Mark's Gospel: Secrets Being Unveiled

By Zouher I. Abdullah

The great urgency that gave birth to this work is in fact the lack of a single accurate translation of the Greek book of Mark in the English-speaking world, though by far, plenty of new translations had been made but the same mistakes of the older ones were repeated.

Based upon the Authorized by the Ecumenical Patriarchate Version of the New Testament Greek Text (1904, 1912), which is an extremely important scholarly achievement being drawn from Byzantium and one of the most authoritative forms of the Greek New Testament text, for it is based entirely upon Byzantine lectionaries' manuscripts, that been used in the Greek-speaking churches through the centuries, this accurate translation of Mark's Gospel, as presenting the most accurate English translation of the Greek Mark's Gospel, intends to provide the reader with a comprehensible reading of the earliest scripture narrative account of Jesus's life and teachings truly meaningful, unveiling what is believed to be secrets in Mark's Gospel and, simultaneously, bridging the gap between scholar and layperson.

• Language: English
• Publisher: Christian Faith Publishing, Inc.
• Release date: Dec 5, 2023
• ISBN: 9798890438256

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MarkaEUR(tm)s Gospel

Secrets Being Unveiled

Zouher I. Abdullah

ISBN 979-8-89043-824-9 (paperback)

ISBN 979-8-89043-825-6 (digital)

Copyright © 2023 by Zouher I. Abdullah

All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced, distributed, or transmitted in any form or by any means, including photocopying, recording, or other electronic or mechanical methods without the prior written permission of the publisher. For permission requests, solicit the publisher via the address below.

Christian Faith Publishing

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Meadville, PA 16335

www.christianfaithpublishing.com

Printed in the United States of America

Table of Contents

Preface

Prolegomena to the Accurate Translation

Introduction to Mark

I. Life, Mission, and Work of Mark the Evangelist

II. The Book of Mark

III. Significant Characteristics of Mark's

IV. Major Issues and Themes

V. Geographical Issues

VI. Historical Settings

VII. Mark's Archeological Sites

VIII. A Reader-Oriented Narrative: Mark's Gospel as a Masterpiece of Storytelling

The Accurately Translated Text

I. 1:1–13 Prologue of the Gospel

II. 1:14–3:6 First Miracles of Jesus, Early Conflicts with Jewish Authorities

III. (3:7–5:43) Creating of a New People of God

IV. (6:1–8:26) Rejected by the Jews, Jesus Addresses to the Gentiles, Revealing to Them the Kingdom of God

V. 8:27–10:52 The Passions Being Revealed

VI. 11:1–13:37 Triumphal Entry into Jerusalem, Last Teachings before the Passions

VII. 13:1–37 The Eschatological Logos

VIII. 14:1–15:41 The Passions

IX. 15:42–16:20 Epilogue of the Gospel: Burial, Resurrection, and Appearances of Jesus Christ

Sources and Selected Bibliography

About the Author

Preface

The greater urgency that gave birth to this work is in fact the lack of a single accurate translation of the Greek book of Mark in the English-speaking world, plus the exegesis and hermeneutics.

This book, although in part not primary biblical research but rather a compilation of already existing professional biblical studies, as presenting the most accurate English translation of the Greek Mark's Gospel, intends to provide the reader with a comprehensible reading of the Holy Bible.

Thus, while translating accurately the Greek text into modern English, we have two other tasks: to find out what the text originally meant and to hear that same meaning in the variety of new or different contexts of our day.

If the present volume, unveiling what is believed to be secrets in Mark's Gospel and simultaneously bridging the gap between scholar and layperson, makes the First Scripture Narrative Account of Jesus's life truly meaningful, then our goal would be fully accomplished.

St. Nicholas Antiochian Orthodox Cathedral

Los Angeles, California

Prolegomena to the Accurate Translation

Spoken mainly in Greece and Cyprus, the Greek language, in comparison with other ancient and modern languages, is the most changed spelling and vocabulary, with a relatively complex system of verb tenses. Koiné Greek arose from Attic, the dialect of Athens and Attika, and gradually expanded, becoming the common language of all Greeks, but also the lingua franca of all the ethnicities of the Roman Empire, including the Middle and Near East, Egypt, and North Africa.

Second Gospel in the New Testament Canon but generally held to be the earliest composed, the Book of Mark traditionally ascribed to John Mark. The author of this book, besides being the founder and first Pope of the Alexandrine See,¹ is basically an energetic Christian missionary in the three continents of the Roman Empire. He is the one who traveled with Apostles Paul and Barnabas to Antioch, then with the latter to his homeland Cyprus, before aiding Apostle Peter in Rome and North Italy (Venice and Aquila), establishing meantime the church in Lebanon (Byblos) and North Africa (Cyrene and Pentapolis).

The style of the first written Gospel, that is of Mark, is close to the everyday spoken Koiné Greek of the time, making up for its lack of the elegances of literary Greek by its simplicity and directness. There is no evidence, however, that Greek was not Mark's first language. Born in Cyrene but to a wealthy Hellenistic Jew family from the Greek-speaking island of Cyprus, who was skilled in the Greek education and culture of the time, Mark writes with a powerful and energetic literary style. Vigorous and abrupt, Mark's style of Greek is unique among the Scriptures of the New Testament. Mark's style is clear, direct, terse, and picturesque, if at times a little harsh.

He makes very frequent use of participles, is fond of the historical present, of direct narration, of double negatives, of the copious use of adverbs to define and emphasize his expressions. However, although proficient in Koiné once his mother tongue was Greek, his style is not so much literary and polished as thoroughly colloquial and unpretentious.² At any rate, his Greek is very dense and detailed, and his terms of connection and transition are terse and lively.

Born and raised in a Levite religious family, some of its members were the acquaintance to Lord Jesus Himself, Mark was related to St. Barnabas from Cyprus, who was his paternal uncle, and St. Peter from Bethsaida, who seems to be married to Mark's unnamed sister. Just like his uncle Barnabas and father Aristobulus who belonged to a Jewish family from the tribe of Levi, Mark was a Levite.³

Being a Hellenistic Levite, who received a high education of the Prophets, the Psalms, and the Torah, Mark would of course have been involved in studying the Greek Septuagint (LXX)⁴ but also the Hebrew text (MT).⁵ Mark's reliance on both in his references to the Tanakh is pretty obvious.⁶

On the other hand, there are strong indications of his great skills in the Aramaic language as well and his full knowledge of the Aramaic Targums.⁷ Jesus and His disciples primarily spoke Aramaic, the common language of Judaea, Galilee, and the entire Israel in the first-century AD, most likely a Galilean dialect, distinguishable from that of Jerusalem. This is generally agreed upon by historians. Since Jesus spoke to the ordinary people of Israel in Aramaic,⁸ everything He said could have been presented in Mark in this language. Just like Jesus and His followers, who were Aramaic-speaking, Mark evidently was fluent in Aramaic as a second language, once his first was Greek. The Semitic flavor of the Greek of Mark's Gospel is unambiguous. That explains in part the apparent Semitic influence on Mark's Greek or, in other words, how Mark skillfully writes his Gospel in fluent Greek but with Semitic flavor.⁹ This same peculiar feature of Mark's Gospel is in fact what makes its translation into any other language, including English, a very hard task unless the interpreters themselves are bilingual, or even multilingual who, besides the Koiné Greek, have quite enough knowledge of at least one Semitic language, either Aramaic or Hebrew, if not both.

It should be emphasized here the fact that the issue of the Gospel translation is not mere linguistic matter but theological as well, especially when it comes to the statements of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ Himself. Omitting or adding, and especially altering, does certainly lead to wrongful points of view and erroneous theological conclusions, for being neither faithful to the original Greek text of the Bible nor loyal to the intention of the biblical writer. Based upon the Greek Text Version of the Authorized by the Ecumenical Patriarchate New Testament (1904, 1912), the present Translation of Mark's Gospel intends to be fully loyal to both the text and author of Mark's Gospel.

Historically, the first editor of a Greek New Testament in 1516, Erasmus has based his Novum Instrumentum omne upon very few manuscripts of continuous text (only seven). The second edition (1519), in which the more familiar term Testamentum was used instead of Instrumentum, was the version that been used by Martin Luther in his German translation of the Bible. The very first scholar who included lectionaries¹⁰ apart from the other manuscripts for his critical edition of the Greek New Testament was the English critic from Oxford John Mill (1707).¹¹ Later, the editions of Johann Albrecht Bengel (1734), J. Wettstein (1751), J. Griesbach (1774–1811), and Christian Frederick Matthaei (1782–1788) followed. In the nineteenth century, when critical editions started to replace the Byzantine Text, which has been dominant up to that time, no use of lectionaries is found. In 1898, when E. Nestle had initiated the well-known critical Novum Testamentum Graece, he did not either consider the contribution of the lectionaries. In later editions, however, Novum Testamentum began noting the attestation of certain important manuscripts, also Byzantine lectionaries, in the apparatus.¹² Such was the climate when Ē Kainē Diathēkē: Egkrisei tēs Megalēs tou Christou Ekklysias, The Authorized by the Ecumenical Patriarchate New Testament Edition emerged in 1904 (and was reprinted, with a few minor corrections, in 1912). Drawn from Byzantium, therefore, it is an extremely important scholarly achievement being one of the most authoritative versions of the Greek New Testament text.

Introduction to Mark

St. Mark the Apostle and Evangelist

By the Greek artist Emmanuel Tzanes of Rethimno

(1610, Crete, Greece—Venice, Italy, 1690)

I. Life, Mission, and Work of Mark the Evangelist

General biographical information

Nephew of St. Barnabas and one of Christ's seventy disciples,¹³ St. Mark is one of the four evangelists, who wrote the earliest account of Jesus's life. Born in Cyrene, modern Libya, but to rich and religious Jew Cypriot parents of Jerusalem descent, Mark spoke Greek as his mother tongue, once both of his parents were born and raised in the Greek-speaking island of Cyprus, first mentioned in Acts 4:36 as the native place of Barnabas, the brother of Mark's biological father Aristobulus (Levites, both are of the Seventy).¹⁴ Mark, who has hosted in his own family's house the Last Supper of Jesus, is the one who hosted the disciples after the death of Jesus, into whose house the resurrected Jesus Christ came (John 20), and into whose house the Holy Spirit descended upon the disciples at Pentecost.¹⁵

The Upper Room or Cenacle on Mount Zion,

Old City of Jerusalem

The Last Supper; Frescoes in Holy and Great

Monastery of Vatopedi, on Mount Athos, Greece

It was also to his house that Peter returned to, following his miraculous release from prison (Acts 12:12–17), being the meeting place for the brethren, many of whom were praying there on the night of Peter's release.¹⁶

Levite Jew with a Gentile character and two names. Traditional author of Mark's Gospel, who preached to both Jews and Gentiles, was a Hellenistic Jew. Especially in Mark's case, it is historically beyond any doubt that he was of priestly birth, being a Levite Jew. He had a Jewish name John (Hebrew: Yōḥānān; Greek: Iōánnēs) and a Roman surname Mark (Latin: Marcus Greek: Márkos). His name was mentioned twice in theActs (13:5, 13) while his surname was mentioned in Acts 15:39, in 1 Peter 5:13, and trice in Epistlesof St. Paul (Corinthians 4:10; Philippians 24; 2 Timothy 4:11). On three occasions, they were mentioned together (Acts 12:12, 25, 15:37). It was either said, John whose surname is Mark or John who is known as Mark.

The African-born disciple. Mark'scertain date of birth is unknown. Most likely thirteen years after Jesus's birth, in AD 9. His birthplace was certainly Cyrene, the Greek city in the North African territory (Roman Cyrenaica, Libya). The Greeks began to colonize the area in the seventh century BC, establishing Cyrene, and within two hundred years of Cyrene's founding, four more important Greek cities¹⁷ were established there, known as the Pentapolis (FiveCities).¹⁸

A View of the Ancient Greek City of Cyrene in Libya

Birthplace of the Evangelist John Mark (AD 9–62)

Falling completely under the sway of the Greek Macedonian rule, Pentapolis would remain so indirectly till 74 BC, when it was joined to Crete as a unified Roman province. Jewish migrations from various places, such as Alexandria and Jerusalem, had changed the ethnic and social landscape to some degree,¹⁹ but the province remained mostly peaceful throughout the Roman rule.²⁰ At some point during the reign of Augustus Caesar (27 BC–AD 14), however, civil disturbances began to crop up when Berber tribes, who were settled nearby, attacked the properties of Mark's extremely wealthy family in his hometown Cyrene, enforcing Mark's family to move back home, to Palestine, where he grew up.²¹

Born in Cyrene of Pentapolis in North Africa, thus John Mark is the only African-born disciple of Jesus.

Mark Who knew the Lordand eyewitnessed miracles He made.By the time Jesus began His teaching, the family was already settled there, in Palestine. We do not know for sure whether St. Mark met the Lord and became one of His Seventy disciples in Jerusalem, where his family lived in a two-story house, or in Galilee, where St. Peter used to live in Capernaum, for we know that Mark often visited Peter's house which he shared with his brother, St. Andrew, also one of the Twelve. On the other hand, it is widely believed that John Mark's wealthy father Aristobulus was involved in politics, and he dealt with many Romans at quite a high level. Coming to Palestine, they settled in the northern Galilean town of Cana, just outside Nazareth, where the Lord lived, three to four miles away northeast. Jesus would have been somewhere around His early twenties at the time, and Mark would have been nine years old. This family did quite well for themselves and bought a large two-story house in Jerusalem. They would have divided themselves between living in Cana-Galilee in the north and in Jerusalem in the south.

Cana is the first town where we have a recorded miracle of Jesus taking place at a wedding, which is the first miracle attributed to Jesus in the Gospel of John.²² Mark is believed to be one of the servants at the marriage at Cana, Galilee, who poured out the water that Jesus turned into wine and among those who tasted it (John 2:1–11). It is also believed that the young man, who was carrying the pitcher of water, when the two apostles (Peter and John in Luke 22:8) met him on the road and followed him according to God's plan (Mark 14:13–14), was Mark himself.

Mark describes a young man who, wearing only a linen cloth, had followed Jesus. When Roman soldiers tried to seize him, he escaped capture and ran off, leaving the garment behind.²³

This incident, which occurred in the Garden of Gethsemane the night Jesus was captured and involved the fleeing of a naked man after the arrest of Jesus, has puzzled Bible readers for centuries. In fact, it is also an interesting instance of the literary allusion in Mark, which is based in part on Amos 2 (especially v. 16): And even the strong [one], who is courageous among the mighty, shall flee away naked in that day, says the Lord.²⁴

The rich young ruler who fled naked, turned Gospel writer! Responding to a rich man's question about what he needed to do to gain eternal life, Jesus teaches that trusting in riches can keep a person out of the kingdom of God. In an investigation of any gospel passage, which is paralleled in one or more of the gospels, if no literary dependence is assumed, one's approach is quite different from those who choose this or that solution to the Synoptic Problem. To begin with the more obvious, the rich young man in Matthew (19:20, 22) is the man in Mark (10:22) and the rich ruler in Luke (18:18, 23).

Matthew depended on Mark as his source, but Matthew's special interest in the performance of good works of Love comes to light in several features. He has chosen to retain the young man's question about the "good thing (or deed) necessary to acquire eternal life (Matt 19:16), while Mark and Luke have not. Matthew used Mark as a source, and there are shaky presuppositions on which to base Matthew's alleged addition of good" to the young man's question about acquiring eternal life. He called attention to the young man's light use of good, not to His own relation to God. Matthew knew this just as well as Mark and Luke and was not trying to provide a corrective or a differing meaning to the same question. Matthew records one question and its answer while Mark and Luke record another that was asked on the same occasion. In Mark 10:24, Jesus is quoted as saying: children, how hard it is for those who rely on wealth to enter the kingdom of God! just after He has been quoted in Mark 10:23 similarly: how hard it will be for those who have riches to enter the kingdom of God! Finally, Matthew recorded the rich young man's question in accordance with his desire to emphasize the importance of good works,²⁵ choosing to retain several of the emphases of Jesus's encounter with the rich young man which are not retained in Mark and Luke, including the man's youthfulness (Matthew is alone in referring to his age), the importance of the works of love, and the future repayment for those who follow Christ.

Perfection or completeness in keeping the commandments, Jesus tells the young man, is contingent upon his selling his possessions and giving the proceeds to the poor. Matthew's emphasis reflects the Jewish background of the constituency for which he wrote.

This is seen by his choice of retaining the "kingdom of heaven (Matthew 19:23) rather than the kingdom of God" (Mark 10:23; Luke 18:24). It is also significant that Matthew chooses not to mention repayment in the present time such as is found in Mark 10:30 and Luke 18:30, for to Matthew, relevant rewards for leaving all to follow Jesus are entirely future.

According to Mark, Jesus calls the rich young man to leave his possessions, first of all for his own benefit: you will have treasure in heaven; then come follow me.

Jesus looked at them with love and said: for all things are possible with God. Jesus's purpose is not to shame or browbeat the young rich man but to love him.

Mark's Gospel includes exclusively a detail that Matthew and Luke failed to mention: Jesus, looking at him, loved him. So who is that rich man in Mark 10:17–22, whom Jesus loved?

The fact that Mark's Gospel alone includes this specific detail: then Jesus, looking at him, loved him hints at the possibility that the young John Mark himself may have been that rich young man.

If so, he must be identified with the owner of the house where Jesus ate the Last Supper (Mark 14:14–15), and the very same young man who, turning twenty the night that Jesus was arrested, had followed Him (Mark 14:50–52), for, at that time, the average age for following a rabbi would be twenty, according to The Mishnah.²⁶

His Cypriot Jew father Aristobulus, first recorded bishop of Britain and St. Peter's father-in-law

Barnabas's brother Aristobulus, also a rich and religious Levite Jew, was of great honor. Being from the tribe of Levi, from which the priests were taken, he was of priestly birth. Jewish in faith who would be chosen by Jesus as one of the Seventy,²⁷ Aristobulus became Christian at the hands of his same son, John Mark, according to Coptic sources. When the young Mark and his biological father were once walking near the Jordan River, close by the desert, they encountered a raving lion and a lioness. It was evident that it would be their end. Mark's reaction was as follows: Christ, in whose hands our lives are committed, will not let them prey on us. Saying this, Mark prayed: O, Christ, Son of God, protect us from the evil of these two beasts. Immediately, God granted this prayer, and the two beasts fell dead.

Getting marveled, Aristobulus asked his son to tell him about Christ. And believing in the Lord Jesus Christ, he was eventually baptized by Mark himself.²⁸

Numbered among the seventy disciples, whom Jesus sent out and saluted by the Apostle Paul (Romans 16:10), Aristobulus had been living in Palestine but was born in Cyprus.²⁹ After the resurrection and ascension of the Lord, he began traveling around the Mediterranean, preaching about Jesus Christ. First with St. Andrew,³⁰ then with the Apostles Paul and Barnabas. At one of his missionary trips, Apostle Paul had ordained him as a bishop. His full title in Latin: Sanctus Aristobulus Senex, Apostolus, Martyr, Episcopus Primus Britanniae; in Greek: Agios Aristoboulos episkopos Brettanias, adelphos tou apostolou Barnaba, meaning: St. Aristobulus, bishop of Britain, brother of the ApostleBarnabas.³¹

This man, a brown-skinned Jewish Cypriot, hailing from Palestine, traveled more than two thousand miles westward toward Spain, and then northward into Britannia. Such an early establishment of the church in Britain was, of course, within the unsearchable plan and will of God, and we can only imagine how this affected all subsequent history in Europe.³²

His mother Mary, first deaconess and the mother-in-law of Simon Peter

A prominent member of the earliest group of Christians in Jerusalem, Mark's mother Mary was mentioned by name in Acts 12:12, Mary, the mother of John, whose surname was Mark.

The healing story of Simon Peter's mother-in-law is well-known, being told by all the Synoptic Gospels. In Mark, her story is intentionally told in exactly forty-six Greek verbal components, no more no less, in indication to Mary's age at the time: And immediately, going out of the synagogue, they came to the house of Simon and Andrew, with Jacob and John;butthe mother-in-law of Simon was bedridden, having a high fever, so they immediately told him about her;then, he approached her and as grasping her hand and raising her, the fever left her immediately, and she was ministering to them (1:29–31).

After all, in Mark's Gospel, she (his mother) is the first woman to be healed by Jesus and the first person to minister to the Lord. Adding the detail: they came to the house of Simon and Andrew, with Jacob and John, Mark shows once more that indeed he had been an eyewitness. There, Jesus is told about the mother of Peter's wife, lying in bed for having a high fever according to Mark, or for she was oppressed with a great fever according to Luke.³³

When those present mention her illness to Jesus, He walked over to her, took her hand, and helped her up,literally raised her.

The same healing story is told by the other Synoptics too. In Matthew (8:14–15): And coming to the house of Peter, he [Jesus] saw his mother-in-law bedridden and having a high fever, and he touched the top of her head, then the fever left her, and she stood up and ministered him;³⁴ in Luke (4:38–39):After rising out of the synagogue, he entered into the house of Simon; but Simon's wife's mother was oppressed with a great fever; so, they appealed to him for her; and while standing over her, he rebuked the fever, then it [the fever] left her; immediately she arose thereafter and ministered to them.

The Greek word in Mark for lifted is the same word used later at the empty tomb by the angel as telling the women that Jesus has raised (16:6). Therefore, the use of this verbraised in the healing accounts in Mark suggests that the power through which Jesus heals human beings is the same power that raises Jesus from death.³⁵

The central verbin Mark left gains significance also through its position between two participles:(approaching) and (grasping). Then, the fever left her.³⁶

In Mark's Gospel, the power of Jesus's touch is so great that the woman's disease immediately departs from her, as indicated by the phrase left her. In this passage of Mark, Jesus takes the woman by the hand and seizes her from the clutches of her fatal disease; her healing thus becomes a sign of new creation.

Therefore, in the healing of Simon Peter's mother-in-law, we see Jesus intervene to pull the woman from the clutches of death.

So with mentioning that the woman who was grievously ill is now being raised by Jesus and restored to new life, Mark is certainly making a connection to the resurrection. This same meaning was confirmed also by Luke, who says in his statement: "she arose," usingintentionally the word anastâsa, derived from anastasis resurrection.

What was, then, the response of this unnamed woman to being touched, lifted, and immediately healed by Jesus?

Arising immediately,she started ministering to them.³⁷The Greek word for to minister, diēkónei, is the same word that Mark uses for the angels who ministered to Jesus during His temptations in the wilderness (1:13), the angels were ministering to him.

So Jesus did not push her down to be a servile drudge, but He lifted her to minister. In this woman, therefore, we may see a model of the servant ministry of hospitality, which is not insignificant, especially when the guest of honor is Jesus Himself. It is also the very same word,used in the early church for deacon and deaconess,³⁸those who served God by leading the early church in liturgical prayer and service, pastoral ministry, and spiritual care, including charity.

The woman in Mark is anonymous and is introduced by her relationship to Simon Peter, her son-in-law (1:29). Her anonymity is characteristic of the portrayal of women in Mark's healing accounts (for example: 5:21–43, 7:24–30). This situation reflects the androcentric bias of the first century, in which male names are recorded more frequently than the names of women. For example, we are told by Mark the name of Jairus, but not the name of his daughter (5:21–43), and the names of Jesus's brothers are listed, but not those of His sisters (Mark 6:3).

The other Synoptic Gospels tell the same story of Mark's mother. What was the name of the mother of Simon Peter's wife in their accounts? They do not name her either.

You would have thought this very first deaconess in history and the woman who becomes a disciple of the Lord, whose ministry is interpreted as a model of discipleship in the early church, deserved to be named.

Yes indeed, but in the Bible, she is known only by her relationship with someone else, either as Peter's mother-in-law or the mother of John, whose surname was Mark.

That is because the Gospels writers' purpose was not to talk about the mother of Simon Peter's wife (or Mark's mother), but it was to tell the good news of Jesus and His kingdom, and the good news for Mark's mother, who at Cana's wedding became Simon's mother-in-law, was that, as Jesus approaching her and raising her, her fever left, and she began to minister to Him,just as the angels do.

Certainly, the identity of this