Rescuing the Bible from Fundamentalism by John Shelby Spong

Author:John Shelby Spong
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: HarperCollins

The Story from Mark's Point of View

Mark was the first of the canonical Gospels to be written. This literary work was identified quickly with the city of Rome and may well have been written there. It was also associated with the Apostle Peter and early in the second century came to be regarded as the Petrine Gospel. The second-century Bishop of Hierapolis (ca. 130), a man named Papias, wrote that Mark was the interpreter of Peter. He wrote accurately, said Papias, but not in order. Mark had neither heard the Lord nor been his personal follower, but he had followed Peter. According to Papias, Peter adapted his teaching to the needs of his hearers, but he did not give a connected account. What Mark learned of Jesus, however, he learned from Peter.1 This assumption, whether accurate or not, surrounded Mark's Gospel with the aura of apostolic authenticity, for Peter was widely regarded in the Christian tradition as the first among equals in the apostolic band.

When this fact was combined with a connection to the city of Rome, it added up to enormous power for this messenger. Rome was already beginning to assert the same primary in ecclesiastical matters that the capital city possessed in political matters. Mark's Gospel did carry with it such apparently inside stories involving Peter as the healing of his mother-in-law (Mark 1:29-39), the Gethsemane narrative (Mark 14:32ff), and the account of Peter's denial (Mark 14:66-72), which served to strengthen its Petrine claim.

The Gospel as a whole, however, reflected not so much the thought of a single author as the narration of the accumulation of a whole community's faith tradition. That tradition seemed to be aimed at conditions that marked the city of Rome during the time of Emperor Nero. Roman Christians were struggling with unpopularity, persecution, and even death. To strengthen those so threatened, the text of this Gospel emphasized such things as the sufferings of Jesus, the warnings of Jesus that following him would involve sharing his suffering, and the promise of great rewards to those who endured without the loss of their faith. It was clearly a message designed to communicate with and to arm for faithfulness those facing the reality of martyrdom (see Mark 8:34-38; 10:28-30).

The suffering of Jesus was preordained, this Gospel asserted. It was a suffering that lay in the innermost counsels of God. For Mark the innocent suffering of the righteous emissary of God was the way of atonement, and the one whose life accomplished this feat was marked with clear messianic overtones. Beyond that, identifying with the innocent victim in his suffering promoted the possibility of receiving the ultimate gift of forgiveness, which carried with it the promise of a heavenly reward.

Yet the behavior of Peter and all the other disciples during Jesus' lifetime had not been marked with either courage or integrity. Such memories as betrayal, denial, and abandonment were so real and so vivid that they could not be expunged from the record even after the passage of thirty to forty years.

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