In the Pillar New Testament Commentary James R.
Edwards, pro-fessor of theology at Whitworth College in Spokane, Washington, wrote
a volume on the gospel according to Mark. He notes that the weight of evidence
rest firmly in the favor of the ecclesiastical tradition that John Mark was his
author.
The tradition is not unanimous about its date. According
to Irenaeus and the testimony of the Anti-Marcionite Prologue it was written
after the death of Peter. However, Clemens of Alexandria and Origin report that
it was written in Rome during Peter’s lifetime. Edwards thinks we must date
Mark’s gospel between the fire of Rome in 64 and the fall of Jerusalem in 70. I
myself think that an earlier date already in the end of the fifties remains a
vital option.
In accordance with the great majority of New Testament
scholars Edwards thinks that the longer ending of the gospel of Mark is
secondary. He typifies it as an early Christian resurrection mosaic based on
several gospel traditions about the resurrection. It testi-fies that the gospel of Jesus Christ
was handled down by commu-nities of faith.
I admit the differences in style and language between the
longer ending of Mark with the main part of his gospel. I prefer the suggestion
of – among others – made by David Alan Black that the longer ending is a Markan
supplement.
In this supplement in which he used less the words he
actually heard out the mouth of Peter than in this ending. We must not forget that
the great majority of manuscripts has this ending. The Sinaiticus and Vaticanus
are the exception. We must not to easily conclude that we must always prefer
the testimony of these manuscripts.
With regard the ways in which Mark narrates the gospel
which bears his name, Edwards points to the sandwich technique. We have some ten
examples of this technique in Mark. Each sandwich unit consists of an A-B-A’-sequence.
The B-component functions as the theological key to the flanking halves. A
clear example is the woman with hemorrhage who interrupts Jesus en route to
Jairus’ house. Only after recording the woman’s healing Mark resumes with the
healing of Jairus’ daughter. This particular sandwich is about faith.
The gospel according to Mark is the gospel of Jesus
Christ as the divine and suffering Son of God. In his sufferings Jesus fulfills
the prophecy of the Servant song of Isaiah 53. When Jesus is declared by his
Father that he is his beloved son, the word ‘beloved’ is an allusion to Isaiah
42:1. There we read that God has a delight in his Servant. Edwards point to the
fact that in Mark’s gospel the person of Jesus receives much more attention
than his teaching. The focus is on what Christ did.
The gospel according to Mark gives us not only a
portrait of Jesus but also of his disciples. Discipleship is a major theme of
the second gospel. To Jesus as the Jesus suffering Son of God belongs suffe-ring
discipleship. A great example of faith a discipleship is the centurion at the
cross. Witnessing Jesus suffering and death he confesses him as Son of God.
The faith response of the inner circle of the Eleven (Judas
excluded) disciples is halting and incomplete, but nevertheless real true. By
repeatedly hearing and receiving their faith and its fruits grows slowly.
Hearing to Jesus all our life is what we have to do when we want to be his
disciples.
Remarkable is the patience of Jesus with his disciples who again and again show lack of insight, but Jesus continues to teach them especially by what he does. The climax is his death on the cross followed by his resurrection. In 2012 a reprint of the useful com-mentary of James Edwards on Mark was published
Remarkable is the patience of Jesus with his disciples who again and again show lack of insight, but Jesus continues to teach them especially by what he does. The climax is his death on the cross followed by his resurrection. In 2012 a reprint of the useful com-mentary of James Edwards on Mark was published
James R. Edwards, The Gospel According to Mark,
The Pillar New Testament Commentary, Eerdmans Publshing Co., Grand
Rapids/Cambridge 2002 (reprint 2012); ISBN 978-0-85111-778-23; hardcover 552 pp., price $52,--