was sent back home, that later he became a fellow worker of Paul and Peter. It is uncertain whether Mark recorded Peter’s recollections while he was alive, or sometime near the time after his death. Scholars differ on whether he wrote his Gospel, then, in the 50s or 60s of the first century.
The audience for the Gospel of Mark is probably a largely Gentile Christian community in Rome. He uses a number of Latin terms, and explained to his addressees various customs of Israel and Aramaic expressions.
Why did this friend of the apostles write this work? In answering this, we need to understand that his work was under the guidance of the apostle Peter, in his attempt to ensure that his recollections of Jesus’ words and deeds were preserved, in conformity to this desire expressed in his second epistle. In reading the Gospel according to Mark, one observes that he fills out the sermons of the apostle Peter at the house of Cornelius, what scholars call the kerygma, the preaching material of the church regarding the life, ministry, death and resurrection of Jesus.
Whereas Matthew presents Jesus as the Davidic King and Savior of the world, Mark portrays Jesus as the Son of God who is the suffering servant of Yahweh, spoken of in Isaiah 53. A key verse in Mark’s Gospel is 10:45, where the writer speaks the words of Jesus that “the Son of Man did not come to be served, but to serve, and to give His life a ransom for many.” Even as Jesus came to serve and suffer for His people, Mark also has much to say about the need of Jesus’ disciples to follow His example.